Nigerian Postal Service(NIPOST) to partner Nigeria Railway Corporation(NRC) on Digital stamp, receipt authentication to boost Nigeria’s economy.
The Postmaster General of the Federation/CEO, NIPOST, Dr. Ismail Adebayo Adewusi said this during a courtesy visit to the office of the Managing Director/CEO, NRC, Engr Fidet Okhiria in Abuja recently.
Dr Adebayo said that the visit is geared toward taking advantage of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) networks on the movement of cargo, mail items across Nigeria.
According to him, “On behalf of NIPOST it is our pleasure to be here today on our first courtesy visit to share some issues of mutual benefits to the two organizations.
“So I will like to inform you that our coming here today is to share some of things we believe that we needed to go back to the time past that NIPOST use to have a very good relationship with the NRC so many years ago.
“One of those areas is the presences of our postal services along railway outlets across Nigeria. We believe that has you have expanded your network we want to have physical presence in most of your locations, so that we can operate as agency to provide services in those areas.
“I would like to inform you that one of the things that we also do with our presence is to also move most of our cargo through the railway service because we have a lot of cargo demand today that moves across the country by road.
“And with the security on the road that as already impacted that service I believe that if we are able to seal a deal btw NIPOST and NRC it is going to help symbiotically push our products and services closer through the rail.so that is one area, Now I know you are expanding the Lagos- Ibadan route, we have the Itakpe-Warri route and so many others, you told me that you are going to Kano from here, Lagos to Kano, so all these and it will continue to be.
“The rest of the world today do not move items on the road anymore, nobody moves heavy trucks on the road, and they use the rail services all over the world now. Most times Nigerians in the plane always is playing the catchup game, we are always left behind when people are already living in skyscrapers Nigerians are still living in mud houses. It is quite very compounding to some of our sanity.
“The issue of the Stamp Duties and how we ended up in court and how we are trying to settle out of court. But you see there is a serious problem on the understanding of the issues, which is why most people just say stamp duty stamp duty.
“NIPOST is never a collecting stamp duty, we are not a tax agent, we do not collect taxes, what we do is to sell our stamp to authenticate documents and receipt. So if you issue a receipt on the order of the our law which has been confirm by the Finance Act, 2020 we you are oblige to buy stamp to authenticate those receipt. We have situations where NIPOST has been invited to by the court to come and confirm certain transactions between two parties where there are issues when it became bigger problem. The Director of Operations had gone to court to serve this purpose. NIPOST has play a lot of role in the space of our local society.
“So what we are doing now is to issue a Digital Stamp. With modern technology we can afford to operate. That is why we are issuing a Digital Stamp to invalidate adhesive stamp. This Digital Stamp, we believe the NRC should be working with us along that line, because we are the only agency that issue stamps and any other agency that is issuing stamps is doing a contravention of the law of the land. And nobody is fighting us along those lines. We want NRC to see this request just as the way other agencies has started to collaborate with NIPOST even banks that were initially reluctant have started obliging” he stated.
On his part, Engr Okhiria expressed willingness to partner with NIPOST for the benefit of Nigeria’s economic growth.
“NRC is willing to partner and collaborate with NIPOST and that proposal and request tabled will be put into black and white”, he said.
A technical team between the two organizations was setup to facilitate implementation.
The technical team is headed by the two agency Directors of Operation, while members include Director Engineering Services, Finance Directors, Legal Directors, Director Stamp Authentication Compliance(NIPOST).