Oyo State postal codes begin with 20 or 21. Ibadan head office is 200001, and the state’s codes run up to 212104.
Oyo anchors postal region 2 alongside Osun, Kwara and Kogi. Ibadan holding 200001 reflects what the city was when the plan was drawn, the largest urban area in West Africa by land and the administrative centre of the old Western Region.
Oyo is also the state where published code tables fall apart most visibly, and this page shows exactly where.
Oyo State Postal Code at a Glance
| State capital | Ibadan |
|---|---|
| Head office code | 200001 |
| Code range | 200001 to 212104 |
| Dispatch prefixes | 200, 201, 202, 203, 210, 211, 212 |
| Local Government Areas | 33 |
| Postal region | Region 2 |
| Digits | Six, numeric only |
Reading a Oyo State Code
Take 200001, the Ibadan head office code. The first digit, 2, puts the address in postal region 2. The first three digits, 200, 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 Oyo State code is built the same way, which gives you a quick test. If someone hands you a code for an address in Oyo State and it does not begin with 20, it is not a Oyo State code.
Dispatch Districts in Oyo State
Seven dispatch blocks serve Oyo. The 200 through 203 blocks cover Ibadan and its surrounding local governments, which between them hold most of the state’s population and nearly all of its commercial post. The 210 through 212 blocks run north and west, taking in Ogbomoso, Oyo town, Iseyin and the Saki axis. The division is a fair reflection of the state: one very large city, and a wide agricultural hinterland with market towns spaced far apart.
| Dispatch prefix | Codes it issues |
|---|---|
| 200 | 200001 to 200999 |
| 201 | 201001 to 201999 |
| 202 | 202001 to 202999 |
| 203 | 203001 to 203999 |
| 210 | 210001 to 210999 |
| 211 | 211001 to 211999 |
| 212 | 212001 to 212999 |
The 33 Local Government Areas in Oyo State
Oyo has 33 local government areas, and eleven of them are Ibadan. Five are the urban core, Ibadan North, Ibadan North East, Ibadan North West, Ibadan South East and Ibadan South West, and six more ring the city, Akinyele, Egbeda, Ido, Lagelu, Oluyole and Ona Ara.
| Afijio | Akinyele | Atiba |
| Atisbo | Egbeda | Ibadan North |
| Ibadan North-East | Ibadan North-West | Ibadan South-East |
| Ibadan South-West | Ibarapa Central | Ibarapa East |
| Ibarapa North | Ido | Irepo |
| Iseyin | Itesiwaju | Iwajowa |
| Kajola | Lagelu | Ogbomosho North |
| Ogbomosho South | Ogo Oluwa | Olorunsogo |
| Oluyole | Ona Ara | Orelope |
| Ori Ire | Oyo East | Oyo West |
| Saki East | Saki West | 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 Oyo State contradict each other and sometimes contradict themselves.
Eleven Local Governments Called Ibadan
No other Nigerian city is split across as many local governments as Ibadan, and it causes more addressing confusion than anything else in the state. Five urban local governments carve up the old city between them, and their boundaries run through neighbourhoods rather than around them, so a single named area can sit in two of them.
This is precisely why the published code tables for Oyo collapse. Whoever built the original table had to assign ranges to eleven units covering one continuous city, and there was no defensible way to do it, so the ranges were repeated and stretched until every unit had one.
Bodija, Dugbe and the University
The parts of Ibadan with the most dependable addressing are the planned ones. Old Bodija, the Agodi government reservation and the Dugbe commercial district were laid out with numbered plots, and post to them arrives on the street address alone. The University of Ibadan operates its own delivery arrangement on campus, as most Nigerian universities do, which is why staff and departmental post is addressed to the department and the campus rather than to a district code.
Outside those areas, in the older organically grown quarters, the area name does the work. Give the area, then the nearest landmark, then the street.
Ogbomoso, Oyo Town and the Saki Axis
North of Ibadan the state changes character. Ogbomoso is a substantial city in its own right with its own delivery districts, Oyo town carries the historical weight of the old capital, and the Saki and Iseyin axis is farming country where a single delivery district can cover a lot of ground. Codes here are broad by necessity, and the town name matters more than the six digits.
Oyo town also has its own telephone area code, 02038, separate from Ibadan’s 0202, which is a useful reminder that a state can hold several codes of every kind.
Post Office Boxes and Private Mail Bags in Oyo State
A post office box is rented from a named branch, and the branch is what makes the address work. Written properly it is the box number, the branch, then the code and town. A private mail bag works the same way but is issued to an organisation rather than an individual, which is why ministries, universities and large companies publish one instead of a street address.
