For years, discovering an address throughout a lot of Nigeria has depended far much less on a quantity than on an outline. A customer may be directed to a road, instructed to search for a particular constructing, instructed to show at a well-known store, or suggested to maintain strolling till reaching a landmark tree. Delivery riders typically know a neighbourhood intimately but nonetheless battle to determine the appropriate entrance gate. Across the nation, the hole between arriving in a group and reaching a particular doorway stays appreciable.
Nigeria’s new digital postcode system is designed to slim that hole. Launched on October 1, 2026, it strikes past the conventional postcode, which identifies a broad space, to assign codes at the degree of particular person buildings or supply items. The ambition is to make it potential to determine a selected constructing with larger precision, whether or not it’s in a busy metropolis, a creating suburb or a rural group.
But the system is greater than a brand new set of numbers and letters. Behind it’s an try to construct a nationwide location-data infrastructure: a system that may gather details about buildings, confirm it, replace it as locations change and make it helpful to authorities businesses, companies and abnormal Nigerians.
For Taslim Salaudeen, Milsat’s chief government and co-founder, the challenge is about one thing larger than giving constructing codes.
“The clear answer is that we are not another addressing company. We are a location-data infrastructure company,” he stated. “Our job, or our holistic mission, is to unlock the location-data gap that exists in African developing countries like Nigeria.”
That distinction helps clarify how the firm turned concerned in a nationwide postal challenge, why it spent years creating mapping know-how and what it believes the new postcode system might ultimately make potential.
From paper maps to usable knowledge
The firm’s geospatial knowledge assortment software program. Image supply: Milsat Technologies
Milsat’s involvement in the challenge grew out of its earlier work on mapping and data collection. The firm’s central argument is that many African international locations have details about their folks, buildings and communities, however too typically that data is collected in ways in which make it troublesome to reuse.
Data could also be gathered manually, recorded on paper or saved in methods that can’t simply be up to date or shared. A authorities company may full a mapping train for a selected function, just for the data to change into troublesome for one more establishment to entry or apply.
Salaudeen stated Milsat was established in 2017 to address that wider downside. Location knowledge, he defined, can assist way over postal supply. It may help governments map populations, plan public companies and determine the place kids dwell in rural communities so vaccination programmes can attain them. It also can assist companies perceive the place clients are, organise deliveries and make choices primarily based on geography.
“Location address is just one type of location service,” he stated, pointing to the firm’s work in census mapping, mapping kids in rural areas for vaccine supply and postcode methods.
Before such know-how turned accessible, he stated, many data-collection workout routines had been carried out “manually, on paper and pen, on paper maps”. The data couldn’t simply be reused, distributed or accessed by different organisations.
The downside, in his view, was the absence of infrastructure designed round the realities of African geography and communities. Milsat wished to construct instruments that will enable organisations to gather data, handle it and make it helpful past the unique challenge.
“So this is why we believe the first step to fixing data unavailability or data inaccessibility in Nigeria particularly is first to build the infrastructure that can allow Nigerians or Africans to collect data the way it is meant to be collected, operate it the way it is meant to be operated and distribute it towards people that really need it,” he stated.
The postcode system is one among the most seen functions of that ambition.
Milsat’s relationship with NIPOST started in the direction of the finish of 2021, in line with Salaudeen. The firm had been really useful to the postal service after work it carried out with the National Population Commission (NPC) on mapping buildings and different options for census-related actions.
Salaudeen stated Milsat’s know-how supported the mapping of greater than 65 million buildings, alongside roads and factors of curiosity. That determine is his account of the earlier mapping work, not a rely of buildings which have all obtained postcodes.
The suggestion introduced Milsat into discussions with NIPOST, which had been attempting to develop a nationwide addressing system for years. Salaudeen stated the postal service already had a coverage framework and an idea for what the nation’s postcode system ought to appear to be. The problem was turning these plans into one thing that might operate in the actual world.
“Our job then was to see the theoretical component that they wrote, their wishes, and then, as a technical partner, transform that into a practical, functional system,” he stated.
