Earlier last week, the Postmaster-General (PMG) Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) Dr Adebayo Adewusi raised an alarm for an intervention from the Federal Government to save the service from shutting down.
Adewusi said at the hearing on Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance in Abuja on Wednesday last week that the NIPOST revenue generation has gone down drastically with the advent of COVID-19 in 2020 as it affected 60 to 65 per cent revenue of the organisation which was from exporting mails.
According to him, “When you take half of our revenue, that you are saying in essence is that we should shut down business; the truth of the matter is that, our cost of operation is higher than our revenue.
“Last year, we had a deficit of about N1.7 billion; the way we are today, NIPOST is in comatose, it is just a matter of time before NIPOST dies if no intervention is made,’’ he said.
He said that as a result reforms made in 2020, a major NIPOST source of revenue was transferred to Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) saying that NIPOST was now looking for alternatives.
The Deputy Chairman of the Committee Rep. Abdulallhi Saidu (APC-Niger) said that he was aware of the difficulties faced by NIPOST.
He said that the Finance Act 2020 stated that, partially funded agencies like NIPOST should pay 50 per cent of their revenue into government coffers.
“For us not to be seen breaching the law, it is expected that we make an exceptional case for NIPOST, am aware you have a peculiar and difficult case, but we have a law, the Finance Act,’’ he said.
Saidu recommended that the finance committee, the supervising committee and management of NIPOST should work together, explore their networks to get NIPOST back on its feet again.
Away from activities at the National Assembly to the promises and pledges of former Minister of Communications, Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu to unbundle the parastatal into five enterprises that will rely mainly on the wide reach of the agency to deliver superb commercial services.
This pledge died in the pipeline of the Minister’s development plan before he was eased out of office.
Then, came in Mallam Isa Pantami. He equally stood on same pedestal and assured that NIPOST will be unbundled to deliver tailored digital services.
However, this is almost eight months to end of life of Buhari administration; stakeholders are worried as to why the current minister has suddenly developed cold feet in turning the fortune of NIPOST to economic positivity as facilities of the troubled agency rot away nationwide.
