FG Moves to Establish Modern Digital Addressing System for Nigeria
The Federal Government has taken a major step towards establishing a modern, integrated and digitally enabled addressing system capable of accurately locating households, businesses and communities across Nigeria.
The National Addressing Council (NAC), chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima, on Monday ratified a preliminary framework for the actualisation of the initiative, which is aimed at creating a trusted national addressing system to support economic planning, security, financial inclusion, emergency response and delivery of public services.
At the council’s meeting in Abuja, the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation was designated to serve as the secretariat of the NAC, with relevant government agencies and stakeholders expected to work together to ensure effective implementation.
Addressing members of the council, Vice President Shettima said Nigeria needed an addressing system that reflects the scale, mobility and digital ambitions of the country.
“Our objective should be simple. For Nigerians to understand, wherever a citizen lives, wherever a business operates, wherever help is required, Nigeria should find the address.”
The Vice President stressed that a reliable address goes beyond identifying where a person lives or where a business operates, describing it as an important link between citizens and government, businesses and opportunities, as well as identity and essential services.
According to him, the inability to consistently locate citizens and businesses creates weaknesses in national planning, commerce, security and social protection.
Shettima further directed that the proposed digital addressing framework should be designed to work seamlessly with existing digital identity systems, government databases and wider digital public infrastructure.
He explained that securely linking verified identities with verified addresses could significantly improve financial inclusion, social intervention programmes, logistics, urban planning and emergency response.
Agencies to Work Together
The Vice President said the success of the initiative would depend on strong institutional coordination, noting that no single agency could independently operate a system whose effectiveness depends on participation across the federation.
He assigned specific responsibilities to key institutions, including the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for individual address verification and authentication, while the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) would support verification of business addresses.
The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) would remain responsible for postcode administration and postal infrastructure, while states and local governments, working through the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), would drive implementation at the community level.
Other agencies, including the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), as well as private-sector stakeholders, are expected to contribute according to their respective mandates.
Initiative Critical to Economic Development
The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, described the initiative as fundamental to Nigeria’s economic transformation, saying a functional addressing system would provide an important foundation for businesses, entrepreneurs and investors.
He expressed confidence that the initiative would strengthen investor confidence by demonstrating Nigeria’s commitment to building modern systems that support businesses and economic activity.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh (SAN), also commended the Vice President for bringing relevant institutions together, saying the initiative had moved from what he described as fragmented efforts to greater coordination and collaboration.
He pledged to discharge the ministry’s responsibility with discipline, purpose and unity.
The Director-General of NIMC, Dr Abisoye Coker, said lack of coordination and disagreements among agencies had previously hindered progress on the initiative, but expressed optimism that the intervention of the Vice President had helped harmonise the various stakeholders.
Similarly, the President of ALGON, Bello Lawal, said the new addressing system could improve national security, strengthen citizen identification, deepen financial inclusion, enhance planning and revenue generation at the local level, and ensure that Nigerians are properly accounted for within their communities.
Existing Policy Set for Review
The council also considered the need to revise Nigeria’s National Addressing Policy of 2017 to reflect current institutional, legal and technological realities.
Dr Salihu Ibrahim-Dasuki, Special Assistant to the President on ICT Policy in the Office of the Vice President, explained that the existing framework was largely focused on mail delivery, postcodes and postal infrastructure and no longer adequately reflected the country’s present governance and technological environment.
He noted that the revised framework would address institutional gaps and provide clearer responsibilities for citizen and business address verification, while incorporating modern digital addressing technologies.
Technical teams from NIPOST, NIMC and ALGON also presented their proposals at the meeting.
The meeting was attended by senior government officials and representatives of relevant public and private-sector institutions, including the NDPC, NITDA, NGF, fintech organisations and digital addressing stakeholders.
The Federal Government’s renewed push for a unified digital addressing system is expected to provide Nigeria with a more reliable framework for locating people, businesses and communities while strengthening the country’s digital economy, security architecture and delivery of public services.
FG Moves to Establish Modern Digital Addressing System for Nigeria