By Kemo Cham
The Sierra Leone Postal Services is bracing up for a huge loss in revenue to an apparent boycott by the United Kingdom’s Royal Mail Services. Management says it may lose up to Le1 billion, adding that efforts to rectify the situation are proving futile.
The Royal Mail, since the unset of the epidemic, has failed to send Freetown-bound mails even though all mails to the UK from Sierra Leone are conveyed regularly, Salpost officials say. And this, they argue, amounts to violation of its obligation to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) treaty.
When last July Liberian Patrick Sawyer died from Ebola infections on arrival in Lagos, from Monrovia, the world’s attitude towards the epidemic changed dramatically leading to a number of airlines boycotting the three hardest-hit countries – Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
Out of over half a dozen airlines flying to the Freetown International Airport all but two suspended their operations, according to reports. Among these were Kenya Airways (KQ), France Airlines, and British Airways. These major airlines happen to be the major carriers for the Sierra Leone Postal Services (Salpost). As a consequence, the management says they are bracing up for a massive revenue loss.
Salpost blames mainly the apparent boycott by the Royal Mail International. Meanwhile, similar but less impacting interruptions in the United States and Japan have also added to the dilemma.
Salpost currently provides about six services, all of which have virtually come to a halt and it has lost many of its customers because of delay in transporting their packages. For months, mails from Japan to Sierra Leone were stuck in Accra in Ghana because KLM`s partner, KQ had halted its Freetown operation. They were eventually returned.
Because Salpost does more of import mails than export, often it is owed by other postal services when the terminal dues in balances are calculated. In 2013, Salpost realised Le2.4billion.
The postal service sector works in such a way that it will receive all its terminal dues in 2015 for the year 2014. And by its estimation, it is expecting a substantial amount of losses for the third and fourth quarters of 2014, which was when the Ebola epidemic took strong grip on the country. The estimated losses amount roughly to Le 1billion.
Ebola fears
Because of fear of contracting the Ebola virus, products like philatelic mails, favored by stamp collecting tourists, have dropped in demand drastically because tourists are shying away from the country, Sam J. Koroma, Consultant Managing Director, Salpost, tells Politico. The mail service is barely working, as is the Express Mail Services (EMS), he says.
“All of these have had impact on our performance and a cascading effect on the quality of our services.”
Koroma is worried that the problem is costing the post years of customer loyalty they have built.
As a temporary measure, Salpost officials say they are currently in talks to have Air Côte d'Ivoire take charge of the mails from Japan, adding that they will have to figure out first who bears the bill between Japan Post Holdings and Salpost.
Meanwhile, much attention is on the Royal Mail. This is partly because the largest single share of Sierra Leone-bound mails emanate from the UK, followed by the US.
“We have communicated with them and all they said is that they did not have flights coming to Sierra Leone,” says Salpost’s Manager, International Postal Affairs and Marketing, Abdurahman Munu.
In October 2014 his office wrote a protest letter to the Royal Mail expressing disappointment.
“Non-receipt of mails from Great Britain does not only cause a lot of frustration for the customers but a seeming loss of confidence in the services [we provide]. Quality of the mail is also compromised,” the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Politico, partly reads.
But it is the economic loss that concerns Salpost the most. It officials say Brussels Airlines and Royal Air Maroc still fly to Freetown and that London was one of the routes of the former and so claims of lack of flight doesn’t apply.
There had been fears around the chance of transmitting Ebola via mails from Ebola affected countries. But this fear was quickly laid to rest by the UPU, or so they hoped.
The union, in a circular to its members in October 2014 and referencing a World Health Organisation advice, reassured that there was no chance of infection with the Ebola virus through mails.
But the fact that mails from Sierra Leone are conveyed to the UK uninterrupted makes concerns about Ebola pointless, argues Munu.
© Politico 05/02/15
