Ukrposhta is Ukraine’s national postal service provider, with around 50,000 employees. Credits: Pavelskyi Vladyslav/Shutterstock.
Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and JSC “Ukrposhta”, Ukraine’s national postal service, have signed a mortgage agreement to secure performance of guarantee obligations totalling €30m.
The newly agreed loan is part of the Guarantee Agreement between Ukraine and the European Investment Bank (EIB). Ukrposhta will use the loan to step up the timely delivery of parcels and improve the company’s operational efficiency.
The new loan was signed by Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine Olga Zykova and Ukrposhta’s CEO Ihor Smilyanskyi. Zykova said the move to update Ukrposhta’s logistics network “will help improve the company’s capabilities as the main domestic postal operator and allow it to provide postal services in accordance with the best international standards.”
EIB is the lending arm of the European Union. News about the loan came after, in July, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) reallocated €22.7m of an existing loan to Ukrposhta. The original loan, agreed upon in November 2020, was €63m, and it aimed to modernise the company’s logistics infrastructure and operating fleet.
On 24 September, Russia launched a full-scale invasion against Ukraine, marking the biggest attack on a European country since the Second World War. Ever since, Kyiv has been on a path towards economic recovery, with Ukrainian officials managing to secure investment and loans from abroad to help the country’s economy stay afloat and keep its state institutions running.
Despite the war, Ukrposhta has kept delivering parcels abroad. As of September 2022, the company was conducting exports to 11 airports in neighbouring Western countries, enabling Ukrainian entrepreneurs to sell their goods on various marketplaces and ship them worldwide.
