The Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) says it needs urgent special intervention in order to prevent it from going under.
Ismail Adewusi, postmaster-general of the federation, made the plea on Wednesday in Abuja at the hearing on the 2023-2025 medium-term expenditure framework and fiscal strategy paper (MTEF/FSP) organised by the house of representatives committee on finance.
Adewusi explained that the agency’s revenue has decline drastically with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as it affected 60 to 65 percent revenue of the organisation which was from exporting mails.
“When you take half of our revenue, what you are saying, in essence, is that we should shut down the business,” the postmaster-general said.
“The truth of the matter is that our cost of operation is higher than our revenue. Last year, we had a deficit of about N1.7 billion.
“The way we are today, NIPOST is comatose, it is just a matter of time before NIPOST dies if no intervention is made.”
According to Adewusi, the agency generated N3.9 billion in 2021 but remitted nothing due to a shortfall from its projections.
He explained that as a result of reforms made in 2020, a major source of revenue for NIPOST had been transferred to Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS), but added that NIPOST was now looking for alternatives.
He said that a couple of products had been developed to advanced stages while expressing optimism that when they become fully operational, the agency’s revenue would improve.