The idea of an Internet café at the post office was conceived in a five-year plan for postal development and a desire to make the corporation more financially viable, followed by a subsequent examination of the opportunities and challenges necessary to make the Post office a better place, a release from the Government Information Agency stated.

It is the intention of the GPOC, through the service, to provide a better quality service to customers and students while utilising other services available at the facility.

The Internet is an initiative to boost the financial capacity of the Corporation and according to the release, income will be generated just from the space the café occupies.

The cafes will be available at both the Central Branch and Bourda Post Office and it is anticipated that those initial projects will provide financing for the establishing of similar services in the hinterland and other areas.

“We are not generating sufficient income to flood all the Post Offices with computers, but we hope that the gains that we get here will enable us to establish others at the various offices,” Post master General, Mr Edward Noble said.

Computer networking for post office branches is already on the table as part of the recommendations for efficiency and competitiveness of the postal service. The GPOC in Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands) is already online at Vreed-en-Hoop and the facility will be online shortly at Leonora.

The GPOC already provides services for persons to pay utility charges for electricity and telephone bills and plans are afoot to facilitate the payment of water bills through the same system as well.

Meanwhile, a number of Post Offices in the more populated areas have undergone face-lifts over the past five years as part of their modernisation process, to attract people to do business at Post Offices.

The Corporation has also been renting some of its business space in an effort to stimulate financial gains.

In a presentation made by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds at the GPOC’s annual management retreat over the weekend, he noted that at some locations it may be important that the post office be rented out and the staff use smaller spaces for its daily operations.

The Prime Minister who opined that such a move will generate more funds than current operations in some locations, remarked “We have the ability to make the Guyana Post Office profitable.