Zampost to expand countrywide

ZAMPOST has embarked on an ambitious plan to expand countrywide by establishing new post offices to cover the newly established districts as well, Postmaster general McPherson Chanda has said.
Mr Chanda said the exercise which starts this year at an undisclosed amount, will create jobs and improve communication in the new districts.
He said this in Lusaka yesterday when he called on Zambia Daily Mail managing director Anthony Mukwita at his office.
Mr Chanda visited the Zambia Daily Mail to acquaint himself with the operations of the company.
“We have an opportunity to consolidate the various initiatives that we have initiated in the past two years. This is a consolidation year for the gains that we have scored as a company.
“Last year we introduced the micro-finance subsidiary and it has been in operation for four months and we are also opening up new offices in the newly established districts. The measures have helped the company to post a net profit in the first quarter of the year contrary to assertions that companies make loses in the first quarter of the year,” he said.
Mr Chanda expressed hope that the micro-finance subsidiary that the company has introduced will soon grow and become the largest micro-finance operation in Zambia.
He said the micro-finance subsidiary will thrive on the existing and new post office infrastructure.
“Zampost believes that innovation creates new sources of value and I have to state that we are present in Kaputa and the newly established Sioma district in Western province,” Mr Chanda said.
He also revealed another package dubbed “Zampost Civil Service Pre-Paid Card” which is a civil servant salary project.
Mr Chanda said the new card will eliminate the nightmare of rural civil servants’ delays in getting their salaries.
Mr Chanda said the card which has been introduced will enable civil servants to start getting their salaries from the districts where they operate.
“We are implementing this project in phases. If the civil servants are in Kaputa they have to be paid in Kaputa because they will be getting paid using this card.
“We introduced this system because some civil servants travel for more than seven days to get their salaries but this will now be a thing of the past because with this system, they will be able to access their salaries within the districts they are operating from,’ he said.