Few days ago, The Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) introduced a new set of charges that required operating courier services across the country to pay the agency for licences to operate. Beyond this, each courier service has to submit documents that could influence NIPOST’s decision to grant a licence or not.
The new charges which rivalled the setup costs of new courier services ranged from 20 million naira to 250,000 naira per year depending on the cadre these companies do business. While public outrage caused the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami to demand NIPOST to suspend the new tariff on registration of courier services, it does not change the dubious situation where a player in the logistics industry is also acting as the regulator of that industry and attempting to use its taxation powers to suffocate the others players in the market.
In the past few months, especially after the government placed a nationwide lockdown effectively forcing many businesses to operate from home, online retailing provided the leeway for several companies to stay alive. Due to the positive flux of online services, a supporting logistics sector rose in its number of players. This made sense to enable goods to be delivered to people who are unable to leave their homes…..
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