20,000 workers lose out as govt shuts courier service providers

The Federal Government, through the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST), has authorised shutting down of some courier service providers in Nigeria.

With the move, more than 20,000 workers are to be affected, and will lose their jobs.

According to analysts, this is contrary to government’s promise to create more jobs to reduce high rate of unemployment plaguing the country, which the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently raised the alarm on its jump to 46 per cent.

Though NIPOST says it is acting in its capacity as the regulatory arm of courier services in the country, some of the affected companies allege that the clamp down was sponsored.

They frowned at its inauspicious timing when many of their clients had sent consignment for delivery to their business associates and families for the Christmas

A director in one of the affected firms said there was no evidence that his outfit failed to comply with any requirement to run the services in the country.

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“We went out of our ways to attract foreign investment into the country, but see how we are being treated by a government that is passing through recession.

“The older courier companies, including DHL, UPS and some others, have not been happy seeing the innovation that new courier companies have introduced in the service, hence they are inciting government agencies against us,” he alleged.

Among the affected firms are Lagos-based Mitchelle Mercantile Limited, Triple J. Chinese Restaurant, Chizzy Nigeria Limted, Essay Holdings Limited, Errandz4You and Finder King, while more than five were in Abuja, with yet-to-be ascertained number in Port Harcourt.

The Senior Assistant Postmaster General and Head of Courier Regulatory Department, Ishaya Diwa, explaining the reason behind the clamp down, said it was not new, adding that his department had been issuing warning on operators in the sector before Monday when it carried out the exercise.

Experts said more efforts would have been taken to find out some of the challenges that operators in the sector, especially the indigenous companies, are facing before the option of shutting them down

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