Galaxy Backbone Confirms Over 150,000 Active Official Govt Email Accounts

Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB), Nigeria’s foremost ICT infrastructure and shared services provider to the federal government has announced the availability, maturity and ongoing expansion of the government’s official email infrastructure, widely known as GOVMAIL.

The GBB said in a statement issued by the head, corporate communications of GBB, Chidi Okpala, that the number had grown to over 150,000 official government email accounts, currently in use by government workers across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs.)

Okpala noted that GOVMAIL is a secure and centralised official email platform established for use by MDAs to facilitate professional, auditable, and efficient communication across all arms of government.

According to him the platform was launched by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation as part of a broader digital transformation agenda aimed at modernizing public service workflows and reducing reliance on paper-based correspondence and fragmented, external email services.

Recent statements by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, underscore the strategic importance of GOVMAIL in the wider push towards a paperless civil service. In late 2025, she announced that over 100,000 official GOVMAIL accounts had been created for civil servants across federal MDAs under an expanding paperless policy and that the transformation reflects a clear shift away from traditional paper correspondence to secure digital communication at scale.

Galaxy Backbone also affirmed that these email accounts operate within a protected sovereign government domain environment hosted on secure local infrastructure, supported by enterprise-grade cybersecurity architecture. The platform underpins centralized identity management and ensures compliance with national data protection standards, reinforcing accountability, audit-trail visibility, and overall digital governance efficiency.

In addition to GOVMAIL, Galaxy Backbone operates secure national Tier III and Tier IV Data Centres, a robust National Fibre Backbone, a Security Operations Centre (SOC), and a Network Operations Centre (NOC) that jointly power mission-critical government digital services, the statement added.

This infrastructure is closely aligned with the Federal Government’s digital economy strategy and its efforts to deepen digital service delivery, transparency, and efficiency across MDAs.

To accelerate adoption and ensure that every government worker who is expected to have an official email has one, GBB is working collaboratively with MDAs to close existing gaps and onboard remaining staff within the shortest possible time. These coordinated efforts reflect the shared objective of equipping public servants with the digital tools necessary for responsive, efficient, and secure inter-agency communication.

“Galaxy Backbone remains committed to working with stakeholders across the different arms of government to sustain and build on this progress. The company appreciates the emphasis placed on strengthening digital governance and remains ready to provide technical clarifications and support collaborative engagements that further advance Nigeria’s digital public service ecosystem,” the statement added.