The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy has directed the Nigerian Postal Services NIPOST to suspend the new tariff on registration of courier services in the country.
Dr Isa Ali Pantami was reacting to complaints by Nigerians on the new hike, the Minister under whose purview the supervision of NIPOST falls, took to his Twitter handle to reiterate the position of the Federal Government on the increment.
He tweeted; “Pls @NIPOST our attention has been drawn to an increase in license fee, which was not part of the regulation i earlier approved for you. The Chairman of NIPOST and the Post Master General were contacted yesterday, Friday, 25th of July to put the implementation on hold and send a report to our Ministry by Monday”.
Dr. Pantami also clarified that “the power of regulation of NIPOST lies with the Minister, any change of fees must be approved by him” I know the economic challenges of NIPOST. However, looking at the economic hardship of our citizens, we need to suspend any move” He Tweeted
In a statement signed by the Minister Spokesperson, Mrs. Uwa Suleiman said that “This directive comes amidst ongoing efforts Minister to reposition the Postal Services sector for optimal efficiency, in line with global best practices and as enshrined in the Universal Postal Union (UPU)global resolution of September 2019 .
The increase had earlier sparked outrage from a section of Nigerians mainly online on the decision by NIPOST to introduce costs of license for logistics and courier services.
NIPOST had in a statement said that the fee was introduced as a part of new regulations aimed at upping ease of doing business, ‘rejigging’ the logistics and courier sector of the economy and improving the efficiency of the players in that sector.
The new regulation categorised logistics companies into international, regional, state, municipal or intra-city, and SME operators.
International operators are to pay ₦20 million as a license fee, national ₦10 million and regional operators ₦5 million. State, municipal and special SME operators are to pay ₦2 million, ₦1 million and ₦250,000 respectively.
Each operator, irrespective of the category, will pay 40% of the license fee as renewal fee annually.
NIPOST’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, Franklin Alao said: “The new regulations that are a great improvement on the old one, are aimed to rejig the logistic and courier ecosystem of the economy and significantly improve efficiency, and make courier and logistic operation more effective.”
Suleiman also said it was to ensure that all activities of NIPOST was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration policy on ease of doing business.
Source: VON
