Federal Government 90% ready to unbundle NIPOST — Minister

The Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy has said that it is 90 per cent ready to unbundle the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST).

Dr. Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, who disclosed this said that NIPOST’s more than 2,000 properties nationwide would be deployed to money-generating ventures.

He made the revelation while featuring on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)’s special interview programme, NAN Forum.

Pantami said that property and development, logistics, courier and a micro finance company were among the forthcoming ventures.

He said all assets of NIPOST scattered all over the country would be fully utilised to maximise revenue generation for the emerging business enterprises.

The minister had on August 3 hinted that the Federal Government would soon unveil policies to unbundle NIPOST into property and development, logistics, courier and a micro finance company.

Pantami said that NIPOST had over 2,300 properties scattered across the country with most of them dilapidated and underutilised.

“NIPOST has over 2,300 properties in this country and you will discover it has property in some selected areas that are highly prestigious in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Kano and all of them are dilapidated,” he said.

According to him, some of the properties have been there for over 30 years without proper utilisation.

“So, the wisdom is to establish some companies like Property and Development Company that will work under NIPOST.”

The minister said the property enterprise would develop the dilapidated property, with some in partnership with the government, so that it would be able to put them into good use and generate something.

He also said the unbundling of NIPOST had reached advanced stages, with almost 90 per cent work done.

“We have reached advanced stages of unbundling, most probably almost 90 per cent work done now.

“We will come up with NIPOST Microfinance Bank. We can use all our offices where there are no banks even in rural areas and they can serve as banks.

“We also propose to have transport and Logistics Company; most probably we are considering the ability of coming up with a NIPOST courier company as well,’’ he said.

He noted that NIPOST unbundling would lead to increased employment and revenue generation for the government.