Federal Executive Council Approves Postal Reform Bill
Federal Executive Council Approves Postal Reform Bill
Plans to reform the Nigerian postal sector and restructure the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) received a boost with the recent approval of the Nigeria Postal Commission Bill 2014 by the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The Bill will be forwarded to the Legislature to be passed into law. The Postal sector in Nigeria has grown over time with more than 1,200 post offices owned by government, close to 2,000 postal agency outfits managed by individuals, and over 290 registered private courier companies. However statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show that whilst year-on-year growth is increasing, the contribution of the Post and Courier Services sector to GDP (at 0.03%) is still low. The Nigeria Postal Commission Bill 2014 is designed to reform and reposition the postal sector in line with global trends and international best practices.
It promotes a postal sector that is efficient, cost effective, better funded and capable of delivering service that meets universal obligations embedded in National policies and programmes such as the Transformation Agenda and Vision 20:2020. The postal sector is managed by NIPOST, therefore the growth of the sector is intrinsically tied to the reform of NIPOST. The process of reforming NIPOST began in the early 2000s, the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), through the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), started with objectives that included: Establishing a low cost universal postal service that provides a solid communication medium and link nation-wide, providing a safe and efficient postal service that is sustainable and keeps pace with development in the rest of the world, introducing private sector participation and the development of the postal service into a commercially viable enterprise and creating a convenient means of savings mobilisation and payment and/or funds transfer system for the entire country through the postal network.
However, whilst the conceptual framework for reform was developed, the process of its ownership and actualisation has suffered significant delays and action, and on some aspects has stalled. For example it may be recalled that a number of (private members) Bills to amend the Nigerian Postal Service Act, 1992 have been considered by the legislative arm of Government but none passed into law. Since 2011 and the start of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration, the focus of reform has been to promote NIPOST as a “necessary tool for the promotion of social, financial and digital inclusion”. The Administration has sought to restructure NIPOST along business lines through the establishment of a new management style that focuses on operational excellence, quality improvement, customer focus, result-oriented management, and cost control. In a bid to empower NIPOST to respond more effectively in a very competitive environment, the deployment of massive ICT infrastructural system with focus on carrying out ICTbased services, including on-line and automated services in post offices is being implemented (in stages). The anticipated result will be improvement in the quality of service and process efficiency, and through that the regaining of public confidence in service delivery.
0 comments: