Using Courier Business for what it is not

Courier service as an organized professional system of receiving items, packages, messages or documents is guided by variables such as security, speed and trust.
In recent time the courier business in Nigeria has suffered credibility problem as a result of using the system for other illegal businesses other than what it is actually supposed to be.
The proliferation of players in the industry has in no small measure contributed to the nefarious activities in the industry.
In view of the proliferation and by provisions of Section 45 cap 127 Laws of the Federal republic of Nigeria 2004( December 41 of 1992) of Nigerian Postal System as amended , the federal government of Nigeria in 1981 promulgated a decree that empowered the Nigerian Postal Service (Nipost) the regulator of the  postal and courier industry . This development gave birth to the Courier Regulatory Department (CRD) about eight years ago. The body has been working with other government agencies to ensure that nobody brings for shipment a sheep for a ram.
The birth of CRD as the ombudsman of the sector has recorded some fit in the war to curtail the activities of illegal operators but this war cannot be said to have been won as   companies that are not duly licensed by the regulatory body still wrangle their way into the business and do all sorts of dirty deals in the system. Because they don’t care if their operational licenses are withdrawn if they are implicated in any dirty deal, as they don’t have any license, illegal courier operators do their businesses with impunity. The Courier Regulatory Department has been battling to reduce their activities but as diehards, they keep on resurfacing after each successful attempt has been made by the CRD to arrest some of them. Even at that, the department has not been well positioned to battle the monster. With the lean resources at CRD’s disposal, when the body relies on Nipost for its subventions, CRD leadership has said that it lacks the capacity to combat the menace effectively and have a winning result. The body supervises the activities of courier operators nationwide and there is need that it has offices in every state of the federation  for effective monitoring instead of concentrating in Lagos alone and visits other areas only when it becomes inevitable so to do.
Another dimension is that drug barons connive with their agents in courier companies to traffic in drugs through postal networks. Since security reports revealed the enormity of the post and courier serving as pipeline for fraudulent activities, Nipost re-strategised collaborating  with other agencies like the Serious  Organized Crime Agency (Soca) of Britain and the Postal Inspectorate Unit of the United States Postal service which led to the seizure  of more than 4000 scam letters and parcels meant for shipment abroad and contained various fake international currencies running into billions of naira. The same period (October-Dec 2007), Nipost also intercepted the shipment of more than 2,500 fake international passports to various countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and others.
NDLEA collaboration has also led to the interception of hard drugs with some courier companies and it has created a specialize unit called Postal Intelligence Assignment (PIA) now known as Special Investigation assignment. Information from NDLEA revealed that between 2006 and the end of 2007, the body arrested 12,631 suspects with a total seizure of 418829.84kg of hard drugs some of which were routed through the courier companies.
The efforts of the SIA   have equally nipped in the bud various attempts by internet scammers to use courier services to swindle innocent people of their hard earned money. The agency has intercepted several fake international passports, 419 documents such as fake cheques, money orders and certificates while it handed suspects over to EFCC for prosecution.
Given that NDLEA has recorded some progress in the effort, it is still faced with a lot of challenges. One of the major challenges is the inability of some courier companies to adhere to operational standards. CRD should be empowered for it to be able to enforce discipline in the industry .