Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex Okoh, has assured the staff of Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) that there would be no job losses in the on-going reform of the service.
Okoh gave the assurance when he hosted a delegation of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunications Employees (NUPTE), led by its President, Rev. Nehemiah Buba, in Abuja, yesterday.
The privatization expert was quoted as saying in a statement by Amina Othman, BPE’s Head of Public Communications that rather than job cuts, more jobs would be created.
He explained: “After the reform, NIPOST will still remain a 100 percent entity of the Federal Government as the reform only aims at commercializing its services and making it robust to deliver more efficient postal service.”
He told the delegation that three commercial ventures, namely NIPOST Properties & Development Company; NIPOST Transport & Logistics Company and NIPOST Microfinance Bank Limited, had been created out of the NIPOST to expand the scope of its operations.
According to him, the Bureau has completed the registration of NIPOST Properties & Development Company and NIPOST Transport & Logistics Company at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); while the process for the registration at CAC and also of obtaining regulatory approvals from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for NIPOST Microfinance bank had also commenced.
He explained that these steps were undertaken to ensure optimal utilisation of vast assets of NIPOST across the country; reduction in treasury funding of NIPOST; and growth of ancillary services and business to enhance the overall efficiency of NIPOST to create more jobs.
In his remarks, Rev. Buba noted some of the hitherto unclear issues on the reform to the workers had been cleared by the DG promised enlighten NIPOST workers on the imperative of the reform of the sector.
He appealed to the Okoh-led management of theBureau to always update the union members on the progress of the reform.
