Fidelia Soriwei, Abuja
The Nigerian Postal Service has unveiled plans to assign a unique digital postcode to every addressable building across the country as part of efforts to modernise Nigeria’s addressing system and improve location identification.
Speaking at the unveiling of the Post Code Delineation Model Validation 2026 in Abuja, the Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of NIPOST, Tola Odeyemi, said the initiative would create a machine-readable address framework capable of identifying individual buildings nationwide.
According to her, the project is designed to position Nigeria among the first countries in Africa to develop a postcode system that extends to the unit level, ensuring every standing structure is assigned a distinct digital code.
“Postcode is basically a framework used to have a machine-readable standard location address for every addressable building in Nigeria,” Odeyemi said.
She explained that the system is expected to improve postal operations, logistics services, emergency response, planning and other location-based services by making addresses easier to identify and verify.
Odeyemi noted that the country’s diverse terrain and settlement patterns require different approaches to postcode allocation, stressing that population density and geographical features vary significantly across states.
She said the delineation process was designed to ensure postcode boundaries align with existing administrative structures and do not cut across local government areas.
“Delineation has to make sure the postcode does not pass administrative boundaries, and it must not go across two local government areas,” she stated.
The NIPOST chief added that the validation exercise would assess whether postcode maps generated through aerial mapping accurately reflect settlement patterns and realities on the ground in different parts of the country.
She described the exercise as a key stage in NIPOST’s broader digital addressing programme aimed at creating a standardised national postcode system to support efficient service delivery and address identification across Nigeria.
