Oru Leonard

Nigeria joins the rest 43 member countries of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU), on Friday, January 18 to celebrate the 2019 Pan African Post Day.

PAPU, was established on the 18th of January, 1980 following the adoption of a resolution in Gabon in 1977 by member states to provide a unique forum through which matters relating to Postal services in Africa can be discussed in line African experience.

Since 1986, it has been customary at the General Secretariat of PAPU and throughout Member States to celebrate the Pan African Post Day on 18th January, 2019.

Among other things, the Day provides an opportunity to underscore the critical contributions of the post in the economic, Socio-political as well as attainment of national development goals of member countries.

According to a statement made available to the press on Thursday, the General Manager, Corporate Communications Nigeria Postal Service, Franklyn Alao, this year’s theme is titled “Together, let’s diversify our offering by digitalization”.

” As Nigeria joins other member countries to celebrate this Day, they will use the occasion to highlight some modest achievements recorded by the current Management of NIPOST led by Barr. Bisi Adegbuyi.

“Since his assumption of office some three years ago, he noted that Adegbuiyi has made efforts, especially to reform and digitalize the postal service to meet the aspirations of our teeming customers and the public at large”,he said.

Some of the achievements to include: Restructuring of the Nigerian Postal Service into 7 Zones for administrative convenience and ease of decision making process for efficient service delivery; Provision of over 120 power bikes to enhance last mile delivery of Mails in Lagos and Abuja Zones for a start; Products diversification and introduction of ICT based products such as Digital Addressing System (DAS) Address Verification System (AVS), e-commerce, financial services, e-money order, e-postage stamp, Track and Trace facility for online tracking of mail items and parcels, partnership with some banks for financial inclusion and with Bank of Agriculture for easy access to farmers.

Achievements in service include area Training and Retraining of staff on the use of Social media for effective service delivery; Renovation/Rehabilitation of major Post offices and Corporate Headquarters as a means of boosting staff and the public confidence in postal services; Private Public Partnership with private transports for delivery of mails and for logistic purposes to help in meeting the increasing demands of the customers in this regard.

“As we mark this year’s PAPU Day, members of the public are once again reassured that NIPOST is fully committed to providing a very reliable, efficient and affordable Postal and related services with the aid of appropriate technology in line with the best practices”, he concluded.