No Plan To Handover NIPOST To Foreign Managers – Minister

 

The Minister of Communications and Technology, Adebayo Shittu has disclosed that the Federal Government has no plan to hand over the operations of the Nigerian Poster Service, NIPOST, to foreigners.

The Minister in a statement signed by his media aide, Victor Oluwadamilare on Monday dismissed as untrue insinuations that the government had concluded arrangements to allow foreign managers operate NIPOST but however noted that the government was committed to turning the fortunes of NIPOST around for profitability.

His words: “our attention has been drawn to various insinuations making the rounds on the social media and a section of the Nigerian press to the effect that the Ministry of Communications was said to have concluded plans to hand over NIPOST to foreigners to manage.

 

“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the innuendoes, as there is no iota of truth in the said story, except for the likelihood of Nigerians being misled on our genuine intentions to reposition and revitalise NIPOST.

“In putting the records straight, the Government of the day has no plan whatsoever to either privatise NIPOST nor hand it over to foreigners to manage. This could only happen in the imagination of those who concocted and orchestrated the rumour to achieve only their inordinate mischief.

“For the avoidance of doubt, and as stated at different fora by the Minister of Communications, Barrister Shittu, Our vision of the new NIPOST is a total transformation from being a mono-product service organisation to a one-stop multi-product service provider with the ultimate aim of making it a cash-spinning establishment that can make meaningful contribution to the country’s revenue base.

“Such transformation will no doubt, entail diversification of services which will include rendering robust and all-inclusive financial services, utilising post offices across the country for rural telephony services, commercialising NIPOST’s fleet of vehicles, running a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and expansion of the stamp duties processes among others.

“Barrister Shittu, an avowed nationalist is a patriotic Nigerian who is wholly committed to the sustenance of our national institutions and legacies will never join the league of those hell-bent in selling off our common heritage,” the statement added.