The warning came during the launch of the awareness-raising campaign for postal sector stakeholders on the use of postal networks, products and services under the watchful eyes of the Secretary General of MINPOSTEL, Mr. Mohamadou Saoudi, personal representative of the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications on Thursday 21, December, 2023, in the conference hall of her ministerial department.

 

Despite the satisfactory remark used in describing the evolution of the postal service sector in Cameroon, the government thinks there's still much to do. It has been observed that the clandestine market in this sector is still gaining steam, thereby robbing legal operators of their fruits. It is for this reason that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications assembled stakeholders of the postal sector to school them on the need for them like consumers to ally only with authorised postal operators.

During his exposee to the participants, the Director of Postal Activities, Regulation and Monitoring, Mr. Kaniyong Emmanuel proceeded in presenting an overview of the postal service market in Cameroon placed under the coordination of the regulator, the Cameroon Postal Services known by its acronym, CAMPOST. In his exposee, the director made a retrospect of the shortcomings of the lawless age of the sector, what obtains nowadays and what today, regulator, private operators and consumers must adopt in the coming years in a bid to keep in check and contribute to Cameroon's economy. Participate in statutory activities of the sector, declare costs of transactions, train and or recycle personnel for optimal results, constitute corporations of operators, promote a competitive environment by denouncing illegal operators, timely payment of dues, institute safety measures to secure parcels, align with legal operators are some of the expectations of the regulator from private operators and consumers listed by the Mr. Kaniyong. 

Mr. Mohamadou Saoudi, Secretary General of MINPOSTEL, personal representative of the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mrs. Minette Libom Li Likeng, on his part, lauded the effort of the stakeholders for answering favourably to the call. He asserted that since the liberalisation of the postal sector in Cameroon under law No 99/002 of April 7, 1999 governing the postal sector activities, the operator CAMPOST has experienced considerable new entries in the private postal sector. This satisfactory result indicates that 42 approved private postal operators are on the postal market togeter with the state concessionary operator CAMPOST, mentioned Mr. Mohamadou Saoudi. According to the Minister's representative, the regulator deposited in the state treasury over three (3) billion frs CFA as entry since the launch of the campaign in 2019. 

He reminded that failure to abide by the rules and regulations will tantamount to sanctions reason why there's need sensitise the population as well as protect those who have agreed to go legal. By so doing the postal sector will definitely make a great contribution to the economy, the Secretary General added. 

In the absence of doubts and contrbutions during the exchange phase, Mr. Mohamadou Saoudi commissioned  the participants to serve as ambassadors to the course by sensitising their business partners as well as clients to combat fraud in the sector and make alliance with the State. After these instructions, the Secretary General handed sensitisation materials which comprised of flyers, leaflets and t-shirts. They bore information and contacts of approved operators and warning messages to fraudsters.

Mr. Emmanuel Wafo, participant and Director of ESICO in expressing his gratitude for what the state is doing to protect the postal market pledged to further the sensitisation to their fifteen agencies spread over the national territory by educating his staff, partners, clients, and denouncing fraudsters.

It is worth mentioning that this sensitisation exercise which saw the presence of the representatives of the Ministery of Commerce and the Director General of CAMPOST, stakeholders and operators in the sector, representatives of corporations, consumer associations, will stretch to Douala, in the Littoral region on December 27, 2023, under the coordination of the Director of Postal Activities, Regulation and Monitoring.