It is no longer news that Nigeria’s team recently went on study tour of Singapore Public Service model between 23rd and 26th of January, 2025.
The journey was aimed at learning and adapting Singapore’s Public Service Model for Nigeria’s civil service.
Also Nigeria’s Artificial Intelligence - Driven Public Service Model was unveiled globally at the Global Government Summit 2025 in Singapore.
Now back home, what is more urgent and important is how to fully internalize the AI model in both the Federal and state civil services in the country and become a day-to-day working model.
That should be taken alongside the knowledge and experiences gathered from understudying the Singapore Public Service.
For states not to be left behind, it is really a welcome development that the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, who has been very passionate about digitalizing the Federal Civil Service, led about 20 heads of State civil service on the study tour.
While the Federal Civil Service, before the tour, has started action towards digitalizing the service, the states civil services, especially those that were part of the first batch tour should immediately start something in this direction in their states.
There are many instances where Nigeria at the end of the day didn't benefit from past similar study tour.
Either because the participants saw it as opportunity to go on shopping spree abroad or didn't really pay full attention to the study.
Others who were able to follow the lectures with keen interest didn't get the political goodwill and support to put what they have learnt in practice back home in Nigeria.
The dreams of replicating what they have learnt naturally die within a short time after such study tours
So for this study tour not to be a waste, the various state governments and other key stakeholders should support the states civil services to implement what they learnt in Singapore in order to meet up with the expectations and goals of the trip.
They should be backed up to raise the necessary infrastructures and facilities in the states towards charting a new course for digitalization of the states civil services and eliminate all traces of analogue practices among other teachings and benefits of the tour.
To cement relationship between the two countries, Nigeria and Singapore also sought to establish a partnership between the Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development in Singapore and the Public Service Institute of Nigeria.
Under the collaboration, there will be joint training programmes, collaborative research, and sharing of innovative solutions.
Harping on the importance of the collaboration, Mrs Walson-Jack, noted that it is a beacon of hope for transforming Nigeria’s civil service into a model of professionalism, efficiency, and responsiveness.
She said “We look forward to joint training programmes, collaborative research, and sharing innovative solutions that will empower our civil servants with the knowledge and tools they need to excel.
"By working together, we can build a public service that is responsive, accountable, and dedicated to the welfare of our people and serves as a model for the continent,” she stated.
Besides the study tour proper, Mrs. Walson-Jack also unveiled Nigeria's AI-Driven Public Service Model in Singapore at the prestigious Global Government Summit 2025.
She made a presentation titled “Model Behaviour: How to Govern with AI, Empowering Governance with AI: Nigeria’s National AI Journey and Service-wise GPT Insight,”
Highlighting Nigeria’s innovative draft National Artificial Intelligence Strategy developed by the Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, she emphasised to the gathering how AI’s potentials will contribute significantly to the national and global economy.
But she warned of the need for responsible, ethical, and inclusive governance approaches to harness the technological revolution.
Before the tour, Mrs Walson-Jack had introduced Service-Wise GPT, a user-centric AI-powered assistant meticulously designed to revolutionise public service delivery in Nigeria.
The Tool, currently in its Beta version, is providing instant access and simplifying the referencing of Public Service Rules, Statutory Instruments, Regulations, Guidelines, and other critical information relevant to the operations of the Federal Civil Service, as its design takes cognizance of user's needs.
Mrs Walson-Jack, also told the global audience that the Service-Wise GPT, once operational, would automate policy drafting and official memos and provide real-time policy research assistance.
Applying the Service-Wise GPT, she stressed that it would save time and reduce administrative task hours for civil servants, improve compliance, ensure regulatory adherence, enhance productivity, facilitate faster decision-making across ministries, and ultimately improve service delivery.
Sharing the results of a 2025 research study in which respondents praised the Service-Wise GPT tool for enabling civil servants to work smarter, faster, and more inclusively while ensuring transparency and accountability, she revealed that 73% of users saved 2–3 hours daily, and the tool received a 90% user recommendation rate for its efficiency and accessibility.
All these should be a win-win situation for Nigeria, ensuring speedy transformation from analogue to digital methods, as it is long overdue including adapting other best practices.
Nigerians, no doubt, are eagerly waiting to see Nigeria’s Federal and state civil services’ tangibly lifted higher to be at par with their contemporaries globally.
They should start exhibiting global best practices that will truly show that the fruits of the AI unveiling and the study tour abroad is here with us.
Everything must be done to make this study tour different and a sharp departure from past experiences where such governments’ study tours ended up to be jamborees and wasteful drain of government and stakeholders funds.