• Nigeria’s National Addressing Council has ratified a preliminary framework for a digitised national addressing system, but it is not a live sign-up product for online sellers.
• The framework gives NIMC, CAC, NIPOST and state and local authorities different roles around identity, business-address verification, postcodes and local proof of address.
• For a small online business today, a consistent location, clear delivery directions and records that match can build more trust than another week of chasing followers.
The customer says “I know the place.” The rider says “send live location.” Then someone discovers there are two streets with the same name, the shop is inside an estate with a gate rule, the landmark has changed, and the parcel is suddenly a problem nobody included in the price.
That is an address problem, but it is also a business problem. Online sellers can spend serious energy on reach—reels, adverts, influencer posts, giveaways—then leave the final handover to a voice note that makes sense only to the person who recorded it. A sale that cannot arrive cleanly does not feel like a win to the customer.
The big national system is still only a framework
On 25 August, the National Addressing Council ratified a preliminary framework for a digitised national addressing system. The Nation’s report on the council meeting says the plan is intended to locate households and legitimate businesses more consistently, with links to identity, postcodes, commerce and public services.
It matters because the proposal recognises that an address is more than a line on a form. NIMC is expected to handle individual verification and authentication, CAC would support business-address verification, NIPOST would retain responsibility for postcodes and postal infrastructure, while states and local governments have a role in local addressing and proof of address.
But sellers should not wait for it as though a new app will fix every delivery next week. The framework still needs implementation across agencies and communities. The useful question now is simpler: can a stranger find your business—or your agreed handover point—without a 10-minute argument?
Followers do not explain the gate
A busy Instagram page can bring orders from places the seller has never delivered to. It cannot tell a rider which entrance works after 6 p.m., whether a customer must be called before arrival or which of two nearby bus stops is actually useful.
A 2023 Rest of World report on Nigerian last-mile delivery recorded how unclear or missing addresses make deliveries difficult, including the familiar mix-up of streets that share a name in different parts of Lagos. The point has not become old because social commerce is still built around people, places and moving goods—not just posts.
For a seller, a good location note is not a novel. It is the shortest accurate version of the truth: the area, the street or recognisable landmark, the right entrance where relevant, a working phone number, and instructions a first-time visitor can follow. It should be written once, checked after a real delivery and used consistently.
Keep your business address separate from your private life
Not every business needs to publish a home address. Many real businesses begin from a bedroom, shared flat, campus room or family compound, and there is no prize for making a private residence more visible than it needs to be.
What matters is that the business has a safe, repeatable way to receive or hand over orders. That might be an agreed pickup point, deliveries by appointment, a known dispatch pickup location, or a public-facing workspace where one exists. The customer needs reliable instructions; the seller also needs boundaries.
This is where one neat public location line and one more detailed private delivery note can work better than exposing everything. A page can state its city and service area while a confirmed buyer receives the specific handover guidance. The aim is trust without carelessness.
Make the records agree
Trust slips when a business appears to be three different businesses at once: one name on Instagram, another name on a payment account, a third name on the receipt and an address that changes with every order. That does not automatically mean a business is dishonest, but it makes the buyer do extra work before sending money.
Consistency is the less glamorous side of credibility. The shop name, contact number, pickup terms, payment confirmation and receipt should tell the same basic story. When something changes—a move, a new delivery zone, a changed number—the seller should update the places customers actually use, not just announce it in one disappearing post.
Being easy to find is part of the product
The proposed national framework may eventually make location and verification easier across more systems. That would be useful. But an online seller does not have to wait for a national rollout to stop losing time to “I’m under the bridge, where are you?”
A clear address will not cure traffic, unreliable riders or a customer who changes their mind. It can remove one avoidable source of confusion from the sale. For a small business trying to turn a first order into a repeat customer, that is more valuable than another unexplained follower count.
Also read: Nigeria wants every home and business on a digital map. What that could mean for online sellers
Also read: Your delivery fee is eating the sale. A guide for Nigerian online sellers
What is the most useful location instruction a seller has ever given you—or the one detail customers keep getting wrong? Tell us in the comments.
