A new bill is in the making to enable the 125-year-old state-run postal service provider to operate as a non-financial institution and carry out e-commerce services.

Drafted by the Ethiopian Communications Authority, the Postal Service Proclamation sets the legal foundation for the Ethiopian Postal Service Enterprise to transact goods and services using the internet and facilitate the transfer of money, an expansion of its current mandate.

The bill, which has been in the making for the last year, is expected to be up for public consultation this July, according to Balcha Reba, director-general of the Ethiopian Communications Authority.

"The bill will also enable micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to sell services and products online and move their goods across the borders," Balcha said.

To establish a full-fledged e-commerce service, the Authority has conducted a study to implement national addressing and postal code standards, which would provide names and numbers for streets and buildings for their identification and location. It forwarded the study to the Ethiopian Geospatial Information Institute for scrutiny.

Upon receiving the study, the Agency has been working on collecting a survey on street names using Addis Abeba as a pilot project.

"We've developed a system that shows alternative roads or routes in the city," said Tulu Busha (PhD), director-general of the Ethiopian Geospatial Information Institute. "It's a web-based platform that shows the best means of getting from one place to another."

The routing network system has been completed for Addis Abeba, Bahir Dar, Hawassa, Adama and Jimma with the goal of reaching up to 23 different cities in the country.

In a month, the Agency plans to launch an extensive survey to identify each house, town, business place and shop in the capital and also the regional states as part of the National Addressing System plan, according to Tulu.

The bill is a part of the Integrated Postal Development Plan, which was crafted by the Ethiopian Communications Authority. The Integrated Postal Development Plan has four pillars: the development of postal sector policy, defining universal postal service, capacity building, and postal service modernisation.