Lagos Postal Code: Every Dispatch Block, All 20 LGAs, and What to Use
100001 is the first postal code in Nigeria. Not the most famous, though it is that too: literally the lowest number the national plan issues, because NIPOST numbered the country outward from Ikeja. Every other Lagos State code begins with the same 10 and the range stops at 106104.
Lagos shares postal region 1 with Ogun and nothing else, which is why its codes are the lowest numbers in the country. The Nigerian numbering plan was drawn outward from Lagos, so 100001 is not just a Lagos code, it is effectively the first postal code in Nigeria.
What follows is the block structure, all 20 local governments, how to lay out a Lagos address so it survives sorting, and an honest account of why no two websites agree on the code for your street.
Lagos State Postal Code at a Glance
| State capital | Ikeja |
|---|---|
| Head office code | 100001 |
| Code range | 100001 to 106104 |
| Dispatch prefixes | 100, 101, 102, 105 |
| Local Government Areas | 20 |
| Postal region | Region 1 |
| Digits | Six, numeric only |
Reading a Lagos State Code
Take 100001, the Ikeja head office code. The first digit, 1, puts the address in postal region 1. The first three digits, 100, name the dispatch district that sorts outgoing mail. The last three, 001, are the delivery location, and 001 always means the head office itself.
The same three part structure explains why codes inside one town look almost identical while codes from opposite ends of the state look unrelated. Two houses on the same street usually share all six digits, because they share a delivery round. Two houses in different towns rarely share more than the first three.
Every genuine Lagos State code is built the same way, which gives you a quick test. If someone hands you a code for an address in Lagos State and it does not begin with 10, it is not a Lagos State code.
Dispatch Districts in Lagos State
Lagos runs more dispatch blocks than any other state, and they follow the city outwards rather than following the local government map. The 100 block is Ikeja and the northern mainland, which is where the state’s postal spine sits. The 101 block covers Lagos Island, Ikoyi, Victoria Island and the older mainland districts, so it carries most of the commercial post. The 102 block runs west through the Amuwo and Ajegunle axis toward the Badagry expressway. Beyond those, the higher blocks are the outer edges of the state in geographic order: Badagry to the west, Ikorodu to the north, then Ibeju Lekki and Epe running east along the coast.
| Dispatch prefix | Codes it issues |
|---|---|
| 100 | 100001 to 100999 |
| 101 | 101001 to 101999 |
| 102 | 102001 to 102999 |
| 105 | 105001 to 105999 |
The 20 Local Government Areas in Lagos State
Lagos has 20 local government areas, the ones printed on voter cards and land documents. Your street sits inside one of them, and naming it helps a rider find you, but the local government is not the unit NIPOST codes.
| Agege | Ajeromi-Ifelodun | Alimosho |
| Amuwo-Odofin | Apapa | Badagry |
| Epe | Eti-Osa | Ibeju-Lekki |
| Ifako-Ijaiye | Ikeja | Ikorodu |
| Kosofe | Lagos Island | Lagos Mainland |
| Mushin | Ojo | Oshodi-Isolo |
| Shomolu | Surulere |
What you will not find above is a code beside each name, and that is deliberate. NIPOST issues codes to delivery districts, not to local governments. Tables that pair the two are estimates, which is why published lists for Lagos State contradict each other and sometimes contradict themselves.
Why Lagos Addresses Are the Hardest in the Country
Three things make Lagos a special case. Street names repeat across the metropolis, so a rider holding an address with no landmark can end up on the wrong side of the lagoon entirely. Gated estates run internal numbering that no postal district recognises, so a code covers the estate gate rather than the house behind it. And the Lekki corridor has been built out faster than any delivery map could follow, which is why addresses there are quoted with landmarks and phone numbers rather than codes.
This is also why Lagos businesses lean on post office boxes and private mail bags far more than businesses elsewhere in the country. A box number at a named branch is unambiguous in a way that a street address in Lagos often is not, and it survives the company moving office.
For everyday deliveries none of this matters much, because dispatch riders navigate by landmark and a phone call, and the code never enters the conversation. It starts to matter when a bank, an embassy or a foreign retailer needs an address that resolves without somebody phoning to ask which gate. That is the moment the correct district code earns its place.
