Why shouldn’t civil servants’ salaries be channelled through The Post? And the Delegation for Rapid Youth and Women’s Entrepreneurship (DER/FJ), which boasts of having provided banking services to over 100,000 people, why shouldn’t it channel its loans through accounts opened at The Post?

This institution, which for at least two decades has been presented as being on the verge of death, could easily be put back on its feet if the political will were not lacking.

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It is true that in this period of « economic recovery through the dismissal of several human resources, » as practiced by the public authorities, the Senegalese authorities would not be shocked to see The Post close its doors permanently. This would, it seems, be just another nail added to the coffin of the failures of the PSE so dear to Macky. Therefore, too bad if the bankruptcy of The Post were to take with it nearly 5,000 heads of families who will find themselves unemployed. Furthermore, financial partners, led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would thus finally be convinced of the will of the ruling duo, Sonko and Diomaye, to truly conclude a new cooperation agreement with them. At a time when the idea of ​​a revival of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) is being whispered, the State could in this way make substantial savings in reducing its deficit.

The Post’s management is currently characterized by a deficit of more than 150 billion CFA francs, due to receivables owed to the State and a business with more than questionable profitability. Above all, for more than twenty years, the State has regularly placed at the helm of the structure politicians more concerned with securing their political clients than thinking about turning the company around. The result is a payroll that contributes to further jeopardizing the finances of the company, which, due to a management model that is not very open to new technologies, regularly lets itself be undercut by the competition.

The postal mail sector, due to a lack of vision and an inadequacy for modern exchanges, has been brought to the brink of death by electronic correspondence. However, those who preached its imminent demise do not hesitate to marvel at the quality of postal services in France and the United States, for example. In France, it is still possible to send a paper letter by The Post and be sure that your correspondent will receive it within 48 hours. In Trump’s country, postal services are a fundamental element in the organization of elections, and often at the centre of electoral issues, which means they are closely monitored by all politicians.

The Post’s network, with nearly 5,000 operational branches across the country, has, for years, offered a highly valued quality of service. While electronic exchanges such as emails, WhatsApp, Instagram, and others may have reduced the service offering, they haven’t killed it, and there’s no reason to end a moribund activity whose importance cannot be denied. So, why was it necessary to stop home mail deliveries in certain neighbourhoods? The Post’s mail clerks were among the best-informed people about the layout of certain neighbourhoods, being able to deliver mail to even the most unlikely places. For reasons of economy, these services were stopped. The Post Office tried to compensate by encouraging users to rent mailboxes, but it was unable to provide the necessary quantity of boxes, especially at attractive prices. A household that receives mail occasionally does not feel the need to pay an average of 25,000 CFA francs per year to acquire a mailbox.

One of the best ways to make postal mail work would have been for all public services to use The Post for their correspondence and encourage citizens to do the same, without it costing them more money. Thus, it was not politically profitable to stop the sale of revenue stamps by The Post. This service, and it is not the only one, is in high demand, is one of those that could help bail out The Post.

PosteFinances, one of the most dynamic sectors, created following the separation of the postal service from the telephone service, which had just been sold to the French company France Télécom, which transformed it into Sonatel, had innovated and adapted by introducing savings accounts, postal check services, and wire transfer. But all these services declined at the same time as postal mail, sometimes even faster, despite their profitability.

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Competition from mobile money transfers can be blamed, as well as other causes. It remains incomprehensible that the postal savings account, which paid 4% per year, one of the highest rates in the financial market, has lost its appeal. While it is true that The Post turned it into nothing more than a dormant piggy bank that the holder could not use to raise a loan, its managers did not hesitate to dip into customer accounts to resolve their personal problems. However, this savings account was primarily a refuge for small savers, for whom every penny counts for a lot. Distraught, most of these people saw their savings melt like snow in the sun, and found no consolation anywhere, except in traditional forms of tontine, for a good number of them. If some want The Post to be re-floated, it is more in the hope of recovering their frozen debts than for anything else.

Yet, even for the country’s economy, this recovery is no illusion. To answer the question that opened this article, the benefit of imposing the direct debit of all civil servants in the country through The Post would allow the structure’s capital to be increased, without the State having to contribute a single cent, and even cover debts owed to the public authorities. Of course, with the support of the Central Bank, the State could guarantee compliance with prudential regulations and ensure that customers’ finances are not misused. Furthermore, unfair competition could not be invoked, as each civil servant has the possibility of keeping his personal bank account in the bank of his choice.

Just imagine what a time and resource saving this system would represent for all those teachers posted far from home and who often travel from their place of work to collect their salaries. Their local post office, or even the nearest one, would save them the hassle.

Family Security Grant recipients, too, instead of using private phone service providers or Fintechs, would return to The Post’s counters to collect their money, as they did in the beginning, saving themselves a lot of hassle. And sparing the government from debates over possible misappropriation of these funds. From many angles, however we try to approach the issue, the recovery of The Post is simply a matter of will, which could only be beneficial to the country and the public authorities. Moreover, with more than 100,000 banked customers having opened accounts in its coffers, The Post would become an important financial partner for the State, in its search for resources for the country’s development. In addition to the BNDE or the LBA, the revitalized Post could participate in the agricultural campaign, or even in fundraising, such as Treasury bonds, to the great relief of the Treasury services.

Of course, there are prerequisites to overcome, primarily and essentially concerning the management of a bloated workforce, which should be reduced to manageable proportions. Several ways exist to resolve this issue. We can be convinced that for a government that has no qualms about firing workers left, right and centre or pushing thriving businesses to the brink of bankruptcy, this should not be difficult to resolve.

By Mohamed GUEYE / mgueye@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH