The bill which seeks to establish Nigerian Postal Commission (NPC) with a view to encouraging local and foreign investments in the Nigerian postal service industry, passed through Second Reading on the floor of the House of Representatives, on Thursday.
The lawmakers expressed the support sequel to the passage of the bill sponsored by Hon. Akeem Adeyemi observed that the postal service is very vital the world over, and instrumental to carrying out government, economic and social activities in urban centres and rural communities.
According to him, the bill which has 73 Sections and 3 Schedules, seeks to “establish a regulatory framework for the Nigerian postal industry and for this purpose, to create an effective, impartial and independent regulatory authority; promote the provision of a modern universal, efficient, reliable, affordable and easily accessible postal service with the widest range and coverage throughout Nigeria and encourage local and foreign investments in the Nigerian postal industry and the introduction of innovative services and practices, in accordance with international best practices and trends.
In his lead debate, Hon. Adeyemi said: At the time of independence in 1960, 176 Post Offices, 10 sub Post offices and 1,000 Postal agencies were spread across the country. Nigeria currently has 955 postal offices and over 3000 postal agencies across the country, a far outcry of the United Nations’ Universal Postal Union (UPU) recommended 1 postal office to an average of 3000 to 6000 people. This means that Nigeria is expected to have about 35,000 postal offices with a population of over 200 million people. The NIPOST has currently structured has less than 3per cent of the UPU’s recommended number of postal offices per person. That is a very disturbing difference.
“Coincidentally, Nigeria will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of her membership of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which she joined on the 10th of July, 1961. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) as a specialized United Nations agency is aimed to organize and improve postal service throughout the world and to ensure international collaboration thereof.
“According to the 2020 Postal Development report of the UPU, Nigeria ranked the 64th, behind 3 other African countries, out of 192 member countries in the world. The report indicated that Ghana retained the top regional spot at 57th position because of her postal reliability index.
“This bill when passed into law will see an improved Postal Development for Nigeria focusing on four major components of reliability, reach, relevance and resilience.”
According to him, the objectives of the Bill include: implementation of the National Postal Policy as may, from time to time, be modified or amended; ensure fair competition in all sectors of the Nigerian postal industry and encourage the participation of Nigerians in the ownership, control and management of postal organizations; protect the rights and interests of service providers and consumers within Nigeria; and ensure efficient management, planning, coordination, allocation, assignment, registration, monitoring and use of national resources in the postal sub-sector while promoting and safeguarding national interest, safety and security.
He added that the bill which will be designated as Public Postal Operator with the responsibility of providing Universal Postal Services in Nigeria, further seeks to confer power on the Public Postal Operator to denotation, authentication and validation upon receipts, documents or other instruments shall be made with adhesive or electronic postage stamp; authenticate documents and internet mail-related transaction receipts and documents; issue and pay domestic and international postal and money orders; verify, authenticate and validate addresses nationwide; provide and establish non-postal or similar services; and issue, prescribe and approve stamp for denotation, authentication and validation of receipts, documents and other instruments required to be denoted.
The bill also provides for the establishment of the Nigerian Postal Commission with the sole responsibility to regulate and supervise the postal sector which includes Postal Services, Cargo and Logistics, E-Commerce Services and Courier/Express Services.
While calling for the support for the passage of the bill, he expressed optimism that the bill will signal a holistic approach to addressing the challenges and development of the postal sector, as well as “deepen financial inclusiveness, as it will further strengthen NIPOST’s capacity to carry out basic financial services, including but not limited to money transfer, travellers’ cheques, savings, operation of giro account, bank deposits and withdrawals either directly or on agency basis across its outlets nationwide.
“This bill draws experiences from world top postal services such as the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and Japan Postal Services, whose services did not just deepen inclusiveness but also contribute greatly to the nations’ GDPs. Of particular reference is the pivotal role played by the U.S Postal Service (USPS) in the delivering of over 122 million ballots a week prior to the 2020 US Presidential election.” Hon Adeyemi said.
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