By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has disclosed plans to launch a set of policies to unbundle the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) which would see it not just as a regulator but as a competitor in logistics, courier and even financial services.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Pantami, on Tuesday, at the unveiling ceremony of the NIPOST N50 revenue stamp in Abuja.
Mr Pantami stated that the unbundling would transform its operations and make it innovative.
In his words, “We have so many policies of transforming NIPOST in the pipeline and part of it will unbundle NIPOST.
“We also have the Act of NIPOST going into an amendment.
“We have a plan with a property and development company, the firm will bring together all the properties of NIPOST, develop them and make sure that the government generates revenue from them.
“All generated revenue will go into developing sectors like health, education, agriculture, security and other social developments,” he said.
The Minister added that the NIPOST unbundling would see the restructuring of its NIPOST transport and logistics, courier services and microfinance bank.
Mr Pantami said he was hopeful of NIPOST becoming a world-class outfit and praised stakeholders for their unrelenting efforts in remodelling and recording modest achievements recently.
In his remarks, Mr Ismail Adewusi, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of NIPOST, said that over the years, Nigeria’s history had been documented through stamps.
“Through stamps, NIPOST has documented Nigeria’s history, educating and preserving our national heritage among others,” he explained.
“Stamps have served as objects of visual communication and dependable recorder of events for prosperity,” Mr Adewusi said.
He urged members of the public to use the new revenue stamps for the authentication and validation of documents and denotation of fees.
“We have about 25 million copies of the stamp unveiled today for sale at the rate of N50 each and it is available for sale in all our postal outfits nationwide,” Mr Adewusi added.
“We are hopeful it will be sold out in the next two weeks and then we commence reproduction,” he further said.
Modupe Gbadeyanka