Cameroon Postal Services, CAMPOST, has since lost its monopoly of yesteryears; but is working hard to live up to present day postal challenges. The beginning last week in Yaoundé of the holding of the 29th Ordinary Session of the Administrative Council and Technical Committee meetings of the Pan-African Postal Union, PAPU, again brings to the fore the challenges faced by today’s postal system. Like the Inspector General in the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication, Younouss Djibrine noted while welcoming participants to the conference, it is no longer time to continue making long speeches; but rather to get to work.

Getting to work means today’s post office officials and government must seriously think out sustainable strategies to keep it going. And the Government of Cameroon appears to already have an idea of the solution to the problems of Cameroon Postal Services, CAMPOST that manages the national post office network. “The postal service must live up to the competition of private operators by integrating with other postal services all over the world,” acknowledges Younouss Djibrine. Though the International Postal Union member states have a network of more than 600,000 post offices and can thus benefit from economies of scale, the task is still not made easier in any way.

“The post office is a service with the objective of serving the public – and not just about making profits. The private operators only go for services and destinations that are profitable. Show me any private postal operator who is ready to transfer mail from Kousseri (in the Far North) to Akwaya (in the South West)?” questions Djibrine. Government, he says, must continue to do everything to keep the service in order to serve the interests of the common man who cannot pay the high rates charged by private operators.

According to CAMPOST General Manager, Hervé Beril, his aim is to make the company the largest postal service in Africa. For this reason, he says, government has put all means at his disposal to enable the company achieve its objectives. He also promises better service delivery to clients following the recent acquisition of 110 motor bikes for quicker mail distribution. Good service delivery, he adds, is important for company success.

The situation of CAMPOST has been aggravated by the breaking of the monopoly it enjoyed some decades back. Competition from rival operators has come. And it has come to stay.

Reason why the Secretary General of PAPU, Mrs. Rodah Masaviru did not mince her words when she addressed participants at the opening of the conference last week in Yaoundé: “I wish … to urge you to build on this momentum (of belonging to PAPU) by working as a team with full understanding that the bottom line of our efforts is the noble objective of sustainable development of the postal sector in Africa.”