Postal codes were first introduced in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December 1932, but the system was abandoned i
A postcode can be numeric as in the case of USA or alphanumeric (i.e. both letters and digits) as used in UK, and Netherland.n 1939. The next country to introduce postal codes was Germany in 1941, followed by Argentina in 1958, the United Kingdom in 1959, the United States in 1963 and Switzerland in 1964. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_code )
NIPOST Implements Nigerian's Postcode
NIPOST –Niger
NIPOST –Niger
ian postal agency (www.nipost.gov.ng) had implemented a postcode system for Nigeria. By this token, NIPOST is placing Nigeria and indeed Nigerians on the shoulders of giants. Yes, we have joined the elite group of countries with advanced postal addressing system.
I could not contain my excitement when I discovered that it is actually possible to know the postcode of my former address in Lagos.
The postcode adopted by NIPOST is purely numeric e.g. the postcode of the Pedro Police Station is 100233 http://www.nigeriapostcodes.com/views/ hahahha..fantastic!!
How the Postcode works
Each Postcode
How the Postcode works
Each Postcode
is built up from several layers of geographic information from the Postcode Area to the Unit Postcode, e.g. my house in Southampton, UK has the postcode SO16 4GU
SO denotes the Southampton postcode area. There are currently 124 Postcode Areas in the UK. Which represents approximately 220,000 addresses per Area. A total of 27 million data points.
SO16 denotes District 16 in the Southampton Postcode Area - there are approximately 3,000 Postcode Districts in the UK. Which represents approximately 9,000 addresses per District
SO16 4 denotes Sector 4 in District 16 of the Southampton Postcode Area - there are approximately 9,000 Postcode Sectors in the UK. Which represents approximately 3,000 addresses per Sector.
SO16 4GU denotes the full, Unit Postcode there are over 1.8 million Unit Postcodes in the UK. Which represents approximately 15 addresses per Unit Postcode
SO denotes the Southampton postcode area. There are currently 124 Postcode Areas in the UK. Which represents approximately 220,000 addresses per Area. A total of 27 million data points.
SO16 denotes District 16 in the Southampton Postcode Area - there are approximately 3,000 Postcode Districts in the UK. Which represents approximately 9,000 addresses per District
SO16 4 denotes Sector 4 in District 16 of the Southampton Postcode Area - there are approximately 9,000 Postcode Sectors in the UK. Which represents approximately 3,000 addresses per Sector.
SO16 4GU denotes the full, Unit Postcode there are over 1.8 million Unit Postcodes in the UK. Which represents approximately 15 addresses per Unit Postcode
The question is, can 2 addresses within the same district but different sectors have the same full postcode? In UK, this is not possible!
An Evaluation of the Nigerian Postcode.
I did a postcode search on NIPOST website http://www.nigeriapostcodes.com/views/ and discovered that the postcode of Karonwi St in Itire,within Surulere LGA is 100281. To my surprise, this postcode is shared by the popular Allen Avenue in Ikeja LGA!! I am sure the good people of Karonwi St would not mind sharing a common postcode with the mighty and majestic ones in Allen Ave, but is this not a case of mistaken identify? Could Karonwi St be that close to Allen Ave that makes it possible to share the same postcode
An Evaluation of the Nigerian Postcode.
I did a postcode search on NIPOST website http://www.nigeriapostcodes.com/views/ and discovered that the postcode of Karonwi St in Itire,within Surulere LGA is 100281. To my surprise, this postcode is shared by the popular Allen Avenue in Ikeja LGA!! I am sure the good people of Karonwi St would not mind sharing a common postcode with the mighty and majestic ones in Allen Ave, but is this not a case of mistaken identify? Could Karonwi St be that close to Allen Ave that makes it possible to share the same postcode
?
Well, the answer is a capital NO!!! (see the map below generated using MapInfo professional) Karonwi St is approximately 11.3km away from Allen Ave (as the crow flies) The question is how can 2 separate streets that are 11.3km apart share the same postcode? Something is definitely wrong somewhere!!!!
Uses of Postcodes in UK
1. Crime reporting at postcode level
Early in 2011, BBC reported the launch of a new crime-mapping websites for England and Wales. The site www.police.uk allows users within UK to see the offences reported in their local street by entering a street name or postcode. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12336381 )
I visited the website and entered my postcode SO16 4GU (see the crime map
of my postcode below)
Visitors to www.police.uk, are able to find out which crimes have taken place on or near their street within the past month and which officers are responsible for their area.
