Anambra State, Nigeria’s sixth richest state by GDP, is pushing to tackle systemic issues such as inflated budgets, payroll fraud, and inefficient service delivery using artificial intelligence. Behind the drive is the Anambra State ICT Agency, created in 2019 and responsible for driving digital innovation across the state.
One of its flagship initiatives is SmartGov Suite, an AI-powered platform developed in-house by a team of local tech experts. According to Nonso Okoye, the Governor’s Special Assistant on Cybersecurity, who led the team of experts, the AI tool will be deployed across all the ministry departments in the state, beginning with the local governments.
“We started with the local governments,” Nonso Okoye told TechCabal from his freshly painted office at the new Anambra State Government House. It was Thursday, June 27, 2025—the first day the state’s ICT agency officially resumed operations in the new building.
Across Anambra, as in many parts of Nigeria, government processes remain largely manual and paper-based. In May, Kashifu Inuwa, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), revealed to TechCabal that less than 10% of government operations nationwide have been digitised. Anambra, however, is prioritising its 21 local governments due to their frontline role in delivering public services and directly impacting citizens’ day-to-day lives.
“For example, in budgeting, the AI flagged a ₦2.1 billion unspent allocation in the education sector simply because it couldn’t find disbursement records,” Okoye said. “That’s the kind of clarity we’re building into the system.”
The SmartGov Suite acts as a full-fledged assistant across public services. Users, including Anambra citizens, public officials, and civil servants, can ask the AI about payments, permits, or regulations, and it pulls relevant information from state systems. More importantly, it can cross-reference data across ministries to detect duplication, track project spending, and monitor vendor compliance.
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