Nigeria's new National Digital Addressing System, known as NDAPS, went live on October 1 with a straightforward promise: replace the country's informal, landmark-based directions with precise 11-character alphanumeric codes. The system is built to give every addressable building in Nigeria a unique digital postcode, with practical applications stretching from e-commerce deliveries to address verification for banking and identity services. It is led by the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.
The launch sparked a quick round of questions when TechCabal's technical checks of the postcode.gov.ng domain name system records pointed to Amazon Web Services infrastructure based in the United States. For a country actively strengthening its push for data sovereignty, the finding felt like a tension worth examining.
NIPOST did not dodge the question. Spokesperson Ibrahim Musa confirmed to TechCabal that the system runs on both AWS and Galaxy Backbone, Nigeria's official digital infrastructure and shared services provider, with each platform handling distinct functions. It is a hybrid arrangement rather than a full offshore setup.
AWS, for its part, notes that it has infrastructure across 247 countries, opened its first Nigerian office in Lagos in 2022, and has since invested in an AWS Local Zone in Lagos. The company's Communications Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Sonwabise Mzinyathi, described the company's approach as "sovereign-by-design," pointing to tools that allow organisations to run services in their own facilities or in a location they specify. AWS also highlights its Nitro System, specialised hardware and firmware designed to protect customer workloads on Amazon EC2 from outside access, including by AWS employees themselves.
Whether the hybrid model fully satisfies Nigeria's data sovereignty ambitions is a conversation that is clearly just getting started.
Originally published by TechCabal.