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Courier Operators Lose N200m to Digitization of Annual Reports -Umo

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Dr. Mike Umo is the General Manager, Bulk-Post Venture, the bulk mail handling component of the Nigerian Postal Service (Nipost). Before joining in 1987 as a postal controller11, he had a stint with the Bank of India.

Umo, in his 26 years of stewardship at Nipost has worked as district postal manager, Murtala Mohammed International Airpport, Ikeja and FESTAC Lagos, respectively; First product manager, Lagos Mainland; Area Manager in Nipost Territorial Headquarters in Edo, Enugu, Delta and Lagos State.

He was appointed general manager Bulk-Post Venture in October, 2010 to carry out reforms that would entrench seamless processes in the then traumatized system. He spoke to peter ugwu on his transformation effort

Place of Bulk-Post in The Postal Sector
The bulk-post is key to restoring courier operations in Nigeria; in that we are more or less number one point of call in the distribution chain.
For instance, we determine the tariffs that guide operators in the industry. It implies that when Courier Operators go out to negotiate business with customers, like the Capital Market Registrars, it is our tariff they use; anything in short of that they will be running at a risk.
Risk in the sense that when they bring the jobs to us, definitely we will not deviate and it is our tariff we are going to use in giving them their share-percentage.
The arrangement is that when Courier Operators get jobs from the Registrars, they will bring the job to us and the standard is that any job that passes through us we give them 40 per cent of the total benefit and we take 60 per cent. So, when they get a job and under value it, the blame will not be shifted to us.
This arrangement is not to say that we do not get jobs directly from the Registrars. What apparently determines the tariff is the weight; we weigh every job that comes in here.
We advise them not to play smart and then shoot themselves in the leg.
For instance, if two companies are pursuing a particular job and one of them tries to outsmart the other by cutting cost, they may end up not having the resources (fund) to bear the delivery costs. So, it is a sure way to ensure uniform tariff and curtail illegality.
 Meanwhile, there are still few of them that cut corners; that is by taking jobs somewhere else, but if they pass through the Venture, such customers are guaranteed of maximum service.
Except for the few jobs they deliver on door-to-door process; that are not bulky, every other job is expected to pass through us.

Why Should They Pass Through the Bulk-Post VENTURE?
The principal reason is that most of them do not have all it takes to process the jobs and deliver them to the last mile. 
We have the facilities and the spread throughout the country. That is the truth, but they will not want to hear that. For instance, you will find out that most courier operators do not have the facilities to move the mails from Lagos to other parts of the country like South-East or the Northern part of the Country.
So, when they collect the jobs we process and pay them their percentage. And I inherited the recent tariff regime, so anybody who would complain of that should know that Nigeria as at today implements the least tariff; the essence is that the industry is still evolving and we want the players to survive with more customers accepting to do business with us in the industry.

Uniform Tariff
Uniform tariff for the industry is the best because it helps to checkmate activities of the Registrars and curb excesses of courier operators and enable a level playing field for everybody. It is also a sure way to check sharp practices.
The activity of handling bulk transaction is that of Bulk Post Venture. In the past, Post Offices had the prerogative to manage all that, because of their spread. But the management of Nipost saw it as becoming a rat race sort of, that culminated into the establishment of the Bulk Post Venture in the year 2000.
So the emergence of Bulk Post has brought sanity and standardization in the courier companies’ interface with the customers. At the time we came in, we saw there was need to centralize. The process of centralization gave birth to the sharing ratio of 30:70.
After that, the Association of Nigerian Courier Operators (ANCO) started pressurizing that we need to review the ratio; in fact, they were even asking for 50:50, we said no, but when the pressure become unbearable, I craved the indulgence of the Post Master General and following series of meetings, we agreed on 40:60. They just direct the job to us; we do the bulk of activities involved.

