Côte d’Ivoire opts for what3words
The Côte d’Ivoire’s La Poste has adopted the what3words system as its addressing standard. Côte d’Ivoire is the first African nation – and second in the world, after Mongolia – to use what3words to improve its national infrastructure.
The 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.
According to a notice posted on the what3words website on Thursday (8 December): “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, near the Internet Cafe”).
“By using what3words, every location in the country now has an instant address. what3words 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. As a first step, La Poste wants to use this integration to make home deliveries a reality for millions.”
The what3words system will also support La Poste in a significant deal with OCP Africa, the African arm of OCP Group, the world’s largest producer and distributor of fertiliser and other farming products. More than half of Côte d’Ivoire’s land is used for agriculture and La Poste will be using what3words to deliver OCP’s products to farmers across the country.
