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• Says Nigeria to launch unique alphanumeric postcode system on October 1
The Federal Government will begin the rollout of a 90,000-kilometre fibre optic network across Nigeria within the next few weeks, marking the commencement of one of the country’s largest digital infrastructure projects aimed at expanding broadband access and accelerating the digital economy.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on Tuesday after briefing President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on the progress of key digital transformation initiatives being implemented by his ministry.
According to the minister, all resource mobilisation and contractual processes for the nationwide fibre project have been concluded, paving the way for physical deployment.
“We’re now at the point where, in a few weeks’ time, we should start to lay those fibre, so people will start seeing us around the country deploying the fibre. This is going to transform Nigeria for good,” Tijani said.
He said the project would extend fibre optic infrastructure to every state, geopolitical zone, local government area and ward, significantly improving internet penetration and service quality nationwide.
“This is a project where every state, every geopolitical zone, every local government and every ward in this country will be covered with fibre optic cables, which will transform the quality of connectivity,” he added.
Tijani attributed the progress in the telecommunications sector to reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration, including the designation of digital infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure, tariff adjustments and tax harmonisation.
“I think our sector has been extremely fortunate. With Mr. President, as you can imagine, he’s given us quite a number of things that the sector has been demanding for a long time. Whether it’s the Critical National Infrastructure designation for all digital infrastructure, or the slight adjustment in tariff, which you’ve seen, the tax harmonisation, which the sector has been asking for.
“I think it’s probably the sector that is most appreciative of this government because when we came in, the sector was contributing between 16 to 18 per cent to our GDP, but today that sector is tracking close to 21 per cent, so it’s a significant growth,” he said.
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The minister also announced that the Federal Government would commence the deployment of about 3,700 telecommunications towers from October to provide mobile network coverage for more than 20 million Nigerians currently living in underserved communities.
“Mr. President also sanctioned that project. Today we’re in a place where, before the end of the year, we’ll also start to deploy close to 3,700 towers. It’s taken a lot putting this project together, raising the capital for it, but we are at a point where we should now start deploying around October,” he said.
On the country’s digital addressing system, Tijani revealed that Nigeria would officially launch an alphanumeric postcode system on October 1, describing it as one of the most advanced postcode technologies globally.
“Nigeria will be amongst maybe 10 or 15 countries in the world with alphanumeric postcode. It’s the latest design in postcode system where we can now identify every property in this country. We’re hoping to launch that one on the 1st of October,” he said.
The minister explained that the new postcode system would assign a unique address to every property, improving logistics, boosting e-commerce, enhancing emergency response and strengthening public service delivery.
“Inability to locate places comes at a cost. You can start to imagine what this will do to e-commerce. This would transform e-commerce completely because it means that things can now be delivered in record time,” he said.
Unlike conventional postcode systems used in many countries, Tijani said Nigeria’s model would uniquely identify every individual building rather than clusters of properties.
“Our alphanumeric postcode is unique because it allows us to have unique addresses for every property. In a lot of countries, like the UK, postcodes are not unique to one building; they’re typically for a cluster of buildings. But what we have here is one where you can identify every building. That will change the game significantly for Nigeria in terms of the delivery of public services,” he stated.
