Nigeria phases out personal emails for official business, says 38 MDAs digitised

THE Nigerian government says it has recorded significant progress in its drive toward a fully digital and paperless civil service, with more than 115,000 active official email accounts now deployed across the public sector.

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Ms Didi Walson-Jack, disclosed this on Wednesday during the Digital Transformation Summit 2026 organised by  to commemorate its 20th anniversary in Abuja.

She said the government’s GovMail platform has become a key instrument for secure, professional and traceable communication within public institutions, helping to reduce reliance on personal email services for official transactions.

According to Walson-Jack, the digital transformation programme has also led to the complete digitisation of operations in 38 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), marking a major milestone in the modernisation of government processes.

She noted that digitalisation remains at the heart of ongoing civil service reforms, improving transparency, accountability and efficiency in public administration.

Reflecting on the shift from manual processes, Walson-Jack said the movement of files in the past often lacked transparency and could mean different things. In the digital era, she said, every action must be traceable, accountable, timely and measurable.

READ ALSO: Tax Acts 2025: Nigeria unveils transition guidelines for taxpayers, revenue agencies

The head of service added that government had moved beyond discussions about digital transformation to actual implementation, resulting in the successful digitisation of workflows across ministries and extra-ministerial departments.

She said the achievement followed clear directives to permanent secretaries, continuous monitoring of progress and sustained guidance to ensure the federal civil service embraced technology-driven reforms.

According to her, the paperless civil service initiative goes beyond reducing paper usage and is aimed at eliminating delays, cutting bureaucracy, strengthening transparency and enhancing accountability in government operations.

Walson-Jack said the benefits are already evident through faster processing of correspondence, easier retrieval of records, improved supervision and stronger institutional continuity.

She stressed that effective interconnectivity among government institutions is essential for faster decision-making, reduced duplication of responsibilities and quicker responses to citizens’ needs.

“If these institutions are not connected, government will be slow. If systems cannot speak to one another, citizens will suffer delays,” she said, adding that poor record management weakens institutional memory.

Walson-Jack also commended Galaxy Backbone for providing critical digital infrastructure, including GovMail, the iGovernment Cloud platform, secure connectivity services and high-speed internet access that support government operations nationwide.