UK Royal Mail taps into e-commerce as Nigeria’s NIPOST nears unbundling

UK Royal Mail has effectively tapped into logistics deployment, becoming the number one promoter of e-commerce in the United Kingdom, according to Moya Greene, the chief executive officer.

This comes as its Nigerian counterpart, Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) is being considered for unbundling to have standalone business components that will project it for efficient service and put it on a profitable path.

In a release, Greene said Royal Mail was the leader as a result of their significant investments to improve their customer offering, which had started to bear fruits.

“For the past nine months, parcel volumes have recorded up 6 percent, with 149 million parcels treated over the December trading period. Letters performance was better than expected with addressed letter volumes down 5 percent. GLS also recorded another tremendous work with the volumes and revenue up 10 percent. Conclusively, Group revenue was up 2 percent,” Greene said.

Greene also mentioned that given the performance record to date, the company expects to see an impressive similar volume and revenue trends in UK parcels and letters for the full year as in the nine months.

NIPOST on its part is being considered for restructuring and rebranding for optimal performance. Alex Okoh, director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), hinted this Thursday when Bisi Adegbuyi, the postmaster general of NIPOST, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.

Okoh noted that NIPOST has great potential and that given the right incentives and business strategy, it would become efficient, profitable and provide value for money.

He said that the final decision on the restructuring would be dependent on the outcome of the work of the advisers engaged in the transaction. He further stressed that although the Bureau has the mandate for such reform, “we are collaborating with all the critical stakeholders to ensure that the reform in NIPOST is carried out without hitches”.