Government, through the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, in collaboration with Posta Uganda has launched a digitalized postal services system developed by a team local IT personnel.
The essence of the system, according to the Ministry officials, is to ease service delivery and also spur e-commerce, and business for Ugandans. The online postal services will enable people to apply and pay for postal addresses online, receive passports, driving permits and national IDs through a post office of one’s choice.
Addressing the Press at Uganda Media Centre on Thursday, ICT Minister Judith Nabakooba said that the Ministry identified credible young Ugandans who were given financial assistance to develop such practical IT solutions.
“A number of applications have been tested and are being used country wide, one such application is the addressing system which our young entrepreneurs developed in collaboration with Posta Uganda,” Nabakooba said.
She added that the system has various capabilities and it enables real time connectivity.
“Posta has used the system to connect 49 out of 108 offices country wide, thereby enabling quick and reliable exchange of information,” she said.
The Minister noted that the system has enabled online creation and management of Post office addresses previously called P.O BOX Numbers thereby easing fulfillment of the national law on registration of companies and lately, filing annual returns.
“This was difficult to enforce previously because the post office had only about 80,000 physical addresses which were fixed on walls. With the digitalization, Posta has the capability to offer limitless addresses. To date, Posta has already created 1,050 digital addresses,” Nabakooba said.
Under section 115 and 116 of the companies Act, it is a requirement for all companies to acquire and declare valid P.O. BOX addresses prior to registration in Uganda.
Government entities that could benefit from the system to improve service delivery are; URSB which has a Memorandum of Understanding with Posta, NIRA for citizens to apply for National IDs by simply putting equipment at Posta offices, the Immigration sector and application and distribution of drivers licence services.
Nabakooba reiterated government’s commitment to improving service delivery for the ordinary people.
“There are ongoing efforts to secure budgets to create government service centres in post offices, where our citizens shall obtain services conveniently,” she said.
She further invited public agencies to tap into government programmes to improve service delivery.
“The system has been tested and found to be secure. It allows for end to end encryption through fingerprinting to prevent hackers and fraudsters from possible interference,” Nabakooba said adding, “this is a significant milestone under the government’s goal to ease business operations.”
src: Chimp Reports
