WACREN holds its next conference in Lome Togo in 2018

The Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, has lamented that the postal sector is caught in a vicious cycle of poor performances, causing a lack of investment, thereby preventing either improvements in the quality of service or expansion, which  generates lower usage of the sector.

Speaking at the Occasion of The EMS Operational Performance and Quality Improvement Workshop in Lagos, last week, the Minister said that the postal services in Sub-Saharan Africa is less than ideal. “As a matter of fact, we must realise that the postal sector,especially on the continent, is at a critical juncture and reliable measures must be put in place.

“The dynamism in contemporary postal business environment calls for collaborations between operators to be able to deliver on their mandates of satisfying the aspirations of stakeholders. Since 1986, “EMS  Nigeria has operated as the courier and business arm of the Nigeria Postal Service, with the responsibility for effective and efficient collection, conveyance, and delivery of time sensitive correspondence, documents or merchandise both locally and internationally,” he said.

Speaking also, the Postmaster General of Nigeria, Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi stated that many postal administrations in the country had been bedeviled by bureaucratic bottlenecks and limited capacities for experimenting with trending as well as thriving business models that have stood the test of time in other climes.

He, however, revealed that the gauntlet has been taken up to build a brand that is reliable and respectable, a modern organisation that can be trusted, adding that, “We have made tremendous improvements in Quality of service, which has translated into increase in traffic and revenue profile.”

“In realisation of the fact that delivery of mail is the main last mile function of the post worldwide, we have commenced holistic reviews of our mail route networks and strengthening of the Enquiry/Track and Trace systems.

“We are also leveraging on the exponential growth in e-commerce which offers plethora of opportunities for greater business collaboration with medium and small scale entrepreneurs as this would go a long way in improving NIPOST revenue base, creating jobs for the unemployed and ultimately stimulating the nation’s economy,” he said.

The Secretary General, Pan African Postal Union (PAPU), Mr Younouns Djibrine stated that there is the need for the postal sector to become more modernised, competitive, diversified, and responsive to customers’ needs and build the necessary capacity for its employees.

He said: “As we are at the beginning of the cycle, we need to seriously reflect on our successes and challenges during the period 2013-2016, in order to effectively plan for the current cycle (2017-2020). This workshop is being held at the right moment and it is a step in the right  direction.”