According to its annual report made available this week, BotswanaPost has recorded after-tax losses from as far back as the 2017 financial year, with only a narrow P3.1 million profit recorded in 2018. In its latest annual report, the group attributed the latest loss to the impact of COVID-19 which CEO, Cornelius Ramatlhakwane, said was first felt as early as the 2019 financial year. “This came in the form of a steep decline in inbound parcels,” he said. “Worldwide lockdowns, border closures, depressed economic activity and overall chaos has extracted deep cuts in the revenue we can earn through international business. Couple this with an equally devastating impact at home and it feels like we are battling two pandemics.” In the year to March 2021, BotswanaPost’s total sales revenue declined by 16% to P269.2 million.
The group’s traditional revenue lines include the box and bag rentals, philatelic products (stamps) and mail revenue, while recent efforts to diversify have introduced streams such as electricity, airtime, money transfer commission, agency services, terminal and transit duties as well as courier and warehousing. BotswanaPost’s books indicate that in the year to March 2021, all these revenue lines took a knock except for box and bag rentals as well as money transfer commissions. Ramatlhakwane said despite the hard-won financial progress the group has made, its status as a going concern continues in a precarious state. “This stems from our weak balance sheet position, adverse liquidity and high gearing.
