The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has directed the Nigerian Postal Service to put on hold the implementation of the new charges on courier and logistics companies with immediate effect.
The minister issued the order in a Tweet on Saturday He wrote, “Please NIPOST, our attention has been drawn to an increase of licence fee, which was not part of the regulation I earlier approved for you. Your chairman and PMG (Postmaster-General) were yesterday contacted to put the implementation on hold and send a report to our ministry by Monday. Best wishes!”
“The power of regulation of NIPOST lies with the Minister. Any change of fee must be specific & be approved by him before implementation. I know the economic challenges of NIPOST. However, looking at the economic hardship of our citizens, we need to suspend any move,” he added.
Earlier in the week, NIPOST approved new licence fees for persons in the courier business, revealing that the move is aimed at improving Nigeria’s logistic and courier structure with better efficiency following President’s Buhari new ease of doing business policies.
Companies which provide international courier services like FEDEX, DHL, and UPS, are to pay N20m for a new licence and N8m yearly, while those who offer national services are to pay N10m for licence and N4m annually for renewal.
Logistics companies that operate within regions are expected to pay N5m for licence and N2m annually for renewal. For states operators, the new fees are N2m for a licence while the renewal costs annually are N800,000.
For Small and Medium Enterprises, the licence fee is N250,000, whereas that of renewal annually is N100,000.
The news of the new fee as expected triggered widespread bickering as concerned Nigerians accused NIPOST of cutting off competition from smaller operators during a coronavirus pandemic that has heavily impacted Africa’s largest economy.
