For years, discovering an address throughout a lot of Nigeria has depended far much less on a quantity than on an outline. A customer is perhaps directed to a road, instructed to search for a particular constructing, instructed to show at a well-recognized store, or suggested to maintain strolling till reaching a landmark tree. Delivery riders typically know a neighbourhood intimately but nonetheless battle to establish the right 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 slender 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 models. The ambition is to make it attainable to establish a selected constructing with better 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 extraordinary Nigerians.
For Taslim Salaudeen, Milsat’s chief govt 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 mentioned. “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 grew to become concerned in a nationwide postal challenge, why it spent years creating mapping know-how and what it believes the new postcode system may finally make attainable.
From paper maps to usable knowledge
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 tough to reuse.
Data could also be gathered manually, recorded on paper or saved in programs that can’t simply be up to date or shared. A authorities company may full a mapping train for a selected goal, just for the data to turn into tough for one more establishment to entry or apply.
Salaudeen mentioned Milsat was established in 2017 to address that wider drawback. Location knowledge, he defined, can assist excess of postal supply. It might help governments map populations, plan public providers and establish the place kids stay in rural communities so vaccination programmes can attain them. It may assist companies perceive the place clients are, organise deliveries and make selections based mostly on geography.
“Location address is just one type of location service,” he mentioned, pointing to the firm’s work in census mapping, mapping kids in rural areas for vaccine supply and postcode programs.
Before such know-how grew to become accessible, he mentioned, many data-collection workout routines had been performed “manually, on paper and pen, on paper maps”. The data couldn’t simply be reused, distributed or accessed by different organisations.
The drawback, in his view, was the absence of infrastructure designed round the realities of African geography and communities. Milsat needed to construct instruments that might enable organisations to gather data, handle it and make it helpful past the authentic 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 mentioned.
The postcode system is one in every of the most seen purposes of that ambition.
Milsat’s relationship with NIPOST started in the direction of the finish of 2021, based on 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 mentioned 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 mentioned the postal service already had a coverage framework and an idea for what the nation’s postcode system ought to seem like. 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 mentioned.
A system built earlier than the nationwide rollout
To reveal that the proposed system may 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 mentioned 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 essential.
“We did a pilot to prove that we know what we are saying and we know what we are promising,” he mentioned.
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 could possibly be translated right into a working system. Users may question a postcode, retrieve it and affiliate it with a selected location.
“The pilot was proving that from theory to reality,” Salaudeen mentioned.
The path from pilot to nationwide launch was not rapid. There had been adjustments in management and the normal issues of presidency tasks. There was additionally the query of the best way to finance and organise the work at nationwide scale.
Salaudeen mentioned Milsat had developed a lot of the underlying know-how earlier than the nationwide challenge was formally accepted. That preparation, he argued, helped clarify the velocity 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 instantly secured the major challenge contract. He recognized MID Network as the firm concerned in securing the contract and mentioned 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 means of securing a authorities contract. “We don’t really envy bidding; we envy delivery,” he mentioned, explaining that Milsat most popular to focus on what it knew the best way to do.
He described the eventual association for instance of organisations recognising their totally different strengths and dealing collectively. Once the companions aligned, they might construct on know-how that had already been examined.
“We were prepared even before anything was sealed,” he mentioned. The companions had been capable of configure and deploy the system shortly as a result of the know-how had already been developed and examined at earlier phases.
What a postcode now identifies
The greatest change is the degree of element.
Nigeria’s older postcode system used numerical codes that usually pointed to an space or district. A postcode may establish a broad a part of a metropolis, but it surely 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 mentioned the shift displays a wider motion in the direction of building-level addressing. While older programs in lots of international locations establish areas or areas, the new strategy is meant to take the code all the way 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 ultimate degree is essential. A code is now not meant solely to say {that a} parcel belongs someplace in a neighbourhood. It is supposed to establish the specific construction the place the parcel ought to be delivered.
Adedamola Baderinwa, who additionally participated in the interview, defined a part of the system’s geographical logic. An space can include a most of 99 buildings, whereas a district can include as much as 400 areas. In locations the place buildings are unfold out, and there are fewer than 99 inside an outlined area, the mannequin additionally takes geographical protection into consideration. Baderinwa mentioned an space could possibly be based mostly on roughly two hectares the place the constructing rely is decrease.
The intention is to make the system work in locations with very totally different patterns of improvement. A densely built a part of Lagos could include many buildings shut collectively. In a much less densely populated a part of the nation, buildings could also be separated by giant stretches of land. A system based mostly solely on the variety of buildings may 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 may be made: a construction the place a postal employee can arrive, knock on the door, and go away a parcel. If a compound incorporates three separate standing buildings, every can have its personal unit code.
“A unit is a standing structure,” Salaudeen mentioned. “So if you have three standing buildings in a compound, they have independent unit codes.”
That definition has penalties for what the system consists of. A brief kiosk, development shelter, or movable construction could not qualify as an addressable constructing, even when somebody is staying there. Salaudeen mentioned NIPOST applies an ordinary definition of a supply unit, somewhat than treating each momentary construction as a everlasting address.
