From villages to cities, Nigeria is working towards a system that can locate every citizen, business and community.

The National Addressing Council (NAC) has ratified the preliminary framework for the actualisation of Nigeria’s vision to build a digitised and modern addressing system for the country.

Under the new arrangement, the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation will serve as the secretariat for greater efficiency and coordination, while other relevant agencies will synergise their efforts to achieve the set objectives.
The decision was taken on Monday at a meeting of the council chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima in Abuja, with key members and stakeholders from the public and private sectors in attendance.
Speaking at the meeting, Vice President Shettima said the initiative was in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda, stressing the need to build institutions that match the energy and mobility of Nigerians.
“Under the Renewed Hope Agenda, our duty is to build institutions that match the energy and mobility of our people. We must build a system that locates every community, supports enterprise without barriers and strengthens government without compromising privacy.
“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. This is the standard before us and I am confident that the council will deliver,” Senator Shettima noted.
The Vice President explained that the task before the council was to build a national addressing system worthy of the scale and ambition of the country, maintaining that the system must serve the village as effectively as the metropolis.
He said an address was more than a description of where a person lived or where a business operated, describing it as a point of connection between the citizen and the state, enterprise and opportunity, as well as identity and service.
“A country that cannot consistently locate its people and businesses carries an avoidable weakness into planning, commerce, security and social protection,” he stated.
The Vice President warned that geography must never become a sentence of invisibility, stressing that every Nigerian household and legitimate enterprise should be located within a trusted national framework.
He added that the strength of a modern addressing system lies in its ability to connect with other public systems.
According to him, the digital addressing framework must connect intelligently with digital identity, government databases and wider digital public infrastructure.
“When a verified identity can be linked securely to a verified address, the gains extend across financial inclusion, social interventions, logistics, planning and emergency response,” he said.
On the mandate of members of the council, the Vice President said the ambition required institutional discipline, announcing that the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation would serve as the secretariat of the NAC.
He said the ministry would guide technical implementation, systems integration, interoperability and standards.
The Vice President noted that the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has an essential responsibility in addressing individual verification and authentication, while the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) must support verification of business addresses.
He also said the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) remains indispensable for postcode administration and postal infrastructure.
According to him, states and local government areas, working through the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), must drive implementation at the community level through local addressing and proof of address.
He further stated that the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Organised Private Sector (OPS) must bring their mandates to bear.
“No institution can own a system whose usefulness depends on participation across our federation,” he said.
Earlier, the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said with the Vice President, who is also Chairman of the National Economic Council, serving as Chairman of the NAC, the addressing process was fundamental and foundational to Nigeria’s economic revolution.
He said the initiative was about creating the foundation for harnessing the talent of the average Nigerian entrepreneur, expressing confidence that the addressing process would restore the confidence of foreign investors in Nigeria.
“I think also that if the news of this initiative goes out, there will be a lot of incidents in terms of investors, knowing fully well that it’s no more business as usual but business unusual. I want to encourage all members of Council; let’s give our best to this,” the Minister added.
On his part, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh (SAN), thanked the Vice President for the leadership he had demonstrated in steering the council from crisis management to synergy, collaboration and harmonious coordination among relevant agencies.
He said the country was now working as one nation and one people focused on standardising address, proof of address and digital address.
Dr. Udeh pledged to discharge the responsibility vested in him with discipline, a sense of purpose and unity.
Also speaking, the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Dr. Abisoye Coker, noted that the initial challenge confronting the successful execution of the initiative was the lack of coordination and disagreement among the agencies.
She thanked the Vice President, whose office, she said, had ensured the harmonisation of all parties involved in the process.
The President of ALGON, Mr Bello Lawal, said the addressing initiative would improve national security and citizen identification, deepen financial inclusion, transform planning and revenue generation at the local level, and ensure that every Nigerian is accounted for within their local communities.
Explaining why the current framework requires revision, Dr. Salihu Ibrahim-Dasuki, Special Assistant to the President on ICT Policy in the Office of the Vice President, said the National Addressing Policy 2017 had become obsolete due to institutional, statutory, constitutional and technological changes.
He explained that the existing framework focuses on mail delivery, postcodes and postal infrastructure, while also containing institutional misalignments.
According to him, responsibilities relating to citizen address verification were assigned to the National Bureau of Statistics, while business address verification had been excluded. He added that outdated council structures anchored in former ministries no longer reflect present-day governance realities.
The technical teams of NIPOST, NIMC and ALGON also made presentations at the meeting.
Also present were the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji; Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi; Director-General of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Dr Abdullateef Shittu; Managing Director of PalmPay and representative of the Fintech Association of Nigeria, Mr Chika Reginald Nwosu; Managing Director of OPay and representative of the Fintech Association of Nigeria, Dr Maxwell Loko; Vice President of OPay, Olabode James; and Managing Director of Digital Addressing Platform, Dr Olusola Sayeed Ayoola, among others.
Stanley Nkwocha
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Communications
(Office of the Vice President)
25th August, 2026