Ayodele Olalere
The Nigeria Postal Service, NIPOST, on Wednesday unveiled two new stamps to mark the World Post Day and the 150-years of world postal service by the Universal Postal Union, UPU.
The two stamps are Post Planet stamp and Philatelic stamp with a 150-years logo inscribed on them.
Part of the activities to mark the Day was a ‘Walk with NIPOST ‘ which took off from the NIPOST office, Marina to Broad Street to inform and educate Lagosians and Nigerians in general of the innovation NIPOST has embarked for effective service delivery.
While speaking at the unveiling of the stamps, the PostMaster-General and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, NIPOST, Tola Odeyemi, said NIPOST has gone through digital innovations to be able to meet up with modern trends in the postal world.
“Today is World Post Day and the 150-years celebration of the Universal Postal Union, UPU. It’s the platform for all postal organizations which Nigeria also belongs to. To Post is a key infrastructure globally in communicating, moving mail and commerce across the globe,” Odeyemi said.
She added that countries across the globe has evolved with technological innovations and Nigeria is not an exception.
“The world has evolved beyond post. But what countries have done with UPU is to meet changing trends globally. In Nigeria, NIPOST has gone behind posting letters, we are doing e-commerce among other digital services.
We are using technology and moving from analog postal systems to digital systems . We are enabling financial inclusion across the country. The world has moved beyond post but postal service has evolved to more than mailing letters; it involved social, financial and digital inclusion,” she added.
On challenges faced by NIPOST over the years which has made it no longer attractive to Nigerians, Odeyemi mentioned dilapidated and lack of adequate infrastructure, as well as financial constraints to run the agency effectively.
“Nigeria postal service is not different from the challenges other postal services are facing. Every postal operator has gone through the same challenges Nigeria postal service is going through which is aging infrastructure.
The first postal office was built in 1897 and most postal offices were built during that period. There is also the issue of financial sustainability . If a post service focuses on just one mode of business operation, there will be an issue of financial sustainability.”
She however noted that the government is doing all it can to reposition NIPOST.
“The Nigerian government needs to see the Nigeria Postal Service as a partner in delivering financial, social and digital inclusion and the government is doing that. We are now at the stage of troubleshooting and repositioning NIPOST for better services.”
The Special Assistant to the PostMaster General, Kola Talent, said a competition was held among secondary students to design a new stamp for the 150-years anniversary and the best design was chosen as the anniversary stamp.
