FG Backs Social Reforms to Reposition EMS Courier Business

The federal government has given its full support for social reforms that will turn around the EMS courier business in the country, operated under the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST).

The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, who gave the assurance during the opening ceremony of a three day symposium and workshop, organised for EMS senior management across Africa, hosted by EMS Nigeria in Lagos, said the federal government would ensure an enabling environment for NIPOST to fulfill its mandate by facilitating the passage of the Postal Reform Bill and the implementation of National Addressing System among other things.

EMS Nigeria is an arm of NIPOST that is carved out to operate courier business in Nigeria and to compete favourably with private courier businesses licensed to operate in the country.

The symposium and workshop was organised to access the EMS operational performance and service quality across the African region, with a view to repositioning EMS for effective service delivery and innovativeness in the African continent.

EMS operators represented at the symposium by dignitaries from over 22 countries across Africa, were of the view that EMS offers the cheapest courier services across Africa, with expectations to attract high volume of customers, but explained that EMS operators do not have larger control of the courier market, despite its cheap services. The symposium therefore seeks to gain better understanding of the courier market, in order to create efficiency, greater customer satisfaction and to generate more income for EMS.

According to Shittu, it was necessary and imperative to return the lost glory of NIPOST and commercialise it where appropriate.

“Before this government came in, the post was almost in comatose and forgotten by most Nigerians, particularly when GSM came on board and they felt there was no need for NIPOST, but when we came in, we saw NIPOST as a sleeping giant that could be transformed for greater and positive impact that can translate to national growth. Government is interested in commercialising most of the services of NIPOST that could make it competitive with the private sector,” Shittu said.

The Postmaster General and Chief Executive of NIPOST, Adebisi Adegbuyi who was appointed some months ago, said his assessment of the NIPOST when he came on board, was that of a government agency endowed with huge potentials but bogged down by bureaucratic bottlenecks and limited capacities for experimenting and thriving business models that have stood the test of time in other climes.

He however said many postal administrations in subSaharan Africa, were bedeviled with similar plights, except for few African countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya and South Africa. Adegbuyi called on operators of postal services in Africa to join forces with a view to not only repositioning EMS, but also to working for inclusive, innovative and complete integration of the continent.

Encouraged by the global exponential growth of postal services, Director General of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), Mr. Bishar Hussein, who was represented by the Manager EMS unit, UPU, Ms Jane Dyer, quoted the recent Accenture and Ali Research, which states that the global business to consumer (B2C) cross -border e-commerce market is expected to generate $1 trillion by 2020 from $230 billion in 2014.