Information on crime is broken down into six categories - burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime and anti-social behaviour. Sex crimes have been included in the "other" category, along with crimes such as theft and shoplifting, to help prevent victims from being identified
2. House for Sale or for rent.
In 2002, I was determined to move from my parents home in Surulere and get my own place. After working at MTN Nigeria for 1year and earning good money for the first time in my life, I thought it was time I got my own flat. One of my friends was kind enough
Information on crime is broken down into six categories - burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime and anti-social behaviour. Sex crimes have been included in the "other" category, along with crimes such as theft and shoplifting, to help prevent victims from being identified2. House for Sale or for rent.
In 2002, I was determined to move from my parents home in Surulere and get my own place. After working at MTN Nigeria for 1year and earning good money for the first time in my life, I thought it was time I got my own flat. One of my friends was kind enough
to take me to the agent that helped him to secure a flat at Anthony a few month before then. When we met the agent in his office at Sabo, he told me of this beautiful flat at Gbagada, I was delighted, however he informed us that we had to go to another agent at Ketu who was in charge of the flat at Gbagada!
Well, we drove to Ketu to see the new agent. The Ketu agent also informed us that the actual agent that managed the property had an office at Ikeja!!!! Suddenly I was reminded of the film titled "Gone with the wind" I was convinced that the agent at Ikeja would probably take us to Sango Ota to see another agent! Why does it have to be this chaotic?
www.Zoopla.co.uk
is a comprehensive property website, focused on empowering consumers with the resources they need to make better-informed property decisions. The website helps users make sense of the residential property market by combining property listings with market value data, local information and community tools.A user simply needs to enter a place name, area of refine the search with a postcode and
I tried searching for a property near my postcode SO16 4GU. The website returned a list of properties within my postcode units for sale. Fantatsic!! Now try implementing a similar solution using NIPOST's postcode data! It would be a disaster because Itire and Allen Ave in Ikeja both share a common postcode!!!
The implication of error in Nigerian Postcodes.
We have a number of property search websites developed by some smart and clever Nigerians targeting the Nigerian market such as the ip4properties.com.It would be impossible to develop or implement any meaningful application using Nigerian postc
ode system in its present state. Without an accurate postcode system, it would be difficult to leverage and milk much value from the SIM registration database that was recently implemented costing several billions of naira!
Oh before I forget, without a proper postcode system, our address system will remain primitive, and our Finance Minister -Okonjo Iweala will continue to decry the dearth of quality data for government to implement good infrastructure plan.
Tim Akinbo had blogged extensively on this subject like so many other people about the value chain in opening up this postcode data to the general public, but what data are we talking about here? The same data that gave Itire and Allen Ave the same postcode?
By integrating Nigerian postcode search capabilities, Nigerian websites can provide deep values like Zoopla.
Tim Akinbo had blogged extensively on this subject like so many other people about the value chain in opening up this postcode data to the general public, but what data are we talking about here? The same data that gave Itire and Allen Ave the same postcode?
By integrating Nigerian postcode search capabilities, Nigerian websites can provide deep values like Zoopla.
Hopefully, the Nigerian Police will one day finish re-branding and re-packaging it's website and start publishing intelligent crime data in a useful format (www.nigeriapolice.org) (Oh by the way, I hope Mr President and Inspector General are both aware that the website of the Police Force of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is currently down and had remained down for over 1month before today October 12, 2011. I have included today's date as a way to monitor how long the website will remain down)
NIPOST can recoup the cost of developing accurate Nigerian postcode database and maintaining its currency like Royal mail of UK by selling accurate and most reliable postcode data to the general public to implement different solutions that will touch the lives of Nigeria in so many meaningful ways.
A proposed Solution to Improve NIPOST Postcode system
I gave this peculiar problem a great thought and being a Geo Information Architect, I decided to model this problem and I came up with what I think is the perfect solution to this error in our postcode.
NIPOST needs to start looking at the wider picture here. Granted a functional postcode system would make it easier to sort and deliver letters, however there are hundreds of applications and solutions that could potentially ride on the wing of accurate and useful postcodes.
