Nipost sets up West Africa mail distribution centres

In a move to make the delivery of postal services more convenient, the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has established three exchange centres in the country for mail distribution to West African countries.

The acting Postmaster General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Mori Baba who confirmed this at an interactive session with newsmen as part of his tour of the Lagos NIPOST zone disclosed that the centres, which he described as 'exchange offices' were located in Lagos, Badagry and Maiduguri in Borno state.

He explained that the Maiduguri centre would handle all mails going to Cameroon and the other francophone territories in that zone at least three times weekly, unlike in the past when it took months to get letters from Nigeria.

On the Lagos and Badagry centres, he said that it would handle mails meant for Cotonou, Lome, Accra, Abidjan and link up to Mali and Senegal.

He said that the routes would be provided with two trucks that will travel daily, adding that more trucks would be provided in future.

The acting postmaster general noted that the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the African Postal Union in Arusha, Tanzania, project for mail distribution had approved the West African road network since 2003.

Baba confirmed that with the project, NIPOST would employ more personnel and buy more vehicles as part of the commercialisation exercise in NIPOST.

The Acting Postmaster General while explaining that the Post Code helps process and deliver letters with ease, said lack of street naming and house numbering remains a problem that Nigerians should be informed that the post code has come to stay in order to make their work easy and in order to satisfy Nigerians.

Baba also told Journalist that he is liasing the Accountant General of the federation to ensure that he issues a circular on stamp Duty Act which which he said has to be enforced. "Receipts must be accompanied by adhesive stamps. If there is a law, it should be enforced" he added.

He blamed power supply as the main cause of high percentage loss of revenue as regards Personal letters.

"Where we have the capacity to install the International Postal System (IPS) to enable work done conveniently, you have the problem of power supply. When you operate a business with a generator, you arrive at a loss but nevertheless, we will take advantage of Information Communication and Technology (ICT), a number of services like e-mail, e-government, e-commerce e.t.c. will be introduced to have a one-stop shop. We will converge the electronically transmitted information to local hybrid to raise a lot of revenue. By the time this is perfected, we believe that before the end of the year the project will take care of the loss of revenue in personal letters and revenue will pick up" he stated.

Declining to mention the percentage of post office offline, he disclosed that about twenty three of major Post Offices doing business are online which is about 50%."NIPOST remains very relevant because of its services. The rural people will benefit and it is necessary to note that Postal services is also needed in Sea and railway", he said.

Baba who was surprised that outstanding payments for previous contracts have not been made, promised that he will make sure that appropriate and immediate actions to effect the payment as soon as possible.

He made public the commendation letters from Canada and USA issued to NIPOST thanking them for intercepting and withholding parcels and shipments fraudulently obtained here in Nigeria.

"I am grateful to you and to the good people of Nigeria who are working hard to fight the internet and mail abuses from criminal elements", Tim Thompson from Canada stated.

On the late Alhaji Abubakar Musa Argungu, OON, the immediate past Postmaster-General and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Postal Service who lost his life alongside with other 116 prominent Nigerians in the ill-fated Bellview plane crash at Lisa in Ifo-Ota Local Area of Ogun State, the the acting Postmaster General disclosed that the Federal Government is already raising an endownment fund which will soon be launched.