As NIPOST Launches New Products
By Gift Samuel, The Sight News
Abuja-As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the 2017 World Post Day, the Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu has called on the National Assembly to expedite the passage of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) Reform Bill in order to transform the Service.
Shittu who made the call in Abuja on Monday at the NIPOST Launching of New Innovative and Game Changing Products, said that having the bill passed into law will make way for the legitimacy on all of the new initiatives that are being taken.
The Minister who decried the huge neglect of NIPOST in the past, said the government decided to make the best use of the existing infrastructure and human capital, to reform, reposition and make NIPOST useful to the ordinary Nigerian, adding that NIPOST could serve as community centres, live wire of every social, economic as well as political activities of societies.
He further assured Nigerians of the government’s effort to ensure reformation of NIPOST and all other sector of the economy.
Also speaking, the Post Master General(PMG), Barr. Bisi Adeguiyi who noted that NIPOST has launched 12 products in 12 months, said that the days of competition with the private sector is over as collaboration is the way forward to make Nigeria the number one on the African chart in no distant future.
He said that products like financial service and e-commerce which are new streams of income will help widen the base and bring in new customers, stressing the importance to deploy technology, retrain staff and get fresh hands to move the Service forward.
According to him; “We have the numbers, we have the market here, all we have to do is think out of the box and rejig Nipost, modernise it, deploy technology and subscribe to global best practices in the world. There is need to see if the customers are happy with us,there is also a need to look at other sources of income as it is unwise to rely on just selling of stamps and EMS.
“We are going into Agency banking, where banking will be taken to the rural areas and people can do everything they will normally do in a bank, we are confident that in another one or two years all the plans will bear fruit and manifest.
“Also we are coming with mobile wallet where we can deepen financial inclusion, we assure Nigerians of better days ahead and we will fulfil our responsibilities of using the post to alleviate poverty and create conditions of wealth creation” he added.
The PMG stated that with the embarrassing lack of deployment of technology, NIPOST challenges were identified and the huge opportunities available have been leveraged upon to fulfil the Service’s missions of becoming a thriving, market-driven, and costumer-centric organization, adding that he will rejuvenate NIPOST into a high income generating agency.
Speaking further, the Deputy chairman, House Committee on Telecommunications, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ujam stressed that Nigerians need to come to terms with the digital manner of operations within the postal services and for various tax organs to understand that it is not duplicity of taxes.
He also noted that the bill that deals strictly with Stamp Duty Act has scaled second reading, adding that the bill should be ready before the end of the week.
Products that were launched includes but not limited to; Financial services, Property and development services, transportation service, e-commerce and insurance.
October 9, every year is celebrated globally as world post day to raise awareness of the role of the post in the lives of people and businesses as well as its contributions to global, social and economic development.
