Postal Corporation Now Seeks Ksh 1 Billion Annually From Treasury

Kevin Namunwa | Sep 28, 2020

The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) is now seeking a Ksh 1 billion annual injection from the treasury. This comes barely a week after PCK received Ksh 810 Million from the national treasury to help it settle employees’ salaries.

PCK insists that Ksh 1 billion annually from the treasury will keep its loss-making branches open across the country as it struggles to turn around its dwindling fortunes.

PCK told Parliament that the Sh1 billion allocation will go towards meeting the corporations’ universal service obligation to Kenyans by ensuring the branches remain open.

Posta operates a vast network in the country with 623 post offices and also partners with about 5,000 stamp vendor licenses across the country.

“The corporation urgently requires an annual funding of Sh1 billion to support the non-profitable offices in line with revised national ICT policy 2020,” Dan Kagwe, the Postmaster General told the National Assembly’s Labour committee.

“The declining performance has necessitated submission of a petition to the National Treasury for bailout,” he added.

In a measure to further improve the situation of the state corporation, PCK is also seeking approval to increase postage charges by up to 30%.

Under the revised rates that must get approval from the Communications Authority of Kenya, sending a letter weighing up to 20 grammes will increase to Sh110 from Sh85 reflecting a rise of 29.4%.

Posta Kenya has not coped well with digitization as it took hits from Internet-based mailing systems and entry of private couriers into the sector.

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