Oman Post and Asyad Express, a member of Asyad Group, has announced, in co-operation with Oman's Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Riyada), the opening of registration for small and medium enterprises, as of  17th of April and for a period of one week, for the provision of postal and last-mile delivery services in various governorates of the Sultanate.

Commenting on this move, which follows the memorandum of understanding signed with Riyada with the aim of enabling SMEs to develop their services and offering, Nasser Ahmed Al Sharji, CEO of Oman Post and Asyad Express, said: “As we believe in the importance of the private sector and SMEs’ involvement in providing postal services, we will continue to deploy multiple touchpoints and increase the number of postal service delivery points throughout the Sultanate, while we fulfill our ICV commitments by supporting entrepreneurship, and helping SMEs grow and boost their revenues and GDP contribution; activating their participation in the logistics sector”.

“This is not a stand-alone initiative; it is part of a project to expand the network of Oman Post and Asyad Express by opening touchpoints in selected locations across the Sultanate to provide accessible postal services. In fact, the number of the established touchpoints with the support of our partners in the private sector stood at approximately 107 to date which contributed to the growth of postal revenues at varying rates in the governorates, with Muscat Governorate recording the highest growth rate of 43%. Moreover, we are planning to add 48 new touchpoints bringing the total number to 213 touchpoints by the end of Q4, 2022.”, Al Sharji added.

Explaining the goals of the initiative, Eng. Rahma Darwish Al-Shaqsi, Head of Retail Transformation at Oman Post and Asyad Express, said that “this initiative will push SMEs to use postal trademark and service systems without burdening participating businesses with additional costs. Moreover, training and technical consultancy will be provided to our partners on topics of business development and marketing campaigns for services through various social media platforms.”

This step is carefully aligned with other initiatives adopted by Asyad Group under its active partnership with Riyada. Such engagements with the private sector showcase Asyad’s sustainability strategy aimed at developing the business environment, supporting entrepreneurship, creating growth opportunities for Omani SMEs, and encouraging them to participate in the logistics sector in line with the objectives and directions of the Sultanate of Oman Logistics Strategy (SOLS) 2040.