N-Ways
Codes
In Guinea almost no home has an address a courier, a taxi or an ambulance can use: the postal radical names a post office, not a house, and only Kaloum’s streets have been named. From 20 October 2026, every concession, every walled plot and every family compound in the country has an N-Ways code: 3,831,262 of them, from Kaloum to Diécké and from Koundara to Yomou.
What a code is
A code is the name of your quartier, town or village and a number of four digits, said in pairs like a phone number. Hafia 3 · 1230 is said “Hafia 3, twelve thirty”, or in French “Hafia 3, douze trente”. Other real codes: Camayenne 2936 near the CHU de Donka, Tata 1 · 7552 in Labé, Farako 2 · 3494 in Kankan, Koléyeba 2377 in Nzérékoré. The name in the code is never longer than 12 characters and two words: Missidé Bhoundou Kalouma is simply Kalouma, and the full name still works when typed.
The code belongs to the whole compound and leads to its gate, not to the middle of a roof. A Fouta concession with several round houses, a kitchen and a granary has one code.
One code, one place, in the whole country
Many names repeat: there are 51 places called Madina, and a Linsan in Kindia and another in Lélouma. So every place with the same name shares one national range of numbers, one block each. Linsan 5389 is in Kindia and Linsan 7031 in Lélouma, and neither needs its préfecture after it. Spellings fold together too: Hafiya and Hafia, Missidè and Missidé are one name. A few names shared by many places, and a few big towns, have five-digit numbers, like Faranah 16351.
On a plate or a form it is written simply HAFIA 3 · 1230. There is nothing else to remember or type.
No commune, préfecture or region is part of the code, so Conakry’s 13 new communes and the 44 préfectures of 2026 change nothing: a code shows its commune beside it, looked up from where it is.
How to get yours
- Open N-Ways at home and tap Get my code. The app finds the compound you are in and shows its code.
- Not at home? Find your compound on the map and tap it, or drop a pin on it.
- Share it in one tap, on WhatsApp or by text. Paint it on the gate if you like.
Every code starts provisional and becomes confirmed when the people who live there agree in the app that it is right. A house too new to be on the map gets a code on the spot. Codes never change and are never given to another home.
Kaloum’s streets come first
Where the state has an address, N-Ways shows it first. Kaloum’s streets were named under the national addressing programme in 2024, so a compound on one of them shows its street first, like Avenue Dinah Salifou, Kaloum, with its N-Ways code beside it to tell the doors apart. When the programme numbers doors or reaches another commune, those addresses come first too.
A code for any spot
Every 3-metre square in Guinea also has a spot code, computed by the phone with no network: 0 22JV PVQQ for Hafia 3 · 1230. Its first five characters, 0 22JV, name a 1.2 km square that no reform can move. Spot codes are for a stall at Madina market, a gold-panning site or a landing on the Îles de Loos.
What a code is not
- Not an official address. It is an N-Ways address, built to be handed to the state if it wants it.
- Not a land title. It proves neither ownership nor the right to occupy a plot.
- Not a P.O. box. Your BP stays your mailbox; the code is where you live.
- Not about people. A code describes a place. No names of residents are stored with it.
Open for developers
The model, the engine and the registry of every code are open on GitHub. Couriers, banks, shops, mining companies and public services can decode codes in their own systems, offline if they need to. The research paper explains every rule, with the mathematics behind it.