About 11,023 Nigerians have signed a petition on Change.Org requesting that the new charges imposed on courier and logistics companies by the Nigerian Postal Service be totally discarded.
The petition which was started by Chiedu Chiadika around 8 am on Saturday titled, ‘Say No To NIPOST Fee’, had risen to 11,023 as of 3:06 pm.
A summary of the petition reads, “NIPOST is implementing a senseless fee for grant of courier and logistic license which is poised to putting hardworking Nigerians out of business in an economy that is already in ruins.
“Our youth and small SMEs who are trying to survive in their legal businesses are by this rate going to shut down and which will in turn make many more people out of business. This rate will affect everyone from vendors, the owners of logistic companies, the riders and the customers. We cannot and we won’t accept such charges.
“Arbitrary fees from N250,000 to N20,000,000 have to be paid before you can run a logistics company in Nigeria.
“Neighbouring countries are granting waivers, tax rebates and more to businesses to assist them grow especially in this period of the COVID-19 pandemic but our government is hell-bent on making the populace suffer more by bringing up stringent measures aimed at making business shutdown and make their cronies monopolise the economy and in turn get richer while the average Nigerian wallows in poverty.”
The Crest reported that the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) had stated humongous charges to impose, international courier services like DHL, UPS, and FEDEX are expected to pay the sum of N20m for a new license while paying N8m annually. Also, those courier services who operate nationally would pay N10m for a license, with N4m yearly for renewal.
Logistics companies that operate within regions are expected to pay N5m for licence and N2m annually.
For firms that operate within states, the cost of procuring a licence is N2m while the renewal costs N800, 000.
For Small and Medium Enterprises, the license is N250,000 while the annual renewal of the license is N100,000.
These astronomical charges would have an effect on the prices of goods and services online.
