Missed Opportunities II - NIPOST
Two weeks ago, I began a series I promised to continue. Here is the second part of the series. Let me say first that the first job I ever had after leaving secondary school was as a Teleprinter Operator. For that, I had training at the defunct P & T Training School, Kaduna. It is therefore no coincidence that I am interested in postal and telecommunication matters even with the advent of new technology.
It is sad to read that government is thinking of privatising Nipost. It is sad that we have resigned to the position that no enterprise is profitable if run by government. Unfortunately, with the exception of telephones (Nitel), no privatized government business has ever worked in Naija. NEPA became PHCN but only darkness increased, Nigeria Airways became airwaste and bled into mushrooming private airlines majority of which ran aground.
The Siamese twins of Nipost and Nitel were separated in 1985 by decree. By 1995 when I returned from Paris unsure that the new legend - the Internet and it’s counterpart, the e-mail would take another ten or more years to come, it was already happening at the Nipost Headquarters in Garki, Abuja. Back then, you had to pay to open a Nipost e-mail service and need to go to the Nipost Business Centre, pay for a token and wait for an operator to help you log into your account. It all sounds like the dinosaur age today.
With the opening up of Nipost came the proliferation of several courier companies. Nipost retained its privilege both as a postal and regulatory agency. But like most government businesses, it continues to play below its weight. Postal services were a colonial relic, first brought by the British in 1852 and established only in a few towns thereafter. Britain has since evolved with its postal services, so has other commonwealth nations like Canada and Australia. A non-commonwealth country like America has borrowed from the British system to establish the postal code system combining letters, digits and punctuation to ease the sorting and delivery of postal materials. So we have continued to use a postal box that obligates owners to travel to the post office. Even before the advent of ICT, this system has been replaced in other climes.
This is where we have missed opportunities. If you ask from Nipost, most cities have postal codes, but there was no effort to mobilise citizens to use them before the annihilation of snail mail. Figures say that over 70% of our population lives in rural areas. The postal code system would have eased communication with them and kept Nipost not only solvent but incredibly useful. Last year, I sent a parcel from Ottawa to Lagos and paid all the necessary fees. It was meant to be delivered in one week or five working days. Canadapost provides a tracking service that virtually tells you where your parcel is. The parcel arrived in Lagos, but for days, Nipost officials kept bouncing him from one office to another. Finally, they charged him extra for his parcel unmindful that portage was paid at the front end.
In Canada, his parcel would have travelled to his doorpost, his postal box attached to the front of his house. It could have been delivered to a central box in his estate where only he and the postman have access as is the case in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. While Canadapost is struggling to survive, like other postal services, the rural population of our country and the terrain stands Nipost at a better position to keep working till drones take over the job of the postman. Until that time comes, Nipost could employ agile and trustworthy people to deliver mail. It is equally interesting to see that globally, e-commerce is thriving. Here is another market for Nipost if it markets itself as the first and only authentic postal service of choice and backs it up with excellent service delivery.
Mail delivery is not going to be easy until our country adopts a postal code system that helps physical or electronic tracking and delivery. It should not be difficult to delineate cities and towns first, then move to the rural areas. Before it left Naija, the British started mail delivery from big towns, establishing the first post office in Lokoja and expanding. This is why it is expedient to have a central system linking data in the country. Up-to-date postal code delineation is useful not just for mail and parcel delivery, but also for change of address and monitoring of people. To transact any government business in Canada or other countries, you need a postal code. Naturally, you need one to be able to open a bank account or even to have a mobile telephone. In Canada, most of your municipal related bills could be paid through the e-post - these include electricity, water and heating bills as well as the municipal property tax. You are often required to present either a snail-mail bill or a recent electronic bill to transact most government businesses including renewal of drivers’ license. While we have postal codes, few citizens know theirs or what they are used for. It’s not too late to do these.
…To be continued.