Following its placement under the National Treasury last year the Postal Corporation of Kenya (Posta) is commercializing its idle assets to reduce reliance on state funding.
The state-owned corporation says commercialisation of under utilised assets and tariff reviews helped drive 10 percent financial growth in the year ended June 2025.
Chief executive John Tonui said the corporation was implementing an asset optimisation programme as part of a wider turnaround strategy aimed at making the business financially self-sustaining.
He noted that the turnaround is pinned to the Universal Postal Union’s Dubai Strategy 2026-2029.
“We are implementing a business turnaround strategy anchored on postal modernization, PostaPay revolution and asset optimization,” Tonui said
Speaking ahead of the global postal regulators and operator’s convergence in Berne, Switzerland, the post master general said the corporation was seeking to unlock value from assets that had remained idle, while increasing income from its existing operations.
The push comes as Posta seeks to diversify its revenue streams beyond traditional mail delivery, which has come under pressure from digital communication and competition from private logistics companies.
The corporation is also converting more than 500 outlets into communication centres and Citizen Service Centres to expand its role in courier services, e-commerce logistics and public service delivery.
Posta is banking on growth in parcel delivery to support the turnaround. Domestic and international parcels rose to 1.48 million in the 2024/25 financial year from 137,764 in the previous reporting period, according to Tonui.
Domestic letters grew 19.5 percent to 174,057 over the period, reflecting the corporation’s efforts to modernise its mail services even as the global postal industry shifts towards parcel delivery.
The Universal Postal Union’s State of the Postal Sector Report 2026 shows that global letter volumes fell 67 percent between 2019 and 2024, while parcel volumes increased nearly tenfold.
Posta has introduced MPost, which allows customers to use their mobile numbers as virtual postal addresses, access virtual post office boxes and receive door-to-door deliveries.
The corporation is also pursuing digital financial services through PostaPay, a digital wallet targeting unbanked farmers and small businesses. The service allows transactions of up to Sh2 million, with Tonui saying it offers lower fees.
The new revenue streams are expected to complement income from property and postal services as Posta seeks to operate with less support from the Exchequer.
“As a Government Owned Enterprise, we will not depend on the Exchequer when it comes to revenues,” Tonui said.
The corporation’s turnaround plans come as the Communications Authority of Kenya reviews the postal market structure in response to changes in the industry.
Authority director-general David Mugonyi said the regulator was raising courier licence fees from Sh50,000 to Sh1.5 million and reducing licence tenure from 20 to 15 years to address inactive operators.