I am therefore proposing the following structure for our postcode system.
State + Postal Town + LGA + Electoral wards.
1. Why Use State?
There are 37 unique states in Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory. Any address within Nigeria would definitely fall within one state. So each state must have a unique code.
2. Postal Towns
NIPOST needs to create crisp postal town boundaries such that a postal town must not spill into another state. A single address in Nigeria must fall within one postal town
3. Local Government Area (LGA)
There are currently 774 official LGAs making up Nigeria with well defined political boundaries. Each LGA must be incorporated into our address or postcode system. Another reason is that each LGA is unique. Uniqueness is an important dependency that must be fulfilled when creating an intelligent address system. For instance, if our current postcode system had incorporated the LGA, It would make it impossible for Allen Ave which is in Ikeja LGA to share the same postcode with Karonwi St in Surulere LGA.
4. Electoral Wards
INEC had demonstrated that LGAs can further be broken down into electoral wards. This had made the work of NIPOST a lot easier. By incorporating the electoral wards, this will further introduce uniqueness data disaggregation in our address system at this level of granularity. It would definitely make it impossible for 2 addresses in separate LGAs and wards to share the same postcode.
When fully implemented
Allen Ave’s postcode could therefore look like:
Lagos State+Lagos North+Ikeja LGA+Ikeja North ward
Karonwi St could have a postcode made up of:
Lagos State+Lagos Central+Surulere LGA+ Surulere West ward
Yes NIPOST Can do it!!!!
NIPOST is on the good path to fame and prosperity for implementing a postcode system for Nigeria, albeit a non dependable system. A lot still needs to be done to improve the ultimate usefulness of our postcode in its current state.
Some impatient people may dismiss this proposition saying "bobo mi Londoner..Naija lo wa yi ooo heeee" (meaning, hey my guy from London, you are now in Nigeria). I am not advocating that we use either the American or the British postcode system, we can design and evolve our very own Nigerian postcode system. I have the requisite skills to implement this simple system and I am willing to consult for NIPOST FREE of charge.... provided NIPOST will pay for my mortgage in UK...hahahahaha:)
I personally believe in the capability and capacity of NIPOST to deliver a full intelligent postcodes for Nigeria. I also believe strongly that a good postcode system would breathe life into our primitive address system that could potentially assist our governments at all levels especially the local governments to take us to the promised land in some specific situations where Nigerians can start reaping the dividends of good governance in a consistence way
.
If our address system is bad, then what is really working well in Nigeria with the exception of corruption? Thank you Ireti Ajala for this insightful expose on the error in Nigerian postcode system. -Bim Oloye
ReplyDeleteFantastic article Ireti. I kind of appreciate your approach here. You identified what the problem is with our current postcode system and you also proffered a practical solution to how it can be made better. I hope NIPOST and the ministry of Communication can see this article. Well done!!
ReplyDeleteHi Ireti, this is another brilliant post. I did a Google search on Nigerian postcode and came across something on Wikipedia which i think you'll find very interesting .
ReplyDelete"Postal codes in Nigeria are numeric, consisting of six digits. NIPOST, the Nigerian Postal Service, divides the country into nine regions, which make up the first digit of the code. The second and third digits, combined with the first, are the dispatch district for outgoing sorting. The last three digits are for delivery.
The main postal head office in each region will have a postal code ending in 00001, so Garki Main HO in Abuja has the postal code 970001, Ikeja HO in Lagos has 100001, Lokoja in Kogi has 270001 and Port Harcourt has 500001. The lowest postcode is 100001 and the highest is 982002. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_codes_in_Nigeria)
Nigeria is almost 4times bigger than the whole of UK including Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England. UK has 125 post areas whilst Nigeria has ONLY 9 postal regions. I would have thought that we would have more postal regions because of our relatively larger landmass when compared with UK. This is a further evidence to demonstrate that NIPOST does not really know anything about creating intelligent postcode data.
NIPOST also needs to tell us how many addresses are contained in each of the 9 postal region, I am sure there must be almost 10millions in each region. Calling what NIPOST created "postcode data" is really dumb.
