Years back, probably in the 90’s; if you want to receive a letter or parcel, you have to register with the Nigerian post office who will, in turn, create a private mailbox (P.M.B) for you. If someone was to send you a letter then, he/she will send to your private mailbox. Then you the receiver at your leisure time has to go to the post office to get your letter.

The problem with this style of receiving mails is that it’s not instant. An urgent mail may take up to two weeks or a month before it gets to you.

Well, this is the 21st century where everything becomes easy, where documents need to be transferred and accessed with speed. It wasn’t long before the P.M.B style of mailing became outdated and gave way to the email address system.

An email address is your personal digital mailbox. It is where you receive important messages, documents e.t.c.

Now that online payments are becoming popular in Nigeria, you will receive your receipts in your email address. This is already happening in most tertiary institutions; Yabatech does it. There are so many other uses of an email address. Let’s say you want to change or retrieve your Facebook password, you need an email address. Some lecturers in tertiary institutions could tell you to submit your assignments to his email address.

When I was doing my school registration a few years back, I used the mail address of the guy that helped with the registration. It’s not as if I didn’t have my own email account then but I didn’t remember the password. Now, I’ve lost contact with him. All my school receipts are sent to his email and since I don’t have access to his email, it’s useless. I had to apply for a change in email address and this cost me extra money and time.

To prevent something of such from happening to you, get your own email address. It’s free so you don’t have any excuse of not having.

The two main types of email Nigerians use are obviously Gmail and Yahoo mail. Personally, I use Gmail because it has more benefits than yahoo mail.

Gmail is owned by Google. With a Gmail account, I have access to YouTube, Google Drive, Google Plus and other Google products without registering again.

How to Register a new Email account

You can create your own Gmail email account by visiting Gmail.com and clicking create account. Fill the simple form provided with your correct details and submit. It’s very simple. A message will be sent to the phone number you entered, make sure you follow the instructions in the message.

Immediately you open your email account, try to write down the password somewhere safe; somewhere only you have access to. I use a password manager application to save all my passwords on my Android phone. You can read this review on the best password manager app for Android phone.

After you’ve got your email address, there are some safety measures to be taken.

• Don’t give your password to anyone, not even your boyfriend (if you’re a lady)
• If you use someone’s phone or computer to log into your email address, make sure you log out.
• It’s advisable you change your password once in a while for security reasons. I change mine once in three months.

An email account is a necessity every student should have. Stop procrastinating, get an email account today.

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