The distinction is essential in a rustic the place folks stay in a variety of housing preparations. It additionally factors to one in every of the system’s limits: a postcode database built for postal supply won’t essentially describe each place the place folks stay or work.
Mapping Nigeria as it’s
Building a nationwide addressing system presents a problem that’s not solved by importing mapping know-how developed elsewhere.
Nigeria’s geography and settlement patterns differ 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 format. Communities could also be organised round waterways, casual paths or landmarks that residents know properly however which might be tough to symbolize by means of standard mapping programs.
Salaudeen mentioned Milsat needed to construct its know-how with these variations in thoughts. He described communities the place folks stay in homes alongside rivers, in caves or in constructions which may not match a slender Western definition of a traditional 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 mentioned. “These are places where people reside and live and call their homes.”
The firm’s earlier discipline expertise, he mentioned, 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 based on constant requirements.
Baderinwa pointed to a different instance: family constructions in components of northern Nigeria. A household could also be unfold throughout a number of buildings, with members dwelling in separate constructions however sharing meals from the similar pot. A mapping system designed round the assumption that one family occupies one constructing may 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 stay 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 mentioned. “We have global standards and a solution that works in our local culture.”
He mentioned 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 examine 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 supplies instruments for validating data, checking knowledge high quality, and managing updates. Human fieldwork stays a part of the course of. Satellite imagery might help establish constructions and geographical options, but it surely doesn’t take away the want for folks to substantiate 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 somewhat than go away it sitting unused in storage.
A postcode that should maintain 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 current communities broaden.
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 data, together with knowledge generated by means of building-permit processes. NIPOST’s postcode division is answerable for reviewing submissions and approving adjustments.
Where there’s uncertainty, officers can prepare for data to be checked on the floor, Salaudeen mentioned.
He described the course of as one wherein totally different data pipelines feed right into a central system, however submissions nonetheless go by means of data-quality checks earlier than they’re accepted.
This is especially essential as a result of the current mapping knowledge isn’t full or everlasting. Salaudeen mentioned the earlier census-related work supplied a considerable start line, however new buildings have appeared since that train. He estimated that nearly 50 million buildings had been already represented in the postcode database, whereas acknowledging that the quantity would proceed to develop. The determine was supplied 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 broaden as new places are recognized.
Salaudeen pressured 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 mentioned. “It is a continuous growth because people keep on building houses.”
For Milsat, the longer-term ambition is to make the database one in every of the richest sources of location details about Nigeria. Baderinwa mentioned the firm hoped it might attain that time inside 5 years.
Reaching folks past smartphones
A digital postcode system is simply 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 snug navigating a digital map.
Salaudeen mentioned the companions seen public entry as a seamless course of somewhat 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 also be contemplating methods to make the data accessible by means of organisations and providers that already gather folks’s addresses.
Banks, hospitals, public well being centres, utilities and different establishments may turn into factors by means of which individuals uncover their postcodes. A buyer who has beforehand supplied a house address to a financial institution or hospital may finally be capable of obtain the corresponding postcode by means of that establishment.
The firm additionally mentioned working with native representatives who may go to communities and assist residents establish 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 mentioned the companions had been exploring whether or not telecommunications networks may assist folks retrieve their postcodes by means of textual content messages or USSD, providers that don’t require a smartphone. These had been potentialities into consideration, not capabilities he mentioned had been already absolutely accessible.
His place is that know-how mustn’t turn into a barrier to receiving the service.
“We are a diverse country. Every layer of development requires a different strategy in disseminating information,” he mentioned. “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 also be meant to turn into infrastructure for companies that rely upon correct location data.
A logistics firm, for instance, may use building-level postcodes to organise deliveries extra effectively. A monetary establishment may enhance the manner it data buyer addresses. Other companies may use the data to plan providers, establish 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 mentioned corporations may 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 atmosphere permits builders to check how the system works earlier than utilizing it of their providers.
He mentioned 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 extra integration assist.
Salaudeen mentioned Milsat’s function isn’t merely to ship a database and stroll away. It desires to assist businesses and companies maintain 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 somewhat 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 mentioned. “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 value of the nationwide challenge was beneath ₦8 billion, based on Salaudeen. He mentioned the financing coated a variety of necessities, together with discipline 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 harder check is whether or not the system can stay correct, accessible and helpful as Nigeria adjustments. A postcode that factors to a constructing that now not exists, or fails to incorporate a brand new settlement, will shortly lose worth. A database that residents can’t entry will battle to turn into a part of on a regular basis life. And companies can have little purpose to combine it if the data can’t be trusted.
The launch has supplied Nigeria with a brand new method to establish 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 simply the starting. The infrastructure being built round it may assist different types of location-based providers, from public planning to business supply and knowledge administration.
That is a much bigger ambition than giving each constructing a code. It is an effort to make the locations the place Nigerians stay and work simpler to establish, describe, and connect with the providers that rely upon figuring out precisely the place they’re.
The actual measure of the system, then, won’t be how shortly it was launched. It will probably be whether or not it might probably maintain discovering Nigeria as Nigeria retains constructing itself.