Assessment of the Mailing Industry In Nigeria
Looking at the industry comparatively, there are various problems that we are facing. We need to tackle them before comparing operations here with what happens elsewhere in the world. In terms of facilities we are not there yet.
What is worrisome is that the mail volume is shrinking by the day. And the causes are not far-fetched.
For instance, a bank that has over one million shareholders it is expected that when the annual general meeting is coming up such bank would print the annual report to the corresponding number of shareholders.
That is not happening presently. Some banks in connivance with some Registrars come out with just half of the reports. Because of that, a lot of courier companies are chasing few jobs in the field. And more courier companies are coming up.
How does that affect the industry and the society at large? When a company is struggling to remain in business, will it employ more people? Apart from that, the industry is in absolute need of a principal regulator, because by standard, Courier operators are not supposed to be treating the kind of mails that Bulk-post handles.
They are supposed to focus on door to door delivery service, pick up service, logistics, etc. However, in the present industry anything goes. I would not say that the Courier Regulatory Department (CRD) is not apt in their operations, at the same time a Regulator with Statutory backing will do more.
It will have more logistics at its disposal and spread that reaches out to even the nooks and crannies of the country. Items below 500grams do not fall under the purview of other operators. But we have allowed them to continue so that businesses will thrive.

Innovations Implemented By Bulk-Post
Well, on the part of reform we started by centralizing the Venture. When I came in, we had eight (8) centres, but for proper monitoring and accountability we had to streamline the process. We merged the different locations and brought them down to headquarters annex at Lafiaji.
The procedure was widely lauded; most people were happy about it, but we do not expect that all would embrace it. In any sector where there is a bit of disorganization, definitely some people will benefit from it.
Our target was to attain an internationally acclaimed position in organization of the bulk mailing business.
Through the processes we were able to win-back our integrity; at a time people were going out, struggling to get job and have them delivered without competency.
On the part of the courier, most of them have seen that standardization was not for us alone, but they stand to benefit over time.

Automation of Bulk Post Operating Procedures
There had been attempts to do that, but logistics challenges could not allow us to perfect the system.
Recently, we received note from the head of ICT of Nipost that some people shall be drafted from the department to work with us in the bulk post for the purpose of perfecting our automation process.
ICT is a big plus to what we are doing, because if this place is automated it will help achieve our core values anchored on transparency and accountability.
If the transactions are automated, accountability will be 100% achievable. Automation will enable us to track movement of items in and out the post. Therefore, cases of human error or sharp practices shall be eliminated.

Challenges
Apart from the challenge of scarce resources which is common to companies in different sectors of the economy, we at Bulk Post have a peculiar challenge which is a fall out of the recent development in banks and companies producing compact discs (CDs) to replace printed copies of annual report.
That is our major challenge. A lot of them are shunning production of hardcopies. A copy of printed annual report values at N180:00; when you have 100,000 of them, you know what it translates to, monetarily. It is really affecting our revenue generation.
So, when that report is produced in CDs we get nothing more than N60 and remember most of the jobs come to us through the courier companies, invariably, we have to share whatever profit made after delivery at 40:60 ratio. As it stands now, it will be difficult for us to meet our revenue target.

Revenue Loss
Conservatively, between last year and now that companies digitalize annual reports, we have lost nothing less than N200 million.
The only way to change the trend is for the shareholders or stakeholders in those banks and companies to request that their reports be published in hardcopies. It is true that every company would like to cut costs, but in a situation whereby the reports are published in a CD, will somebody be able to sit down for two to three hours to study that? That is a key burning question. The differences between the two media-soft and hard copies are obvious. If you pick up a book to read when you are tired you mark where you stopped, go wherever you want to and come back to continue, but CD is not like that.
Secondly, you can tender hard copy report as evidence in the law court due to its creditability. Thirdly, how many of the shareholders are computer literate?
Last year only about 12 companies used CDs; and these are companies that generate volumes of reports.
This year more of them will join the trend because everybody is thinking on cutting costs, but does that add value to the shareholders is the question left unanswered.
It is left for the shareholders to complain to the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission as they are the people that are affected more.

Bulk-Post in Postal Regulator Era
The existence of the ‘Commission’ will rather help Bulk-Post fulfil its functions. We are going to complement each other
The Commission is not going to impact negatively on us. While we are awaiting the establishment of the Commission, Nipost will still continue to play double roles which ought not to be.
Then, with the advent of such a Commission, every other venture will restrict its operations to its primary responsibility. And I am sure we will do it better; there will be no divided attention any more.


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EAIF Commits Additional US$30M to Support Indorama’s Expansion with Third Urea Plant in Nigeria

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The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company, has committed a US$30 million senior debt facility to Indorama, a leading producer and exporter of fertiliser.

