The National Assembly Joint Committee on Communications on Monday held a public hearing on the reform of the Nigerian Postal Service and the introduction of National Emergency Number 122.
The joint committee had the presence of the President of the Senate, Senator, Ahmed Lawan and the chairman of the committees on Communications from both chambers, Sen Oluremi Tinubu and Hon Akeem Adeyemi.
The public hearing is to engage stakeholders in the sector on two bills namely: Nigeria Postal Service Act Cap N127 LFN 2004 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2021 (SB 657); and the Nationwide ToII-Free Emergency Number (Establishment, etc) Bill, 2021 (SB. 583).
In his remark, Lawan said the public hearing will be guided by the goal of nation-building, founded on patriotism and nationalism, overall to benefit the future generations.
He said the new focus will be on its ability to strengthen the regulatory capacity of the agency. Aside from enhancing stability, to meet the aspirations of our people. We need an efficient and effective Postal Service in Nigeria.
According to him the national toll-free emergency number is meant to be 122 and is equally very important to provide response.
He concluded that “For instance, you can use the outlet to freely seek assistance in case of emergency or for the prevention of your stresses”
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ibrahim Pantami said the number 122 was a better number to use following its launch and has infrastructure all over the country maintaining that the ministry is happy with the decision to reform the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and have a separate Commission and postal service.
According to him, having the Commission was a good development that would prevent the service from being a regulator, thus maker not to compromise the process and industry.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on communications said the Global Postal Industry and indeed, every facet of human life has continued to evolve, thus requiring the Nigerian Postal Industry to rise to the demands of existing realities.
“As a result, there is a need to ensure that legislation for the Sector is reflective of the times we are in.
“Consequently, this Bill proposes an expansion of the current objectives of NIPOST, to cover implementation of a National Postal Policy, encouraging local and foreign investment in the postal industry, protection of rights and interests of service providers in the sector, provision of postal services to areas and towns that were erstwhile, not sustainable, promoting small and medium enterprises in the sector, while engendering innovation, integration and inclusion in keeping up with current trends.
“The Bill also provides for the unbundling of NIPOST by splitting the roles of the Nigerian Postal Service also referred to as the Public Postal Operator (PPO), whose responsibility shall be the provision of Universal Postal Services in Nigeria; and the Nigerian Postal Commission (NPC), another corporate body which shall have the sole responsibility of regulating and supervising the Postal Sector.
“Beyond serving the interest of our anti-trust and competition laws, the clear delineation of roles, I believe, will make NIPOST more commercially viable, while ensuring more efficient service delivery.
“This Bill also makes provision for administration and planning of a National Postcode System, in line with global addressing standards, for efficient mail delivery, and seeks to establish a Universal Postal Service Fund (UPSF) to be applied for the deployment of subsidized Postal Services and infrastructure to the unserved and underserved areas.”
The Nationwide Toll-Free Emergency Number (Establishment) Bill (SB 583) was sponsored by Senator [bikunle Amosun, read for the second time in Senate on Wednesday 26″ of April 2021 and subsequently referred to the Committee.
The Bill provides, amongst others for the establishment of a Nationwide primary emergency telephone number for reporting emergencies to the relevant agencies of Government.
The Bill goes further to saddle the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) with the responsibility of supervising, managing and implementing this Bill and its provisions.
In her Submission, the National Communications Commission asked the lawmakers to establish a board that will drive the process.
For the Postmaster-General, Adebayo Ismail Adenusi, the whole exercise will boat the revenue profile of the Nigerian Postal service which has suffered dwindling revenue due to the impact of Information communications Technology.
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