Fidelia Okafor.

The federal government has revealed of its intentions to reposition the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) to provide e-commerce and e-government services in 2017.

This was made known by the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu on Monday at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.

Mr. Shittu said the e-commerce and government services would be in addition to its mandate of letter and parcel distribution.

Also, he added that the knowledge of ICT was pivotal for all economies today, whether in recession or not.

‘ICT assists in making life better, it enables businesses to be run more efficiently and even enables governments to be run properly and beneficially to the citizenry. That is why NIPOST wants to leverage on it to expand its scope of service delivery by engaging in e-commerce’.

‘If you are in Abuja and you wants to buy something in Kano, you simply go to a NIPOST facility, pay there and then the money is transmitted to the seller anywhere they are’.

He also said that the e-commerce in NIPOST would be of great benefit as it had a wide reach and coverage in the country; hence distance and weight of goods would not be a hindrance.

He also said the ministry was prepared to make good use of technology to promote good governance and promote NIPOST optimally and that it would soon establish a Nigerian Postal Service Property Development Company.