Islands, Mainland and the Water in Between
The lagoon splits Lagos into postal halves that behave differently. Island districts, meaning Lagos Island, Ikoyi and Victoria Island, sit in the 101 block and hold the densest concentration of corporate post in Nigeria. Mainland districts spread across 100, 101 and 102 depending on how far west you go, and the volume there is domestic rather than corporate.
The practical consequence is that island codes are more likely to be correct when you find them published, because those districts have been stable for decades and receive enough post for errors to get corrected. Mainland and outer codes, particularly anywhere developed after about 2010, are far more likely to be someone’s estimate.
Ikorodu, Badagry, Epe and the Outer Blocks
The outer local governments are geographically enormous compared with the metropolitan ones. Epe and Ibeju Lekki between them cover more land than the whole of the built up city, and their delivery districts are correspondingly wide, so one code can cover a stretch of road several kilometres long. Ikorodu has urbanised quickly and now carries mail volume closer to a mainland district than to a rural one.
If your address is in any of these, expect the code you are given to be broad rather than precise, and expect the landmark to do the real work until the new building level system lands.
If Your Address Is New or Unlisted
New estates and recently settled areas are where the code system lags hardest. A delivery district is drawn only when an area generates enough post to justify a round. A new estate is therefore absorbed into the nearest existing district rather than given one of its own. That means your code is real, but it belongs to the district next door rather than to your street.
Three things help. Use the code your delivery office gives you even if it seems to belong somewhere else, because that is the round your post is on. Put the estate name and the nearest main road in the address, since those carry the item the last kilometre. And keep a phone number on anything that matters, because in Lagos State as everywhere else in Nigeria, the last stage of delivery is a call rather than a code.
Codes Published for Lagos State That Cannot Be Right
We compared the Lagos State code tables that circulate online against themselves. A code belongs to one delivery district, so if two local governments are published with ranges that share numbers, at least one of the two is invented. Lagos State fails that test in 3 visible places, and here are the clearest.
Ranges that swallow their neighbours:
- Agege at 100215 to 100361 overlaps Alimosho at 100265 to 100351.
- Agege at 100215 to 100361 overlaps Ikeja at 100001 to 100282.
- Agege at 100215 to 100361 overlaps Kosofe at 100234 to 100247.
None of this means the numbers themselves are fictional. They sit in the correct blocks for Lagos State. What is fictional is the neat range attached to a local government. That mapping was estimated by whoever first built the table, and every site that copied it inherited the estimate.
It is worth knowing how wrong codes get into circulation in the first place, because the same three routes explain almost every bad table online. The first is interpolation, where somebody knows two real codes and fills the gap between them with a tidy range. The second is inheritance, where one site guesses and forty others copy it, which is why a wrong code can look authoritative through sheer repetition. The third is drift, where a code was right when it was published and the delivery district was later split or merged.
You can check any Lagos State code you are given in two steps. Confirm it starts with one of the dispatch prefixes listed above, which rules out codes belonging to another state entirely. Then confirm the last three digits with the delivery office, which is the only part no table can settle for you.
What Happens to a Letter Posted in Lagos State
Knowing the chain explains why the first three digits matter more than the last three. A letter posted anywhere in Lagos State is collected to the nearest branch, then moved to the dispatch office named by the first three digits of the destination code. Outgoing post leaves the state through the region 1 network, and incoming post arrives the same way in reverse, landing at the dispatch office before it is broken down to the delivery round in the last three digits.
The code earns its keep on registered and tracked items. Ordinary post in Lagos State is forgiving, because a postman who recognises the street will deliver it regardless of the digits. Registered items, EMS parcels and anything arriving from abroad are different. Each transfer is handled against the code, so a wrong dispatch prefix can add days or send the item back.
Get the first three digits wrong and your letter travels to the wrong part of the country before anyone notices. Get the last three wrong and it usually still arrives, a day late, because the delivery office recognises the street. This is why a head office code such as 100001 is a safe fallback and a random six digits is not.
