By Usman Aliyu
The Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) and its partners, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Ekode Mega Touch Ltd are training its staff members on financial services.
Such services include agent banking, payment services, remittance, and e-governance among others.
Speaking during the training on Wednesday in Benin, NIPOST PostMaster General, Ms Tola Odeyemi, said the training was to equip the staff with the requisite knowledge to drive the financial service of the agency.
“NIPOST has a lot of opportunities, infrastructure and privileges but lacks the resources to put them to maximum use.
“We partner Stanbic IBTC bank and Ekode which would bring in the resources to develop our infrastructure into maximum use for the benefit of NIPOST and the nation,” she said.
Represented by Mr Musa Suleman, Director Engineering and Technical Service, Odeyemi said the service remained a key player in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry.
This, she said, was due to NIPOST’s vast infrastructure and finance licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“But to develop and deploy the technology and resources required to actualise this, we partnered with Stanbic IBTC and Ekode for the funding and technology to drive the project”.
“NIPOST wants to make banking service available to Nigerians with minimal stress as well as capturing everybody into the financial net because of its spread across the country.
“For us to succeed as the key player in financial services, our staff must have the requisite knowledge about the process, that is the essence of this training in Benin.
“Similarly, training is going on in our Kaduna institute for northern staff,” Odeyemi said.
On his part, Dr Nuhu Ocheni, NIPOST’s General Manager, Financial Service, said the partnership was about agent banking, payment service and remittances, both domestic and international as well as e-government
He said, “The training is for heads of NIPOST financial service, fund manager and tellers as well as state postal managers who are to drive the programme for NIPOST to succeed.”
The NIPOST official called on the participants to fully participate in the training, as they would in turn train others to actualise the project that would yield revenue for NIPOST and the Federal Government.
In his remark, Bright Odigie, Agent Manager, Stanbic IBTC bank, said they were partnering with the NIPOST for their financial service by giving out POS terminals to all NIPOST branches across the country.
“With the terminals, NIPOST would be able to carry out their transactions such as, making deposit, withdrawal, cash transfer and payment of bills.
“The platform would help NIPOST to generate income,” he said..
The training, he added, would focus on how to operate the terminals as well as educating them on the benefits of using them.. (NAN)
