The domestic money order launched last year by the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) will be operational very soon, the Post Master General, Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi has said.
NIPOST is to fetch N200billion annually from its newly introduced products and services, including domestic money order, he added.
In an interview after the opening of the NIPOST Management Retreat in Abuja on Wednesday, the NIPOST boss revealed that the domestic money order would have gone live after its launch last year but for the International Postal Union directive that Nigeria allow it reconfigure the technology behind it in conformity to standard of IPU.
The NIPOST domestic money order will afford the unbanked people in the rural areas and other remote places the opportunity to send and receive money and other valuables, he said.
‘’Our domestic money orders was about to go live to be introduced to Nigerians but the International Financial System being driven by the Universal Postal Union told us; we are sorry, this is the first time any post office in the world is doing it; so we need recheck to ensure it is safe. And that they need to configure a new technology accommodating it,” he said.
The NIPOST boss said the technology had been reconfigured and the domestic money is ready to go live soon.
He further said, “We did not put a stop to it. How can we put a stop to it a technology being reconfigured to accommodate our domestic money order?
‘’It took some time to get it ready and I can tell you confidently on my honour that our domestic money order is ready.
‘’But don’t forget all of these things require infrastructure. Government doesn’t give NIPOST subvention; we are literally drawing water from an empty well. ‘’
He also revealed that NIPOST’s electronic stamp, which will increase the agency’s revenue base, is about to go live.
Another product soon to hit the market, according to him, is the e-commerce whose application programme interface for shipping of e-commerce products is ready.
‘’Our relationship with bank of agriculture is on stream because we are about to open pilot post offices in collaboration with the bank for benefit of the farmers in the rural areas and remote areas’’, he said.
He also disclosed that the problem of poor addressing system had been solved, using technology.
