The promotion of national security and the protection of life and property are critical to overall social and economic development. Consequently, the Federal Government of Nigeria should ensure that postal operators comply with generally accepted standards for the provision of such services as registered mail, parcels, financial services and others with respect to safety, emergency and national security.
The Government should, therefore, ensure the protection of life and property, provision of postal services for emergency and distress situations in all parts of Nigeria and support international cooperation in this respect. The government should also ensure that laws relating to postal services and infrastructure are continuously reviewed and enforced. Besides, the Government should ensure that all postal matters relating to defence and security of Nigeria should be restricted to Nigerians. The Government should also ensure compliance of all postal service provider to relevant legislation and regulations to prevent crime.
FUNDING
The funding of the postal sector is in the following areas:
a. The postal sector regulator.
b. The universal service provider as it relates to the universal network, service. Product investment diversification support and for restructuring, upgrading and the compensation for loss in universal service obligations.
Other sources of fund are contributions from registered operators, licence fees, donor agencies, gifts and loans and international assistance
IMPLEMENTATION AND POLICY REVIEW
The areas of implementation and policy review are the General Postal Sector Policy and the Performance Agreement between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the designated Public Postal Operator (NIPOST). The Postal Sector Policy should be reviewed by the Government from time to time, taking cognizance of changes in the market, finance, technologies and other issues arising from the implementation. Management report from the designated Public Postal Operator (NIPOST) and Annual Reports based on information from the Sector Regulator will be useful in such evaluation.
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
In terms of the review of Performance Agreement between the Federal Government and the designated Public Postal Operator (NIPOST), the following key performance indicators are critical:
a. Growth and viability of NIPOST in areas of revenue, mail per inhabitant, counter transactions per inhabitant, profit and investment.
b. Quality improvement, in combination with redefining the service levels in such areas as transit times, percentage of lost mail, and percentage of damaged mail
c. Customer satisfaction measured on the on transit time, opinion on the level of the postal rates, opinion on the ease of access to the postal network, and number of complaints
d. Accessibility of post offices nationwide with a focus on the total number of postal outlets and the average distance to the nearest postal outlet
e. Accessibility of the postal system in economic centres which are the engines for cconomic growth in Nigeria. Such accessibility should focus on the total number of postal outlets, average distance to nearest postal outlet, total number of street letter boxes, average distance to nearest letterbox and total number of post boxes.
f. Efficiency which is measured in terms of the average number of mail items delivered per employee, average number of counter transactions per category of postal outlet, and the ratio of direct staff and indirect staff.