Postmaster General of the Federation, Alhaji Mori Baba, who disclosed this while briefing journalists in Abuja, observed that every postal organization in the world is repositioning itself to be able to compete favourably in the changing market.
He noted that NIPOST was undergoing total transformation and modernization of its operations, and had developed more adaptive business strategies through technology application to enable it meet customer needs and maintain high quality of service.
He said: "The postal sector has continued to face numerous challenges in their bid to achieve maximum efficiency and consistent high quality service. This is because the pressure from competition has forced new priorities on operators, requiring clear strategies to drive necessary transformation.
"Although connecting the world through postal services has been regarded as a critical social role of the post, in a modern highly competitive arena, a postal brand must represent much more than traditional service. The post must evoke security, dynamism, quality of service and the ability to sustain customer loyalty," he emphasized.
Baba stated that in appreciation of the leading role of NIPOST within the African sub-region, the Universal Postal Union, recently appointed Nigeria as the regional project major for the five English-speaking West African countries of Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone to ensure the successful implementation of the quality of service project.
He noted that, as part of security measures, NIPOST has installed a close circuit television, bomb and metal detector, which had contributed immensely to the reduction of incidences of mail pilfering, broaching, dumping and outright loss of mail items in post offices.
The PMG disclosed that NIPOST in October, 2009 intercepted 62 scam letters containing cheques worth $2,394, 570.70, 4,645,836 Euros and 6663,757.87 Pounds Sterling, as well as 179 blank cheques, $4,500 suspected fake cash, 10 drivers licence, three International Passports and 3 Visa Cards.
According to him, the agency in November, 2009 also intercepted 167 Scam letters with various fake and negotiable instruments meant to defraud unsuspecting foreign investors and the items found in the letters include $3,329,935.70, 879,650.00 and 389,863.20 Pounds Sterling, in addition to 249 blank cheques, fake cash of $10,100,50, suspected fraudulent documents, four International Passports and one fake drug, all which were concealed in slippers and text books to beat security checks.
The NIPOST boss said that the agency has introduced financial services know as Post Cash, taking advantage of its wide network of almost 4000 postal outlets to provide fund transfer especially to rural areas where conventional banking services are non-existent.
He stated that though the Post Cash Services have been facing challenges in the area of liquidity flow arising from huge demand from customers, NIPOST has approached the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria for support and approval to enable it provide wide range of postal and allied financial services with effect from 2010 with Pay@Post, SureSavings, Mobile Money and Home Delivery of migrant remittances as pilot projects.
His words: "CBN is convinced that NIPOST is a strategic public institution with a network that could serve as a complementary access channel of formal financial sector particularly in the rural sector.
"We intend to use modern light ICT and mobile technology to reposition the Post office and make it the people’s access portal to global e-economy. With the on-going deployment of VSAT Technology to major post offices, we believe that we will not disappoint Nigerians,"
