Interesting Developments in the Courier Sector

Courier and postal services last year witnessed exponential growth in volume of services rendered to customers. There were also innovations in some areas which helped to notch up demand for services rendered by the sector. Information and Communication Technology still stands out as a great enabler that has helped to drive the new areas of opportunities being savored by the sector to deliver innovated, prompt and effective services to rising clientele of postal and courier services.
The fear was that the dawn of the information age would have a negative effect on the postal and courier sector as skeptics were of the view that the boom in ICT would lead to reduction in services rendered by the sector. But events were to prove skeptics wrong that instead of reducing the operations and opportunities available in the industry, ICT has actually enlarged the scope and areas of activities for the sector.  As an evolving phenomenon, ICT will continue to create more opportunities and even change manual and old ways of doing business in the sector in 2009 and beyond.
The postal and courier sector in 2009 will most likely continue to witness an upswing in terms of volume of services it renders. With a fiscal policy that tends towards reduction in government expenditure during the year, there is likelihood that there will be heightened demand for the services of the sector. Oversea travel for government personnel has been slashed and such a development is likely to lead to increase in courier and postal service exchanges during the year.
The introduction of new actors in the Ministry of Information and Communications  which saw Prof. Dora Akunyili replacing Mr. John Odey as minister,  and Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande being succeeded by ……. as minister for state for Information and Communications  , will actually change things  either for better or for worse.  But given the track record of Prof Dora Akunyili as former director general of National Agency For Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerians are not in doubt that Akunyili is capable of delivering as an individual. However people  have continued to express their reservation that the Amazon is now being made to head a ministry where she lacks the  expertise to operate and  area different from her area of calling as a pharmacist where she has made her mark.
Other school of thought feels sad that Akunyili might rubbish whatever fame she had been able to garner for herself during her days as the director general of NAFDAC.
As Akunyili is settling down in the office, she needs to be reminded that there are issues   which he predecessor could not finalize before the recent hand over / takeover which are vital to the development of the information ministry.  One is the Postal Commission bill that is supposed to usher in an independent regulatory body for the postal and courier sector.  The postal and courier sector has showed much hope of being a money spinner for government and private operators but proper regulation of the industry has being a major drawback.
Akunyili will do well to take a closer look on the process of constituting the Postal Commission and know why it has been delayed.  Inputs into the draft Postal bill have been made by all stakeholders and same submitted to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to vet and submit to the vice president who is the chairman of …..  She should find out the position with this document and possibly fast track it for approval by the presidency.
2009 will most probably usher in the much awaited Nigerian Postal Service commercialization.  The postmaster general of the federation, Mori Baba has argued that commercialization of the federal government parastatal will make the organization to be less dependent on government revenues. The process has brought in re-engineering into Nipost with an eye to unlimited areas of making profit for the organization.
Banks in Nigeria are also indicating their interests to pick courier licenses. In fact Union Bank plc has already picked one and operates under the name Union Express, while others are still undergoing preliminary screening by the Courier Regulatory Department. The implication is that the stake will now be higher when more banks begin to indulge in the express and logistics business. With many funds at their disposal, they will try to control the business but the multinational courier companies will prove a hard nut to crack in the new development as they have also the finance and expertise to give the banks a fair competition. 
In these developing scenarios, there is need to have a strong regulatory platform that will not be inclined to favoring any particular company. The worth of the market will be much higher than what it is at present and proper regulation of the industry will attract more foreign investors into the economy. Then  the arrangement where the Courier Regulatory Department (CRD), the organ saddled with the regulation of the postal sector which  is tied to the apron strings of Nipost , also a player in the industry will no longer be tenable .