La Poste, the Ivory Coast’s national postal system, has adopted the what3words addressing system to address the entire country.
The Ivory Coast is the first African nation, and second country in the world after Mongolia, to adopt what3words to improve its national addressing infrastructure. With a population of around 23 million people, La Poste will serve a population six times larger than that which Mongol Post serves.
With few street names, many informal settlements and largely description based addressing, La Poste will use three word addresses to unlock the region’s economic growth and social development, making home deliveries a reality for millions. As its stands, the country only has a few street addresses and many informal settlements with no addressing system at all. The current postal system does not deliver to home addresses and instead relies on post office boxes and descriptive directions (for example, opposite the gas station or near the internet cafe).
By using what3words, every location in the country now has an address. What3words provides an easy-to-use, accurate, and fixed address for every 3m x 3m square in the world.
Customers will be able to identify any three word address using the free La Poste app and can simply write it on an envelope. Thanks to further partnerships with online retailers, including supermarket yaatoo, customers will also be able to enter the address on the checkout page of shopping websites.
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 ecommerce opportunities, home delivery and support businesses in both urban and rural spaces.”
Chris Sheldrick, CEO and co-founder of what3words, said, “We are on a mission to change the way people communicate location. With our partners we are making the world a more efficient, less frustrating and safer place. The Ivory Coast is the second country to use three word addresses to leapfrog the hundreds of other nations that still rely on inaccurate, inconsistent or complex addressing systems.”
December 9, 2016