Inside Anambra’s “2.0” Plan: How Soludo’s ICT Agency Wants AI, Not Just Wi-Fi, To Run Government

When Governor Charles Soludo reappointed Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata to lead the Anambra State ICT Agency for a second term, the first question Agbata says he asked himself was simple: what should look different this time around? The answer, laid out during a virtual media parley with Lagos-based technology journalists on Thursday, is a state government betting that artificial intelligence, rather than just broadband and free Wi-Fi hotspots, will define the next phase of its digital transformation story.

Agbata used the session to unveil what he is internally calling the Agency’s “2.0” era — a shift from building digital infrastructure to actually putting that infrastructure to work across government, business and everyday citizen life.

An AI system built at home, not from scratch

The centrepiece of the announcement is Anambra’s move to deploy a locally trained AI system across its own operations. True to the state’s cost-conscious approach to emerging tech, the Agency didn’t attempt to train a frontier large language model in-house — an undertaking Agbata acknowledged would demand computing power and funding far beyond what a Nigerian sub-national government can currently marshal. Instead, the team adapted an existing open-source model, fine-tuning it for Anambra’s specific needs.

That system has already been put to work automating the Agency’s internal processes end-to-end, a rollout Agbata described as an early, practical proof that AI can meaningfully improve how government functions — not a flashy pilot for its own sake. With that use case live, the Agency is now looking at how the same approach could be extended to tackle revenue leakages and lift productivity across other government departments, positioning AI as a genuine accelerator for the state’s wider development goals rather than a standalone tech showcase.

From e-government to actual government, online

Beyond AI, Agbata’s second-term roadmap centres on pushing Anambra’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) past having a web presence and toward delivering real services digitally. The Agency is currently building out and automating MDA websites so residents can access permits, applications and other government support without needing to physically show up at an office — part of a broader ambition Agbata summed up as wanting every government entity in the state fully digitised.

Early numbers from the Smart Anambra platform suggest the appetite is already there: roughly 14,000 visits were recorded between July 9 and July 29, averaging about 700 a day, despite minimal promotion of the platform. For Agbata, that traffic is evidence that residents want remote access to government services and that the Agency needs to build accordingly, connecting hospitals, schools and other public touchpoints into the Smart Anambra ecosystem over time.

It won’t happen overnight, though. Agbata was candid that a fully paperless civil service isn’t realistic in the near term, even though the State Executive Council itself already runs paperless. He expects a hybrid model instead, with select MDAs used as pilots for deeper automation while cybersecurity and public trust, factors he flagged as directly shaping how fast government can digitise, are worked through.

Bringing SMEs and rural residents into the fold

The Agency’s ambitions also extend beyond government walls. Working with the state’s Ministry of Commerce, it’s pushing to formalise more small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly traders in Anambra’s major markets, an area Agbata flagged as one of the state’s persistent digital-economy gaps. On connectivity, the Agency is exploring how it can tap Federal Government infrastructure and the Universal Service Provision Fund to extend access into rural communities that telecom operators have historically found commercially unattractive to serve, framing digital inclusion as a matter of who gets left out, not just who gets connected.

Free Wi-Fi wasn’t a campaign gimmick, Agency insists

With election season fresh in public memory, Agbata used the briefing to push back on any suggestion that the state’s free public Wi-Fi programme was a vote-chasing exercise. The initiative, he explained, predates the campaign period entirely; its use was simply adapted during campaigns to let residents follow the governor’s engagements online. Existing hotspots, including at the state secretariat, remain live, though the Agency acknowledged occasional downtime tied to weather. For now, there are no plans to add new locations, with focus instead on keeping current sites reliable.

The bigger picture

Taken together, the priorities Agbata laid out — homegrown AI, functional e-government, SME formalisation, rural connectivity and a media-savvy communications push — reflect a state ICT agency trying to move past infrastructure announcements and toward measurable outcomes: less time spent in government queues, more businesses in the formal economy, and, eventually, an AI layer quietly running in the background of how Anambra governs itself. Whether that vision holds up will depend on execution over the next four years, but for now, Agbata says the Agency has “more achievements to celebrate” ahead, and intends to keep the media close as it chases them.