BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE
SOLOMON Islands Postal Corporation’s long struggle to change the way it has been delivering services to the country has been answered.
Yesterday, Chief Financial Officer of bibimoney, Ms Debbie Thomas and Chairman of Solomon Islands Postal Corporation, Mr Robert Bokelema took part in a signing ceremony at the Heritage Park Hotel to launch the local postal corporation’s new mobile wallet service, called “PostPay”.
The local postal corporation’s deputy CEO, Mr Alfred Ghemu in his address highlighted that they have been searching for a way to re-invent their role across the islands noting that the post office has found it difficult to adapt to change.
He added that mail delivery has been in decline and the onset of email and mobile phones have changed the way people stay connected.
Moreover, Ghemu stated that the cost of maintaining infrastructure and services to the country has also become very expensive.
“The post needs to offer new services to the people of Solomon Islands. We need to support women, youth and our rural population. We cannot just be focused on the major towns, we must try and include everyone.
“Our search came to an end last year when we contracted a UK FIN-TECH company to help us launch a fully interoperable Solomon Post mobile wallet service. It will be called PostPay,” he said.
Ghemu mentioned that although mobile money has been set on trial before in the Pacific with varying results, it was never tried at a national level with a product that is fully interoperable.
He explained that the PostPay wallet will be applicable on any phone and any network without affecting the consumer’s current mobile provider’s services.
Ghemu further stated that PostPay will give people access to a full range of financial services such as; withdrawing cash, transferring goods, buying goods, transferring money, international payments, bill payments and micro loans and savings.
