Okey Uba, managing director of Ebony Express, an indigenous courier outfit based in Lagos has described the Courier Regulatory Department (CRD) as having what it takes to handle affairs of the Courier Service Commission when it finally comes on stream.
The Courier Regulatory Department according to him has been doing so well to discharge its regulatory functions and to curtail the activities of courier operators who have failed to meet the requisite requirements for operating courier in the country. As it were, Uba is not favourably disposed to the present arrangement where the CRD is an arm of Nipost and the head of it an appendage of the postmaster general.
He prefers a situation where the crop of officers in the Courier Regulatory Department whom he described as seasoned civil servants who are qualified academically in every aspect, to regulate the courier sector independently.
“When you don’t have an enabling law to empower somebody to act, it will appear as if that person is inefficient because you don’t have to act outside the requirement of the law. A situation where those at the CRD are moved away from Nipost and given an independent body, the CEO of the CRD will now take decision which success or failure will be entirely his. The success or failure of the organization will be on him and not a situation where he goes to ask somebody do I do this. It becomes cumbersome,’’ Uba said.
Uba is of the view that if the CRD is made a commission, the postmaster general of the federation will be concerned with the issue of mail movement in the Nigerian Postal Service and not saddle himself with courier regulation, which he said is another professional aspect that needs another professional to handle.
Commenting on courier practice in Nigeria, Uba described courier business as a serious business that requires honesty. According to him, courier business is where you deal with high network goods and important documents such that there is need for transparent honesty in every courier staff starting from the managing director to the least man in the company.
Ebony Express he said, is a classic courier company that emerged as a result of the demand for professionalism and efficiency in the courier business. The company makes sure that goods or services it moves get to the addressee or the consignee in good shape. Uba added that there’s no basis for a customer to complain about quality of service after engaging the company, as Ebony Express represents efficiency and honesty.
On proliferation of the sector, Uba said the development is not peculiar to the courier sector alone, but intimated that there is proliferation in every facet of life today; in the media, telecoms industry and other sectors of the economy.
However he disclosed that the problem with the courier industry is lack of control to streamline the activities of the proliferation saying that it is a good omen if there is healthy competition among players in the industry even as he said that the act could be curtailed by the policies put in place by the regulatory body.
Uba said that courier companies can be classified into three groups in other developed countries, which include international, nationwide and regional. According to him, somebody can wake up and decides to operate courier within Surulere area in Lagos State. He has the right to do so to his best of ability and within the limits of his resources, and that classification will create synergy among courier operators in the different categories, which could reduce cost.
He emphasized that the world is now a global village and that for any courier company to function very well the company needs to partner with some companies abroad.
On human capital development in the industry, he said that his company has set up a Research and Development(R& D) unit which was created to ensure the survival of the company. “For any business to survive, it must have to look into the future,” he added.
