Nigerians abroad remit $24m annually —Post Master General

By Aunde T. Emmanuel

Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) Postmaster-General, Mr. Adebisi Adegbuyi, has said that Nigerian migrant workers remit between $23 billion and $24 billion into the country annually.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, on Tuesday, Mr. Adegbuyi said that NIPOST would start financial services, adding that, “we stand to make a lot of money from remittances in Africa.

“That is the formal aspect, the informal sector has not been captured and our people pay 12 per cent on each of the remittances. When post office is involved they will bring down the cost of remittances.

“I appeared on global forum on investment, remittances and development in New York and we had a round-table on the role of postal operations in remittances. They can’t push Nigeria back because we have the number here.

“E-commerce is one area that is exponentially growing. People are buying stocks on line. If they are buying stocks online, necessarily those parcels must be delivered by an institution and the institution that is better placed to do that is of course NIPOST because of our reach, world. Another issue that is a problem all over the world is addressing system.

“The masters in that area are coming. We have signed MOU with WorldThreeWords, It is a UK based addressing solution company. We have signed MOU with Risket, it is a South African based company, they are bringing their expertise, technology and funds.”

Asiwaju Adegbuyi warned those who had encroached on the property of the service to give them up.

On the encroachment on NIPOST landed property, he said: “Unfortunately, the past is history. I have a lawyer for about 30 years and I am into real estate. That is my turf. Unfortunately, again, it does appear to me that management had slept on their rights.

They had acquiesced on some of these responsibilities. That is not going to happen under me. People who believe they can take laws into their hands.

“People who are lawless; there are some big men in the society who are just vagabonds in power. This is our collective patrimony.

“Nobody is bigger than Nigeria. This is a very vital national institution. What I am saying in essence is to warn those who had encroached on NIPOST’s land to give up peacefully because NIPOST under my leadership will not sleep on its rights. As I have told people the sleeping giant that has been sleeping is awake to its responsibilities.”

He said that NIPOST is planning to train sniper dogs to detect criminals using service’s networks.

“I know that criminals use our networks to transport narcotic and banned substances. We have always been alive to our responsibility. We will go into training of sniper dogs to assist us in detecting nefarious activities. We will not relent on our efforts,” he added.

He said that “the essence of the visit is to have first hand information about the zones and districts across the country.

“The journey of transformation has started. It has its challenges but beyond that there are enormous opportunities that we can tap from. We are going to reposition NIPOST. Let me assure Nigerians that postal revolution is on the way.

“Recall the advent of internet has had its misfortune on postal system all over the world. They call it disruptive technology. It has affected mail volume but the beauty of it is that it has brought many opportunities in the areas of packages. It is one area that is exponentially growing. People are buying stocks online.”