[kictanet] Offering Posta monopoly status will kill innovation

Fri Aug 2 15:20:29 EAT 2013

@YaweThanks for your well thought out response. My responses in line.
You asked and I oblige, this is what I, the official madman in this village, have been propagating for the past 4 or more years.

Well, the 'official madman' has been consistent on a couple of issues, something that we Kenyans lack. We are known to have very short memories:) (and politicians have learnt to play with our psyche).

If you remove all the credit and debit cards in your purse you will notice that at the bottom right there is one of two logos either VISA or MasterCard yet no one has come up to complain that this is killing innovation as the reality is that is has commercialized the secure payments playing field allowing an establishment to hold a discussion with one acquirer and be able to receive payment from a myriad of sources. True.

PCK, as with any other national postal service, has the responsibility of offering universal access services which is why and I digress, the fund currently mishomed at CCK needs to be transferred immediately to its rightful home which is Posta.  Unfortunately PCK still suffers from its old image of inefficiency and corruption (and at lower levels--theft of parcels). In my opinion, until PCK rids itself of this image, it would be difficult to trust it to manage the USF. 

As
 you might have read in my post earlier this is nothing new we are just putting things back where they were before and should have remained it is my prayer that the mandate will be expanded to additional services such as issuing of ID, passports and birth/death/marriages certificates. Sorry to kill your optimism but before we even think of giving PCK such a mandate, they would have to prove that they can manage tasks of lesser magnitude. 

What the switch is going to provide is an integrated solution, to add another analogy is like a supermarket where you walk in through a single door and have a number of your issues resolved from chewing gum to an 84" LED TV, which will allow those in remote areas (of which Maragua and Chepalungu are not) access to all the services available to you and I here in Nairobi especially since 90% of the services rendered by government are to people in such locations. I agree on the point of Maragua and Chepalungu getting access to services.

It is unfortunate that my prediction about Secretary Dr.  Matiang’i that were in my welcome message to him when Dr. Ndemo introduced him to this forum has come to pass, as he would have been the best
 person to respond to this question.  But as I am sure many of those on this forum have come to realise about me, I never shy away from filling a vacuum. Ok.

In closing, what we need to be asking for from PCK is an API into the network (Yes) so that we can then innovate around it to meet our specific requirements as we will now have the numbers without the need to visit and negotiate with 6 mobile money providers, over 50 banks and 2 ATM switching organizations to be able to receive online payments and dedicating half of your payment page to logos and slogans, all we will need is one logo "POSTAPesa" (could not find the logo any where) although POSTAPay sounds better..

The thing is PCK needs to first clean its image. It is unfortunate you were not considered for the Position of Post Master General cause your ideas, enthusiasm and passion is just what is needed to get us back to having confidence in PCK. 
PS. Lets keep the discussion going, my guns are being re-calibrated over the next 2 weeks
Should I wait for a salvo? :)
Nice weekend.

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi,
 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
        From: Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga at hotmail.com>
 To: robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk 
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> 
 Sent: Thursday, 1 August 2013, 0:45
 Subject: [kictanet] Offering Posta monopoly status will kill innovation

@Yawe, whats your take?
The struggling Postal Corporation of Kenya has found a saviour in newly appointed ICT secretary Fred Matiang’i.To rescue the institution, Mr Matiang’i believes that Postal Corporation’s new electronic payments system, Posta Pesa, should be guaranteed of all government e-payment services.This is the wrong approach to securing financial
 stability of any institution, not even the Postal Corporation. Mr Matiang’i must be dissuaded from pursuing this route for many reasons.
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion-and-Analysis/Offering-Posta-monopoly-status-will-kill-innovation/-/539548/1932856/-/g09093z/-/index.html 		 	   		  

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