Senate to recommend NIPOST privatisation over poor performance

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sani Musa, said on Tuesday the Red Chamber would consider the privatization of the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) for optimal performance.

He stated this during an interactive session on the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) in Abuja.

The Postmaster-General of the Federation, Mrs. Tola Odeyemi who appeared before the committee to defend the agency’s input in the MTEFand FSP had angered the senators when she said the management projected N18 billion as personnel cost for the 16, 000 staff across the country.

Musa, who said Nigerians are not feeling the impact of NIPOST, decried the planned increase in the personnel cost from N13 billion in 2023 to N18 billion in 2024.

Odeyemi’s explanation that the request was due to a recent increase in NIPOST personnel cost occasioned by the Federal Government’s payment of peculiar allowance to workers did not appease the lawmakers.

READ ALSO: NIPOST fails to increase revenue in three consecutive years

The committee chairman, thereafter, the NIPOST chief to forward to the committee details of her plan to reposition the agency to a revenue-generating agency.

He said: “NIPOST should have been fully privatised before now because nobody is feeling their impact anywhere in the country.

“We are ready to recommend to the Senate in plenary, full privatisation of the NIPOST except the Postmaster General convinces us otherwise.

“The CEO of NIPOST should forward to the secretariat of our committee details of her business model on how the agency would be generating adequate revenues for the country through creative ideas.

“Failure to do this would leave the Senate with no other option than to recommend the full privatisation of NIPOST.”

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