DHL’s service points in sub-Saharan Africa triples to 1000

DHL Express has expanded its network of service points in sub-Saharan Africa from aninitial 300 to over 1000, in just a few short months, the German company said today February 25, 2013.

According to DHL, the aggressive expansion in the African market is aimed to further “cement the company’s leading position” on the continent and also to offer local consumers and small businesses an efficient, convenient way of shipping overseas.

“In our recent 2012 Global Connectedness Index, which measures the state of globalization around the world, Sub-Saharan Africa remained the globe’s least connected continent,” said Charles Brewer, Managing Director for DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa.

“However, it did average the largest increase from 2010 to 2011 and boasted the top five ‘gainers’ – Mozambique, Togo, Ghana, Guinea and Zambia. This tells us that there is still major opportunity to improve connectivity across the continent, and access to logistics services and international markets are both key to this improvement,” Brewer added.

The company indicated that the drive to increase consumer access points has been as a result of a multi-pronged retail strategy which looks at retail offerings from a small spaza shop in South Africa to a telecommunications company in Angola or a post office in Mauritius.

The logistics and express company is present in 52 sub-Saharan Africa markets and over 220 countries worldwide.

By Ekow Quandzie