Anambra State, Nigeria’s sixth richest state by GDP, is pushing to deal with systemic points corresponding to inflated budgets, payroll fraud, and inefficient service supply utilizing synthetic intelligence. Behind the drive is the Anambra State ICT Company, created in 2019 and chargeable for driving digital innovation throughout the state.
One in all its flagship initiatives is SmartGov Suite, an AI-powered platform developed in-house by a crew of native tech consultants. In accordance with Nonso Okoye, the Governor’s Particular Assistant on Cybersecurity, who led the crew of consultants, the AI device can be deployed throughout all of the ministry departments within the state, starting with the native governments.
“We began with the native governments,” Nonso Okoye advised TechCabal from his freshly painted workplace on the new Anambra State Authorities Home. It was Thursday, June 27, 2025—the primary day the state’s ICT company formally resumed operations within the new constructing.
Throughout Anambra, as in lots of components of Nigeria, authorities processes stay largely guide and paper-based. In Might, Kashifu Inuwa, Director Normal of the Nationwide Data Know-how Improvement Company (NITDA), revealed to TechCabal that lower than 10% of presidency operations nationwide have been digitised. Anambra, nevertheless, is prioritising its 21 native governments attributable to their frontline function in delivering public companies and immediately impacting residents’ day-to-day lives.
“For instance, in budgeting, the AI flagged a ₦2.1 billion unspent allocation within the schooling sector just because it couldn’t discover disbursement data,” Okoye mentioned. “That’s the sort of readability we’re constructing into the system.”
The SmartGov Suite acts as a full-fledged assistant throughout public companies. Customers, together with Anambra residents, public officers, and civil servants, can ask the AI about funds, permits, or rules, and it pulls related data from state methods. Extra importantly, it will probably cross-reference knowledge throughout ministries to detect duplication, observe mission spending, and monitor vendor compliance.
AI towards corruption and waste
Probably the most speedy good thing about the AI device is in payroll verification. By analysing Nationwide Id Numbers (NINs), Financial institution Verification Numbers (BVNs), and different distinctive identifiers, the AI mannequin can detect when a number of workers are linked to a single account quantity—a typical indicator of ghost staff.
“We discovered situations the place one account was utilized by seven completely different folks,” Okoye mentioned. “That’s the sort of perception guide processes merely can’t catch.”
Past payroll, the system additionally tracks distributors and procurement. “We noticed one vendor who was awarded 5 contracts in three weeks. The system flagged it for evaluation,” he added. These sorts of pink flags will make it more and more troublesome for procurement fraud to go unnoticed.
Why AI funding by states issues
Anambra’s funding in AI displays a shift in how state governments take into consideration know-how governance in Nigeria. This proactive method issues. With out early state-level experimentation and adoption, Nigeria dangers falling behind in creating strong AI methods that replicate native contexts.
“If we don’t lead ourselves, we’ll be led by imported methods,” Okoye mentioned. “And we’d not all the time just like the outcomes.”
The potential for AI adoption in authorities is gigantic. States that start investing in AI capability in the present day are higher positioned to develop institutional experience, prepare native expertise, and allow broader digital transformation. As an example, the SmartGov platform is being constructed to ultimately unify well being, schooling, and civic knowledge right into a single, built-in ecosystem. “Proper now, everyone seems to be working in silos,” mentioned Okoye. “We’re breaking that down by creating one platform that connects every thing.”
Navigating authorized uncertainty
One of many largest challenges for AI adoption in authorities is the shortage of clear regulation. As Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Financial system, Bosun Tijani is addressing this hole by main the event of the nation’s first Nationwide Synthetic Intelligence Technique. The technique focuses on constructing native expertise, funding AI analysis, and supporting indigenous startups, most notably by creating Africa’s first multilingual and multimodal massive language mannequin. The technique additionally locations robust emphasis on governance, moral requirements, and public accountability within the deployment of AI.
Nonetheless, regulatory inconsistencies stay a priority. “Completely different states might quickly create conflicting legal guidelines round AI,” Okoye cautioned. “One state may utterly ban authorities companies from utilizing it, whereas one other might absolutely embrace it.”
He’s calling for the federal authorities to step in—to not stifle innovation however to work with states and consultants to craft a uniform framework that addresses the dangers that folks face utilizing AI. “We’d like a nationwide activity pressure that appears at dangers, coaching strategies, and moral concerns earlier than AI adoption will get too fragmented,” he mentioned.
A few of these dangers are already evident. Poorly educated fashions can produce inaccurate outcomes, particularly in the event that they depend on outdated or biased knowledge. In high-stakes areas like healthcare or justice, these inaccuracies might have extreme penalties. That’s why Anambra can also be engaged on a brand new legislation to control how AI is educated and deployed inside its jurisdiction. Governor Soludo has arrange a crew to craft the regulatory framework for AI utilization, which can be submitted to the state meeting to contemplate as a invoice. The legislation, if enacted, will make sure the accountable remedy of the information fed to the SmartGov AI device.
Okoye says that is solely the start. The AI behind SmartGov is being educated to allow conversational interfaces that permit residents to talk immediately with authorities digital brokers and even an AI-assisted governor mannequin that would reply to queries by way of textual content, voice, or video.
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