The Nigeria Postal Services (NIPOST) is set to create millions of employments for Nigerian youths through its digital Address Verification System (AVS).
Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi, Post-Master General/CEO Nigeria Postal Service stated this at the one-day NIPOST stakeholders’ conference held in Lagos on Friday.
He stated that through address verification agents’ NIPOST will create million of employments for Nigerian youths.
According to him, “we would use millions of Nigerian youths as our address verification agents to enable them to make money, all they have to do is to come with a simple smartphone with internet connection and go to a location, verify peoples address, they will take their details, they will take their live photograph which will be automatically uploaded into our database.
“Now the person who wants an address to be verified for him or her wants to use it for a purpose, either to access government services, to procure international passport or to procure driver’s license, is going to pay a thousand naira as address verification fee, out of that one thousand, we will pay the young man or the young woman who has been appointed as our agent two hundred naira.
“So which means if you can verify as many addresses as possible, you can make a lot of money”.
Adegbuyi added that NIPOST is committed in using its massive infrastructure that is spread around the nooks and cranny of the country to provide employment for the people, reduce poverty and create wealth.
He revealed that Digital Addressing System and Address Verification System of the NIPOST are in line with President Mohammadu Buhari’s job creation agenda for the Nigerian youths, adding that it is also aimed at drastically bringing down insecurity in the country.
He explained that they have been able to cover the whole country using open location code to divide Nigeria into three hundred and thirty three meters by three meters grid, with each grid having it own digital address consisting of the state, the local government and the district.
He noted that they leveraged on existing and evolving technologies to provide this state of the art address system.
Kolawole Aduloju, Assistant Secretary General, Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) speaking on the theme: “addressing critical challenges in the courier and e-commerce industry” commended NIPOST for taking the issue of addressing seriously.
He urged all stakeholders to not only buy into the project but also ensure full implementation system.
He called for synergies between national, regional and international stakeholders, stressing that it must conform to the S42 Standard which facilitates interoperability of name and address data that will enable address validation and provides guidelines for building and maintaining address infrastructures.
He noted that there is need for the postal sector to become more responsive, modernized, competitive, diversified, and responsive to the ever changing customer needs as well as build the necessary capacity for its employees to ensure not only the survival of the organization but to justify its relevance to the community they serve.
He stated also that our financial institution should provide robust payment platform, noting presently the country is more of a cash economy and that this carries with it, the quality and security challenges for the ecommerce sector.