By Edson Mwamvani, Malawi News Agency in Kinshasa-DRC

Kinshasa, July 6, Mana: Malawians stand to benefit more from the country’s participation in activities of both global and continental postal groupings that are affiliates to the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU).

Malawi is a member of the Administrative Council of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) up to 2025 after being elected during an electoral gathering held last year (2021) in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) Acting Post Master General, Angella Banda, told Malawi News Agency (MANA) on Tuesday on the sidelines of this year’s PAPU Administrative Council meeting in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that Malawi, through her working relations with other organisations, has been able to improve its postal operations which have been of great benefit to the country’s ordinary people.

She cited improved movement of parcels among other things, saying this has been made possible through working relationships MPC has established with other postal organizations affiliated to PAPU and other regional groupings.

“Our membership has been of great importance and beneficial, more especially that both MACRA and MPC are holding positions in two of the technical committees of PAPU,” Banda explained.

She added that other countries would as well learn and share experiences with Malawi regarding the way postal services are offered to the citizenry.

The Acting Post Master General further explained that through their (MPC’s) interactions with Uganda and Tanzania postal officials, Malawi would learn more on how electronic addressing is done in Uganda as well as how e-commerce and shipping are conducted by the Tanzanian postal organization.

“Being immediate neighbours, it may sound feasible to learn from them and possibly adopt it given that we may have similar experiences in terms of postal operations.

“If feasible, it would be faster to move parcels through Tanzania to Malawi,” said Banda.

Addressing the gathering during the opening ceremony, PAPU Executive Secretary Sifundo Chief Moyo encouraged member states to continue working together in fostering their cooperation which, over the years, has assisted in the promotion of postal services in Africa.

“The founders of this organization like, late Patrice Lumumba would feel proud to realise that the organization they founded alongside African Union continues to offer the services it was established for in a more advanced and beneficial manner,” Chief Moyo told the delegates.

The Pan African Postal Union was established in 1963 as an affiliate of the African Union, then Organization of African Unity (OAU).

The founding fathers were Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrice Lumumba of DRC (then Congo-Kinshasa), Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania among others.

The PAPU Administrative Council meeting is held annually and membership is by virtue of being AU member. This year’s meeting, currently in session in Kinshasa (DRC), has brought together all countries on the continent except Morocco and Mali which are suspended.

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