When people hear NIPOST, their minds naturally get fixated on letters, mails and delivery of documents. Few also link the Nigerian Postal Service to purchase of postage stamps. With the great advancement in information and communication technology that revolutionised the way we communicate, it appeared as if the end of post offices was in sight.
In Nigeria, NIPOST naturally went on an inevitable decline with the era of P.O. Box strolling towards extinction. But post offices in other parts of the world especially the developed world are evolving to keep up with the changing times. In the UK for instance, there are around 11,500 post offices, making it one of the largest post office networks in the world. In Nigeria, we have around 955 post offices, some of which are dilapidated.
Notwithstanding the ICT revolution, post offices in other climes such as the UK have evolved and now provide a range of services such as sale of stationery, bill payment services, money transfer services, banking and insurance services, passport application services and the collection of health insurance contributions and even tax collection.
It was therefore gratifying to see the newly appointed Postmaster General and CEO of NIPOST, Ms Tola Odeyemi clearly trying to make NIPOST evolve and move from its traditional comfort zone to one that provides a lot of services required in Nigeria’s growing digital landscape. Perhaps the greatest of such move would be the anticipated partnership between NIPOST and the Ministry of Interior.
On 25th October, 2023 the Postmaster General paid a courtesy visit to the Honourable Minister for Interior, Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo to seek collaboration between NIPOST and some the Ministry. Ms. Odeyemi obviously smelt a big opportunity when the Minister back in September promised that by February 2024, the Nigerian Immigration Service would commence home delivery of international passports. No agency is better positioned to help achieve that than NIPOST!
The NIPOST Boss proposed business collaboration and partnership with the Ministry of Interior in three key areas, which include:
1. Delivery of critical documents such as International Passports to applicants.
2. Backend services for processing of passport utilising NIPOST selected locations.
3. NIPOST for Address Verification System (AVS)
These three potential areas of collaboration if successful, would impact massively on Nigeria’s passport application and delivery system and our national security. First, the Nigerian Immigration Service can partner with NIPOST to leverage on their wide network of post offices scattered across the country to offer some backend services for processing of passport applications.
Backend services for passport processing here refer to the activities that take place behind the scenes to ensure that passport applications are processed efficiently and that passports are issued in a timely manner. This includes the receipt and verification of passport applications, the collection and verification of supporting documents, the checking of passport photographs against biometric databases, and the printing and quality control of passports.
Backend services in the case of passport processing also include the security checks that are carried out to ensure that passports are not issued to people who are not eligible for them and that addresses supplied by the applicants are verified.
The NIPOST on behalf of the NIS can receive offline applications for international passport from Nigerians who can walk into any post office nearest to them instead of looking for Immigration offices that may be located in the state capitals only. NIPOST can then provide a one-stop shop for completing most parts of the application process and verifying necessary information that needs verification in collaboration with the Immigration Service.
After production of the passport, if the applicant requested for home delivery, the courier service arm of NIPOST can then deliver the passport to the applicant at the address for delivery provided. The delivery fee goes to NIPOST of course further boosting their revenues. Eventually, NIPOST may need to expand its workforce in order to meet the increased demand for its services. That’s how job creation becomes a dividend of the NIPOST-NIS partnership.
The third leg of the anticipated collaboration between the NIPOST and the Interior Ministry led by Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo involves leveraging on NIPOST’s Address Verification System. The Address Verification System created by NIPOST is a technology initiative of the Nigerian Postal Services to bridge the physical addressing gap in Nigeria.
The NIPOST AVS solution seeks to create a centralised and up-to-date database of physical addresses and the details of their occupants in order to bridge the gap in data verification. The enhancement of national security is one of the priority objectives of the Minister for Interior, Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. He recently promised to deploy technology to tackle the issues revolving on national security that falls within the mandate of the Ministry of Interior.
One of the important ways to ensure national security is to have a reliable database of all legal residents in the country with verified addresses. This helps in fighting crime since the law enforcement agencies can be in a better position to accurately trace the address of any identified suspect or person of interest. It would therefore be a big deal for this country if the Ministry of Interior can leverage on NIPOST’s Address Verification System (AVS) to enhance our national security.
Luckily, from all indications, the recent interaction between the NIPOST CEO, Ms Tola Odeyemi and the hardworking Honourable Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo on these subject matters is not a time-wasting familiarisation adventure, but a truly revolutionary inter-ministerial handshake that will bring us further close to realisation of the Renewed Hope Agenda of strengthening our national security architecture.