NIPOST boss declares N45.8B for stamp sales

By Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja

Authority of the Nigerian Postal Service, (NIPOST) has debunked the rumoured conflict between the agency and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS) and the States Board of Internal Revenue, (SBIR) over remittances of stamp duties.

NIPOST Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi, stated this at a press briefing held in Abuja. He noted that the Federal Government has made over N45.8 billion from stamp duties following the reforms introduced by the Buhari administration.

Adegbuyi further explained that the production, printing, and sales of stamp duties remain the sole responsibility of NIPOST even if it had moved from manual to electronic stamps.

According to Adegbuyi, “NIPOST being the largest government owned institution in Nigeria has embarked on infrastructural development, through the deployment of digital platforms, training and retraining of its workers among others to change the narratives of the Nigeria postal service.

“We have deployed ICT solutions/platforms to attain about 70 percent automation of all its systems and operations across the country and by 2020 the systems would be fully automated.”

The NIPOST boss stressed that, “What we are doing currently is to change the narratives of postal service system in Nigeria by leveraging on technological platforms to drive financial inclusion, create jobs opportunities,  promote Small and Medium Scale Businesses,  create access to credit and mortgage systems and assist government to address the current  security challenges.

“We are currently partnering with JAMB, NIMC and other institutions and agencies of government to make our operations robust particularly in the financial services sector, e-governance, remittances, parcel and postal services . The CBN has also granted NIPOST the license for money transfer because of our large presence in all the local government councils in the country.

“We are aggregating all the e-government centres, Road Safety, Immigration Service,etc. to ensure that the common man will  benefit from them through the Postal Service System. You can imagine if pension are paid to our retirees in the villages through the Postal Service system, the stress associated with pension payment would be avoided and lots of lives would be saved as well from the risks associated with travelling,”