Dear Comrades,
The Universal Postal Union has teamed up with
the international non-profit PlaNet Finance to help Posts improve
financial inclusion in in West Africa.
Most of the funding for the three-year project has come from a
EUR 1.5m grant from the European Union, with the goal to help Posts in
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Mali develop better money
transfer services.
The project builds on the UPU’s existing electronic postal money
transfer platform, using software provided by its Postal Technology
Centre.
It has been launched officially today in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Around 200 post offices in the four African countries are expected to
be equipped with electronic payment terminals under the project. These
will allow staff in rural areas to provide money transfers more
effectively, instead of having to deal with a call centre at an urban
centre.
The UPU said it would also be working to improve financial services by auditing post offices to review management procedures.
Mansour Gueye, the UPU’s regional programme manager for Africa, said
the project seeks to increase Posts’ capability to provide secure and
affordable financial services, encouraging citizens – and particularly
migrant workers – to use formal financial networks.
The UPU project particularly targets migrant workers in promoting financial inclusion
He said: “We are convinced that postal financial services promote
financial inclusion and contribute to reducing the cost of money
transfers in the world, given that money transfers are an important
source of financing for the economies of developing countries.”
Inclusion
The UPU is aiming to work with migrant associations to raise
awareness of the issues, and direct more than 50,000 people in targeted
countries to the savings and insurance products on offer at the post
offices.
The UN-affiliated agency said despite the fact that 1.5bn people in
the world have postal savings accounts, Posts in general are “underused”
for financial inclusion purposes.
Joël Pain, the director general at the anti-poverty group PlaNet
Finance, said people’s safety is often tied to the money they have, and
savings can help them and their children prepare for a better future.
“While these notions may be simple, they are not however necessarily intuitive,” he said.
“It is important to help the most vulnerable members of society gain
access to financial education to complete the money-transfer experience
that is the daily lot of millions of migrants and that shapes the lives
of recipients and maintains the social link of members of the diaspora.”
http://postandparcel.info