A system built earlier than the nationwide rollout
An enumerator accumulating area knowledge. Image supply: Milsat Technologies
To show that the proposed system might work, Milsat participated in a pilot in a single or two native authorities areas in Abuja. Salaudeen couldn’t recall exactly which areas throughout the interview.
The pilot was a joint effort involving NIPOST and different businesses. Salaudeen stated Milsat contributed know-how, coaching and operational assist, with a few of the work carried out at its personal expense. The firm noticed the train as an funding in a nationwide infrastructure challenge it believed was vital.
“We did a pilot to prove that we know what we are saying and we know what we are promising,” he stated.
He described the train as a collective effort, with totally different businesses contributing to its success. Milsat took duty for the know-how and coaching, whereas additionally protecting some operational prices.
The pilot demonstrated that the authorities’s postcode idea may very well be translated right into a working system. Users might question a postcode, retrieve it and affiliate it with a selected location.
“The pilot was proving that from theory to reality,” Salaudeen stated.
The path from pilot to nationwide launch was not quick. There had been adjustments in management and the normal problems of presidency tasks. There was additionally the query of the right way to finance and organise the work at nationwide scale.
Salaudeen stated Milsat had developed a lot of the underlying know-how earlier than the nationwide challenge was formally authorized. That preparation, he argued, helped clarify the pace of the eventual rollout. The firm was not ranging from scratch when the alternative to deploy the system throughout Nigeria emerged.
He additionally supplied an account of how the nationwide challenge was organised. According to him, Milsat was not the firm that immediately secured the important challenge contract. He recognized MID Network as the firm concerned in securing the contract and stated the two corporations subsequently collaborated, with Milsat contributing its location-data know-how and technical experience.
Salaudeen was candid about the distinction between creating know-how and navigating the strategy of securing a authorities contract. “We don’t really envy bidding; we envy delivery,” he stated, explaining that Milsat most popular to focus on what it knew the right way to do.
He described the eventual association for example of organisations recognising their totally different strengths and dealing collectively. Once the companions aligned, they may construct on know-how that had already been examined.
“We were prepared even before anything was sealed,” he stated. The companions had been capable of configure and deploy the system rapidly as a result of the know-how had already been developed and examined at earlier phases.
What a postcode now identifies
The largest change is the degree of element.
Nigeria’s older postcode system used numerical codes that typically pointed to an space or district. A postcode might determine a broad a part of a metropolis, however it didn’t essentially inform a supply service which constructing to go to.
The new system is designed to go additional. Its construction strikes by means of a number of geographical ranges, from state to native authorities space, district and space, earlier than figuring out a person constructing or supply unit.
Salaudeen stated the shift displays a wider motion in the direction of building-level addressing. While older methods in lots of international locations determine areas or areas, the new strategy is meant to take the code right down to the particular person unit.
“So it starts from state, LGA, district, area and unit, with unit being your home or your house or delivery unit,” he defined.
That last degree is vital. A code is not supposed solely to say {that a} parcel belongs someplace in a neighbourhood. It is supposed to determine the specific construction the place the parcel must be delivered.
Adedamola Baderinwa, who additionally participated in the interview, defined a part of the system’s geographical logic. An space can comprise a most of 99 buildings, whereas a district can comprise as much as 400 areas. In locations the place buildings are unfold out, and there are fewer than 99 inside an outlined house, the mannequin additionally takes geographical protection under consideration. Baderinwa stated an space may very well be primarily based on roughly two hectares the place the constructing rely is decrease.
The purpose is to make the system work in locations with very totally different patterns of growth. A densely built a part of Lagos could comprise many buildings shut collectively. In a much less densely populated a part of the nation, buildings could also be separated by massive stretches of land. A system primarily based solely on the variety of buildings might deal with these locations erratically.
The new mannequin makes an attempt to account for each.
It additionally defines a constructing in sensible phrases. For NIPOST, a unit is a spot the place a supply might be made: a construction the place a postal employee can arrive, knock on the door, and depart a parcel. If a compound incorporates three separate standing buildings, every can have its personal unit code.
“A unit is a standing structure,” Salaudeen stated. “So if you have three standing buildings in a compound, they have independent unit codes.”
