The North East runs from the Lake Chad basin to the Mambilla Plateau, and its delivery districts cover long distances between towns. Select a state below for its full postal code guide.
The North East is a zone of great historical depth and striking landscapes, heir to the ancient Kanem-Bornu Empire. It stretches from the shores of Lake Chad and the Sahel in the north to the cool highlands of the Mambilla Plateau and the famous Yankari National Park in the south.
The zone is made up of six states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe. Their capitals are Yola, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Gombe, Jalingo and Damaturu.
Postal Codes Across the North East
Postal codes in the North East are managed by the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and vary from state to state, with each state having its own range that covers all of its local government areas and towns. For example, the codes around Maiduguri in Borno begin in the 600001 range, while those around Bauchi begin in the 740001 range. Each state guide below breaks these ranges down to the individual local government area and town.
How to Find the Right Postal Code
Because settlements in the North East are widely spaced, a single postal district often serves several villages around a larger town such as Yola, Gombe or Damaturu. Open the relevant state guide above and match your local government area, since the nearest town code is frequently the one in use.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many states are in the North East?
The North East is made up of 6 states.
How do I find the postal code for a town in the North East?
Open the guide for the state that contains the town from the list above, then find the town or its local government area in the tables to get the exact six digit postal code.
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How a Nigerian Postal Code Is Built
Every NIPOST code is six digits, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first digit identifies one of the nine postal regions the country is divided into. The second and third narrow that down to a dispatch district, the sorting centre responsible for an area. The last three identify the delivery location served by a particular post office.
Two rules make the system easier to read once you know them. A state or district head office always ends in 0001, so a code ending in those four digits is almost always the main post office for that area. And dispatch district prefixes step upward in twenties within a region rather than counting one by one, which is why you see 200, 220, 240 and 260 in a region but nothing in between. The zone sits at the upper end of the national range, which runs to 982002.
The full national range runs from 100001 to 982002.
North East States and Their Capitals
The North East zone contains the following states. Open a state guide for its codes.
State
Capital
Adamawa State
Yola
Bauchi State
Bauchi
Borno State
Maiduguri
Gombe State
Gombe
Taraba State
Jalingo
Yobe State
Damaturu
Why Online LGA Tables Disagree With Each Other
If you search for the postal code of a local government area in the North East, you will find table after table assigning a neat code range to every LGA. Compare two of them and they rarely agree. Compare one against itself and it often does not agree either: the same range routinely appears against several different LGAs in the same state.
There is a straightforward reason for this. NIPOST assigns codes to post office delivery districts, not to local government areas. The two do not map onto each other. A single delivery district can serve parts of several LGAs, and a large LGA can contain several delivery districts. Any table that promises one tidy code range per LGA has had to invent the mapping to fill the column, which is why those tables contradict one another and themselves.
What can be relied on is the structure described above, the head office codes, and the code your own post office actually uses.
What Changes on 1 October 2026
NIPOST is replacing the six digit numeric postcode with a National Digital Alphanumeric Postcode: eleven characters, working through five levels from state down to local government area, district, area and finally the individual building. NIPOST’s own worked example is FC02A09DB09.
The practical difference is precision. A six digit code points at a delivery district that may cover a wide area; the new code points at a specific building. The public search is at postcode.gov.ng. The six digit codes on this site remain the ones in everyday use until the changeover, and we will update these guides as the new system rolls out.
How to Confirm a Code Before You Use It
For everyday post, the code for your delivery district is enough and any of the state guides here will get you to it. Where the code has to be exact — a passport or visa application, a bank or regulatory form, a customs declaration, an international parcel — confirm it before you submit, because a rejected form costs far more time than the check does.
The quickest confirmation is to ask at the post office that actually delivers to the address, since they use the code daily. Failing that, check the NIPOST website or the new postcode portal. If a form will not accept the code you have, the head office code for the state capital is generally accepted, and it is better than guessing.
