Send a letter from Sweden to Africa

In Kenya, Ethiopia, the Gambia and much of eastern Africa mail goes to a P.O. Box at a post office. Always ask for the recipient's box number before you send anything.

North Africa follows the French tradition: house number first, street name after, postcode before the town. Addresses are usually written in French.

South Africa writes the postcode on its own line at the end, and the suburb is a necessary address line.

Nigeria relies on the state name rather than the postcode, which is used irregularly.

The last line is the Swedish country name in capitals, whatever language the rest of the address is in.

Normal delivery is 8–25 working days counted from our hand-in to PostNord. Order before 11:45 on a weekday and the letter is handed in the same day.

Coastal cities in North Africa have relatively short transit times thanks to direct flight connections.

South of the Sahara delivery varies widely. A letter to Nairobi moves faster than one to a rural box in the same country.

Each country has its own page with a correctly formatted example address, the normal delivery time and the mistakes that are most common on letters going there.

88 SEK for a standard letter and 128 SEK for express, whichever country you write to. Printing, paper, envelope, postage and hand-in are included.

PostNord divides the world into seven zones when you buy stamps yourself. With us the zone is irrelevant — you never need to know which one the destination belongs to.

Every letter you send through us is posted inside Sweden. Swedish sorting reads the last line of the address to decide which country the letter leaves for, and it reads Swedish country names.

So write GERMANY nowhere and TYSKLAND on the last line. Everything above it should be written as a postal worker in the destination country would expect to read it.

Banknotes and coins may not be sent in an international letter. Dangerous goods are prohibited, and goods sent to countries outside the EU need a customs declaration that an ordinary letter does not carry.

We send documents and personal letters only.