The Federal Ministry of Information and Culture is to leverage on the existing structures of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) in the impending national re-orientation campaign of the present administration.
The Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the plan while receiving the Acting Post Master General of the Federation, Mr. Enoch Adeogun, in his office in Abuja on Monday, saying the outlets of NIPOST across the country remained veritable platforms for the ‘Change Begins With Me’ Campaign of the Federal Government.
“Very soon, we are going to start our re-orientation campaign. This is a campaign in which we are going to tell Nigerians about the change we promised. The fact is that the change we promised will only happen if we all change the ways and manners we do things and this is why your tele-centres become useful to us. This is where your postal agencies and post offices become useful to us. We will apply to you to please allow us to brand some of your post offices and postal agencies so that the people who come to the post offices will see exactly what the change is all about.
“We are going to have very impressive outdoor images preaching change and, if for instance I have 3,000 locations in Nigeria where I can brand the Change Mantra, it means that everyday when people are going to the post offices or postal agencies, they will learn about the Change Mantra.
“I have also looked at how it is possible to use your 3,000 post outlets as information centres to disseminate government programmes and policies to our people and, in this respect, I would want the National Orientation Agency to work closely with NIPOST,” he said.
Mohammed therefore implored the NIPOST to explore technology to boost the safety and integrity of the documents and parcels entrusted in their care in order to inspire public confidence and place NIPOST on equal pedestal with the private courier service companies.
The Minister harped on the need to enforce the laws concerning the use of the services of NIPOST in the delivery of certain items that were exclusively reserved for it in order to boost its activities and make it possible for it to create more jobs.
He observed that though the advent of technology had posed a huge challenge to NIPOST services, it was incumbent on the organization to adapt and explore Information and Communication Technology to add value to its services as obtained in other parts of the world.
“We are not the only country where technology has come to enhance services. In Britain, the post office still remains one of the largest employers of labour today. So I don’t know why this cannot happen in Nigeria,” the Minister remarked.
Earlier, the Acting Post Master General had told the Minister that NIPOST, with over 3,000 outlets, had embraced technology to boost its activities through the establishment of tele-centres and the remodeling of some of its offices across the country.
He said in the last four years, NIPOST had remodeled about 300 post offices and had also entered into partnership with Galaxy Backbone to install 1,500 VSAT in the post offices.
Mr. Adeogun, however, noted that in spite of the reach and efficiency of communication through the telephone and the Internet, physical delivery of parcels at affordable cost, especially in reserved areas, was crucial to the economy.
He reminded the public that any parcel less than 500 grams was statutorily reserved for delivery by NIPOST and not through the private courier services.