How to Write a Lagos State Address
Lagos addresses carry more weight on the landmark than on any other element, but a written address still has an order that sorting offices expect.
The order NIPOST expects runs from the specific to the general, with the code on the same line as the town:
Mrs A. Balogun 14 Adeniyi Jones Avenue Ikeja 100281 Lagos Nigeria
Two habits worth breaking. Do not put the code on its own line at the bottom the way American addresses do, because Nigerian sorting reads it beside the town name. And do not drop the state, even for a well known city, because several towns share names across states and the state is what disambiguates them.
Neighbouring Codes in Region 1
Lagos State shares its postal region with the states below. If a code you have been given starts with one of their prefixes, the address is not in Lagos State.
| State | Prefix |
|---|---|
| Ogun | 110 |
How to Get Your Exact Code
- The only authoritative answer comes from the post office that delivers to you. Call the branch, give the street name, and ask which delivery district it falls under.
- Search the NIPOST postcode finder by address rather than by local government.
- Where the delivery is informal anyway, use 100001, the Ikeja head office code, which routes correctly across the state.
What to Enter on a Form
Type 100001 if you are in or near Ikeja and do not know your district code. Six digits, no spaces. Avoid 23401 and 00000, which are not NIPOST codes and mean nothing to a sorting office even though most websites accept them.
If a foreign site rejects the code because it wants five digits, that is a validation fault on their end rather than a problem with your address. Enter the six digits wherever the form allows it, and never invent a shorter code for anything a bank, an embassy or a courier will check.
The New Code Coming in October
NIPOST switches the country to an 11 character alphanumeric postcode on 1 October 2026, built down five levels from state to individual building. For Lagos this is the change that matters most in the country, because a building level code finally solves the estate and duplicate street name problem that no six digit district code could ever fix.
The Numbers That Matter
- Lagos State head office code: 100001
- Range: 100001 to 106104
- Dispatch prefixes: 100, 101, 102, 105
- Local Government Areas: 20
- Capital: Ikeja
- New alphanumeric postcode: 1 October 2026
Common Questions
What is the zip code for Lagos?
Ikeja head office is 100001, and it is the code to use when a form asks for one and you do not know your district. Every Lagos code falls between 100001 and 106104.
What is the postal code for Lekki?
Lekki does not have a single code. It stretches across Eti Osa and Ibeju Lekki, and codes along the corridor are issued from both the 101 and 105 blocks. Ask your delivery office which district covers your estate rather than copying a code off a listing site.
What is the postal code for Victoria Island?
Victoria Island sits in the 101 block along with Ikoyi and Lagos Island. The last three digits depend on the delivery district, so confirm at the branch that serves the address.
What is the postal code for Ikeja?
Ikeja is the 100 block and the head office itself is 100001. Surrounding districts such as Oregun, Opebi and Allen carry codes in the same block with different final digits.
Is 23401 a Lagos postal code?
No, and it is not a NIPOST code at all. It circulates because it looks like the +234 country code with a digit added, and online forms accept it because they check length rather than truth.
Do Lagos couriers need a postal code?
No. GIG, DHL and the bike dispatch services route by street, landmark and phone number. The code is for forms, banks and international post.
Why do sites give different codes for the same Lagos area?
Because they are all estimating the same missing information. NIPOST issues codes to delivery districts, and no public table maps Lagos streets onto those districts, so every site fills the gap with a guess.
Does Lagos have one postal code or many?
Many. Seven dispatch blocks issue codes across the state, and a single local government can contain several delivery districts, each with its own code.
In Brief
Lagos codes begin with 10, run from 100001 to 106104, and come from seven dispatch blocks spreading from Ikeja out to Epe. Ikeja head office, 100001, is the safe entry on any form. The 20 local governments are real administrative units but they are not the unit NIPOST codes, which is the entire reason published Lagos code tables disagree with each other.
Before You Post Anything
For a form, use 100001 and move on. For anything that must resolve to a real place, a bank verification or an international shipment, ask the post office that delivers to your street. From October the question gets easier, because the new national postcode is issued per building rather than per district, and Lagos is the state with the most to gain from it.
