Revamping Nigerian Postal Services
The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) recently unveiled a new logo and postmen's uniform in Abuja.
It also announced its objective of a 48-hour delivery time. The Minister of Communication Chief Cornelius Adebayo on the occasion stressed the determination of the federal government to ensure a speedy and safe postal system. The Postmaster General of the Federation reiterated the vision of NIPOST to be the best customer-responsive organisation in Nigeria and the best postal service in Africa and one of the best in the world, there was the need to change the old logo because of the wide criticism that it was outdated and expensive to produce due to its many colours.
NIPOST became a statutory body in 1985 when it was separated from the former Post and Telegraphs. With a workforce of about 24, 000 which generates about N35 million and spends N60 million, NIPOST is battling hard to be self sufficient and viable. A recent count showed that NIPOST had 168 head post offices, 614 post offices and 160 sub-post offices. Postal agencies numbered 2670. It was then estimated that over N600 million was needed to complete abandoned post office projects. Indications are that the situation might have improved now. With the invasion of E-mails and mobile telephones, NIPOST must be facing great competition against modern electronic technology. The odds are heavily weighed against that old organisation. There is therefore an urgent need to devise strategies to cope, otherwise the organisation will certainly collapse.
Over the past five years, some ideas have been floated to reform and reactivate the postal services. Among them is the introduction of the post insurance scheme by which all mails would be insured against all risks such as theft, vandalism and dumping. In the event of any of the risks occurring, appropriate compensation will be paid. Another proposal was the post bank which offers the public banking services inside post offices. Petty cash and market women daily sales would be lodged at such banks and withdrawn at will. Mailpers was also planned to fetch extra money to NIPOST coffers from the fleet of vehicles picking and dropping mails. Excess capacity in the mail buses will convey passengers at reasonable fares. In addition, there was a brain wave on hiring a postal expert from the Royal Mails of United Kingdom to run NIPOST, The expatriate was expected to adopt the British postal methodology to revamp NIPOST within a specified period of time.
The Bureau of Public Enterprises came up with a scheme to restructure NIPOST into four strategic business units such as Nigeria Mails Limited, Post Office Counter Service Limited, EMS and Parcel Limited and Workshops and Properties Limited. The NIPOST Group according to the new package should perform the function of a holding company over the subsidiaries or strategic business units. A board of directors made up of seven non-executive directors will supervise the holding company. The post master general will be the chief executive officer of the group while the subsidiaries are to be manned by managing directors.
According to the new policy direction of NIPOST, prime attention will be given to improved efficiency, speed and reliability in mail transportation and delivery. Expansion of revenue base through a more imaginative management of available resources and the introduction of new revenue yielding services are to be emphasised.
The Expedited Mail Services will be further expanded to have a wider coverage. Cost minimization approach will be pursed in the maintenance and expansion of postal services. To this effect, continued use of direct labour or voluntary agencies participation will continue to be encouraged. Efforts will be made to expand and modernise garages needed for effective maintenance of existing facilities.
It is necessary that postal facilities should be brought nearer to all communities, especially in the rural areas. In this regard, encouragement of communal efforts in the establishment of postal facilities should be more vigorously pursued. The charges for post office boxes should be reduced to accommodate more clients. In the absence of township maps and proper numbering of houses in most of our urban centres, the house-to-house delivery of mails should be de-emphasized in favour of post office boxes which will be provided in strategic locations from where subscribers can collect their mails. Suggestions have lately been proffered for the acquisition of postal equipment and provision of closed circuit television at major post offices to facilitate more efficient mail handling operations. We have reached a stage in which some manual operations in the post office should be mechanised.
The idea of hiring expatriate hands in the postal system should be jettisoned. Rather, the quality of training in postal training schools should be enhanced and senior executives should be exposed to advanced training overseas to boost their skills and managerial competence. With the rising competition from electronic technology, the issue of overstaffing in NIPOST will definitely arise sooner than later. Adequate arrangements must be made to tackle this exigency by providing for redundancy funds to cater for surplus personnel. There was a media story five years ago that a senior postal executive on retirement was evicted from the 1004 flats in Victoria Island, Lagos but could not afford enough money to move his properties to his home state because his gratuity was not paid. The pensions situation in NIPOST should not be allowed to reach the state of the Nigerian Railway Corporation whose pensioners have not been paid for thirty months.
NIPOST should desist from the undue harassment of private courier services. Their relationship should reflect more harmony than confrontation in order to promote the communications industry. NIPOST and private couriers should complement each other rather than work on parallel lines. The public expect that the security branch of NIPOST should be reinforced to check the pilfering of mails going to or coming from Europe and the United States of American.
