APA-Dakar (Senegal) – The Senegalese Post Office Group has drawn up a Strategic Expansion Plan (SEP) to get back on its feet.
For several years now, the Senegalese Post Office has been experiencing an economic and financial crisis. In order to turn it around, the authorities have announced a restructuring and rescue plan that will allow 2,721 employees to leave the company on a voluntary and negotiated basis.
But according to the new CEO, Mahamadou Diaite, the recapitalisation of the post office has become essential. “The parent company and our subsidiaries are now in a situation where recapitalisation is essential,” he said.
He was speaking to the press in Dakar on Tuesday at a round table attended by the Post’s management, French partners, the economic department of the French embassy, Expertise France and the Ministries of the Economy and Telecommunications.
According to Diaite, the meeting was an opportunity to present four of the twenty-odd projects in the Post Office’s Strategic Expansion Plan (PSE), worth more than 100 billion CFA francs.
“But the most important of these measures is the recapitalisation of the Post, valued at 170 billion CFA francs. Since the group owes the Senegalese state 174 billion CFA francs, all the government has to do is convert this debt into a new contribution. There will be no cash to pay out and the La Poste group will be able to recapitalise,” explained the CEO.
In order to turn the group around, the PSE is “designed as a steering instrument,” focusing on three areas: increasing and diversifying the range of services, digitalisation and improving institutional governance.
“The aim is to restore the company’s image, because nobody wants the Post to remain in this situation, not the government, not the public and certainly not us postal workers. That’s why we have to do everything we can to get the Post Office out of this situation. That means modernising services, boosting business and finding funding. But funding alone is not enough to save the Post Office. We have presented four projects here that require high-quality human resources. That’s why we need to focus on training and capacity building,” Mr Diaite continued.
According to him, these projects also require significant technical resources, such as “the sorting centre, because if we want to automate it, we need particularly important fixed and mobile tools. But financial resources are always needed for training and the acquisition of technical resources.”
TE/lb/abj/APA