NIPOST may be privatised as Senate considers new law

A legislative recommendation to totally privatise the Nigeria Postal Service in order to achieve optimal performance has been made by the Joint Senate Committee on Medium-Term Expenditure and Fiscal Strategy.

When Tola Odeyemi, the Postmaster General of the Federation, went before the joint panel on Tuesday to defend her agency’s 2024 budget request, Senator Sani Musa, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and the one who presided over the MTEF-FSP joint panel, said as much.

The senators were furious with Odeyemi when she revealed that her organisation had estimated N18 billion in personnel costs for the 16, 000 NIPOST employees nationwide.

Musa questioned how NIPOST, whose presence is seen nowhere in the nation, could raise the amount it spends on personnel from N13 billion in 2023 to N18 billion in 2024.

The chairman was unmoved by the Postmaster General’s argument that the increase was due to a recent increase in personnel costs imposed on federal employees by the federal government.

As a member of the joint panel, Senator Ireti Kingibe made an effort to defend NIPOST’s ongoing funding as a federal agency, arguing that each country ought to have a thriving postal service of its own.

She declared: “NIPOST should become a revenue-generating organisation rather than being eliminated. The agency’s reluctance to transition to digital services stems from its analogue operations from the 19th century.

that rather than converting to digital services, the agency remained trapped in the analogue operations of the 19th century.

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“NIPOST can provide electronic services to Nigerians, provide government services to all local government areas, and even provide financial services by digitalizing their offices throughout the nation.”

Senator Osita Izunaso interrupted Kingibe’s submission barely out of her mouth to object.

Izunaso maintained that if the nation wants to raise money to pay for its yearly budgets, NIPOST should not be promoted in its current form.

“NIPOST should have been fully privatised before now because nobody is feeling its impact anywhere in the country,” declared the joint panel chairman in his ruling.

“Unless the Postmaster General persuades us otherwise, we are prepared to recommend the complete privatisation of the NIPOST to the Senate in plenary.

“Details about NIPOST’s business plan and how the organisation will use innovative thinking to bring in enough money for the nation should be sent by the CEO to the committee secretariat.”

“If this isn’t done, the Senate will have no choice but to recommend NIPOST’s complete privatisation.”