Sustaining NIPOST’s relevance
In line with the succinct postulation of Voltaire, the great French philosopher and writer, the post, without let or hindrance, has remained on top of its bridge building endeavours of both human and business relationships across the globe.
In Nigeria, as it is in other countries, the post has demonstrated a huge capacity to facilitate exchange of information and goods with potentials for social integration and economic development.
The post with its wide physical presence in the remotest part of the country is undoubtedly a major player in the information society. Its platform provides infrastructure for growth and promotion of small and medium scale businesses.
The Nigerian Postal Service [NIPOST] was charged with responsibility of providing efficient and affordable postal service to the citizenry.
In the postindependent era and in spite of limited technology available to it, people reposed so much confidence in the products/services rendered by the post and considered the presence of post office buildings in their domain among indices of development. The few post offices in existence were maximally utilised to render sundry payment and products services to the satisfaction of the patrons such that the Post and Telecommunications Department [P&T] became a household name and postal service staff were accorded a lot of respect in communities they worked and lived.
Nigerians patronised the post office as a reliable means of sending and receiving mail. People living in the cities, towns and rural areas all depended on the post for one service/product or the other which among others included private/ business letter boxes, postage stamps, registered mail, parcel, postal orders, local and international money orders, air mail, international reply coupons, post cards and even banking services, the Federal Savings Bank.
The split of the P&T Department into two corporate entities which heralded the coming into existence of NIPOST in 1985, was the beginning of a new dawn in the history of postal service in Nigeria.
The post witnessed a lot of transformations and reforms. Existing infrastructure were upgraded and numerous outlets were created to bring postal services closer to the populace. In line with international standard and best practices, lots of innovations were brought to bear on products/ services’ packaging and delivery. It was during this period that NIPOST courier arm, Expedited Mail Service -EMS/Speedpost was introduced.
Several result oriented initiatives were implemented to aid the dispensation of value added services that also enhanced the revenue generating capacity of the agency.
Expectedly, the posts around the world today are diversifying their products and services to better meet customers’ needs for cost effectiveness, speed and reliability. The NIPOST as a member of the global community could not afford to lag behind in the scheme of things in the communication sector and has, therefore, as a matter of survival instincts, also upped its game by taking revolutionary steps to keep abreast the revolution in the postal world.
New line of products and services tailored at meeting and satisfying contemporary customers’ tastes and demands such as Special Delivery Service, Postcash, Haulage and Logistic service were introduced.
Another remarkable milestone in the efforts of the NIPOST to improve its service delivery was the introduction of the National Mail Route Scheme. This is a partnership between the NIPOST and private transporters. The scheme, launched in June 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has succeeded in addressing the major challenges of mail distribution across the country, resulting in the reduction of mail transit time from two weeks to three days nationwide.
Recognising the importance of a national infrastructure that could be used to address issues such as poverty alleviation, national security, improvement of quality of life, identification of citizens, delineation of electoral constituencies, socioeconomic planning and provision of essential services to the citizenry the NIPOST initiated the move to have a National Addressing System.
To a great extent, the NIPOST has commenced the automation of its operations to enhance speed and efficiency. Tremendous progress has been made through partnership in the deployment of ICT infrastructure in major post offices across the nation. This move has opened windows of business opportunities for the introduction of a number of internetbased services and track and trace for parcel, EMS items and rural banking and financial inclusion.
Postal environment, recently, changed dramatically. Economic deregulation and globalisation altered the postal landscape. The new technology driven society has brought a host of new ways to communicate and do business. The advent of internet, global system for mobile communication, social media, e-commerce and increased competition and higher customers’ expectations constituted great challenges to conventional postal operations.
To maintain its relevance, the Nigerian Postal Service should enlists support of government to have legal frameworks to remove encumbrances inhibiting its effective operations, particularly the passage of the Postal Reform Bill. It must also pursue the implementation of the National Addressing System that has remained in limbo for so long.
The NIPOST needs to adopt innovative technologies, be efficient, perform at reduced costs and invest on welfare of its workforce. It should train and re-training its staff and engage them in identifying improvement opportunities, new and innovative ways of delivering better services.
Lawal is Senior Assistant PostmasterGeneral Corporate Communications, NIPOST.