The Federal Government unveiled plans to roll out a nationwide digital postcode system to strengthen security, tackle fraud, improve emergency response, and boost e-commerce across the country. The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, disclosed this at the National Digital Alphanumeric Postcode System Workshop held at the National Counter Terrorism Centre in Abuja.
Tijani said the initiative would assign a unique digital address to every building in Nigeria, including those in rural communities, enabling security agencies, businesses and public institutions to accurately identify and locate people and properties. The first phase of the rollout would commence in October, with the government targeting coverage of several states before the end of the year.
The minister described the project as a critical national infrastructure designed to address one of Nigeria's longstanding development challenges: the absence of a reliable and standardised addressing system. He noted that the lack of accurate address identification had complicated crime investigations, emergency services and identity verification processes, while creating loopholes that fraudsters could exploit.