The CEO of La Poste de Côte d’Ivoire talks digital transformation ahead of the 27th Universal Postal Congress

La Poste de Côte d’Ivoire, the host postal operator for the 27th Universal Postal Congress in Abidjan on 9 to 27 August, believes that the international event will help accelerate the transformation and revitalization of the organization.

Isaac Gnamba-Yao, CEO of La Poste, says, “We believe that this historic and long-awaited event will leave a mark, not just on the post itself, but also on the wider postal sector and across the country, and that the Ivory Coast continues to shine in Africa.”

During Congress, La Poste will showcase its post office of the future, which opened on 20 May at the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan. The new facility promotes digital inclusion and the digital economy and provides modern and innovative postal services. Overall, the goal of the new post office is to highlight to the international postal community a modern Ivorian Post, and a symbol of African postal operators and their growing technological achievements.

“The post office of the future provides a real opportunity to reconcile ourselves with one of the most important segments of our population – the youth,” explains Gnamba-Yao. “Being present at the university, where more than 60,000 young people come together, is a real opportunity for us to showcase what we can do.”

Aside from assisting the UPU with the logistics of Congress, La Poste will also act as a technical contributor to the ongoing debates during the event. “The subjects under discussion will greatly impact postal operations and regulation,” Gnamba-Yao continues. “Therefore, La Poste will have to work closely with local authorities so that the country has all the required information to be able to adjust its postal vision.”

The government of Côte d’Ivoire has recently reaffirmed its vision for the digital transformation of the nation, and La Poste plays a key role in this. “We will be focusing on how we can accelerate digitalization and become a service window for citizens, offering digital financial and banking services, in addition to e-commerce parcel and package distribution,” Gnamba-Yao adds. “We want to make life easier for citizens by becoming a one-stop-shop for both government and private sector logistical needs.”

La Poste has recently made some notable investments which will help accelerate its digitalization journey. Its online ordering solution for administrative documents (https://www.documents.ci/..welcome), is just one example. “This innovative service illustrates how we can modernize both the postal service and the government,” Gnamba-Yao explains. “Solutions like this assist the government in providing services to citizens easily, fast and as cost effectively as possible.”

“We also have our e-commerce portal, http://www.sanlishop.ci, which includes products from local artisans. This site illustrates how electronic commerce is a new source of revenue for the post. These two examples, among many other initiatives, justify how ready we are to move from a postal administration to a true logistics and electronics company,” he concludes.