The South East is the most densely settled zone in Nigeria, and its commercial towns carry far more postal districts than their size suggests. Pick a state below to open its full code guide, covering every local government area and major town.
The South East is the Igbo heartland of Nigeria, a densely populated and highly entrepreneurial zone famous for its commerce, industry and strong communal traditions. It is home to great trading and manufacturing centres such as Onitsha, Nnewi and Aba, and to the Coal City of Enugu.
The zone is made up of five states: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. Their capitals are Umuahia, Awka, Abakaliki, Enugu and Owerri.
Postal Codes Across the South East
Postal codes in the South 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 Enugu begin in the 400001 range, while those around Onitsha in Anambra begin in the 430001 range. Each state guide below breaks these ranges down to the individual local government area and town.
How to Find the Right Postal Code
Trading hubs such as Onitsha Main Market and Ariaria in Aba have delivery districts separate from the surrounding local government area. If you are sending to a business address in the South East, take the specific district code from the state guide above rather than relying on a general state code.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many states are in the South East?
The South East is made up of 5 states.
How do I find the postal code for a town in the South 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.
Image credit: dailypost.ng
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. Enugu’s head office carries 400001 and Owerri in Imo carries 460001.
The full national range runs from 100001 to 982002.
South East States and Their Capitals
The South East zone contains the following states. Open a state guide for its codes.
State
Capital
Abia State
Umuahia
Anambra State
Awka
Ebonyi State
Abakaliki
Enugu State
Enugu
Imo State
Owerri
Why Online LGA Tables Disagree With Each Other
If you search for the postal code of a local government area in the South 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.
