BotswanaPost Chief Executive Officer, Cornelius Ramatlhakwane, says the organisation has made a loss of P39 million last year.
Speaking to Voice Money, Ramatlhakwane said over the last 5 years, BotswanaPost has worked hard to turn around its operations using the successful implementation of Executing Innovative Excellence strategy. He said this saw the Company reducing its Loss before tax of P47.0 million in 2015 to a profit before tax of P4.0 Million in 2018 and Profit before Tax of P6.0 Million in 2019.
“We merged with Botswana Couriers and Logistics in 2019 and that with Covid-19 contributed to low performance hence our P39 million loss. Courier was bringing in its problems with new employees, we had to align salaries and the cost was high. Covid-19 started impacting the courier and mail business as there was the restriction of movements of goods including our mail and courier items. It resulted in a reduction in revenue of about P50 million (the company had expected to make P72 million). Mainly due to the lockdown which affected parcels flow from outside Botswana, and traditional lines where people come to the office to buy airtime and electricity,” said Ramatlhakwane
He said BotswanaPost continues a robust drive of increasing Multi-Channel Access points with emphasis on growing revenue with lower operating costs that would result in improved profitability.
Ramatlhakwane went on to say to achieve business growth and increased profits, they have committed to using a tailored dynamic interim strategy.
“This was meant to reap positive learnings from Covid-19 and improve on negative effects experienced during the 2020/21 financial year. To ensure a positive turnaround, BotswanaPost will grow existing product lines and enhance service delivery on the backdrop of a recovery seen in October, November, and December 2020,” he added
Ramatlhakwane said this enhancement includes the Introduction of 24hr Virtual Teller Machines to complement their digital offering.
He said the other achievement has been the expansion of Post Office access points in collaboration with the Private Sector, mainly Local General Dealers. He said they have also introduced Virtual Post Box, for ease of accessing mail and parcels.
