Senate Committee raises fears on regulatory crisis over NIPOST reforms

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Gilbert Nnaji has raised fears on regulatory crisis if the Nigeria Postal Services and Telecommunications (NIPOST) was allowed to act as a regulator and operator at the same time in the proposed reforms.
While speaking at a public hearing in Abuja, he lamented that there was erosion of public confidence in the country’s Postal system, saying NIPOST had not delivered on its mandates.

“I want to stress on the imperativeness of the reform, but I want to caution that any arrangement that allows the Nigerian Postal Service, (NIPOST) to act as regulator and operator at the same time would pose serious setback to government efforts, particularly at a time government needs revenues to take the country out of recession”, he said.
Nnaji said reform of NIPOST was occasioned by the lack of delivery on its statutory responsibilities, noting that the proposed establishment of Postal Service Commission and that of Nationwide Toll-free Emergency Number bill would generate healthy revenues for the country.
“We are calling on the stakeholders to make inputs on the Bill to establish the Postal Service Commission as well as the Nationwide Toll-Free Emergency Number Bill”, he noted.

“There is erosion of public confidence in the country’s postal system on account of the inability of the public postal operator (NIPOST) to deliver on virtually all statutory obligations including basic and core postal services”, he added.
Identifying some prevailing domestic and international market forces as challenges to NIPOST’s viability, he stated that there were obsolete infrastructure which made it apparent that NIPOST’s 2004 Act must be repealed.
He insisted: “Nationwide Toll-Free Emergency Number Bill is to prescribe primary emergency telephone numbers for use in the country, and to implement a nationwide system for the reporting of emergencies to emergency service providers”.

The president of the senate who was represented by the senate leader, Ahmed Lawan, while declaring the event open commended the sponsors of the bills which he described as critical and timely for Nigeria’s quest for economic diversifications among others.
Senator Nnaji had led a debate seeking to establish a regulatory framework for Nigeria Postal industry in order to encourage local and foreign investments into the country through private-public partnership model.