NDAPS launches with hybrid cloud: public site on AWS, core data on Galaxy Backbone

NIPOST's National Digital Addressing System (NDAPS) launched October 1, assigning unique 11-character codes to buildings nationwide to replace landmark-based navigation. TechCabal found the public postcode.gov.ng website runs on AWS infrastructure in the US, raising data sovereignty questions. NIPOST clarifies: the public-facing site uses AWS only for content delivery and DDoS protection—a standard practice—while the core database containing building locations, coordinates, and administrative boundaries lives on Galaxy Backbone, Nigeria's government cloud provider.

The National Digital Cloud Policy classifies public postcode lookups as "Open" data with no residency requirements, but treats the core database as "Highly Sensitive" (Level 3), requiring domestic hosting. NIPOST retains ownership and administrative control alongside Galaxy Backbone, with both managing encryption keys. Private contractors like Milsat Technologies have restricted, role-based access only.

Banks, logistics firms, and government agencies will connect via APIs to verify addresses without informal landmarks. NIPOST says personal data isn't shared through these interfaces, though location data combined with financial or government datasets raises privacy questions. A Data Protection Impact Assessment with the NDPC remains incomplete.

The real test isn't where data lives—it's whether Galaxy Backbone can deliver the uptime, query speeds, and disaster recovery that millions of automated banking and logistics queries will demand, given Nigeria's power and fibre reliability challenges.

Will local infrastructure hold up when every delivery bike and bank verification hits this system simultaneously, or will the addressing revolution stall at the infrastructure layer?

SOURCE: https://techcabal.com/2026/11/10/nigeria-hybrid-cloud-storage-postcode/