Integrate AI Into Public Service, Federal Govt Urged

The Association of Nigeria Public Administrators (ANPA) has urged the Federal Government to establish dedicated Artificial Intelligence (AI) desks in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to improve public service delivery.

The Chairman of ANPA’s Board of Trustees, Professor Kamal Bello, made the call yesterday in Abuja at the association’s 6th International Annual Conference, themed, “Artificial Intelligence, Digital Governance, and the Future of Public Administration in Nigeria.”

He said the integration of AI into the public service should be gradual, rather than an immediate requirement for all workers, to allow civil servants to adapt to changing administrative processes.

According to him, many public servants have spent between 15 and 20 years working with conventional administrative systems and would require structured training and technical assistance to transition effectively to digital operations.

He explained that dedicated AI units would bridge the knowledge gap between technology-proficient workers and those who need additional support to adapt to emerging digital tools.

The ANPA chairman, however, identified unreliable electricity supply, poor internet connectivity and high data costs as major obstacles to the adoption of AI in Nigeria’s public institutions.

He urged the government to address the challenges, stressing that public institutions could not fully harness the benefits of artificial intelligence without reliable technological infrastructure.

Bello also dismissed concerns that AI would completely displace human workers, maintaining that people would continue to play significant roles despite advances in automation and robotics.

Also speaking, the keynote speaker, Engineer Michael Oluwagbemi, immediate past Chief Executive of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), expressed concern over the limited application of AI by government officials.

Oluwagbemi questioned how public institutions could deliver efficient and quality services in the current technological era without leveraging artificial intelligence.