The National Addressing Council has approved a preliminary framework for developing a modern digital addressing system capable of locating households, communities and businesses across Nigeria.
The council reached the decision at a State House meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Under the framework, the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation will serve as the council’s secretariat and coordinate implementation.
Shettima said Nigeria needed an addressing system that worked equally well in villages and major cities.
He described a reliable address as a point connecting citizens with government, businesses with opportunity and identity with services.
The Vice President said an effective national system could improve planning, commerce, security, emergency response and social protection.
The framework is expected to integrate with digital identity systems and other public databases.
NIMC will support individual verification and authentication.
The Corporate Affairs Commission will help verify business addresses, while NIPOST will retain responsibility for postcodes and postal infrastructure.
States and local governments are expected to lead implementation at community level.
Other institutions, including NITDA, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, the Central Bank, the Nigerian Communications Commission and security agencies, will contribute according to their mandates.
Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji Ojo said the project could strengthen the economic environment by improving the reliability of business and citizen identification.
Science and Technology Minister Kingsley Udeh said previous efforts had suffered from fragmented responsibilities and poor coordination.
Officials said the 2017 National Addressing Policy had become outdated because it focused heavily on postal services and no longer reflected current technology or institutional arrangements.
The council said the revised system would seek to standardize proof of address and digital addressing.
Implementation will require agreement on privacy, interoperability, technical standards and responsibilities across federal, state and local institutions. The government said the long term goal was a trusted national framework in which every legitimate household and enterprise could be located accurately
