Courier service operators, under the aegis of Nigerian International Air Courier Association (NIACA) and the Association of Nigeria Courier Operators (ANCO) on Monday, jointly held a media briefing at the UPS office, Gbagada, Lagos.
The bodies expressed concern over the Postal Reform bill presently before the House of Representatives which seeks to compel courier operators in Nigeria to pay 2 percent of their yearly turnover to the Federal Government. Also, the bill aims to give exclusivity to the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) in the delivery of packages weighing 1kg and below.
Furthermore, the bill when passed into law would require all operators to obtain a fresh license as existing ones will become invalid.
The groups also called on the government to evolve stamp duty from paper form to electronic, this they said would ensure efficiency in the system and make compliance easier.
The groups said the media conference was to make the public aware of the development and engage stakeholders in ways that ensure the best solution is reached to protect operators in the sector and consumers who use their service.
Speaking on the development, the Chairman of NIACA, Mr. Oladipo Akinyele stated that, “the bill before the House of Representatives that has to do with postal reform, where they are asking for 2 percent of our turnover. We have been on this for a couple of years and we kept on reiterating that 2 percent of our turnover is outrageous.
As a compromise, we are proposing that 1 percent of our net profit after tax be paid to the postal commission”.
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Given the nature of the Nigerian economy which promotes healthy competition, the operators expressed surprise why a piece of legislation that promotes exclusivity to the advantage of the regulator is being pushed, at the expense of a free and fair market to all players. In a conciliatory gesture, the stakeholders asked that instead of an outright surrendering of courier transactions of 1kg and below to NIPOST, it would charge 3 times more than what the government-owned operator would charge the public.
The Chairman of ANCO, Mr. Okey Uba in reacting to the issue of exclusivity for packages of 1kg and below stated that “In a case where a person is at the hospital and needs to get a medical report from a Diagnostics centre. The report is just a piece of paper that would weigh below 1kg. Does the person have to wait for NIPOST to come take it there? Given that there are courier express service providers, the position provided in the bill will not work. So, what we said is that, if we have to provide the service, we will charge customers 3 times the price. We gave the authorities an alternative rather than outright exclusivity to NIPOST”.
Both bodies kicked against the proposal to nullify existing courier operators licenses in place of a fresh one, which will put both old and new operators at par. Instead, they proposed that the postal commission when it comes into effect should conduct a recertification for operators rather than an outright cancellation of existing licenses. They also enjoined the government to make the stamping process electronic.
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