…To complete unbundling of NIPOST January ending

…As PMG outlines achievements

By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Federal Government will unveil fully fledged Post Code System that will solve most of the ‘National addressing’ needs of the country.

The launch will mark the completion of the ongoing digitization of the old analogue post code. The Post Master General and Chief Executive Officer of  the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Dr. Ismail Adewusi, disclosed this on Tuesday, on the occasion of media parley to mark the 2nd anniversary of his appointment  held at Sandralia Hotel, Utako Abuja.

Adewusi, who spoke on the achievements of NIPOST under his stewardship for the last two years, affirmed that the digitization process would be completed before the second quarter of the year, assuring that fully fledged Post Code System  will not only address most of the national addressing needs of the country but eliminate inefficiency and prompt delivery of information.

He said the agency has come up with standard procedure of how addressing should be done as Nigerians will witness rapid transformation in Digital Addressing System this year.

The PMG, who lamented the impact of COVID-19 in the ongoing revolution in NIPOST, said expressed optimism that the new digital addressing system would certainly enhance NIPOST operations since 60 percent of our business is done with other countries.

In a bid to expand the frontiers of NIPOST products and services, the NIPOST boss said a B2B agreement was signed with eGATE of Egypt on digital transformation. With this agreement, he said job opportunities will be created and will also help to address the infrastructure gap in the organization, as well as reposition NIPOST on the path of full digitalization.

Meanwhile, the PMG said the ongoing unbundling of NIPOST would be completed before the end of this month.

Responding further to questions on the unbundling of NIPOST into multiple companies, he disclosed that with the boards of the companies in place already and the management to be inaugurated before January ending, the unbundling will be completed.

The NIPOST is expected to be unbundled into three subsidiary companies which will operate on the principle of commercial viability.

The three commercial ventures to be carved out of NIPOST are: NIPOST Properties and Development Company; NIPOST Transport and Logistics Company; and NIPOST Microfinance bank Limited.

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With the planned unbundling of the POST, he said most of the property that were dilapidated and abandoned for too long will be taken over by the NIPOST Property and Development, which will operate as a commercial entity and will have the opportunity to raise needed capital to do massive renovation that will cut across the length and breathe of all NIPOST facilities to solve the problem of infrastructural decay in the sector.

Adewusi, who is marking his two years in office as the Postmaster General of the Federation, listed some of his giant strides as:      Western Union Money Transfer which commences pilot operations in Lagos in 2020; reconciliation of account with Cameroon Post (Campost), culminating in the resumption of international remittance transactions which, in a short period, has accrued over ₦10,000,000 in revenue; joining of UPU Clearing House, from which Nigeria was removed, before his time, to facilitate expansion of remittance transaction beyond the Cameroon Nigeria corridor, with the potential revenue increase and roll out of co-branded credit/debit card  with Data Mining.

Others include:  Payment services partnership, with System Specs, which allows NIPOST to carry out bill payment using Remita on its counters and promotion of NIPOST card for seamless IFS transactions with more UPU member countries.

Operation/logistics

In the area of operation and logistics, he said the quantum leap made in e-commerce necessitated drastic measures to cope with the surge in parcels/packet deliveries. He added that NIPOST collaborated with a number of private transporters and logistics companies like Speedaf to ensure seamless deliveries, leading to the recent addition of 6 new high tonnage trucks acquired for e-commerce and logistics.

This acquisition, according to him, has greatly boosted the quality of service, Just as the collaboration with Speedaf Logistics Nigeria Limited has led to the addition of twenty-seven (27) new 10, 20, and 30 tonnage trucks into our fleet.

Stamp Production

According to the PMG, several stamps were produced in the last two years,  in collaboration with private partners. ‘‘Notable among them are the Bangladesh High Commission and Indian High Commission, who commissioned NIPOST to issue a set of commemorative postage stamps in honour of their nation’s founding fathers, which were unveiled during Bangladesh Independence Anniversary and 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi of India, respectively.’’

Also, he said the production and unveiling of a Commemorative Postage Stamp and the launching of Compendium of Nigerian Postage Stamps (1914-2014) by the Minister of Communications & Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami were part of the programmes that marked the special occasion of Nigeria’s 60th Independence Anniversary.

Furthermore, he said NIPOST in collaboration with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), released a single set of postage stamp on the 45th Anniversary of the agency, an event that was marked with pomp and pageantry in Abuja.

In addition, he informed that the POST produced Revenue Stamp dedicated to the denotation and authentication of transactions and fees, in line with the powers conferred on NIPOST by the amended Finance Act 2020.

NIPOST MoU with WAEC

On another frontier, NIPOST he said has signed an agreement with the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to deliver certificates in Nigeria to private candidates, for whom it was then no longer necessarily to travel long distances just to collect their certificates from the examination body.

The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has been providing financial services over five decades. However, with the advent of Information Technology (IT) and revolution in the financial service industry, the traditional instrument of remittances gave way to electronic means of payments.

Financial inclusion

In achieving the financial inclusion strategy of the Federal Government of Nigeria to increase financial access points in Nigeria, he said NIPOST in 2019 secured the status of Super-Agent and International Money Transfer Operator (MTO) from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

‘‘These licenses have enabled the organisation to go into collaboration with Fintech, FSP, NCS, IMTOs and Remita with a view to developing an agnostic platform, set for roll out in the first quarter of 2022.

‘‘The platform provides a template for a “one stop shop”, where customers can go and have services such as withdrawals, deposits, transfers, international remittances, bill payments, insurance services and other forms of financial services to serve different segments of the population. I fact, NIPOST has continue to play a critical role through its vast spread of outlets across the country.’’

He also said that the African Development Bank (AFDB) sought partnership with NIPOST to drive agricultural transformation in Africa’s economy with the Special Agro-Industrial processing Zones (SAPZ) initiative.

The objective, he said was to produce large stocks of marketable products using NIPOST’s warehousing, logistics and financial services and by so doing, contribute to the economic development of the country while also expanding our revenue base.

Vanguard News Nigeria