The investment enables the construction of a new plant, port terminal, handling stations, and storage facilities in Nigeria, providing a major boost for the country’s agricultural sector, which is a crucial driver of the country and region’s economic growth.

EAIF acted as a co-lender within a broader debt financing package arranged by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), mobilising US$1.25 billion from a syndicate of impact investors, development finance solutions, and commercial banks.

EAIF’s investment increases the Fund’s lending to the company to $111 million, reflecting a joint-ambition to accelerate Indorama’s growth strategy and Nigeria’s aspirations for diversification and industrialisation.

The new funding unlocks fresh capital to enable the construction of a dedicated port terminal and state-of-the-art urea fertiliser plant, anticipating an increase in its current capacity from 2.8 million metric tons to 4.2 million metric tons per annum.

The expansion leverages the company’s strategic location as a freight-competitive supplier serving the needs of significant urea markets in the southern Atlantic, including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, as well as West Africa, South Africa and the USA.

The facility bolsters Indorama’s capacity, extending its complex beyond the current two urea fertiliser plants, which is well poised to meet the entire demand of the Nigerian market.

The third urea plant aims to maximise output to meet the food demands of growing populations as disruptions precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis affect food security around the globe.

Global crop production is reliant on the international supply of fertiliser. The landmark project is expected to position Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, as a leading producer of urea among the top 10 producers worldwide.

Contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 9 on Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, EAIF’s loan forms part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) objective for new infrastructure to drive action on climate and nature.

The construction of the port terminal and third plant is set to begin in 2024, with commercial operations expected to commence in 2026. During the construction phase, it is estimated that over 500 jobs will be generated, further contributing to economic development in Nigeria and beyond.

Commenting on the transaction, Olivia Carballo, Managing Director, Emerging Market, Fixed Income at Ninety One, the fund manager of the EAIF, said: “Our continued support for Indorama demonstrates EAIF’s commitment to harnessing the region’s significant economic prospects.

Africa’s potential for industrialisation is tremendous, and this landmark project is a testament to Nigeria’s enhanced ability to produce and export competitively priced, high-quality fertiliser to farmers in regional and international markets, which will remain a priority for years to come.”

Munish Jindal, CEO, Indorama, said: “Indorama will utilise state-of-the-art technology and adhere to stringent environmental standards to ensure optimal efficiency, product quality and sustainability.

We believe that the establishment of this fertiliser will position Nigeria as a key player in the global agricultural market. We are committed to maximising the potential of this project to benefit farmers, communities, and stakeholders across the value chain.

The involvement of esteemed lenders like the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund will not only help Nigeria’s in becoming one of the largest exporter of the fertilisers in the region but will also address the issues of global food security. We extend our sincere appreciation to all our partners, lenders, and stakeholders for their unwavering support and dedication to our shared vision.”

Sérgio Pimenta, IFC Vice President for Africa, said: “Reliable access to high quality fertiliser is essential for food production and food security around the world. IFC’s investment in Indorama, along with African, Asian, European, and American partners, signals our joint commitment to support the agriculture sector, Nigeria’s economy, and the expansion of Indorama, an important supplier in the global food chain.”


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Lifi.net Achieves 500mbps Speed to Rank among Fastest Internet Providers in Nigeria

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Lifi.net, a fast-growing internet service provider, has attained internet speed that is many times faster than the documented average internet speed in Nigeria as at January 2024.

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Latest disclosure by LIfi.net shows that the company now delivers up to 500 megabits per seconds (mbps) internet speed in unlimited services provided to homes and offices. This is higher than the country’s average internet speed of 26.74mbps.

As internet subscriber base increases in Nigeria and hit 161.68 million in January, the quality of internet service provided by operators to their users still constitutes concerns as 2G network which has limited speed dominates the space by covering 57.78%.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed through its latest data that while 3G is responsible for 9.36% of internet users in the country, 4G covers 31.75% of internet access and 5G internet only serves 1.11% of internet users in the country.

This combination explains why Nigeria ranked 93rd on the global mobile internet speed test out of 144 countries tested by Ookla, a U.S-based internet speed analysis firm, in January, putting the country’s median internet speed at 26.74 megabits per second (mbps).