The layout looks like this:
P.O. Box 1234 Ibadan Main Post Office 200001 Ibadan Nigeria
Two practical notes. A box address is often more reliable than a street address in Oyo State, because it removes the guesswork about which delivery district covers you, and it survives you moving house. But couriers who deliver to the door, which is most of them, cannot deliver to a box at all, so keep a street address for anything that arrives by bike.
Codes Published for Oyo State That Cannot Be Right
We compared the Oyo 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. Oyo State fails that test in 6 visible places, and here are the clearest.
Identical ranges given to different local governments:
- Ibadan North and Ibadan North-East are both published as 200001 to 200285. The same numbers cannot cover two separate areas.
- Ibadan North and Ibadan North-West are both published as 200001 to 200285. The same numbers cannot cover two separate areas.
- Ibadan North and Ibadan South-East are both published as 200001 to 200285. The same numbers cannot cover two separate areas.
Ranges that swallow their neighbours:
- Akinyele at 200132 to 200140 overlaps Ibadan North at 200001 to 200285.
- Akinyele at 200132 to 200140 overlaps Ibadan North-East at 200001 to 200285.
- Akinyele at 200132 to 200140 overlaps Ibadan North-West at 200001 to 200285.
None of this means the numbers themselves are fictional. They sit in the correct blocks for Oyo State. What is fictional is the neat range attached to a local government, because 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 Oyo 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 Oyo State
Knowing the chain explains why the first three digits matter more than the last three. A letter posted anywhere in Oyo 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 2 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 Oyo State is forgiving, because a postman who recognises the street will deliver it regardless of the digits. A registered item, an EMS parcel or anything arriving from abroad is handled against the code at each transfer, so a wrong dispatch prefix on those 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 200001 is a safe fallback and a random six digits is not.
How to Write a Oyo State Address
Ibadan addresses usually name the area before the street, because areas such as Bodija, Dugbe, Mokola and Agodi are what everyone navigates by.
The order NIPOST expects runs from the specific to the general, with the code on the same line as the town:
Dr F. Adewale 18 Awolowo Avenue Old Bodija 200001 Ibadan Oyo State 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 2
Oyo 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 Oyo State.
| State | Prefix |
|---|---|
| Osun | 220 |
| Kwara | 240 |
| Kogi | 260 |
Finding the Code for Your Street
- 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 200001, the Ibadan head office code, which routes correctly across the state.
What to Enter on a Form
Type 200001 if you are in or near Ibadan 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.
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. Oyo has the most to gain from the change of any state in the south west, because building level codes remove the need to pretend that eleven local governments can be neatly divided across one city.
Quick Facts
- Oyo State head office code: 200001
- Range: 200001 to 212104
- Dispatch prefixes: 200, 201, 202, 203, 210, 211, 212
- Local Government Areas: 33
- Capital: Ibadan
- New alphanumeric postcode: 1 October 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the zip code for Ibadan?
Ibadan head office is 200001. Every Oyo code begins 20 or 21, with the state range running from 200001 to 212104.
Why do Ibadan local governments share the same postal codes online?
Because the ranges were invented. Ibadan is one continuous city split across eleven local governments, and there was no honest way to divide codes between them, so the tables repeat ranges instead.
What is the postal code for Bodija?
Bodija sits inside the Ibadan blocks beginning 200. It is one of the better addressed parts of the city, so the street address alone usually suffices for delivery.
What is the postal code for Ogbomoso?
Ogbomoso is served from the higher blocks, in the 210 to 212 range. Confirm the exact district code locally, since the town has several delivery rounds.
Is 200001 the code for the whole of Oyo State?
No. It is the Ibadan head office code. It is the right thing to type on a form, but it identifies one delivery district, not the state.
Does the University of Ibadan have its own postal code?
The campus runs its own internal delivery arrangement, so departmental post is addressed to the department and campus. For external forms, use the Ibadan head office code.
What is the difference between Oyo State and Oyo town?
Oyo town is a city inside Oyo State, and the two are not interchangeable in an address. The town has its own telephone area code, 02038, while Ibadan uses 0202.
Why do Oyo codes start with 2?
The first digit is the postal region. Oyo is region 2 with Osun, Kwara and Kogi, and Ibadan holds the region’s anchor code at 200001.
Summary
Oyo codes begin with 20 or 21 and run from 200001 to 212104 across seven dispatch blocks. Ibadan head office, 200001, anchors postal region 2. The state’s 33 local governments include eleven that are all Ibadan, which is the direct cause of the contradictory ranges published for this state everywhere online.
Conclusion
Use 200001 on forms. In Ibadan, lead the address with the area name, because that is how the city is actually navigated. And treat any table that gives a single tidy code range for Ibadan North or Ibadan North East with suspicion, since the two are commonly published with identical numbers.