NIPOST resumes 2nd Quarter Clampdown of Illegal Courier Operators

…..Intercepts dozens in Lagos

The Enforcement and Monitoring taskforce against illegal courier services and operators in the country, Thursday, July 4, 2024, stormed Maryland in Ikeja and Falomo areas of Lagos, arresting dozens of culprits with their motorbikes confiscated.

Comprising staff members of the Courier and Logistics Regulatory Department (CLRD) of NIPOST, officers from the Force Criminal Investigation Department, armed Policemen from the Lagos Force Headquarters, and journalists, the team had their work cut out for them after some of the culprits attempted to resist arrest.

The enforcement which is for the 2nd quarter of the year is in line with the NIPOST Act aimed at sanitizing the nation’s courier industry and flushing out criminal elements that hide under the business to perpetrate criminal activities. By the provisions of Section 43 of the Nigeria Postal Service Act, Cap N127, laws of the Federation,2004, and the Courier and Logistics Operations Regulation 2020, it is mandatory for any postal, courier, express, delivery dispatch and logistics operators to obtain an operating license from NiPOST to avoid Clampdown and prosecution for illegal and unethical operations.

After a successful operation in Lagos, the team is planning to take the clampdown exercise to other parts of the country such as Edo, Osun, Abuja, and Sokoto.

According to the General Manager of CLRD, Mr. Gideon Oladotun Shonde, their clampdown for the first quarter of the year was successfully carried out in Lagos and 11 other States including Abia, Rivers, Edo, Ekiti, Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, Katsina, Ondo, Kwara, and Delta.

In a statement, Shonde said that, “The postal, express, Courier and logistics industry in Nigeria has been proliferated and infiltrated with so many unlicensed and illegal courier and logistic operators with reckless abandonment for ethical standard and professional conduct.

“There exist unethical sharp practices such as price undercutting, pilfering, broaching, damages, loss and dumping of customers’ items, poaching and subletting of operating licenses with a mountain of public complaints about customers being duped or obtaining money from them under pretense, no traceable office address nor registered brand name. As well as overloading and carriage of items above the stipulated 50 kg.”

Shonde warned youths aiming to go into the business of courier and logistics to make sure they get the required professional and certification training being offered by NIPOST at a very subsidized rate and also get their businesses fully licensed.

“Every interested private investor in the Courier and Logistics business should follow the due process by obtaining a grant of operating licenses from the federal government, NIPOST”, he said.

“It is a crime against the state to operate on a space that is regulated without proper registration and license”, Shonde added.

Shedding more light on the professional and certification training, he said “The training program is aimed at rescuing the professionally certified dispatch riders and delivery drivers from unwanted harassment or oppression on Lagos or any other road nationwide.

” It will assist in tackling the menace of touting and extortion by criminal elements posing as local government officials”.

The compulsory certification training program for dispatch riders and delivery drivers which is a collaborative effort between NIPOST and Lagos State Government kicked off on March 11, 2022.

“The booking and reservation to be part of the training is done through e-registration by clicking on the link https://bit.ly/nipostmottraining.

The General Manager pointed out that they have been so lenient with the dispatch riders and delivery drivers by offering them a flexible payment plan to obtain licenses, such that those who cannot pay at a stretch can little by little, till they complete the payment.

NIPOST has also been creating awareness through Radio jingles and other media channels on the need for courier operators to get their outfits duly licensed, with up-to-date documentation.