Lagos Trains Senior Civil Servants For Responsible AI

Lagos State has opened a two-day executive development programme intended to help senior civil servants understand artificial intelligence, institutional change and the responsibilities that accompany technology adoption in government.

Punch reported that the programme was convened by the Lagos State Ministry of Establishments and Training. Permanent Secretary Olubusola Abidakun urged participants to prepare for changes in public administration and apply what they learned to their official responsibilities.

The curriculum combines AI with emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. That may appear broad, but it recognises an important feature of public-sector technology projects: software does not change an institution by itself. Officials must understand the process being redesigned, the people affected and the authority behind any automated recommendation.

Professor Ogechi Adeola, deputy vice-chancellor for research, innovation and enterprise at the University of Kigali, said civil servants needed to understand AI before deploying it. The programme was expected to examine responsible use, infrastructure requirements and lessons from Rwanda, Estonia and Singapore, while adapting them to Lagos rather than copying them directly.

That emphasis on adaptation is appropriate. Public administrations work within different legal systems, data conditions and service constraints. A model that improves document routing in one jurisdiction may fail when records are incomplete or written in different formats. A digital service that assumes continuous connectivity may exclude residents using low-cost devices or informal access points.

Training should therefore move beyond demonstrations of generative tools. Senior officials need to know how to define an appropriate problem, assess data quality, procure systems, demand independent testing and decide when automation should not be used. They also need practical knowledge of privacy, security, accessibility and the right of a citizen to obtain human review.

The programme reportedly includes examples such as AI-enabled drones in healthcare. Such applications can improve delivery and coordination, but they also illustrate why officials must distinguish between the AI component, the physical service and the broader operating system. A successful drone route does not by itself prove that clinical prioritisation, procurement or data handling is sound.

One useful commitment is a planned assessment after 90 days. Lagos should make that evaluation concrete. It could examine whether participants changed a process, introduced a documented risk review, improved a procurement requirement or stopped an unsuitable proposal. Attendance and satisfaction scores would be weaker measures than observable institutional behaviour.

The state should also publish a common framework for AI projects across ministries. Without shared standards, individual departments may purchase overlapping tools, send sensitive information to unapproved services or rely on vendors whose systems cannot be audited. Central guidance can establish minimum rules while leaving departments room to solve specific problems.

An immediate step would be a staff-use policy for publicly available generative tools. Officials need clear rules on confidential documents, citizen information, record retention and verification of generated material. Such guidance can reduce risk while larger procurement and governance frameworks are still being developed.

Lagos is not short of ambition around digital government. The harder task is building the administrative confidence to question technology as well as use it. If this programme produces officials who can demand evidence, protect citizens and connect deployments to service outcomes, it will have more value than a short course focused on prompts and productivity.

Source: Punch.