• Nigeria’s National Addressing Council has ratified a preliminary framework for a digitised national addressing system meant to locate households and legitimate businesses more consistently.
• The plan assigns linked roles to NIMC for individual verification, CAC for business-address verification and NIPOST for postcodes and postal infrastructure.
• This is not a new delivery app or a live postcode switch yet; it is the beginning of a framework that still needs technical work across agencies, states and local governments.
A clear address could be one of the least glamorous things an online seller owns. It is also the thing that decides whether a rider finds the gate, a customer trusts the order, or a bank and business record point to the same place.
That is why a new government push around addresses deserves more attention than it will probably get. On 25 August, Nigeria’s National Addressing Council ratified a preliminary framework for a digitised national addressing system. The proposal is meant to create a more reliable way to locate people and legitimate businesses, while connecting that work to identity, postcodes, commerce and public services.
For somebody selling clothes from a flat, running a food page from a kitchen or dispatching beauty products across town, the eventual value is not the policy language. It is fewer “I am close, send landmark” calls.
An address has always been a business problem
Nigerian online selling already runs on improvised location systems: a bus stop, a nearby filling station, a colour of gate, a caller who knows the estate and a voice note sent after the rider is already frustrated. The work gets done, but every unclear address can become a delay, a refund request or a customer who does not order again.
In its report on the council meeting, The Nation said the framework is designed to help locate every Nigerian household and legitimate business while supporting planning, security, financial inclusion, emergency response and commerce. The Vice President’s office is framing a reliable address as a bridge between a person, a business and access to services.
That is a big promise. It should be read as a direction of travel, not a finished service a seller can start using this week.
Different agencies, one place people can find
The proposal matters because it names how separate records could eventually work together. NIMC is expected to handle individual verification and authentication. The Corporate Affairs Commission would support business-address verification. NIPOST keeps responsibility for postcode administration and postal infrastructure, while state and local authorities have a community-level role in local addressing and proof of address.
That division is important. A digital address only becomes useful if the information is consistent across the places people already meet friction: delivery, registration, payments, emergency services and official records. The council has also said the system must protect privacy and work in rural communities as well as in major cities.
For now, that means the project still has a long list of difficult questions to answer: who updates a moved shop, how people correct errors, what customers can see, and whether a location can be verified without exposing someone’s home to unnecessary risk.
What sellers can fix before the big system arrives
The policy should not be an excuse to wait. The sellers who get fewer failed deliveries already make their location easy to understand. They use a consistent written address, a useful landmark, a live phone number, delivery notes that a stranger can follow and a clear agreement on whether a rider may call before leaving.
It also helps to keep the business details in one place. A different shop name on Instagram, a different account name for payment and a different address in a receipt may not stop a sale today, but it makes trust harder to build. The coming framework is a reminder that a business is more than a page with good pictures; it is a record somebody else can locate and verify.
That does not mean every microbusiness needs a fancy office. Many honest businesses start at home. It means the location information attached to the work should be accurate, repeatable and handled with care.
The biggest change may be the boring one
A digital address system will not make traffic disappear or instantly end the familiar rider call. But if it is implemented well, it could make the unglamorous part of selling online less chaotic: finding people, confirming places and moving goods without turning every order into a location test.
For a business that lives on repeat customers, being easy to find is not boring at all.
Also read: Your delivery fee is eating the sale. A guide for Nigerian online sellers
Also read: Nigeria is building a digital ID system. What could change at your bank and business?
What is the most confusing address or delivery instruction you have dealt with while buying or selling online? Tell us in the comments.
