N-Ways
Codes
Sierra Leone has no postcodes, and outside central Freetown almost no home has an address a courier, a keke or an ambulance can use. From 20 October 2026, every compound in the country, every family yard, walled plot and house, has an N-Ways code: 1,359,282 of them, from Kroo Bay to Kabala and from Kambia to Pujehun.
What a code is
A code is the name of your community, town or village and a short number, said in groups like a phone number. Moyamba 157 27 is said “Moyamba, one five seven, two seven”. Other real codes: Waterloo 34 29, Makeni 138 93, Koidu 162 47, Kabala 120 41. Small villages have three-digit numbers, big towns five. The name in the code is never longer than 12 characters and two words: Gbangbatoke Junction is simply Gbangbatoke, 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 village yard with houses, a kitchen and a store has one code.
In Freetown, the council’s Plus Code comes first
Freetown City Council already addresses every property with a Plus Code, so in its area that code comes first: the card for Connaught 23 01, next to Connaught Hospital, shows FQQ6+9G Freetown first, the council’s address of the property. The N-Ways code is beside it, to say on the phone and to tell the buildings of one property apart. Either one finds your gate.
One code, one place, in the whole country
Many names repeat: there are 28 places called Madina and five called Moyamba. So every place with the same name shares one national range of numbers, one block each. Moyamba 157 27 is in Moyamba town and Moyamba 220 14 in a village of Kenema District, and neither needs its district after it. Spellings fold together too: Kissy Tong and Kissy Town, Kru Bay and Kroo Bay are one name.
On a plate or a form it is written simply Moyamba 157 27. There is nothing else to remember or type.
No district or chiefdom is part of the code, so the new districts announced in October 2026 change nothing: a code shows its district 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.
A code for any spot
Every spot in Sierra Leone also has a Plus Code, the same grid the council uses: 5H68+3V Moyamba for Moyamba 157 27. It is printed on the plate, and any Plus Code app can read it, for a stall at Big Market, a wharf or a farm.
What a code is not
- Not a land title. It proves neither ownership nor the right to occupy a plot.
- Not a replacement for the council’s code. In Freetown, FCC’s Plus Code stays your property’s address.
- 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.