Digitnomics 
By Francisca Anuforo
Anambra State is deepening its digital transformation agenda with the deployment of a locally trained artificial intelligence system designed to automate government operations, improve productivity and potentially reduce revenue leakages.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Anambra State ICT Agency, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, disclosed this during a media engagement, describing artificial intelligence as a major focus of the agency’s second-term agenda.
Agbata said the agency did not attempt to develop a frontier large language model from scratch because of the enormous computing, infrastructure and power requirements involved.
Instead, it adopted an open-source AI system and is training and adapting it locally for specific government use cases.
The first application is being used within the ICT Agency itself.
Known as Nora, the system has been deployed to automate and track internal processes, including approvals, reports, staff activities and workflow management.
Agbata said the deployment has already improved the agency’s productivity, allowing officials to manage more work within less time.
The system also gives the agency’s management a central view of activities across different portfolios, while enabling the CEO to monitor and approve tasks remotely.
Agbata said the experience had demonstrated the potential for AI to move beyond experimentation and become a practical tool for government administration.
“If we ever get the chance to develop it across the state, it will help with information dissemination. It will also help to reduce the gap between citizens and government and help with revenue leakage in multiple ways,” he said.
One of the potential applications, according to him, is detecting revenue leakages and instances of double taxation by allowing government to track activities and charges across different agencies.
However, the technology has not yet been deployed statewide. Agbata said the current implementation remains within the ICT Agency, with broader deployment dependent on resources and the necessary government approvals.
The agency is also using data from its Smart Anambra platform to demonstrate the growing demand for digital government services.
Agbata said the platform recorded about 14,000 visits between July 9 and July 29, averaging approximately 700 visits per day, despite having received limited publicity.
He said the traffic showed that residents were increasingly interested in accessing government services without having to physically visit government offices.
“The data is already showing us that we really need to build a system that allows people to actually get government services remotely,” he said.
The Smart Anambra platform is being developed to connect residents to services across different areas, including applications involving schools, hospitals, permits and other government processes.
The goal, Agbata explained, is to allow residents to begin processes online and reduce the number of times they need to travel to Awka or other government offices.
Beyond Smart Anambra, the ICT Agency is building websites for ministries, departments and agencies, with the intention of turning them from basic information portals into platforms through which citizens can access actual government services.
Anambra is also gradually moving towards paperless government operations.
Agbata disclosed that the State Executive Council is already completely paperless, although he does not expect the entire civil service to become 100 per cent paperless in the immediate future.
According to him, some government functions may continue to operate through a combination of digital and physical processes during the transition.
Cybersecurity, trust and the complexity of government operations remain among the issues that could influence the pace of adoption.
Rural connectivity is another challenge the agency is seeking to address.
Agbata noted that telecommunications operators often find rural broadband deployment commercially unattractive, making it difficult to achieve widespread connectivity without additional intervention.
He said the state could explore opportunities through Federal Government infrastructure and the Universal Service Provision Fund to extend connectivity to underserved communities.
“Digital inclusion” must extend beyond major urban centres, he stressed, arguing that residents in rural communities should also be able to participate in the state’s growing digital economy and access government services online.
The agency’s Solution Wi-Fi initiative is also still operational, according to Angela Nwanodu, who responded to questions on the programme during the engagement.
Nwanodu clarified that Solution Wi-Fi was not established as a campaign initiative, saying it started before the campaign period.
She explained that the network was later adapted during the campaign to enable residents to follow the governor’s activities while on the road.
The original objective, she said, was to provide internet access that residents could use for business, academic and other everyday activities.
Existing Solution Wi-Fi locations remain operational, although Nwanodu acknowledged occasional downtime, particularly during periods of heavy rainfall.
“There are downtimes every now and then because with the rains and all of that, these things have their uptime and their downtimes,” she said.
There are currently no new Solution Wi-Fi locations being announced, but the existing sites remain available.
The agency’s digital transformation agenda also includes capacity development.
Agbata said about 2,000 devices had previously been provided to teachers, while another 500 were distributed to civil servants as part of the state’s technology initiatives.
The agency is also developing Smart Schools and other technology-driven programmes aimed at improving the use of digital tools within the education sector.
Looking towards 2030, Agbata said his vision was for Anambra to have a significantly more digitally enabled government and business ecosystem.
He said the agency was working with the Ministry of Commerce to support the formalisation of businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, while also advancing initiatives around startups, innovation and the digital economy.
“One of the biggest challenges that we have is that many SMEs are not formalised enough,” he said.
Agbata described the agency’s second tenure as its “2.0” phase, with the focus shifting from establishing digital infrastructure to using that infrastructure, alongside AI and other emerging technologies, to deliver measurable improvements in governance.
For Anambra, the next phase of its digital journey may therefore be less about simply putting government services online and more about using data, automation and artificial intelligence to change how those services are delivered.
