Courier Industry to Independent Regulator Soon
If there is any issue that operators in the Courier industry in Nigeria are very passionate about, it is the issue of having an independent regulatory authority to run the affairs of the industry.
They strongly believe that an independent regulatory authority is capable of turning the fortunes of the courier industry around just as it is being witnessed in the telecommunications or the pharmaceutical sectors of the economy.
These operators believe that the only reason why the growth in the courier sector is stunted is because it is still tied to the apron strings of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) better known for its moribund, bureaucratic and red tape nature.
They posit that as long as this continues the industry that has to do with speed and dynamism will remain in a docile condition for a very long time.
Some of them have often accused NIPOST of not wanting to let go because it is profiting from the status quo.
Though Dr Simon Emeje, senior assistant postmaster general in charge the Courier Regulatory Department (CRD) of NIPOST does not agree with all these, however he acknowledges the fact that it is a very serious problem in the industry which the government is looking at more seriously.
"The government is working on it. The draft postal bill and the draft National Postal Policy have been written and the government is fine-tuning some things in the documents. So, it is a development in the industry that both the operators and the general public are looking up to." He said
According to him, everyone wants to see the regulatory body established, because everybody has felt that having an independent body will do the industry a lot good, because so far, NIPOST is both a regulator and an operator. Globally, this is no longer, in practice.
Dr Emeje maintained that Courier operators still see them as a partial judge in the sense that they are a department in NIPOST.
He said that this is being addressed as the government is working on separating the regulatory body from NIPOST.
On why creating an independent regulator for the Courier industry had dragged on for so long? He had this to say: "the reason is because the issue met a misfortune along the way. At a time, they set up a ministerial committee on the Courier Regulatory Authority. When this was almost completed, and a stakeholders meeting was called, the week this was to take place, Alhaji Abubakar Argungu, former post master general died in October 2005 in a plane crash. This finally brought gown the tempo.
"April last year, the stakeholder’s forum was finally held. The draft postal bill and the draft national Postal Policy is now ready. The postal policy has been okayed but the government is fine-tuning the postal bill It had drafted because of one problem or the other. The postal policy is a document from which the bill is drawn.
"It is at a stage of fine-tuning for it to be submitted to the minister of information and communication. When that is done the minister will present it to the federal executive council from where it will go to the national Assembly to be passed into law.