PUBLIC REPORT Nigeria-first maps infrastructure

Why We Built Pulleat

Many founders in Africa pay for global map APIs priced in dollars, then still discover that local addresses, landmarks, estate entrances, and delivery realities are not handled well enough. Pulleat is our response: a free public beta for Nigeria-first geocoding, routing, reverse geocoding, and ETA.

The goal is not to pretend foreign map products are useless. The goal is to give founders, operators, and developers a local-first alternative they can test before defaulting to expensive map bills for every workflow.

Why This Problem Matters

This problem is both operational and economic. On the operational side, Nigerian and African addresses often depend on landmarks, compounds, estate gates, local aliases, and phone-call clarification. On the economic side, many startups still pay for core infrastructure in dollars while local currency pressure makes those bills harder to absorb.

Google Maps Platform now uses per-SKU pricing and subscription plans. Official pricing currently includes plans like Starter at $100 per month, Essentials at $275 per month, and Pro at $1,200 per month, with separate usage-based pricing across routes, places, and other products.

That cost may be manageable for large companies. It is much harder for early African startups, local logistics teams, and smaller products trying to validate demand before committing to permanent infrastructure spend. TechCabal also reported that Nigerian founders were actively trying to reduce dollar-denominated software costs as FX pressure hit margins and survival.

The Local Address Reality

The address problem is not theoretical. Reporting around Nigerian postal and addressing infrastructure has long shown that a large share of homes and businesses do not receive door delivery properly. NIPOST-linked public reporting stated that only 20% of Nigerians received mail at home, 79% of homes and businesses could not receive delivery to the door, and only 5% of mail used postcodes correctly.

More recent startup reporting shows the same issue in a modern form. TechCrunch reported OkHi survey data showing that 57% of surveyed Nigerians said they could not verify their address in some situations, 50% said they did not have a utility bill, and 78% said they had needed to prove their address to get a job.

In practice, this means businesses still rely on landmarks, phone calls, rider clarification, WhatsApp pins, gate descriptions, and local memory to complete last-mile delivery successfully.

Public discussion reflects the same thing. Developers on Reddit still complain that Google Maps and Places become expensive quickly when autocomplete, geocoding, map loads, and route requests pile up. On Nairaland, users still ask how to add streets, complain that some Nigerian directions are misleading, or rely on landmarks to verify map accuracy.

What We Built

Pulleat is a public beta maps API built around the workflows founders and operators actually need first:

Forward geocoding
Reverse geocoding
Place and landmark search
Routing
ETA estimation

The product is free to test publicly. We intentionally keep the playground open and rate-limited so founders can see what works before asking for deeper access. We also keep a correction path open so the system can improve where local truth is stronger than generic map data.

What Works Today

Today, Pulleat is strongest in Lagos and usable across Nigeria-first test flows. It already supports real geocoding, reverse geocoding, routing, and ETA queries through the public beta surface.

Nigeria-only public beta
Lagos is strongest today
Anonymous playground available
Full API access approved manually during beta
Corrections can be submitted directly through the product

What This Is Not

This is not a claim that we have solved African mapping perfectly. It is not a promise that no one will ever need a global provider again. It is also not yet a continent-wide product.

Coverage is Nigeria only for now
Lagos remains the strongest city today
Some low-confidence results still need correction
Matrix and snap are intentionally held back for later demand
The system is designed to improve with verified local usage over time

Why We Are Making It Public

We want founders, engineers, operations teams, and product builders to have something they can test immediately. If it helps reduce a few early bills, remove a few delivery failures, or prove that local-first mapping can be practical infrastructure, then it is worth publishing openly.

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