In Today’s #FridayRead we will go into the prerequisite of obtaining a license to operate courier services in Ghana. The law that governs courier services in Ghana is the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission Act, 2003 (Act 649).
The term “Courier Services” is defined in the interpretation section of Act 649, which is section 56 as “a service for the receipt and delivery of correspondence, items of value or both, such as parcels and packages, for which no postage stamp is required”. Examples of such companies in Ghana are Glovo and Jumia.
In order for a company to operate successfully in Ghana as a Courier Service company, they need to obtain a license. Section 14 of the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission Act, 2003 (Act 649) states that,
A person shall not be licensed to provide a courier service unless the person undertakes to
(a) Develop and publish with the approval of the Commission, unless the person undertakes to
(b) Follow and trace items received or collected for delivery by that person’s business undertaking;
(c) Deliver items within the acceptable delivery time set by each operator and approved by the Commission.
This means that in order to be issued a license to operate a courier service in Ghana, the Commission of Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission must approve the service based on the ability of the company to track items received or collected to their final destination within the set delivery time.
This is why there is a law enacted to govern this service to protect parties involved in the business due to the nature of the ability of items being lost, destroyed, stolen as well as protecting confidentiality