The Minister of Communications, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, on Tuesday paid a visit to the office of the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC) in Accra to familiarise and discuss the challenges facing the industry. Addressing the gathering, the Executive Secretary of PCSRC, Mr. Samuel Kojo Intsiaba, said the mission of PCSRC was to provide regulatory oversight that promotes socio-economic development, through the provision of efficient, competitive and quality postal and courier services for customers. Mr. Samuel Intsiaba noted that the Commission has chalked remarkable achievements during its relatively short period of existence, in which guidelines, rules and procedures have been developed to regulate the postal industry. He hinted that thirty-seven operators had been licensed so far to provide postal or courier services in Ghana, and added that there were still many other courier operators who had not obtained operating licenses from the PCSRC, as stipulated by the Act 649. He cautioned such illegal operators that it was an offence punishable by law to establish or operate a postal or a courier service without a license issued by the PCSRC. He urged all large mailers, such as the financial institutions, mobile phone companies, educational institutions, and professional associations, to desist from using the services of unlicensed courier operators. Mr. Intsiaba pointed out that the PCSRC had also been engaging with the Ghana Post in a series of regulatory activities aimed at the efficient provision of basic postal services. He added that steps had been taken to provide guidelines for the setting of efficient and economic rates for basic postal services, to stop the losses being made by Ghana Post. "Generally, customers are quite satisfied with the provision of basic postal services, however in recent past the PCSRC has expressed dissatisfaction with the Instant Money Transfer services by the Ghana Post," he emphasised. Outlining the challengers facing the Commission, which impede its performance, Mr. Intsiaba said the Commission lacked sufficient resources to regulate a postal market as competitive as Ghana's, and the constraints placed by limited budgetary allocations has resulted in the in the PCSRC's inability to recruit more personnel, as well as undertake effective monitoring of the postal market. He therefore pleaded with the Minister to grant adequate budgetary allocations in due course. Source: The Chronicle