Revealed! Why Illegal Courier Firms Thrive

Illegal courier operators exploiting the weak regulatory framework in the industry together with absence of stiff punishment for offenders have continued to thrive in the country leaving in their wake tales of losses and frustration on the industry, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now disclose.
Illegal courier companies are those that are not duly registered and are believed to outnumber the registered ones.
Beyond the routine raids on the operational bases and arrests of some illegal operators, Courier Regulatory Department (CRD), the policeman of the industry is not sufficiently empowered to pursue the prosecution of offenders.
CRD,  an arm of the Nigerian Postal Service (Nipost), a mere watchdog derives its powers from military decree 41 of 1992 now cap 127 of the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004 which experts say  is grossly inadequate for the exigencies of the courier industry.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that since its inception in 2002, the CRD has not secured the conviction of any arrested illegal operator because the law backing the regulatory body is deficient.
By the nature of its creation, CRD was supposed to have its operations in all the nooks and crannies of the country but its activities have been limited to few cities because of budgetary constraints.
Because of these challenges, illegal operators are having a field day raking in some N6 billion in 2007 alone, which is a princely 50 per cent of the industry’s profit for that year.
Besides the monetary losses, illegal operators are known to be engaged in a lot of sharp practices including price under cutting, dumping of mails and are major conduits for drug barons.
Piqued by the growing activities of the operators, government in 2004 began the process of reforming the sector with the postal bill.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that after clear five years of back and forth inputs into the bill by stakeholders, the postal bill which when put to bed will legitimize the Postal Service Commission seems to have slipped into a coma.
Further investigations revealed that the document had left the office of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) which was asked to handle the process that would lead to the institution of a virile regulator.
Only recently, the National Economic Summit Group (NESG) in one of its submissions   advised that all the sectors of the economy should have a regulatory body to monitor activities in each sector.
The postal and courier sector is an important sector of the economy that should not be neglected.