The postal services provider of the African nation of Côte d'Ivoire has adopted the what3words system as its addressing standard. Côte d’Ivoire’s La Poste is the first African postal organisation, and the second in the world after Mongolia, to use what3words to improve its national infrastructure.
“The current postal system does not deliver to home addresses and instead relies on Post Office boxes and descriptive directions such as, ‘opposite the gas station’, near the Internet Café’ and
alike imprecise localities,” what3words said in a statement.
The West African country has a population of more than 22m and its cities are growing rapidly. However, it has only a few street addresses and many informal settlements with no addressing system
at all.
Growth promoter
"By using what3words, every location in the country now has an instant address as the system provides an easy-to-use, accurate, and fixed address for every 3m x 3m square in the world. Making
this address system part of the country’s infrastructure, and integral to La Poste’s service, will help unlock the region’s economic growth and social development," the statement said.
Isaac Gnamba-Yao, CEO at La Poste Ivory Coast, said: “With a burgeoning e-commerce industry, rapidly growing cities and an emerging middle class, African nations are outgrowing their informal
addressing systems. In what3words, La Poste has found a simple solution that instantly provides the Ivory Coast with a robust and multi-lingual addressing system. Three word addresses will help
us to extend e-commerce opportunities, home delivery and support businesses in both urban and rural spaces.”
Nol van Fenema
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