E-commerce, full digitalisation key to postal service today —Postmaster General

THE postaster General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Dr. Ismail Adebayo Adewusi, has stated that for the postal service to remain relevant in today’s  world, full digitalisation of operations and utilisation of e-commerce must be seen as a priority by all members of staff and stakeholders.

He stated that NIPOST has made significant efforts to shore up its relevance by introducing a number of products and services into the economic template of Nigeria and has made notable advancement in leveraging on Information Communication Technology (ICT) by making it the driving force for its operations.

Dr Adewusi who made this known on Monday at the opening ceremony of the board and management retreat of NIPOST at Ilaji Resort in Ibadan explained that full digitalisation of NIPOST operations is key to the quality of services, adding that globalisation and the development of e-commerce have greatly transformed the postal sector.

According to him, e-commerce is dynamic and rapidly changing the postal sector and there has been sharp growth both in domestic and international small packets, urging that stakeholders critically look into this area, especially  mail handlers, who he admonished to begin to see e-commerce as a priority and treat items with all seriousness.

He stated that aside enhancing the organisation’s operations and automating its systems, it would check leakages of revenue, adding that “I am glad to announce that the process of full automation of all our post offices is progressing speedily. Globally, postal administrations, including NIPOST, offer logistic services. It is a solution for customers requiring better merchandise delivery service within the countries and outside, using physical postal service infrastructure and resources.

“NIPOST’s involvement in the provision of financial services to advance financial inclusion in the marginalised areas, have yielded significant results in the area of integrating rural dwellers in financial inclusion programmes of the Federal Government such as the National Cash Transfer. With the rapid changes and development in the ecosystem where we are operating, coupled with recent devasting effects of the COVID -19 pandemic, it became more compelling for us to converge and assess our operations and the resultant challenges.

“However, let us, at this juncture, remind ourselves that the effective implementation of these strategies would, to a large extent, require the dedication and commitment of all of us. There are deliberate efforts to resume full training of our workforce to improve our capacity building. We intend to put efforts into rehabilitating our Training Institute this year,” he said.

Dr Adewusi stated further that to drive the implementation of the Finance Act 2020 in the area of Stamp authentication, the Department of Stamp Authentication Compliance was created, expressing hope that all all stakeholders will work tirelessly in various jurisdictions, to ensure that revenue from the area is well harnessed for the betterment of the organisation and the country in general.

He reiterated that to ensure success of it’s innovative products, prompt evacuation of all inbound and outbound mails at our International Mail Processing Centre at Ikeja, increase in frequency of mail movement and provision of new generating set at IMPC to ensure uninterrupted mail operation have been ensured.

Also speaking, the chairman of NIPOST Governing Board, Barrister Maimuna Yaya Abubakar emphasised that the

ost crucial but often ignored factor is that of employee welfare and motivation, adding that employees are not the most valuable asset but only motivated employees are.

“We need no seer to prophesy to us to the effect that the future of NIPOST depends on the amount of creativity our employees bring to the table on daily basis: for without innovation NIPOST cannot compete and if we cannot compete in the 21st Century then NIPOST’s place in the dust bin of history is most assured,” she stated.

On his part, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Communicatios and Digital Economy, Engr Festus Daudu, who also represented the Minister of Communications, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantanmi, while declaring the retreat open emphasised the need for staff training and welfare, adding that NIPOST needs to work towards financial independence and improve on its revenue drive.

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