Philately Business is a Serious Business- Ugo

King Fhud of Egypt describes philately as king of hobbies and hobby for kings. Postage stamps are considered the most effective medium for immortalizing monuments and past histories, yet not many people know that there is more to stamp than mere affixing it on the envelope as a postal condition for carrying of letters. The name philately may sound strange to some people who do not understand what the business is all about, but for those in the known are actually  making their millions silently in this business which A.U Okpara of the Dept. of Fine and Applied Arts, Imo State University Owerri once  described as treasure in the trash.
The implication of the definition of Treasure is that the philatelist collects stamps from the trash cans- the useful part of the discarded envelope and recognizes its value as a work of art and places value on it.
 In this period when the world is experiencing economic meltdown with its ugly consequence on the capital market, Mr. Ugo C. Ugo, manager Philately Bureau Lagos has said that attention is now shifting to philately as a cool and sure way of making money. He said philately business is all about collecting and studying of stamps.
In talking about stamps collection and sale, Ugo insists that first and foremost there is need to know how the stamp is produced. He said that all the postage stamps you see in Nigeria are printed for Philately Bureau by the Security Printing and Minting Company (SPCMC).
He went further to say that there are two different types of stamps namely the definitive and commemorative stamps. Definitive stamp, he said, is the one that is produced to last for about five years while the commemorative stamp lasts just for six months. But Ugo said that the Philately Bureau can still sell commemorative stamps beyond six months even when they are not available in the general post offices. In fact he said the office can sell commemorative stamps for up to two years saying that this differentiates Philately office from the general post office business.  When stamps are produced, he said the chief finance officer of Postal Order and Stamp Supply (the unit that distributes the stamps) will collect the stamps and distributes to territories.
Ugo agrees that not many people know about the business of stamp studying and collection in Nigeria and says the few people that know about it are among the literate class quite unlike in developed countries of U.S, Britain, Germany and others whose postal services make a whole lot of money from philately business. Ugo says that philately business is a serious business and that there are stamp clubs all over the world where people who similar interest can belong.
Tracing the origin of postage stamps, Ugo said that postage stamp was invented by Sir Roland Hills, an Englishman who lived between 1795-1879. In Nigeria, he said that the history of postage stamp dates back to 1859 when a hand struck stamp with the inscription “Paid in Lagos was used.”  In June 1874 the first consignment of stamps were released in Lagos.
Stamp collection as a hobby started in Great Britain around 1840 when the first stamp issue was released but Ugo says it is general belief that the idea of collecting  stamps came from a Belgium school master who asked his pupils to adorn their atlases with stamps . He said that  this adornment became so appealing that in 1854 stamp collecting  was taken  more seriously and stamp clubs started emerging afterwards. In Nigeria, philately as a hobby was run on a small scale before 1969. in order to improve the standard and quality of Nigerian stamps and provide adequate philately services to Nigerians and foreign collectors, the Nigerian Philatelic Bureau was established in 1969.
Awareness about stamp collection and study is generally low in the country and Ugo says his bureau has been making efforts in recent times to sensitize the people about what philately is all about through the print and circulation of flyers and corporate gift items to members of the public. “ In abroad most postal services make about 70 per cent of their revenue from philately but in Nigeria, the philately is not developed and we are not making the type of money we are supposed to be making”, Ugo said .
To register as a stamp collector, what you need to pay is just a thousand naira and account will be opened for you.  Those abroad pay a minimum of forty U.S dollars for the same purpose and they can do everything online. Ugo says that some of the two thousand eight hundred philately members registered with the Nigerian Philately Bureau are white people.  Each stamp collector, according to Ugo must have a particular interest of stamps  he is collecting whether on animals, telecommunications, music , costumes etc  saying that the longer the year of stamp produced, the higher the amount it can attract on sale.  He said that when one pays one thousand naira as registration fee that the bureau uses that money to supply the member with postage stamps of various denominations for almost a year and that as soon as the money is exhausted, the Philately accounts officer will alert the member to come for renewal. 
Nipost Philately position as the 196th member of International Philately Federation five years ago underscores the fact that philately is a growing business worldwide and Nigerians stand to gain a lot from it.  The biggest challenge therefore is creating of awareness by the Nigerian Postal Service to educate the people on what they stand to gain from the hobby.
Chief J. Ade Fagbeminro is in his seventies but he has been in the philately business since early sixties when he said a friend introduced him to the business. Then he said the money they were getting from the business was not much but had real value. He said he has a network of buyers and belongs to international dealership associations. We have dealership association all over the world and whenever there’s need for stamps they call me. I deal in Nigeria stamps and other countries as well. People from abroad contact me on email and telephone to request for stamps”, Fagbeminro disclosed to Nigeria Communications Week. You too can tell the same beautiful story in future if you start now to invest into this gold mine.