Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson
Plans to reform the Nigerian postal sector and to restructure the Nigerian Postal Service have received a boost with the approval of the Nigeria Postal Commission Bill 2014 by the Federal Executive Council.
The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, stated this on Monday.
The bill, our correspondent also learnt, would be forwarded to the legislature to be passed into law.
Prior to the development, observers had said that the postal sector in Nigeria had grown over time with more than 1,200 post offices owned by government, close to 2,000 postal agency outfits managed by individuals, and over 290-registered private courier companies.
More so, statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show that while year-on-year growth is increasing, the contribution of the post and courier services sector to Gross Domestic Product (at 0.03 per cent) is still low.
Meanwhile, Johnson said the focus of reform had been to promote NIPOST as a “necessary tool for the promotion of social, financial and digital inclusion.”
She also said that the FEC had sought to restructure NIPOST along business lines through the establishment of a new management style that focused on operational excellence, quality improvement, customer focus, result-oriented management, and cost control.
The minister, therefore, said that in a bid to empower NIPOST to respond more effectively in a very competitive environment, “deployment of massive Information and Communication Technology infrastructural system with focus on carrying out ICT-based services, including online and automated services in post offices, is being implemented (in stages).”
She said the anticipated result would be improvement in the quality of service and process efficiency and through that, the regaining of public confidence in service delivery.
Speaking on the approval of the bill in relation to efforts to reform the postal sector, Johnson described it as “a timely impetus to push harder and further with the reform of the Nigerian postal sector,” saying, “and we look to the legislature to quickly pass this into law.”
The minister said, “The passage of the bill into law will allow for the establishment of an effective, impartial and independent regulatory authority for the postal sector, and this will help to ensure fair competition in the postal industry.
“Such a move will introduce greater transparency and predictability in the sector and will encourage private investment and development of the broader economy. Practically every sector of the economy depends on service providers in the postal industry.”
Johnson said that the Nigeria Postal Commission Bill 2014 was designed to reform and reposition the postal sector in line with global trends and international best practices. “It promotes a postal sector that is efficient, cost-effective, better funded and capable of delivering service that meets universal obligations embedded in national policies and programmes such as the Transformation Agenda and Vision 20:2020.
“The postal sector is managed by NIPOST; therefore, the growth of the sector is said to be essentially tied to the reform of NIPOST,” she added.
It will be recalled that the process of reforming NIPOST began in the early 2000s. The National Council on Privatisation, through the Bureau of Public Enterprises, started with objectives that included establishing a low-cost universal postal service that provided a communication medium and link nationwide, providing a safe and efficient postal service that is sustainable and keeps pace with development in the rest of the world.
The NCP and BPE also introduced private sector participation and the development of the postal service into a commercially viable enterprise and creating a means of savings mobilisation and payment and/or funds transfer system for the entire country through the postal network.
However, experts over time have stated that while the conceptual framework for reform was developed, the process of its ownership and actualisation had suffered significant delays.
For example, it may be recalled that a number of (private member) bills to amend the Nigerian Postal Service Act, 1992 have been considered by the legislative arm of government but none has been passed into law.
BY OZIOMA UBABUKOH
