(Seychelles News Agency) - The Seychelles' Cabinet of Ministers has approved the implementation of the National Addressing System (NAS) to provide a standardised, accurate, and efficient addressing framework to improve service delivery.

In a cabinet decisions press briefing on Thursday, Vice President Ahmed Afif said that Seychelles, unlike other countries, does not have a postal code, which is a combination of numbers and letters that helps postal departments and courier services determine the exact place and region where postal mail must be delivered.

"Today many people do e-commerce transactions and things are ordered online. All courier and postal companies making the deliveries are asking that they know exactly where the products are going because part of their services is door-to-door deliveries. So when you give an address which is not precise example there is no number they will say they are sending couriers to a place where there is no standard in terms of addresses," said Afif.

He added that the government is introducing the standard and what this means is that there will be a postal code to indicate the district, sub-district, a specific zone in the sub-district.

"The standard will be called S42, one that many countries have adopted. So all places in Seychelles will have a four-digit code. When Seychelles adopts the standard, all courier companies will know that when they send something to Seychelles, they will know where the products will be going," said the Vice President.

Afif explained that deliveries will reach individuals' homes because the Seychelles Postal System will have an internal system to to identify individual houses.  

"Each house will have a number and the postman will be able to identify your house when this is introduced. An app will also be introduced to link with our Geographical Information System (GIS), which will show where a person's house is," he added.