Siyanbola Oladapo, managing director of  Bowill Errands Courier is a consummate professional with over years of experience spanning the courier, oil & gas, and the financial sectors. Oladapo, is also the secretary general, Association of Nigeria Courier Operators (Anco) has been in the vanguard for a robust courier sector capable of contributing to the country’s GDP. He spoke to peter ugwu on issues relating to the industry in Nigeria.

Threats to Courier operation
The threats are many. One, we are talking about non-professionals in the industry. The Courier Regulatory Department (CRD) headed by Dr. Simon Emeje has been trying his best to address that aspect.

 And that is why you see people operating using another person’s license; and the public is not even asking them to provide such evidence while giving out contracts.

Even some of the genuine ones lack the capacity to compete in the sector. Apart form that, we usually operate with courier bikes; most of the states hiding under the security threats in the country and the nuisance of the okada riders, have placed ban on motorcycles. That tells on our business seriously.

 For instance, in Lagos you have to meander through a lot of routes to deliver parcel. We have tried to discuss with the state government for them to appreciate the peculiarities of our business.

Multiple taxes are another challenge. We encounter harassments from Local Government officials. Thus, the weight of different taxes and levies we pay are forcing some companies out of business.

Although these officials are getting more enlightened in Lagos, but how about their counterparts in other parts of the country? And government has to look at the issue of inter-state taxes.

These things are hurting businesses. And FAAN has not been fare to us. Sometimes, they would want us to pay at every airport.

Also, the increased cost of petroleum products adds to the burdens. At the end of the day, the customers pay the costs.

Postal Service Commission Bill
I think members of the National Assembly need to understand the importance of this Bill to the nation.

If we have the bill come on stream, then we could be able to arrest the problems associated with employment, especially the unskilled young people.

The Bill will address the injustice done on the postal sector after the severance of the Post and telecommunications (P&T) by the government.

Because telecommunications is now under a commission; the growth as witnessed within the short period is so phenomenal and until we do the same thing for the post there will continue to be issues that affect the industry.

The Commission is very important in the sense that it will institute professionalism, and will position Nipost to occupy its rightful place.

 In fact, more investors will be attracted to the sector and checkmate haphazard practices and irregularities.

 For instance, in the telecom sector, no one can just rise up and do anything he wishes; is being manned by professional and the regulator is independent for now. The sector is not under all comers’ affairs arrangement.

So, if the postal aspect is messed up, the confidence will be eroded; there is no incentive.

People come to Nigeria because of the large market, however, we have to be independent to reap from such investment; the regulatory body should not remain under Nipost. If that is not done, we will go back to square one.

Bulkpost Centralization
We need to understand something; it was once decentralized and there were abuses.

So, when the new leadership came in they discovered the challenges and I think they meant well for the industry players.

Some of my colleagues might not want to believe the fact that centralizing it solved a lot of problem.

 Under the previous arrangement, the internal problems that faced the management affected the process.

 Decentralization would have been the best, but the present structure I think is part of monitoring procedure adopted in the system.

Even though they usually have more than they can bear, but it needs to increase the number of personnel.

 And they could partner with courier companies who have enough spaces, and staff to carry out their sorting.

We have engaged the Postmasters General on this and we found out that they are trying to sanitize some areas of the business.

Capitalization 
The fact is that, there are a lot of hypocrisies with the so called capitalization in the banking sector.

As a professional banker who spent more than 10 years in the industry, I can tell you that what they did then wasn’t the best.

The problem is not capitalization alone it has to do with the corporate governance, the ethics of the profession.

 It is not enough getting a fresher, who probably left school yesterday and because he has ‘little change’ you make him the managing director of a bank.

There was a lot of deficiency with the manpower.

Bring deposit today, you are promoted; he takes the money from there and go to another bank and within two year he becomes a manager, they know how to attract funds but lack the necessary skills to utilize them.

More so, fixed assets are not capitalization in the real sense, but they calculate the buildings used by those banks as part of the process.

Coming to courier industry, we don’t need capitalization as it were; rather we need the industry to be categorized.

For instance Wema Bank is now saying I want to be regional, the same thing can be implemented in the courier industry.

And that is why we are clamouring for upgrading of CRD to a full Commission, so that they will have enough manpower to monitor such development.

Capitalization, actually gives room for those with the intellectual milieu to manage the sector, but we must be careful with that as well.

Bowill Errands’ Annual Lecture 
The median edition started with the impact of the economic melt down on courier industry.

 The second edition looked at the synergizing the sector and the last edition focused on the challenges and opportunities in fright business.

The reason was based on the fact that most operators channel their attention to capital market and on the impact of ICT.

 This year the committee is trying to come up with a topic that will open the eyes of the industry players on the way forward. It has come to stay and a thing of pride for the industry.

Aviation Rows and courier Sector
It increases our cost of operation and when that happens, it is usually passed down to the customers.

They will start looking for other means to do their business.

 And the charges here are not comparable to what is obtainable in developed countries and that is why when government took them up, there were fears.

 But we must not fail to ponder on the charges of FAAN. What are the costs of aviation fuel in Nigeria?

So, no body can sincerely blame them.

 How about the cost of hotels that there crews will stay? And you have to buy diesel, and other exorbitant exigencies.

They have to charge much.

So, government must consider these things to determine whether they are ripping off on Nigerians really or they were seeking for a means of survival in a harsh economic environment.

Nitel/Mtel   
The lesson we must learn from the intrigues that surrounded the whole thing is sincerity which is important in governance.

 How sincere were the people involved in the commercialization, privatization and the liquidation processes?

Until Obama put his feet on the ground and said no, the Republican were pushing for America to sell her biggest auto company, but now it is about the leading auto companies. They bailed it out.

The process was transparent. So, the case of Nigeria is that when there is no sincerity of purpose whatever project we embark on is bound to fail.  

        
Bowill Errands
Bowill Errands is one of the best and well structured courier companies in Nigeria. From onset, it set out to function on the areas of haulage and logistics. We have been in operations for five years.

Although as the MD, I have been involved in courier sector for more than 12 years now. We are in our own building; I am not sure of any indigenous company operating its office in private property like this.

And we have been adding values to the sector since we started.

Bowill Errands has been organizing annual public lecture to highlight the challenges and opportunities in the sector; the very first indigenous courier firm to do that.

 We have been doing that for the last three years and for the benefit of the industry.

Overview of Courier Industry
Courier business in Nigeria is supposed to be a vibrant one. It’s an industry capable of providing employment for lots of people; both skilled and unskilled labour.

It has a very wide market, but we have not been able to tap into it.

Presently, we have over two hundred companies in the country and we can still accommodate more, but people must be professional in their dealings.