Nigeria’s Anambra State has developed SmartGov Suite, an AI-powered platform built by local tech experts to streamline government operations and improve public service delivery.
The state, according to reports, is set to commence rollout of the initiative with local governments.
Techparley Africa gathered that Nonso Okoye, the Governor’s Special Assistant on Cybersecurity, is leading the deployment team.
Okoye says the AI tool will be deployed across all the ministry departments in the state, beginning with the local governments.
Smarter Government, Starting from the Grassroots
Across Nigeria, most states remain reliant on paper-based processes. But in Anambra, the state is choosing to start its AI rollout at the grassroots level.
“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 told TechCabal. “That’s the kind of clarity we’re building into the system.”
According to Okoye, the SmartGov Suite allows both public officials and ordinary citizens to interact with government data. It can retrieve information on payments, permits, and policies, and cross-check entries across ministries to detect project duplication, and contract inflation.
AI as an Anti-Corruption Tool
Leveraging data points such as Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) and National Identity Numbers (NINs), the platform can identify patterns suggesting fraud, like multiple employees tied to a single bank account.
“We found instances where one account was used by seven different people,” Okoye said. “That’s the kind of insight manual processes simply can’t catch.”
The AI has also raised red flags in procurement processes. In one case, the tool flagged a vendor who secured five contracts in under a month.
“We saw one vendor who was awarded five contracts in three weeks. The system flagged it for review,” Okoye added.
According to experts, this marks a major shift in how state governments address financial malpractice, with real-time analytics that can prevent fraud before it spreads.
Why State-Led AI Investment Matters
Anambra’s experiment with AI is part of a growing movement among Nigerian states to modernise their institutions.
While federal innovation policies have often focused on startups or broadband access, Anambra’s approach offers a different template, where local capacity is developed to solve public sector problems.
Experts view this as a plausible way of developing the country. By investing in AI infrastructure, many states across Nigeria can tackle governance issues and also build a pipeline for local tech talent.
Nigeria’s National AI Ambitions Take Shape
To foster innovation and build local capacity, the Nigerian government has rolled out a number of AI-focused initiatives in recent years.
These include the Nigeria Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS) and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), both of which offer funding, infrastructure, and technical support for homegrown AI projects.
The federal government also recently launched its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, aimed at promoting digital inclusion, and positioning Nigeria as a continental leader in emerging technologies.
Adding momentum to this effort, the Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, working in collaboration with the Gates Foundation, has also introduced the Nigeria AI Scaling Hub.
This new initiative is designed to accelerate the deployment of AI solutions across critical sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and education.
Talking Points
Anambra’s decision to begin its AI rollout at the local government level is a strategic move that tackles inefficiency where it’s most visible to citizens. Starting at the grassroots ensures that digital governance is embedded where public interaction is most frequent.
What stands out is how the SmartGov Suite goes beyond basic digitisation. By flagging a ₦2.1 billion unspent education budget due to missing disbursement records, the AI is already proving its capacity to uncover gaps that would otherwise go unnoticed in manual systems.
At Techparley, we recognise this as a practical application of AI in government. The fact that both civil servants and citizens can interact with the system democratises access to data and accountability.
SmartGov’s fraud detection features, such as identifying multiple employees tied to a single bank account or spotting suspicious vendor patterns, are especially promising in a context where ghost workers and procurement fraud have long gone unchecked.
Still, adoption and impact will depend heavily on training, data quality, and inter-agency cooperation. This will be crucial for SmartGov’s long-term credibility.
As the state refines its model, there’s potential here for replication across Nigeria. If backed by the right regulation and capacity-building, SmartGov could serve as a blueprint for AI-led governance reform in Nigeria.
