The National Residential Addresses and Postcode System has been described the most important address system because it will identify everyone's address, whether it is a workplace, a residence, or a business location. It specifies the precise location of a person's residence, as well as the location of his or her business or office. The system, which costs around 28 billion dollars, works by following the name of the road and street, house or building number, and postcode—a special digital system that identifies the area where postal services are delivered in Tanzania, starting at the village, ward, district, regional, and national levels.

In Tanzania, the residential address project is being implemented by the Ministry of Information, Communications and Information Technology, in collaboration with President's Office – Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RA LG), Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements, with the aim of facilitating communication, delivery of government services to citizens and the implementation of social, economic and administrative activities.

The Postal Services Manager at the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Mr. Haruni Lemanya, described the system as crucial to the country's socio-economic development. Residential addresses and postcode system, he emphasized, will make the country more accessible and allow people to participate in the digital economy.

He further stated that, the system will help Tanzanians do business with one another and with foreign countries because there will be a more sophisticated means of getting goods, finances, and other consignments to their destinations without any obstacles. In contrast to the past, when the issue of addresses was entirely up to the individual, the modernized address system allows everyone to have a legitimate residential address.

With the system every business registered in Tanzania will have a real address,the identity of the people living in the country will be simplified, also the registration of property, business, births and deaths will be improved, emergency services, such as police, fire and ambulances will be able to identify emergency areas and access them more quickly and easily.

Visitors in that matter will be able to identify where they are going more easily rather than constantly asking for directions, the expert said. According to postal services experts, residential addresses placement is protected by international procedures that have been ratified by member states of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), whereby appropriate standards should be observed by all member states. Tanzania has a Residential Address System Guideline issued by the Office of the President- PMO-RA LG which outlines the steps and procedures to be followed when setting up Residential Addresses in the country.

As a result, street naming and postcode provisioning procedures and standards are in line with international and national guidelines as stipulated by relevant authorities. The system adheres to standards established by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU), which follows continental postal standards, and other internationally recognized organizations such as the International Standards Organization ISO.

"All of these entities are also the foundation for cooperation among global postal service providers, which helps to build a reliable global network that ensures the delivery of modern postal services," he added, emphasizing that "this process is important to consider because it eliminates the potential for conflict and unorganized naming and provisioning of addresses across the globe."

The process of naming streets and roads will begin at the village level, progress to the ward level, and finally to the district level, where a decision of Councilors may result in a final list of approved street and road names in a particular district. "Participatory modality in the issue of naming streets and roads is very important because roads and streets are public infrastructures; and residential addresses is an issue that affects the entire community," emphasized Lemanya.

In February this year, during a working meeting with Regional Commissioners in Dodoma. President Samia Suluhu Hassan emphasized the importance of citizens’ involvement in every step of the Residential Address project. "So, if we properly engage the people, this exercise will be easier and less expensive than we had hoped," President Samia Suluhu emphasized.

To avoid potential tensions between people of different groups over street and road naming, the Addressing Guideline has stipulated that District Council and the people through their grassroots leadership, will produce a list of approved street names and roads. The Council will be responsible for providing information to all stakeholders on the approved local names and inclusion of the same list in the Permanent Register of Roads.

Street names and roads in many places, particularly in urban areas, are more influenced by the popularity of certain persons, objects, or geography of the place; for example, when in an elevated area, they can call their area 'Kilimani (Hill),' while an area where a famous sailor lives is given the name 'Baharia (sailor),' and so on; additionally, if one resident starts building as the first in the respective neighborhoods, they may decide to give the neighborhood a name on their pioneering advantage. In addition to the customary procedure, the Addressing Guideline has established a procedure for providing street names that adheres to government directives.

According to Ubungo District Commissioner Kheri James, who spoke to the author of this article, his district follows the procedures outlined in the guidelines for obtaining local names, which include obtaining street names from the people through their relevant local meetings. "Sometimes people want to name their street after someone based on how active that person has been in social welfare, or simply because he's famous; you cannot deny the people their right of choice by selecting a name they like," he explained.

Supplementary Advantages of Having Residential Address System.

The address system is beneficial to the growth and functionality of a business. In essence, all types of businesses require addresses. Almost every business must deal with vendors, which is why companies require supplier information. The system aids in the identification of businesses and vendors in order to develop a supply and demand chain that promotes business growth and entrepreneurship. Residential addresses are very helpful in assisting traders identify areas to deliver goods and pick up raw materials for industrial and commercial production in general in areas with high population density.Because you never know when an accident might happen at work, businesses require employee contact information. In this case, it's your responsibility to make sure the employee gets home safely.

Customer addresses are required by almost every business: Organized businesses keep records of their customers; in order to maintain such records, it is important that these customers have an address to enable the businesses to reach them and deliver the product without having customers go physically to the business locations. Businesses identify their best markets through creation of customer profiles. These profiles provide them with detailed information about a customer, including their location. This is possible if there is a well-organized address system.

For Better Planning: businesses require complete addresses in order to plan properly. Take, for an instance of Tanzania Posts Corporation. The company can deliver thousands of parcels per day because it has complete addresses of its customers; however, in certain cases home delivery might appear to be challenging because not all of its customers have complete residential addresses.

According to President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the government has set a goal of completing the residential address project in all regions by May 2022, in preparation for the August 2022 Population Census. The President went on to say that this system would be very useful in enabling the conducting of census exercise, providing Tanzania with accurate population and housing statistics for development planning; awareness, particularly at the district, ward, and village levels. More so President Samia accentuated that, successful implementation of the address project will introduce Tanzania to the networked world and guarantee the development of the digital economy.