The Economic Community of West African (ECOWAS) has been urged to tackle the cross-border challenges hindering the Postal and e-commerce services.
He said cross-border challenges were a major setback impeding the growth and development of the Postal and e-commerce services in West Africa.
A statement issued by Ghana Post and copied the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said Mr James Kwofie, Managing Director of Ghana Post, made the call at a two-day workshop organised by the ECOWAS Commission and West Africa Postal Conference (WAPCO) in Cote d’Ivoire.
It was on the theme: ‘Contribution of the Post to the Development of E-Commerce in West Africa.”
Mr Kwofie said the e-commerce service offered growth opportunities for the postal sector with large physical, logistic and financial infrastructure in all countries.
The WAPCO conference is aimed among other things at reviewing national e-commerce strategies implemented in ECOWAS countries and the Ecom@Africa framework.
He said progress on test pilot countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Tunisia selected for regional strategy on the e-commerce, were shared at the workshop.
It was also meant to define a regional action plan for the development of the e-commerce in the postal services at the ECOWAS level and further unite the Posts of ECOWAS Member States around the Abidjan platform, a warehouse hub consisting of 10 acres located at the Airport.
Mr Kwofie said the goal was to adopt an integrated plan taking into account the evolution of new technologies of communication, while addressing issues pertaining to technological infrastructure development and cross-border payments.
He said the strategy depends on the ability to remove the barriers to the consumers of cross-border transactions; help the postal leaders to modernise their business processes.
It will also use all standardised IT tools and end-to-end systems to implement efficient operational and simplified solutions and help the designated operators to better prepare for the e-commerce.
He acknowledged the critical role played by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations specialised agency for the postal sector in the expansion and development of the e-commerce sector.
The WAPCO Chairman expressed gratitude to ECOWAS, UPU and the government of Cote d’Ivoire for their great contributions.
Cote d’Ivoire would again assemble stakeholders of the postal and e-commerce sector as it hosts the 27th Universal Postal Congress next year in Abidjan.
