Côte d’Ivoire : crafting a future for the post

Like other government agencies the post of Côte d’Ivoire (www.laposte.ci ) suffered from last year’s civil unrest: one third of its 200 post offices were destroyed, and the Post’s revenue was almost cut in half between 2009 and 2011, from $ 10 m to $ 5.2 m.

The government’s first postal priority is to get back to basics. First from a regulatory standpoint : a new postal law is underway and a regulator should be set up later this year. The government also recently confirmed the post would get a financial bailout from the State –  various recapitalization alternatives are being studied.  Interestingly, the government also mandated the Post to consider partnerships with the private sector in order to jump start the financing of new activities, such as the provision of government services or innovative card-based financial services.

The new management team is also thinking through ways to revitalize the post. In partnership with national association of cities UVICOCI, La Poste de Côte d’Ivoire recently launched its first government service, called SEEDAD. This new service considerably shortens the processing and delivery of birth certificates. In addition, citizens, who often had to travel hundreds of miles to their city of birth to get the certificate, now collect it at their local post office (or receive it at home where home delivery is in place).

Meanwhile, La Poste de Côte d’Ivoire is striving to regain its role as a regional leader – it assumed in April 2012 a leadership role in the new  WAPC (or CPEAO in French), the Abuja, Nigeria-based regional association of ECOWAS postal operators.