Ivory Coast has adopted revolutionary new system of postal addresses that contain just three words. It means that for first time ever, everyone in country will be able to receive mail to their house or office. Up until now, people had to rely on post office boxes. There were only 150,000 of these nationwide and people had to rent them, which meant poorer people found it difficult to receive mail. head of Ivory Coast's post office told BBC: "We have 150,000 PO boxes for population of nearly 24 million. That means postal address is luxury in Ivory Coast. We have to make postal access available to everyone." He said three-word addresses would move Ivory Coast into digital age.
Ivory Coast's new postal system is based on what3words.com geo-mapping system. Its software has divided world into grid of 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, each assigned unique 3-word address. The software uses latitude and longitude coordinates to precisely pinpoint location on global address network. The 22 numbers from these coordinates are converted into three easy to remember words that replace house numbers, street and city names and zip codes. what3words.com spokesperson said: "Poor addressing might seem no more than annoying in some countries, but around world, it hampers growth and development of nations, ultimately costing lives.