(Eddy Chukwudi)
Thanks Bim Oloye
ReplyDeleteThanks Olajide Opaniyi, I hope NIPOST is interested in this as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Eddy Chukwudi, I quite agree with you, Nigerian postcode districts need to be disaggregated. At the movement, NIPOST does not appreciate the fact that they can make alot of money by improving the current structure and accuracy of the postcode data. I am confident that with time, they'll realise this.
ReplyDeleteI want to thank you again for raising the stakes on a very important issue. This remains an issue of significant relevance to numerous national development initiatives and programmes.
ReplyDeleteI remain a strong proponent of understanding what happens, where it happens, why it happens and the impact of such events within our local communities. I’m particularly enthused by the need to develop better insight into the dynamics and intricacies of population behaviour at localised geographies like postcodes. Postcodes are key.
Thank you for robustly enumerating some of the uses to which postcodes can be put. Postcodes are integral for
• ensuring easy data sharing and data linkage
• addressing some analytical problems like the
Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) and the
ecological fallacy; and
• undertaking reliable interpolation and
extrapolation.
Every unit postcode should be unique to a geographic jurisdiction. Having also gained access to Nigeria’s full postcode file, I can back your comments on the errors in the present system. Apart from the problems you have listed, there are multiple errors of omission. While we thank NIPOST for the attempt they have made in designing the current system, I think it is time to move on to a state of the art system!
One of the challenges in Nigeria is the failure of different Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to work collaboratively rather than in competition with each other. Our MDAs need to realize we are in a world where the pace of change is dramatic. These changing dynamics also require fast-paced innovation. Innovation and creativity on the other hand can only be derived at the junction of disciplines. So collaborative working is crucial. Imagine a scenario where NIPOST, INEC, the National Populations Commission, the National Planning Commission, the National Bureau of Statistics, the National Boundary Commission etc fuse their knowledge, information and resources with proven expertise from the academia.
On the structure of the postcodes, your proposal is very appealing and I think it can set the ball rolling. In addition to your suggestions, another key issue that must be considered is usability. An alphanumeric option will most likely appeal to the Nigerian public. The aim of NIPOST should be to embark on a campaign that will raise awareness of postcodes and encourage people to memorize their postcodes. It is easier to memorize postcodes if they are alphanumeric. Most people know the states in which they live. Many also know their LGAs so these can be used as important building bricks when considering a revised structure. A social-marketing strategy can be deployed to sensitize people on postcodes as part of the awareness raising.
Ireti, it is also important when structuring the postcodes to think of data linkage. For instance consider how the census and other national surveys can be matched to different geographies of the full postcode. Our census and many other surveys use Enumeration Areas (EAs). I am of the opinion that this statistical geography should mesh with one or some of the geographies proposed for postcodes to enable cross-comparison of information derived across the different geographies.
ReplyDeleteIf we deal with the problem of standards early on in the process and ensure postcode geographies mesh with administrative geographies, electoral geographies, census and statistical geographies and other relevant geographies, then there will be fewer problems ahead. This is why I said the MDAs must learn to work together. Having brokered partnership working deals between various UK government Departments and Local Authorities, I know the opportunities are endless.
There are many more issues to talk about but I will touch quickly on an important issue before I stop for now. When designing unit postcodes, NIPOST will also need to consider postcode polygons and postcode centroids. The polygons will be used to delineate the boundaries of the houses/structures that fall into the unit postcode while centroids will be one-dimensional representations of postcode polygons (they will be postcode coordinates). When determining the centroids of postcodes, two centroid types must be considered – the geographic centroid and the population weighted centroid. Both centroid-types need to be created as they have differing analytical uses. The most reliable way of creating population-weighted centroids is to derive them from small area population statistics. This again explains my previous recommendation on multi-agency working. NIPOST is not responsible for generating these statistics – they need to work with other agencies.
Let me halt here for now but before doing so, I’ll like to thank Ireti again and again for bringing this important issue to the surface. We can discuss things more over the phone. Something must and WILL certainly be done about our postcodes
Dr Adegbola Ojo, thank you for your contributions. As a matter of fact, your contributions reinforced my believe that NIPOST has the capacity to redefine and re-engineer Nigerian postcode data in a consistent way. Unfortunately, it is their statutory responsibility to achieve this and I am sure they now realise that there are a lot of Nigerians in diaspora that can help them achieve this goal.
ReplyDelete