Dr Ali Pantami, Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, on Saturday, inaugurated the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) shopping complex in Gombe.
Inaugurating the complex, the minister said the edifice was strategic and important to the nation as well as key to economic development.
He said the idea of constructing the edifice was conceived by the previous administration and the project began in 2013, before its completion by the present administration.
Pantami said that starting a project in Nigeria was not as difficult as the completion because all over the country there are ongoing projects with some abandoned for over 30 years.
“I am glad to say that though the complex was not started in our time, but it was completed during our tenure in office ,” he said.
The minister said the complex was a joint project between NIPOST and private developers, who executed the project and they would put it to use and within a stipulated period of time, before returning it to the Federal Government.
He further said that the Federal Government had been working to ensure all government institutions were transformed, including NIPOST which had dilapidated.
According to him, the Federal Government had also developed many initiatives to make NIPOST very successful by developing rule making processes for the institution, for the first time in the history of the country.
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He said the initiative would identify all NIPOST property in the country and put them to use to generate revenue for government.
Similarly, a NIPOST Micro Finance Bank would be established whereby all post offices in Local Government Areas would serve as branches of the bank.
Hajiya Maimuna Abubakar, Chairman, Governing Board of NIPOST, said the edifice was a collaborative effort between NIPOST and private developers on a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) arrangement.
She urged the public to acquire shops in the complex due to its strategic location, saying that the complex consisted of 164 shops, with restaurants, toilets and offices.
