The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) Vice Chancellor, Prof. Maulilio Kipanyula, and Dr. Sifundo Chief Moyo, Secretary General of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU), met for further collaborations between the two Pan African institutions. 

Prof. Kipanyula briefly provided institutional history as well as an overview of the 5D business model and addressed four possible areas for collaboration between NM-AIST and PAPU on the provision of digital postal solutions, capacity building, data storage and analytics use of international conferences, and promotion of conference tourism.

“We have gladly received the idea with enough zeal to implement it and see the tangible results out of it, and going forward, our technical experts have to come up with a draft memorandum for formalizing this partnership, “said Prof. Kipanyula.

On his side, General Secretary of PAPU Dr. Sifundo stated that PAPU has 45 member states represented by ministries, designated postal operators, and regulators. This visit is being propelled by our strategic objective of promoting research and development in the postal sector as well as the development of new postal products and services.

“Taking that into account, we at PAPU consider the postal sector a powerhouse of modern logistical, digital finance, and e-commerce services, which entails that it is more than just the wide narrative of parcels and letters,” asserted Dr. Moyo.

In order to accelerate the exchange of services and for the postal sector to maintain its relevance to society, collaboration as well as partnerships with research institutions such as the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology are important.