NIPOST calls for quick passage of independent regulator bill

Dr Simon Emeje, the Head of Courier Regulatory Department (CRD) of NIPOST on Saturday has called on the legislature to quickly enact the bill for an independent postal regulator.

Emeje told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that stakeholders had been waiting eagerly for 10 years to ensure the bill was approved.

He said that the bill had reached the point of public hearing in the last assembly and was about go for the third reading but nothing had been done after that.

According to him, the Federal Government should intervene to ensure that the bill was approved in no distant time.

“With problems coming here and there, the current department, CRD is limited in power to enforce some things.

“But if we have an independent regulator that is empowered on the basis of the current bill that is at the assembly, the industry will be sanitised.

“More income will come to the Federal Government, business will boost in the industry and job will be created more than what it is now,’’ he said.

He said that the industry had the capacity of employing more than 15,000 persons if the courier department was empowered.

Emeje said that Nigeria was one of the few countries with no independent postal regulator, adding that such regulator would give Nigeria a great lift economically.

“Many other countries, even in Africa have independent regulators. Go to Benin Republic, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda; they all have independent regulators.

“Having an independent postal regulator will help NIPOST, it will help the courier operators, help the Federal Government, it will help the stakeholders. It is then they will know what we are missing by not having it,’’ he said.

He said that the independent regulator was necessary so that NIPOST and other courier companies in the country could be monitored and regulated.

“The clamour for an independent postal commission is to ensure that NIPOST is not the referee and the footballer,’’ he said. (NAN)