• Local licenses fees charged by ZICTA for postal and courier services have been reduced from K10, 000 to K5, 000.
• Internal license fees have been reduced from K15, 000 to K10, 000.
• The reduction of fees is expected to increase participation of SMEs in the postal and courier services sector.
Government has with immediate effect reduced license fees for domestic and international postal and courier services.
This follows the signing into law a Statutory Instrument by Technology and Science Minister Felix Mutati, which provides amendments to the postal services general regulation of 2016.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mr Mutati stated that with the Statutory Instrument now in place, local licenses fees charged by ZICTA for postal and courier services have been reduced from K10,000 to K5,000 while internal license fees have been reduced from K15,000 to K10,000.
He said license fees have been a barrier in domestic and international courier services which consequently resulted in the proliferation of informal courier services being delivered, adding that the country currently has about 60 registered courier service providers but with the reduction in license fees, figures are likely to jump to over 200.
Mr. Mutati added that the reduction of fees is expected to increase participation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the postal and courier services sector thereby increasing competition and reducing unemployment.
“In the postal services sector, one of the greatest barriers in domestic and international courier services was that of license fees. Consequently, we had a lot of informal services being delivered to the people. We are therefore confronting this barrier by reducing the fees,” Mr. Mutati said.
He further said government also realized that because of not having regulation in the courier services, it created a number of security challenges and hindered customer confidence in the sector, but that when businesses are formalized, ZICTA can control and give quality of service perimeters required.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mutati stated that when businesses are not formalized as courier service providers, they will not be able to access e-government services while international businesses will only easily do business with formalized courier service providers.
“International businesses such as Alibaba, Amazon or e-bay will easily do business because they want to deal with formalized courier services. By registering with ZICTA, we are providing an unprecedented opportunity for business expansion in courier services locally, internationally and e-government” he stated.