However, Lifi.net (NT/007/22), a licensee of NCC, is among few Internet service providers (ISPs) that deliver fastest internet speed in Nigeria with up 350mbps for homes and 2500mbps for offices while assisting new ISPs with speeds over 5000mbps at the data centre and delivering the capacity to their various hubs at no extra cost.

“For over five years Lifi.net has been a leading network company, providing quality internet solutions at the speed of light and at affordable rates. We have highly technical and hard-working personnel and partners. We are very skilled at managing Cisco and Mikrotik Routers’ deployment, configurations, and integrations, fibre laying, and splicing,” says Abraham Oluwambe, Chief Operating Officer of Lifi.net.

He added that as operators attract more subscribers to their respective networks, they should equally place a premium on upgrading the quality of services to deliver broadband at the fastest internet speed possible.

“Our services are not only widespread but also affordable. We believe in making quality connectivity accessible to all. We understand the importance of budget-friendly solutions. Our cost-effective broadband plans ensure you get the best value for your investment without compromising on quality.

“While providing high-speed and reliable broadband connectivity, operators may choose the floor or the peak performance of its service. At Lifi.net, we always go for the latter,” he said.


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Our 2023 Ads Safety Report

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By Duncan Lennox, VP & GM of Ads Privacy and Safety

Billions of people around the world rely on Google products to provide relevant and trustworthy information, including ads. That’s why we have thousands of people working around the clock to safeguard the digital advertising ecosystem. Today, we are releasing our annual Ads Safety Report to share the progress we’ve made in enforcing our advertiser and publisher policies and to hold ourselves accountable in our work of maintaining a healthy ad-supported internet.

The key trend in 2023 was the impact of generative AI. This new technology introduced significant and exciting changes to the digital advertising industry, from performance optimization to image editing. Of course, generative AI also presents new challenges. We take these challenges seriously and will outline the work we are doing to address them head-on.

Just as importantly, generative AI presents a unique opportunity to improve our enforcement efforts significantly. Our teams are embracing this transformative technology, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), so that we can better keep people safe online.

Gen AI Bolsters Enforcement 

Our safety teams have long used AI-driven machine learning systems to enforce our policies at scale. It’s how, for years, we’ve been able to detect and block billions of bad ads before a person ever sees them. But, while still highly sophisticated, these machine learning models have historically needed to be trained extensively – they often rely on hundreds of thousands, if not millions of examples of violative content.

LLMs, on the other hand, are able to rapidly review and interpret content at a high volume, while also capturing important nuances within that content. These advanced reasoning capabilities have already resulted in larger-scale and more precise enforcement decisions on some of our more complex policies. Take, for example, our policy against Unreliable Financial Claims which includes ads promoting get-rich-quick schemes. The bad actors behind these types of ads have grown more sophisticated. They  adjust their tactics and tailor ads around new financial services or products, such as investment advice or digital currencies, to scam users.

To be sure, traditional machine learning models are trained to detect these policy violations. Yet, the fast-paced and ever-changing nature of financial trends make it, at times, harder to differentiate between legitimate and fake services and quickly scale our automated enforcement systems to combat scams. LLMs are more capable of quickly recognizing new trends in financial services, identifying the patterns of bad actors who are abusing those trends and distinguishing a legitimate business from a get-rich-quick scam. This has helped our teams become even more nimble in confronting emerging threats of all kinds.

We’ve only just begun to leverage the power of LLMs for ads safety. Gemini, launched publicly last year, is Google’s most capable AI modeI. We’re excited to have started bringing its sophisticated reasoning capabilities into our ads safety and enforcement efforts.

Our Work to Prevent Fraud and Scams

In 2023, scams and fraud across all online platforms were on the rise. Bad actors are constantly evolving their tactics to manipulate digital advertising in order to scam people and legitimate businesses alike. To counter these ever-shifting threats, we quickly updated policies, deployed rapid-response enforcement teams and sharpened our detection techniques.

