The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has ordered the Nigerian Postal Service to halt the implementation of the new charges on courier and logistics companies immediately.
Pantami said this in a tweet on Saturday.
He said, “Please NIPOST, our attention has been drawn to an increase of licence fee, which was not part of the regulation I earlier approved for you. Your chairman and PMG (Postmaster-General) were yesterday contacted to put the implementation on hold and send a report to our ministry by Monday. Best wishes!”
It was earlier reported how the decision to introduce costs of licence for logistics and courier services sparked outrage from a section of Nigerians mainly online.
The new charges introduced by NIPOST are expected to cause an increase in the cost of courier services and delivery goods.
According to NIPOST, companies which provide international courier services like DHL, UPS and FEDEX, are expected to pay N20m for a new licence and N8m annually while those who offer national services are expected to pay N10m for licence and 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.
Courier firms that operate within municipalities are to pay N1m for licence and N400,000 annually.
For Small and Medium Enterprises, the licence is N250,000 while the annual renewal of the licence is N100,000.
The SME category is for small courier firms which have not more than five delivery vehicles
The move, it was learnt, would increase the cost of goods purchased online.
