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Fund paucity stalls fight against illegal courier business, says NIPOST

By Adeyemi Adepetun and Bankole Orimisan
05 May 2016   |   3:46 am
Emeje appealed to the Federal Government and other well-meaning Nigerians to persuade the National Assembly to pass the Postal Reforms Bill and for increased...

courier-businessCRD calls for passage of Postal Reforms Bill

Paucity of funds has been identified has a major challenge stalling the fight against illegal courier businesses in the country.

This was disclosed by the Courier Regulatory Department (CRD) of the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) in Lagos, on Tuesday, adding that findings from its surveillance team had also shown that the activities of certain courier firms posed a security threat to the country, “only sufficient funding could check the irregularities and drug the sector.”

The Head of the CRD and Assistant Postmaster General of the Federation, Dr. Simon Emeje, stated this while clamping down on two alleged illegal courier operators – Kunga-Rock and Nations Delivery Service in Ikeja.

Emeje appealed to the Federal Government and other well-meaning Nigerians to persuade the National Assembly to pass the Postal Reforms Bill and for increased funding of the service.

“The Nigerian courier sector requires all hands be on deck to sanitise the industry. We have been engaged in a fight five times larger than the resources we have. But the resilience of the staff is paying off.

“Through our efforts, drugs and banned commodities have been intercepted at the airport. The truth is that we need more funding and improved working equipment to win this fight,” the CRD head said.

He added, “Nevertheless, we must salute the help of government agencies like the Department of State Security, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Police. The clampdown on Kunga-Rock and the Nations Delivery Service couldn’t have been easy without the assistance of the police.”

According to Emeje, surveillance reports on nefarious activities of the unregistered companies necessitated the clampdown

Similarly, the CRD, an arm of NIPOST responsible for the regulation of courier activities in the country, said that the licences of 14 formerly registered operators had been revoked.

Emeje said that the revocation was carried out after the window of opportunity to renew their licences expired.

The 14 courier companies are Abia City Express; Baxglobal Intercontinental Express Limited; Darkley Express Courier Service; Ezex Courier Services Limited; Gulf Agency & Shipping; Hand2Hand Courier Limited and Helpline Handling & Logistics.

Others are Interline Shipping Limited; Mast Logistics Limited; Nedlink Courier; Pacific Logistics International Limited; Palsy-Walsy Limited; Purpleblue Courier Services Limited and Roadmarks Nigeria Limited.

“It pains us when courier operators fail to renew their licences, because we don’t wish that any of them should close shop. It amounts to loss of jobs and revenue. But we took the steps as stated by the law. They were given four to five years window of opportunity to renew their licences,” he said.

“Therefore, we advise members of the public not patronise the above listed operators because they have lost touch with regulatory realities. We need the public to assist in sanitising the industry by patronising only the approved operators,” Emeje added.

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