This Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool will be deployed in the coming months after the training, validation and inference stages are completed. (Training, validation and inference are the last stages in the development of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Gemini, etc.). This massive achievement is a result of Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s vision of digitizing government processes. It is hoped that this AI tool, which has been developed in Anambra, will be commercialized and deployed to other subnational governments in the coming months and years. Of course, it will be the backbone of Anambra’s smart government initiative.

Governor Soludo is walking the talk of his agenda which emphasizes ‘’Everything Technology, Technology Everywhere’’ in Anambra State. This agenda emphasizes a comprehensive integration of technology across all sectors, especially in the civil and public service, aiming to transform the state into a digital hub and improve various aspects of governance. This will be a significant paradigm shift in a country where, according to the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, less than 10% of government operations nationwide are digitized.

In recent times, a combination of AI-enhanced biometrics, bank account verification and automated payroll systems have proven to be powerful weapons against payroll fraud at both federal and state levels in Nigeria (states like Osun, Gombe, Delta, Abia and Jigawa have recently used technology to cut payroll fraud). But the technology in Anambra goes beyond payroll verification: it has the potential to flag procurement irregularities, audit pension records, monitor IGR and budget performance in real time, prepare reports, prepare forecasts, prepare analytics, develop real time dashboards and interface with users through AI Assistants and chatbots that will also be able to answer questions in Igbo language. (With these chatbots, a civil servant who is using this AI tool to obtain government records and speed up processes could ask any question and get immediate answer. The same way Google gives a user immediate answers). This AI tool fully transforms government workflows and eliminates cumbersome manual processes.

Anambra’s AI tool is one way to check inefficiency and irregularities related to manual processes in governance. It is intended to serve as a flagship tool for other subnational governments to copy.

Anambra’s SmartGov Suite has 100% Nigerian content – i.e. local content. It is the result of Governor Soludo’s massive investment in Anambra State ICT Agency, which is led by Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata. SmartGov is built on a secure, scalable, open-source technology stack, which was carefully chosen to aid long-term sustainability and local hosting capacity.

According to Mr. Agbata, the head of Anambra State ICT Agency, SmartGov is a unique tool, which shows that Governor Soludo’s investment in tech is on course. Currently, the AI tool is hosted externally but the vision is to transfer this tool to Anambra’s Data Center, when it comes on board. (Large LLM models – a type of AI that uses a deep learning model trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like text – i.e. Google, Gemini, ChatGPT – cannot work effectively without a large and very expensive Data Center. This explains the recent massive investment in the building of energy gulping Data Centers globally).

According to the Anambra State ICT Agency, Anambra’s AI tool is trained to have conversational interfaces that allow citizens to speak directly with government virtual agents or even an AI-assisted governor that would respond through texts, voice or video. This is technology at the doorstep of citizens. Through a mobile device, any citizen can ask his or her governor any question on governance and get immediate response. Responses could be in Igbo language!

Anambra’s ICT Agency shows that the future of AI is bright in Nigeria. The National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, which was developed by Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, is the way to go. The policy paper’s focus on building local talent, funding AI research and supporting local startups is what is needed to put Nigeria on the map in terms of AI development.

Nigeria’s AI development is getting some traction but more needs to be done. Recently, Awarri, in collaboration with NITDA and NCAIR, launched Nigeria’s first indigenous multilingual LLM supporting Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Pidgin, Ibibio, plus accented English.

Governor Soludo is powering AI development in Anambra. In the coming months, a 13-hectare space, which is intended to be used as the Solution Innovation District, will come on board. This space shall be Anambra’s playground for Enterprise Data Centres, Artificial Intelligence, Mechatronic, Robotic and Virtual Reality Laboratories. The future of the tech ecosystem in Anambra is bright!

Nwankwo is the special adviser to Soludo on special projects.

Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheCable.