By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Nigerian Postal Services said it has
intercepted about 159 scam letters
containing counterfeit financial
instruments and other prohibited items
worth N13.647 billion within the past
nine months.

The Post Master General of the
organization, Mallam Ibrahim Mori
Baba disclosed this last week at a press
conference to mark the 2014 World Post
day celebration in Abuja.

This came as the NIPOST boss also
disclosed that a total of 2,060 staff from
grade level 03-16 were promoted in the
organisation across the federation
between January and September this
year, as an incentive to motivate staff
moral and to reverse the ongoing trend
of irregular staff promotion in NIPOST.

He said the N13.647 worth of items
intercepted was achieved as a result of
physical inspection of document and
postal packets being transmitted
through NIPOST between January and
September 2014, saying that the effort
was spurred by the new drive by the
management of the Post to revive and
sustain a viable Postal services across
the country.

According to him, the celebration of
October 9 as World Post Day on 9
October each year is a tradition that has
already become firmly rooted in the
postal landscape, as Postal
administrations take advantage of this
day to sensitize government authorities
and the public on the role of the Post in
national development.

Following series of brainstorming on
how to move the Postal Industry
forward, the PMG said the management
identified some key priorities for urgent
actions for the year running, among
which include improvement of quality of
service; change in Post business culture;
product diversification; mail traffic
handling and revival of letter writing
culture in Nigeria.

As part of measures to improve quality
of service, Baba said the management
has embarked on the acquisition of
modern transportation means for
conveyance of domestic and
international mails following the ban on
the use of motor Cycles. And to ensure
success in the effort to improve quality
of postal services, he said IT systems
had been supplied to all major Post
offices as well as the training of all
operations for tracking and tracing of
mail processing mainly in domestic
operations.

With the rise of global e-commerce, the
NIPOST boss said the management had
repackaged NIPOST workshop as a
commercial venture with the capacity to
generate revenue to run its operations
as a way of diversifying their products.

In the area of mail traffic handling, he
said a significant improvement in the
number of mail items handled by the
organization from January 2014
compared to the number of traffic
handled in the same period in 2013.
According to him, a total 24,213,750
mail items were handled as against
19,688,220 in 2013 and of the total
traffic handled, 16,144,778 items were
posted within the country whereas
1,132,715 were dispatched abroad,
while 6,936,257 were received from
abroad.

On the plans to revive letter writing
culture in Nigeria, the PMG said
NIPOST is collaborating with the
ministry of education and the Nobel
Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka to
encourage school children and reverse
the trend, adding that the collaboration
between the NIPOST and the Central
bank of Nigeria, CBN is still on course to
identify the best way in which the assets
and resources of the NIPOST could be
utilized to attain the country’s financial
inclusion target.

Other areas of intervention according to
him, is ongoing a consultation with the
Auditor General of the Federation and
Accountant General of the Federation to
explore the potentials of Stamp Duty
and turn it into a viable source of
revenue to the government.



www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/nipost-intercepts-goods-worth-n13-647bn-9-months/

Let somebody shout hallelujah. The ministry is moving forward.

GEJ till infinity

It's a pity Nipost has gone into extinction, no thanks to Nigerians for making it so. Look at United States Postal Service waxing stronger everyday. Americans make use of phones, email and social media but they never allow the postal service to die by patronising it on daily basis. I'm happy to hear about Nipost again since I was little in 90s