Postal codes were adopted in Ghana on 18 October 2017, following the launch of the National Digital Address System. As a joint venture between

Ghana Post Ghana Post (also known as ''Ghana Post Company Limited'') is a government-owned corporation responsible for postal service in Ghana and a member of the West African Postal Conference. The current Managing Director is Bice Osei Kuffour, popularly ...

(with support from the Government of Ghana]) and Vokacom Ltd as Ghana Post GPS, GhanaPost GPS, the Digital Address System assigned postal codes and unique addresses to every square in Ghana. Ghana's postal codes are alphanumeric. The first two characters form the postcode district - the first letter represents the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, and the second character represents the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

in which the address is located. The next three to five digits represent the postcode area and identify a more precise location within area. Together, the postcode district and postcode area form the postal code. For example, the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park & Mausoleum in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

is located in postal code GA184, where GA represents the postcode district - G for the

Greater Accra Region The Greater Accra Region has the smallest area of Ghana's 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of 3,245 square kilometres. This is 1.4 per cent of the total land area of Ghana. It is the second most populated region, befor ...

and A for the

Accra Metropolitan District The Accra Metropolitan District is one of the 254 Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts in Ghana, and among the 26 such districts in the Greater Accra Region with a population of 284,124 as of 2021. As of March 2018, it spans an area of approxim ...

- and 184 represents the postcode area. Examples of postal codes are GA107, EO1070, and N503074.

Format

The simplest address format, recognized by the national post, Ghana Post is: Recipient Name, Street Name, Digital Address, Area, Region. This is being implemented by Scuttle Box and Ghana Post which provide your address on your mailbox, to ensure there is consistency and accuracy in all deliveries and addressing. The postal codes are alphanumeric and are variable in length, ranging from five to seven characters. In general, five-digit postal codes denote

metropolitan district A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan ...

s and major urban areas, six-digit postal codes denote municipal districts and peri-urban areas, and seven-digit postal codes denote ordinary districts and small towns. Each postal code is divided into two parts: the postcode district and postcode area. The center of each postcode district falls within the

capital and is designated as postcode area "000".
/ref> For example, postal code GA000 denotes the center of postcode district GA within Accra, the district capital of the

Accra Metropolitan district The Accra Metropolitan District is one of the 254 Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts in Ghana, and among the 26 such districts in the Greater Accra Region with a population of 284,124 as of 2021. As of March 2018, it spans an area of approxim ...

, and corresponds to the 5 meter square area around the

Jubilee House Golden Jubilee House, or Jubilee House, is the presidential palace in Accra that serves as a residence and office to the President of Ghana. Jubilee House is built on the site of a building that was constructed and used for administrative pur ...

. Postcode areas are numbered sequentially and spiral out anticlockwise from the center of the postcode district, with sequential postcode areas located 500 meters apart. For example, postal code GA008, which corresponds to the area of the

37 Military Hospital The 37 Military Hospital is a specialist hospital located in Accra, on the main road between the Kotoka International Airport and central Accra. It is the largest military hospital in the Republic of Ghana after the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. The ...

is 500 meters from GA009 and suggests proximity to the center of the district - proximity to postal code GA000.

Availability of the algorithm

The list of frequently asked questions, as of December 2017, does not state if/where the algorithm for generating the postcodes is publicly available, or how the algorithm is licensed. It is also not stated if/how bulk conversion of coordinates into postcodes is possible. This suggests that, at least at present, the algorithm is likely proprietary. This is a feature also of other postcode systems, although open postcode systems are also available. Open postcode-like systems include the

Open Location Code The Open Location Code (OLC) is a geocode based in a system of regular grids for identifying an area anywhere on the Earth. It was developed at Google's Zürich engineering office, and released late October 2014. Location codes created by the OL ...

. An example for a proprietary system that was subsequently made available under an open license includes

Postcodes in the United Kingdom Postal codes used in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies are known as postcodes (originally, postal codes). They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been dev ...

References

{{Africa in topic, Postal codes in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...