Fostering Financial Inclusion, Grassroots Development Through Effective Postal System

By Musa Maigida, A Public Affairs Analyst

The financial and socio-economic inclusion of the grassroots of a country are critical indices for development and sustainability.

Therefore, the need to meet these economic indices has been a desire for most countries on the globe.

For instance, Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG is the need to provide comfortable and sustainable cities and communities for the populace.

This goal has direct bearing on grassroots inclusion as a means of stimulating other goals amongst the 17 such as “No Poverty”, “Zero Hunger” and “Access to health and education” just to mention a few.

But in the late 17th Century, there had been efforts by critical grassroots and community-based government bodies to provide services such as post and telegraph to rural dwellers based on government policies.

Nonetheless, on the 9th of October 1874, various governments of the world through their postal agencies established the Universal Postal Union, UPU after a conference in Switzerland.

Ever since, the date has been set aside to mark the World Post Day and the establishment of the Union.

Furthermore, over the decades the world has witnessed crucial factors that have threatened human existence.

This has made it a universal necessity for the world to integrate further to crystallize its existential agenda.

In Nigeria, there has been a deluge of people to state capitals and bustling cities which has been christened, “Rural-Urban Migration”.

This pattern is because of poor access to services and facilities at the grassroots; a situation that has placed much pressure on the infrastructure in the cities such as roads, bridges and buildings.

The idea behind the global drive to reposition the global postal sector therefore is to boost the living conditions of the grassroots and Nigeria as the most populated African country cannot be excluded from the agenda.

This no doubt necessitated the establishment of its National Postal outfit, the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST in 1987. Over the years though the advent of telecommunications and digital services have overtaken the postal services, but haulage and parcel delivery has continued to sprawl.

This cannot be unconnected to the COVID-19 pandemic which saw cities throughout the globe on lockdowns and travel restrictions.

So, such services became the means of reaching far flung areas in cities and communities with logistics and supplies from the government as well as private individuals.

These phenomena therefore brings to the forestage of the economic theatre, the need to harness the sector as a panacea to grassroots inclusion and development.

At an event on the forthcoming census held recently, the Postmaster General of the Federation, Mr Sunday Adepoju had said the nation had established a National Addressing system to enhance national exercises such as elections and census.

The Nation’s Prime Postmaster also called for the enhancement of the philately industry in Nigeria which is the collection of historical postage stamps, an industry worth billions of dollars in the international arena.

As it has always been the case, the grassroots constitute the larger population in the country and reaching them to meet the requirement of economic and financial inclusion cannot be over-emphasized.

This can be done through more funding and full utilization of the nation’s postal assets and resources. No doubt in consonance with the President Bola

Tinubu-led administration “Renewed Hope Agenda”, the nation’s bustling postal and parcel services sector is on the ground to be harnessed and funded to realize the salient indices of financial inclusion and development of the grassroots.

Edited By Grace Namiji