7th August 2024
Own correspondent
FSG and Botswana Post officially launched their partnership which will facilitate FSG funeral cover policies premium collections across the postal network.
At the core of this collaboration is Botswana Post’s strategic efforts to diversify postal offering and simultaneously forge smart partnerships in order to drive socio-economic diversity in both urban and rural areas by leveraging its wide geographic postal footprint.
On the other hand, for the leading funeral services provider, FSG, the key objective is to streamline premium collections and enhance accessibility for its clients. FSG aims to expand their premium collection channels through this partnership with Botswana Post.
According to the Universal Postal Union, 73% of postal services and 70% do so with private sector companies. Therefore, it is clear that the digital postal services landscape will continue to evolve in a number of directions.
Fergus Ferguson, FSG Managing Director said, “FSG is a premier funeral services provider in the region, with 31 years of experience in delivering exceptional services to our partners. We offer comprehensive and enduring financial and care solutions, ensuring an outstanding customer experience.”
He said, “The FSG Group operates multiple subsidiaries in Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa, boasting a distribution network of 35 branches (22 in Botswana), and supporting a workforce of over 500 full-time employees. Under FSG Assurance, the Group serves more than 165,000 policyholders, covering over 655,000 lives.”
The partnership will capitalize on the Post’s technical and physical infrastructure to enhance convenience for clients and improve the efficiency of premium collection operations.
Botswana Post with has a far reaching network, boasting 137 Post Offices, 19 postal kiosks in select Choppies stores, 82 postal agencies, 6 Virtual Teller Machines (VTM) and its technological prowess is strategically positioned to drive FSG agenda of expansion and accessibility for the benefit of its customers.
Speaking at the launch, the Botswana Post Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Cornelius Ramatlhakwane stressed the commitment of both contracting partners, to serving their customers in rural local communities countrywide.
“The Post Office has been and continues to be an integral part of the communities which we operate in across the country. The Post Office has always been a cornerstone in the communities we serve, and this partnership reinforces our dedication to being there for our people when they need us the most,” said Ramatlhakwane.
He stressed that to be competitive in fast changing markets, postal services need to embrace digitization of their products or risk being excluded as digital service providers for e-government, e-commerce, e-finance services, e-value added services and e-social services.
Ramatlhakwane said, “With the world embracing digital technology at an ever-faster rate, customers are increasingly expecting to interact directly with the postal service through digital channels.”
According to the International Post Corporation in their Global Postal Industry Report 2023, aggregate mail volumes have declined by close to a third in advanced economies since 2012 with the advances in ICT’s, which has created new opportunities and demands for postal market.
The combination of strong letter volume decline and growth parcel volumes has important operational and economic implications for postal networks.