  • In November, we launched our Limited Ads Serving policy, which is designed to protect users by limiting the reach of advertisers with whom we are less familiar. Under this policy, we’ve implemented a “get-to-know-you” period for advertisers who don’t yet have an established track record of good behavior, during which impressions for their ads might be limited in certain circumstances–for example, when there is an unclear relationship between the advertiser and a brand they are referencing. Ultimately, Limited Ads Serving, which is still in its early stages, will help ensure well-intentioned advertisers are able to build up trust with users, while limiting the reach of bad actors and reducing the risk of scams and misleading ads.

  • A critical part of protecting people from online harm hinges on our ability to respond to new abuse trends quickly. Toward the end of 2023 and into 2024, we faced a targeted campaign of ads featuring the likeness of public figures to scam users, often through the use of deepfakes. When we detected this threat, we created a dedicated team to respond immediately. We pinpointed patterns in the bad actors’ behavior, trained our automated enforcement models to detect similar ads and began removing them at scale. We also updated our misrepresentation policy to better enable us to rapidly suspend the accounts of bad actors.

Overall, we blocked or removed 206.5 million advertisements for violating our misrepresentation policy, which includes many scam tactics and 273.4 million advertisements for violating our financial services policy. We also blocked or removed over 1 billion advertisements for violating our policy against abusing the ad network, which includes promoting malware.

The fight against scam ads is an ongoing effort, as we see bad actors operating with more sophistication, at a greater scale, using new tactics such as deepfakes to deceive people. We’ll continue to dedicate extensive resources, making significant investments in detection technology and partnering with organizations like the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and Stop Scams UK to facilitate information sharing and protect consumers worldwide.

Investing in Election Integrity

Political ads are an important part of democratic elections. Candidates and parties use ads to raise awareness, share information and engage potential voters. In a year with several major elections around the world, we want to make sure voters continue to trust the election ads they may see on our platforms. That’s why we have long-standing identity verification and transparency requirements for election advertisers, as well as restrictions on how these advertisers can target their election ads. All election ads must also include a “paid for by” disclosure and are compiled in our publicly available transparency report. In 2023, we verified more than 5,000 new election advertisers and removed more than 7.3M election ads that came from advertisers who did not complete verification.

Last year, we were the first tech company to launch a new disclosure requirement for election ads containing synthetic content. As more advertisers leverage the power and opportunity of AI, we want to make sure we continue to provide people with the greater transparency and the information they need to make informed decisions.

Additionally, we’ve continued to enforce our policies against ads that promote demonstrably false election claims that could undermine trust or participation in democratic processes.

Overall 2023 Numbers

Our goal is to catch bad ads and suspend fraudulent accounts before they make it onto our platforms or remove them immediately once detected. AI is improving our enforcement on all these fronts. In 2023, we blocked or removed over 5.5 billion ads, slightly up from the prior year, and 12.7 million advertiser accounts, nearly double from the previous year. Similarly, we work to protect advertisers and people by removing our ads from publisher pages and sites that violate our policies, such as sexually explicit content or dangerous products. In 2023, we blocked or restricted ads from serving on more than 2.1 billion publisher pages, up slightly from 2022. We are also getting better at tackling pervasive or egregious violations. We took broader site-level enforcement action on more than 395,000 publisher sites, up markedly from 2022.

To put the impact of AI on this work into perspective: last year more than 90% of our publisher page level enforcement started with the use of machine learning models, including our latest LLMs. Of course, any advertiser or publisher can still appeal an enforcement action if they think we got it wrong. Our teams will review it and, in the cases where we find errors, use it to improve our systems.

Staying Nimble and Looking Ahead

When it comes to ads safety, a lot can change over the course of a year: the introduction of new technology such as generative AI to novel abuse trends and global conflicts. And the digital advertising space has to be nimble and ready to react. That’s why we are continuously developing new policies, strengthening our enforcement systems, deepening cross-industry collaboration and offering more control to people, publishers and advertisers.

In 2023, for example, we launched the Ads Transparency Center, a searchable hub of all ads from verified advertisers, which helps people quickly and easily learn more about the ads they see on Search, YouTube and Display. We also updated our suitability controls to make it simpler and quicker for advertisers to exclude topics that they wish to avoid across YouTube and Display inventory. Overall, we made 31 updates to our Ads and Publisher policies.

Though we don’t yet know what the rest of 2024 has in store for us, we are confident that our investments in policy, detection and enforcement will prepare us for any challenges ahead.


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