Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has called on the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) to sensitive the general public on its services, to allow it remain relevant in the face of electronic mailing.
Obaseki suggested this while receiving a delegation from the Benin Area Office of NIPOST, led by its Area Manager, Mrs Oluwatoyin Egbesola, on a courtesy visit in Government House on Tuesday.
He said that the public needed to be abreast with the peculiar services rendered by NIPOST, especially in the age of electronic mailing and Internet surfing, to allow for its continued patronage.
The governor, while responding to the appeal of the postal service to exempt it from the ban on motorbikes in some parts of the state, said the ban did not affect institutions using motorbikes for business purposes.
He advised the postal service to visit the state’ ministry of transport to get a permit and specification on how to build its courier service for its motorbikes.
Obaseki also said that the state was interested in stamp collection and that the state would like to have some commemoration stamps to celebrate some aspects of the state’s history.
He said his administration, via the office of the State’s Solicitor-General, would give due considerations to the Stamp Duty Act of the postal service.
Obaseki, however, frowned at the use of the premises of the postal outfit for business purposes and called on the organisation to improve on the environment standards around its premises.
Earlier, Egbesola said the visit was to intimate the governor with its activities in the state.
She said the Postal outfit, apart from its Postal Office box and Private mail box services, was also into Courier services.
She said Edo was next to Lagos State in terms of revenue generation to the postal outfit.
She, however, said the ban on motorbikes in some parts of the state was gradually affecting the revenue being generated from the state as its courier motorbikes could not access some locations.
Egbesola also suggested that the state should key into the Stamp Duty Act which allowed for fixing of N50 stamps on every transaction that is N1,000 and above.