Concern is mounting among courier and logistics operators that the federal government may have abandoned the National Postal Policy and Nigeria Postal Service Bill, a set of all important documents touted as transformative for the postal industry, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.
The policy and bill have been embroiled in web of confusion more than ten years after stakeholders began moves to rejig the industry.
Nigeria faces significant opportunity costs that arise from an inefficient postal sector including: loss of mails, poor public opinion of the postal industry, poor infrastructure and high operating costs, and operational inefficiency.
Courier operators in the country are also worried that Courier Regulatory Department (CRD), which is an arm of NIPOST, is still regulating the courier industry in the country, when the same NIPOST has a courier outfit called the NIPOST EMS.
Their fear is that CRD will not be fair in its regulatory duties since the NIPOST EMS is competing with them in the same courier business.
For this reason, operators are pushing for an independent regulatory body outside NIPOST, and CRD.
Mr. Siyanbola Oladapo, president, Association of Nigeria Courier Operators (ANCO), called on the National Assembly to commence debate on the Bill to stem the over N300 billion being lost annually by the government and the industry.
Oladapo who is also is the managing director of Bowill Errand Limited waxed worriedly at the exclusion of the industry players in the draft of the bill.
“The operators were not consulted when the principles of the Bill were penciled down. You cannot shave a man’s head in his absent. An industry of more than 200 operators deserves a right to be represented on the Board of the Commission when it is finally born. That is an aspect the present administration should look into.”
Nodding in agreement, Mr. Toyin Adeojo, the publicity secretary of ANCO suggested that both the initial Bill and the executive Bill should be harmonized to ensure the aims of the policies are achieved.
To him, “The operators need the backing of the Federal Government and the lobbyists as appointed to ensure that a single Bill that reflects the yawning of the operators and the industry at large is achieved”.