The Nigerian Postal Service has launched a new round of capacity building initiative targeted towards boosting services delivery in line with its Vision 2020 theme of bridging the gap between the old and modern way of doing businesses.
The Post Master General of the federation, Dr Ismail Adewusi, gave the indication, on Monday at the opening of the 5-day NIPOST’s board/ management retreat holding at the Ilaji Resort, Ibadan, Oyo State.
Adewusi, who harped on the importance of personnel development in repositioning NIPOST to take centre stage in service delivery, said the new normal had changed how businesses are being conducted.
He stressed, “With the rapid changes and development in the ecosystem where we are operating, coupled with recent devasting effects of the COVID -19 pandemic, it became more compelling for us to converge and assess our operations and the resultant challenges. This basically informed the decision to hold this retreat.
“The effective implementation of these strategies would, to a large extent, require the dedication and commitment of all of us. This retreat, therefore, provides an opportunity for participants to discuss and brainstorm on emerging challenges arising from the dynamic environment we are operating in.
“NIPOST has made significant efforts to shore up its relevance by introducing a number of products and services into the economic template of Nigeria. We have made notable advancement in leveraging on Information Communication Technology; making it the driving force of our operations. This has given rise to innovative thinking where new postal products and services are made available to our customers.
“Globalisation and the development of e-commerce have greatly transformed the postal sector. E-commerce is dynamic and rapidly changing the postal sector. There has been sharp growth both in domestic and international small packets. While I urge a critically look into this area, let me also admonish us all, especially our mail handlers, to begin to see e-commerce as a priority and treat items with all seriousness.
“Serious measures have been taken to ensure provision of quality service in line with global best practice. To achieve this objective, prompt evacuation of all inbound and outbound mails at our International Mail Processing Centre at Ikeja; increase in frequency of mail movement; provision of new generating set at IMPC to ensure uninterrupted mail operation were done. There are deliberate efforts to resume full training of our workforce to improve our capacity.”
The Chairman, NIPOST Governing Board, Maimuna Yaya Abubakar, harped on the need to address the issue of staff welfare, adding, “What is most important is not a strategic plan but who will implement that plan and whether they are motivated enough to want to implement it to them later. Simply put, we will be wasting time here developing a first-class strategic plan if we don’t have the right workforce to ensure it is well implemented.
“We can only ignore these issues at great peril to NIPOST and we have to fix them now if we hope to realise NIPOST’s anticipated future of greatness. It is about the urgency of now. If we don’t do it, then who will? If we don’t do it now, then when?”
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Festus Daudu, who represented the Minister of Communications, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim, said NIPOST needs to work towards financial independence and improve on its revenue drive.
Among those who were present at the opening of the retreat are Mallam Mainasara Dani Abubakar, representative of Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Festus Daudu; and Mrs. Shittu Anita.
