The Nigerian Postal Service has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Space Research and Development Agency for the provision of a framework to develop the Nigerian Postcode Ecosystem and Infrastructure.
The MOU is also to maximise skills, knowledge and responses in the realisation of the postcode objectives.
A comprehensive Postcode was developed by NIPOST for Nigeria relying on its internal geographers, who depended largely on maps to arrive at the present Postcode.
In his opening remarks at the ceremony held at the NASRDA Head office, the Postmaster General of the Federation, Dr. Ismail Adebayo Adewusi, expressed delight at the collaboration as NASRDA is second to none and custodian of high resolution mapping of the country.
Adewusi said NASRDA’s expertise at analysing the Geographic Information System comes in handy in the realisation of the NIPOST objective of providing world-class service to Nigerians.
Adewusi stated that a standard Postcode would assist the country to enhance efficient socio-economic planning, security intelligence gathering and provide investors information that will galvanise sustainable resource management.
He said: “One of the critical setback that our nation has faced in the recent time is the issue of tracing all the crazy elements causing so much problems for our nation.
“Working together with NASRDA will provide the needed succour for our agencies to move the nation forward.
“Working with NASRDA will provide us with a platform we need to move our nation forward, especially at this critical period when the issue of banditry and all manner of crimes are prevalent.:
The Acting Director-General of the Agency, Dr. Chizea Francis Duben, in his response said Post coding the entire country would aid the National Addressing System and bring value to the country, adding that was key to his signing what he called his first MOU since his assumption of office.
Duben hinted that as capital intensive as the project seems, the agency would champion the campaigns to attract international donors whose funds will assist in bringing the dreams of the project to reality.
Up-to-date satellite imagery of high dimension can be accessed by NIPOST as NASRDA provides key facilitators and professional advice that will assist NIPOST in the development of Postcode and Addressing Dataset, Geospatial Datasets using Nigeria Sat-1, Nigeria Sat-2, Nigeria Sat-x imageries and customised software.
Duben said: “NASRDA is known as a data provider agency for all sectors of the economy to enhance their job making it easier, more efficient and cheaper.
“By this we are helping the economy, reducing what the government is spending to offer service to the society, through which we are impacting in the life of our people.”
Other areas of collaboration include supporting NIPOST to build capacity through transfer of knowledge on IT-based application of remote sensory Geographic Information System GIS.
