Postal Bill: Courier operators rue bill’s neglect, 10 years after

Worried by the huge financial losses lack of a credible regulator is causing postal and courier services operators in the country , some aggrieved stakeholders are set to brace all hurdles and canvass the passage of the Postal and Courier Services Commission Bill, after over 10 years of its submission to the National Assembly for enactment into law. ISAIAH ERHIAWARIEN captures the position of the stakeholders on the pending Bill.

In what could be likened to a desperate move to get a credible regulator for the courier services sector in Nigeria, some key stakeholders have intensified pressure on the National Assembly

to pass into law, the Postal and Courier Services Commission Bill into law, after staying in its hallowed chambers for almost a decade.

The private courier services companies, which began operation in the country shortly after independence in 1960, have since then been operating without a regulatory framework with the attendant negative implications for the development of the sector and investment returns for operators.

After several years of waiting endlessly for a regulatory regime that would guide the players on how best to operate for national economic benefits, the operators and other stakeholders are set to pursue the agenda of a law for the sub-sector of the communication industry with renewed vigour before the end of this current National Assembly and by so doing, place the issue of the bill in the front burner of legislative deliberations whenever the 9th Assembly is inaugurated.

Investigations revealed that President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in 1985 split the then Department of Post and Telecommunication, P & T into Nigeria Telecommunications, NITEL and Nigeria Postal Service, NIPOST thereby placing the regulation of the industry in the hands of a department, Courier Regulatory Department, CRD, which is within the NIPOST.

The CRD since then has been regulating the sector industry but the enormous potentials of the industry as indicated by its sporadic growth as well as the currently dwindling fortune of the sector recently has prompted some stakeholders to call for an urgent reform. In 2002, a group of private courier operators got together in Lagos and formed an association, Association of Nigeria Courier Operators, ANCO, which today has become a mouthpiece for private courier operators in Nigeria.

President of the Association, Oladapo Siyanbola in chat said that the call for the courier industry reform was cardinal for the formation of the Association years ago stating that major landmark feat that the sector is waiting to experience is the passage of the Postal and Courier Services Commission bill into law.

According to him, what the industry has now as a regulator is the Courier Regulatory Department, CRD, within NIPOST, noting that it does not have the powers to regulate, transform and protect the postal sector.

The top industry player revealed that since the split of P & T and NITEL in 1985, there has not been an noticeable reform in the entire Postal sector noting that it has negatively affected the growth of the sector so much that the numbers of private courier operators in the country has dropped from 293 to merely 80.

National Mirror gathered that the agitation for reform in the sector began in 2004 when the first Courier Summit was held in Lagos, which culminated to the demand for a Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission.

Siyanbola explained that the Postal and Courier Services Commission bill was sent to the 6th and 7th National Assembly for debate and subsequent passage but was not passed until the end of the two Assemblies, expired.

He added that an executive bill was later send to the Assembly for consideration and passage stating that if not passed into law before the life of the current Assembly ends, it means sponsors of the Bill will have to start afresh thereby protracting the misfortunes of the Postal and Courier Services sector.

While expressing optimism that the passages of Bill will address the current problem of lack credible regulator for the sector, he cited the examples of countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast and Tanzania and others with a regulatory Commission overseeing the sub-sector.

The Managing Director, Swift Couriers Limited, Mr. Toyin Olufade while also supporting the call for the speedy passage of the Bill, disclosed that the sector has the capacity to create over 200,000 jobs noting that it has great benefit to the economy.

He stated that the Bill will help to end unemployment in the country but that its impact on the economy is limited because it has no government saying that stakeholders in sector have visited the Communications Technology Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson but the visit did not change the status of the sector.

He stated that NIPOST is failing because Nigerians are no longer reading or writing adding that the sector needs an enabling environment for it to thrive.

Commenting on the issues, Executive Director, Moving Edge, a private courier operator, Mrs. Tolu Omamadaga, said the sector needed infrastructure revolution, which only the passages of Bill could guarantee saying that transport mode in the country is causing huge losses to operators due to the present state of the roads across the country.

“We still obtain trade permit or emblem from several sources even when our parcels are on transit, and if we fail to meet our delivery time, it affects our business. And most local governments across the country have formed the habit of damaging courier vehicles because of one form of taxes or the other”, she said.

Reacting to the campaign for the passage of the Bill, Managing Director, PTL Courier Limited, Ms. Lara Okuneye, said, “We want to plead with the National Assembly to pass the Bill before the expiration of their tenure. If we they have done that three years ago, we would have started reaping the benefit by now.”

Another stakeholder, Managing Director, TransRoyal Courier Limited, Mrs. Vivian Okeke blamed the proliferation of some online marketing portal that now engage in courier business on the lack of a credible regulatory commission. 

She said that all of them have added courier business to their core business saying that Ghana has a legal framework that is helping the sector there to grow while the government is also giving support to the operators.

Publicity Secretary of ANCO, Adeojo Toyin said that lack of a credible regulatory commission was creating frustration for the operators, saying that presently operators are worried about when Bill will be passed into law.