The National Addressing Council has approved a preliminary framework to build a nationwide, digitized addressing system.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Communication Stanley Nkwocha said the move is intended to modernize planning, commerce and service delivery across the federation.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, who chaired the council meeting, said the initiative is part of the administration’s “Renewed Hope” agenda to align institutions with the mobility and commercial dynamism of Nigerians.
According to the statement, under the newly ratified arrangement, the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation will act as secretariat to coordinate technical implementation and systems integration, officials said.
“We must build a system that locates every community, supports enterprise without barriers and strengthens government without compromising privacy,”
Vice Shettima told council members and private‑sector stakeholders at the meeting in Abuja that “Wherever a citizen lives, wherever a business operates, wherever help is required, Nigeria should find the address.”
The Vice President argued that a reliable national addressing system would help bridge gaps in planning, security, financial inclusion and emergency response by enabling verified links between identities and locations.
“A country that cannot consistently locate its people and businesses carries an avoidable weakness into planning, commerce, security and social protection,” he said.
The framework assigns distinct roles to existing institutions: the National Identity Management Commission will handle individual verification, the Corporate Affairs Commission will support business‑address verification, and the Nigerian Postal Service will administer postcodes and postal infrastructure, according to council remarks.
State and local governments, working through the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Association of Local Governments, will be expected to drive community‑level implementation.
“The Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation must guide technical implementation, interoperability and standards,”
Vice President Shettima listed other agencies—NITDA, NDPC, ONSA, CBN and NCC—that must integrate their mandates into the effort.
“No institution can own a system whose usefulness depends on participation across our federation.”
Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji‑Ojo said the addressing programme is foundational to the government’s economic objectives and predicted it would reassure foreign investors by signalling a more predictable business environment.
Dr. Kingsley Udeh, Minister of science, technology and innovation, thanked the Vice President for steering the process from a period of “crisis management” to coordinated action and said his ministry would execute the secretariat role “with discipline, sense of purpose and unity.”
Other speakers acknowledged past institutional friction. Dr. Abisoye Coker, director‑general of NIMC, said earlier disagreements among agencies had hampered progress and credited the vice‑presidential office with brokering harmonisation ahead of Monday’s agreement.
Technical presenters from NIPOST, NIMC and local‑government representatives outlined operational plans during the meeting.
ALGON president Bello Lawal said a modern addressing system would improve security, local revenue collection and financial inclusion by ensuring every community and business is accounted for.
Government aides said the updated framework responds to changes since the 2017 National Addressing Policy, which they described as focused narrowly on mail delivery and postal infrastructure and poorly aligned to current institutional responsibilities.
Dr. Salihu Ibrahim‑Dasuki, a presidential special assistant on ICT policy, said the old policy left gaps in business verification and assigned some address‑related duties to agencies no longer suited to them.
Also present were senior officials from the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, the National Information Technology Development Agency, the Nigeria Governors Forum, representatives of fintech firms and private digital‑addressing platforms.