That definition has penalties for what the system contains. A brief kiosk, development shelter, or movable construction could not qualify as an addressable constructing, even when somebody is staying there. Salaudeen stated NIPOST applies a typical definition of a supply unit, reasonably than treating each short-term construction as a everlasting address.
The distinction is vital in a rustic the place folks dwell in a variety of housing preparations. It additionally factors to one among the system’s limits: a postcode database built for postal supply is not going to essentially describe each place the place folks dwell or work.
Mapping Nigeria as it’s
Building a nationwide addressing system presents a problem that isn’t solved by importing mapping know-how developed elsewhere.
Nigeria’s geography and settlement patterns range extensively. In some locations, buildings are organized alongside deliberate streets. In others, they emerge progressively, with roads and homes creating in methods that don’t observe a proper structure. Communities could also be organised round waterways, casual paths or landmarks that residents know effectively however which can be troublesome to signify by means of standard mapping methods.
Salaudeen stated Milsat needed to construct its know-how with these variations in thoughts. He described communities the place folks dwell in homes alongside rivers, in caves or in buildings that may not match a slim Western definition of a standard constructing.
“In the desert, you see white domes; in river areas, you see houses on the river; in the East, you see people in caves,” he stated. “These are places where people reside and live and call their homes.”
The firm’s earlier area expertise, he stated, helped it perceive how housing and settlement patterns differ throughout the nation. The problem was to create one system that might recognise these variations whereas nonetheless working in line with constant requirements.
Baderinwa pointed to a different instance: family buildings in elements of northern Nigeria. A household could also be unfold throughout a number of buildings, with members residing in separate buildings however sharing meals from the similar pot. A mapping system designed round the assumption that one family occupies one constructing might misunderstand that association.
These particulars could seem small, however they matter when location knowledge is used for planning, service supply, or population-related work. A system that misreads how folks dwell can produce data that appears exact on a map however doesn’t precisely replicate life on the floor.
For Milsat, the reply was to construct know-how that might accommodate native realities with out abandoning worldwide requirements.
“Our technology adapts to culture while maintaining global standards,” Salaudeen stated. “We have global standards and a solution that works in our local culture.”
He stated a lot of the know-how used to function the postcode system was developed regionally. Satellite imagery is built-in into the firm’s field-mapping utility, serving to groups evaluate what they see on the floor with geographical data and ensure whether or not the mapping mannequin suits a selected location.
The know-how additionally offers instruments for validating data, checking knowledge high quality, and managing updates. Human fieldwork stays a part of the course of. Satellite imagery may help determine buildings and geographical options, however it doesn’t take away the want for folks to verify what exists in a group.
Salaudeen described the wider know-how as an working system for knowledge, permitting organisations to gather, confirm, distribute and govern data reasonably than depart it sitting unused in storage.
A postcode that should preserve altering
A nationwide postcode system can’t be handled as a challenge that ends when the software program is launched. Buildings are constructed, demolished, divided and modified. New settlements emerge, and present communities develop.
The system is designed to simply accept updates from totally different sources. A resident or property proprietor could submit a request or recommend a change. Government businesses could contribute data from their very own information, together with knowledge generated by means of building-permit processes. NIPOST’s postcode division is accountable for reviewing submissions and approving adjustments.
Where there may be uncertainty, officers can organize for data to be checked on the floor, Salaudeen stated.
He described the course of as one wherein totally different data pipelines feed right into a central system, however submissions nonetheless move by means of data-quality checks earlier than they’re authorized.
This is especially vital as a result of the present mapping knowledge isn’t full or everlasting. Salaudeen stated the earlier census-related work offered a considerable start line, however new buildings have appeared since that train. He estimated that just about 50 million buildings had been already represented in the postcode database, whereas acknowledging that the quantity would proceed to develop. The determine was offered by the firm’s executives and was not independently verified in the interview.
Rather than starting with an empty map, NIPOST is constructing on data that had already been collected. Residents whose buildings are lacking can request a postcode, permitting the database to develop as new places are recognized.
Salaudeen careworn that the system shouldn’t be judged as if it had been a one-time mapping train. “Postcode is not something where we say we have finished,” he stated. “It is a continuous growth because people keep on building houses.”
