The Postmaster-General of the Federation, Ms Tola Odeyemi, has blamed poor road infrastructure for the Nigeria Postal Service’s (NIPOST) inability to meet some of its timelines for parcel delivery according to Nigeria.
The Postmaster-General stated this while appearing on an Arise TV interview program at the weekend. According to her, NIPOST also faces financial constraints, which affects its deliveries.
On its website, NIPOST claims that intra-city deliveries are done in 24 hours, inter-cities within 48 hours, and nationwide deliveries within 72 hours. However, when asked if the Service has been able to meet all these timelines, the Postmaster-General said,
“I will be honest, we’re not meeting some of those deliveries. I think maybe we’re probably meeting the intra-city delivery targets. In terms of inter-state targets, because of road networks, sometimes financial constraints, and the availability of infrastructure, we are not able to meet some of those targets.”
Timelines review
Odeyemi hinted that the Service may review its delivery timelines to reflect the realities of the current situation.
“We’ve also been doing a lot of data collection to look at our timelines and to see maybe if we need to review some of them, particularly for non-priority items because we have a social obligation,” she said.
She, however, noted that NIPOST uses airlines for priority parcels to meet up with its timeline. According to her, instead of taking them through roads, priority items are moved by air to the nearest airport and then moved by road if it’s not going to the city where the airport is located.
NIPOST not competing with courier companies
Emphasizing that NIPOST, though playing in the courier space as a regulator, is not competing with the operators, Odeyemi said NIPOST through its courier and logistics regulations has opened up the space and issued licenses to international, national and MSME courier companies to operate in Nigeria.
“NIPOST is not a competitor to any of the courier companies that exist in Nigeria because we open up the space to these companies. What we want to be is the last mile delivery so it will interest you to know that a lot of courier companies, because they don’t have the Universal Service Obligation that NIPOST has, they don’t have the network across the country that NIPOST has, we still help a lot of them do their last-mile delivery.
“Also, what we also help a lot of courier companies do is process their outbounds and inbounds. So for courier companies that need to move things outside the country, our international mail processing centre is where a lot of them use to export things out of Nigeria as well as process mail.
“Even international e-commerce companies process mail for onward delivery into Nigeria. So there is a space. We’re not competing. We’re there to ensure that the sector grows and contributes to development in Nigeria, and we are there to complement their efforts,” she said.
What you should know
- Before Odeyemi’s appointment last year, Nigerians had listed the changes they expected to see at NIPOST under the leadership of the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijan.
- The suggestions for a reformed NIPOST came at the behest of the Minister, who sought the Nigerian’s opinion on what an ideal NIPOST should be.
- Critical among the suggestions was that NIPOST should function like the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and become a powerhouse to drive e-commerce growth.
