In Ezekwuabo village, Otolo Nnewi in Anambra State, Keziah Ilodiba, in the early 80s, became popular not because she is a politician or a teacher but because she runs a postal agency. Her dedication and high sense of duty displayed in her handling of postal transaction earned her the affection of everyone that had business to do with transfer of mails.
Apart from ensuring that mails posted through her agency gets to their destinations, she delivers received mails to her customers in their respective homes. Whenever she is seen entering any household, it is most likely that there is a mail to deliver to them. From the proceeds of? this business she led a good life. Her children looked well-fed and she gained weight and also looked fresh.
But the story is different now. From the mid-2000 till date, thepostal agency is often not open for services. When it is opened, the operator is either sleeping on a mat in the shop or fixes her gaze on some side-business chin-chin and buns which she has on display awaiting buyers.
Her postal agency customers are almost all gone, no thanks to the advent of new technologies that aid effective, seamless communication.
The erstwhile customers who relied solely on post offices to send letters or other forms of document can pass on the same information in matter of seconds through phone calls, SMS or e-ail. In that village, all the mobile phone networks are operational.
This might not be the exact situation in all postal agencies and? offices across Nigeria but the fact remains that revenue from posts is dwindling globally.
In the United States of America for instance? when the government decided to replace the Post Office Department with the U.S. Postal Service in 1971, it exchanged a taxpayer-dependent bureaucracy with a government-owned business that was supposed to rely on the sale of postage, mail products, and services for revenue. In order to subsist without taxpayer support and still meet its obligation to provide the American public with “universal service,” Congress granted the USPS a statutory monopoly on the delivery of first-class and standard (“junk”) mail. However, policy makers should end the monopoly and put the USPS on the path to privatization.
Private enterprise has already figured out a way around the monopoly: electronic communication. Email, online bill paying, and text? messaging have irrevocably decreased the demand for the USPS’s financial lifeblood – first-class mail. Indeed, the USPS projects that mail volume is in permanent decline, according to Forbes report.
“It doesn’t take a futurist to foresee what that means for government-run mail. One could argue that the future is now, given that the USPS is projected to lose as much as $10 billion this year and max out its $15 billion line of credit with the U.S. Treasury.
“The USPS has cut costs, but the savings haven’t been enough to overcome the plunge in revenues. It’s supposed to operate like a business, but it ultimately answers to politicians rather than shareholders. As a result, the USPS is hopelessly hamstrung by parochial-minded politicians who, for example, fight attempts to close postal facilities in their districts.”
Post master general (PMG) of the federation, Ibrahim Mori Baba at the World Post Day held last recently acknowledged that fierece competition from private operators, new technologies and their impact on product development and enhancement, market pressures and deregulation have dramatically transformed the communications marketplace.
“We have heard predictions that new technologies are bound to replace physical mail,” he said but added that new technologies are generating additional mail volumes for the postal sector. The future of the postal sector is bright because “if we follow through on the reforms enunciated in our proposals there is good reason to be optimistic about the future of postal service.” He said technology has changed the way they do things in NIPOST.
Baba said that NIPOST already has automated 40 post offices in the country. Nigerians can now access postal services provided across the counter using ICT Infrastructure. He said this has enhanced operations in terms of speed and efficiency and creates avenues for handling large volumes of mail with minimal loss.
“We have been able to automate more than 40 major post offices across the six geopolitical zones of the country while the process is ongoing until all post offices in the country are fully automated,” he said.
Automation involves using computer systems network through the internet for seamless rendition of counter duties and services.
The Postal service boss also noted that the major challenge encountered in the implementation of the automation programme is power as cost of power generating sets for the postal outlets is enormous.
The Universal Postal Union has set a standard for one post office for 6,000 inhabitants and this places another challenge on NIPOST to ensure that all communities in the country have access to postal services.
Baba therefore stated that the federal government is poised to ensuring complete inclusion of every community in the country in the postal network since over 237 local government areas out of the 774 LGAs in Nigeria do not have post offices as at today.
“We want to see within this period that they are provided with post offices and we are ready to collaborate with authorities of the local governments concerned as well as community leaders and non-governmental organizations so that the people in those localities are not excluded from government’s plan.”
NIPOST also plans to make the post office a one-stop-shop where everybody can go to and transact their businesses.
Considering the poverty level in the country and the fact that not every Nigerian can afford a laptop or desktop, NIPOST plans to provide all the facilities needed by the people to do all their in post office without stress. This will facilitate social inclusion.
Baba therefore maintained that the future of postal services is not bleak and that although new technologies are bound to replace physical mail but this has not occurred at the moment.
Area post manager for FCT, Aliyu Mahmud said technology has enhanced postal operations in the territory, although it has led to he loss of great number of individual mailers but there is increase in corporate transaction.
“We are utilizing ICT incursion to achieve our core objectives. What we lost from individual mailers we are gaining from a single transaction with big organizations.
“A customer might through an email transact a business to buy handset but will need NIPOST to deliver the product. The weight is heavier and the charges are higher. We are expanding our operations and that goes to show there is a bright future.”
Mahmud said there are 20,000 letter boxes in the territory and they are creating more because of increase in demand while noting their intention to diversify into other business areas like PostCash and Airpost express.
The PMG also stated that NIPOST is determined to provide affordable, reliable and efficient postal service nationwide and worldwide as well as ensure the delivery of mail within the following stipulated time: Intra-city – 24 hours ; Inter-city – 48 hours; Nationwide – 72 hours.
Plans he said are on hand to eliminate the incidence of mail theft, pilfering, tampering and all forms of fraudulent activities as a way of boosting customers’ confidence including that of other administrations.
NIPOST is therefore poised to “develop and pursue strategies aimed at achieving the financial requirements of the organisation. Continuous research and development of new services and products aimed not only at increasing our market share but also creating new markets for sustainable growth.
“Evolve mechanism for ensuring that our income is in excess of our expenditure and, therefore, avoiding unnecessary indebtedness to contractors, agents and other Postal administrations and increase employee commitment and performance by ensuring reward system based on merit. To pursue and ensure good corporate image via effective performance.”
He also called for the establishment of a commission that will oversee postal activities in Nigeria. This according to him is necessary considering that the act establishing the Nigerian Postal Service did not accord it full empowerment to address key issues in the sector.
“We need an independent postal commission because there is no way one can be playing conflicting role and think he can excel.”
“We are talking about being an operator and a regulator at the same time. You just have to be one, either a regulator or an operator. Also, the extant rule enshrined in our act is not enough to check activities in the industry.” Nigeria he said is not only losing revenue but also has not occupied a key position in the global scene because there is no postal commission in place.
The revenue loss is huge because courier companies evade tax .
“If you look at the courier companies that we have registered and what government is earning in terms of tax it is peanut. This is because of regulatory deficiency. We have registered over 250 courier companies operating local and foreign businesses,” he said.
Baba further hinted that a bill that would birth the new commission is currently at the National Assembly saying that in other countries such institutions exist and are operational.