For Milsat, the longer-term ambition is to make the database one among the richest sources of location details about Nigeria. Baderinwa stated the firm hoped it will attain that time inside 5 years.
Reaching folks past smartphones
A digital postcode system is just helpful if folks can entry it. That raises a sensible query in a rustic the place not everybody owns a smartphone, has dependable web entry or is comfy navigating a digital map.
Salaudeen stated the companions seen public entry as a unbroken course of reasonably than one thing solved by launching an internet site or utility. The system could enable an individual to discover a postcode on-line, however the firm can be contemplating methods to make the data accessible by means of organisations and companies that already gather folks’s addresses.
Banks, hospitals, public well being centres, utilities and different establishments might change into factors by means of which individuals uncover their postcodes. A buyer who has beforehand offered a house address to a financial institution or hospital may ultimately have the ability to obtain the corresponding postcode by means of that establishment.
The firm additionally mentioned working with native representatives who might go to communities and assist residents determine their codes. In some rural areas, printed lists or gazetted postcode data could also be extra sensible than asking folks to navigate a digital interface.
Salaudeen stated the companions had been exploring whether or not telecommunications networks might assist folks retrieve their postcodes by means of textual content messages or USSD, companies that don’t require a smartphone. These had been potentialities into consideration, not capabilities he stated had been already absolutely accessible.
His place is that know-how shouldn’t change into a barrier to receiving the service.
“We are a diverse country. Every layer of development requires a different strategy in disseminating information,” he stated. “We will meet you where your knowledge is, just to deliver the same result: knowing a precise postcode.”
What companies can do with it
The system can be supposed to change into infrastructure for companies that rely on correct location data.
A logistics firm, for instance, might use building-level postcodes to organise deliveries extra effectively. A monetary establishment might enhance the method it information buyer addresses. Other companies might use the data to plan companies, determine clients or join their very own knowledge to specific places.
To encourage adoption, the companions have opened a route for companies to combine the postcode system into their very own merchandise. Baderinwa stated corporations might go to dashboard.postco.gov.ng, create an account, full a know-your-business verification course of and request entry to the utility programming interface, or API. A sandbox setting permits builders to check how the system works earlier than utilizing it of their companies.
He stated about 700 corporations had registered at the time of the interview, though that determine was not independently verified. Larger organisations with extra complicated necessities can search further integration assist.
Salaudeen stated Milsat’s function isn’t merely to ship a database and stroll away. It needs to assist businesses and companies preserve their knowledge operational, up to date and helpful over time.
He described this as turning knowledge into an asset: data that may be maintained and utilized by totally different organisations reasonably than left unused after a challenge ends.
“Our business model is making a big enterprise or a government agency sustainable by operating their dataset,” he stated. “We make data an asset for any agency or business. We make it operable, make it living, and connect it to the sectors or enterprises that can use it for their daily activities.”
The reported price of the nationwide challenge was under ₦8 billion, in line with Salaudeen. He stated the financing lined a spread of necessities, together with area gear, software program deployment and infrastructure for NIPOST. He didn’t present an in depth breakdown of the spending or specify how a lot Milsat itself earned from the challenge.
For now, the tougher take a look at is whether or not the system can stay correct, accessible and helpful as Nigeria adjustments. A postcode that factors to a constructing that not exists, or fails to incorporate a brand new settlement, will rapidly lose worth. A database that residents can’t entry will battle to change into a part of on a regular basis life. And companies can have little cause to combine it if the data can’t be trusted.
The launch has offered Nigeria with a brand new option to determine buildings. Keeping that system alive would require continued fieldwork, dependable oversight, cooperation between public establishments and personal corporations, and participation from the folks whose houses and companies it’s meant to find.
Salaudeen’s bigger argument is that the postcode is just the starting. The infrastructure being built round it might assist different types of location-based companies, from public planning to industrial supply and knowledge administration.
That is an even bigger ambition than giving each constructing a code. It is an effort to make the locations the place Nigerians dwell and work simpler to determine, describe and hook up with the companies that rely on figuring out precisely the place they’re.
The actual measure of the system, then, is not going to be how rapidly it was launched. It might be whether or not it could actually preserve discovering Nigeria as Nigeria retains constructing itself.
