Godfrey Ikhemuemhe
27 October 2004
NIPOST's Area Postal Manager for Lagos Island territory, Mr. Babatunde Fajinmi, has revealed that the advent of GSM business in Nigeria has had some adverse effect on postal services.
Fajinmi who spoke in Lagos last week, revealed that in Lagos Island where he is in charge, a survey by his company indicated that NIPOST lost about 85% of its business to GSM services between 2002 and 2003. He said that with GSM which gave subscribers the ability to send quick text messages and make calls easily, much of NIPOST's local mail delivery services were affected adversely. But he assured that NIPOST was introducing some services which involve quick delivery to tackle the challenge.
To deal with this problem, Fajinmi said that NIPOST would establish more NetPosts around the city.
Lagos Island territory is the biggest revenue earner in all of NIPOST's operations nationwide and is held in high esteem by the management of NIPOST.
Despite the competition posed by GSM however, Fajinmi revealed that revenues from the Lagos Island territory continues to rise as NIPOST improves its services in line with new business practices. He contended that with a re-engineered NIPOST, the company could stand with its head high when compared with private sector operators in the courier business. Fajinmi said that NIPOST had recognized that in modern business practices the strategy for survival is to perform well.
He contended that because of this new approach to business, they can match private courier firms in the competition that has now engulfed the industry, stressing that 80% of their jobs pass through us.
Fajinmi also explained that his territory has been able to win back a lot of multinational organizations within the Lagos Territory because of the re-engineering that was taking place in NIPOST.
"When they found out that we could deliver promptly and efficiently, they now pass much of their business through us because we have proved ourselves worthy", he told inquisitive reporters.
He contended that the competitive edge that NIPOST have over private courier companies is that fact that private courier services are elitist in nature while NIPOST remains popular with all segments of the society. He said that NIPOST post offices are in every part of the country including remote villages where there are NIPOST agents. "But you cannot find courier companies in even some major towns in this country", he said, stressing "we now emphasize security in our mail delivery.
Fajinmi said that after attaining 24 hours delivery within Lagos and 48 hours on inter-city routes, NIPOST was now determined to improve on this and bring city deliveries to six hours and inter-city 24 hours, as part of a presidential directive.
To achieve this, NIPOST has embark on aggressive market as part of the strategy to expand its market share, through a lot of publicity and advertisement about the security of mail through NIPOST.
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