History

"A Legacy of Connecting Seychelles"

Introduction

The first post office was opened in 1861 though in 1824 a letter is said to have been "privately carried" to Europe. Until a boat service "Messagerie Maritime" took over the mail contract in 1866 mail to and from Seychelles could not be transported on a regular basis.

The earliest known letter using this service was dated April 1865. Colonial reports brought out the extreme communication difficulties though in 1877, the Mauritius Post Office reported that letters to and from Seychelles numbered 14,184.

The Post Office became autonomous from Mauritius in August 1982. It was in 1893 that the first local post office was introduced in Seychelles.

Non-commissioned offices in charge of the Police Station acted as receiving and dispatching officers. This service was stopped in July 1894 as it proved too much for them to cope.

In 1894, the new Administrator, Sweet Escot saw that the postal services needed improvement and introduced a new Inland Postal Service. The British India Steam Navigation Company also began a shipping contract in August 1895.

Key Milestones

The quarantine of ships is said to affect mail from time to time. The local postal service covered the whole population of Mahe, Praslin, La Digue, including the outer islands. In 1965, this also included the British Indian Ocean Territory.

The first civil flying machine to Seychelles was in June 1939 from Australia. In 1948, the Royal Air Force established a base in Seychelles and the Catalina flying boat operated flying services between Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar and Kenya.

In January 1953, East African Airway Corporation attempted to introduce the first airmail service with an amphibian aircraft from Kenya. The service was not economical and later withdrawn.

The United States Air force built a satellite tracking station on Mahe in 1963 and introduced an amphibian service from Mombasa which carried first and second class airmail beginning August 1964.

Wilkenair introduced an airmail service in May 1970, which were followed by the opening of the international airport in 1971 and a weekly mail service introduced by BOAC in July 1971.

Our Post Offices

The Modern Postal Act

The new Postal Act is a modern Act and replaces the Postal Act of 1803. The Act makes provision for:

Global Postal Sector Reform

Over the past 10 to 15 years, the Postal Sector all over the world has been undergoing major reform. The principal reasons are:

However, the growth of commercial mail and parcel remain stable and in certain areas have increased. The latter is increasing due to the use of e-commerce where the delivery side is handled by the Postal Service.

Seychelles is a member of the Universal Postal Union and a signatory to the Universal Postal Services where basic postal services such as accessibility and affordability are important.

New Revenue Streams

The Public Postal Operator will have to build the required capacity to formulate strategies into new products and services so as to generate new revenue:

The new bill makes provision for a postal regulator who will regulate the postal service operator, postal courier and other services. Their responsibility will also be to settle disputes and promote fair competition within the postal sector.

The regulator will also have the responsibility to define the scope of universal postal services that the public postal operator will provide.

Finally, this bill repeals the old Act and transfers relevant properties owned by government which are being used by the postal offices to the public postal operator.