(Business in Cameroon) - On April 18, 2018, the minister of posts and telecommunication Minette Libom Li Likeng visited Cameroon Postal Services (CAMPOST). During her visit, the minister instructed the staff to accelerate the implementation of the ongoing reforms to improve the performance of this company, which is losing part of the market due to competition and substitute products.  

According to the telecommunication minister, the reforms are namely about the review of the company’s organizational framework and the restructuration of its finance through a good control of the operating expenses, optimization of the resources and development of innovative products that will help CAMPOST either comfort its position in the market or conquer new markets.  

Let’s remind that the crisis of CAMPOST started in 2004 when it was unable to refund its clients savings. In a bid to resolve the issue, Cameroon removed nationals from CAMPOST’s management and entrusted it to the Canadian Tecsult International Ltd in 2007. Two years later, that company was unable to solve the said issue. Instead, it left a CFA2 billion loss following embezzlements perpetrated by some agents with the complicity of the management team of Tecsult.  

In 2010, the state replaced Tecsult with Sofrepost. That company was somehow successful (about 850,000 savings accounts and 56,700 current accounts in CAMPOST’s portfolio by 2013) and launched new services such as money transfer and express courier service. However, it was not that easy.

Finally, during the meeting of CAMPOST’s executive board on July 7, 2016, in Yaoundé, the company ended the technical assistance foreigners were providing. It then appointed Pierre Kaldadak, a Cameroonian and inspector of posts and telecommunications, as the new managing director.  

BRM