PLSI explores use of AI in Strengthening Public Accountability in Nigeria

The Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI), a non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering public accountability in Nigeria, has convened anti-corruption and accountability actors from national and subnational levels to a focused group discussion on the impact of and adaptation to emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhancing accountability in Nigeria. PLSI during the discussion held […]

The Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI), a non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering public accountability in Nigeria, has convened anti-corruption and accountability actors from national and subnational levels to a focused group discussion on the impact of and adaptation to emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhancing accountability in Nigeria.

PLSI during the discussion held on Thursday, also presented its newly revamped “Value for Money 3.0” with AI-enabled features to stakeholders for pre-deployment assessment.

The upgraded technology platform which was first launched in 2016 is now aimed at effectively democratizing citizens’ participation and involvement in efforts to curb public sector corruption and strengthen accountability at all levels of government in Nigeria.

Participants at the Focused Group Discussion include representatives from federal and state Anti-Corruption Agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), federal and state audit institutions, Public Accounts Committees (PACs), as well as delegates from civil society and media.

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Speaking at the Focused Group Discussion, the Executive Director of PLSI, Olusegun Elemo, highlighted the potential of Artificial Intelligence to curb public sector corruption, enhance accountability and improve service delivery to citizens.

“We are extremely delighted about this new opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence for our civic technology product – the Value for Money platform.

“Since 2016, we have supported more than 300 communities and over 1,000 citizens to actively use audit data to engage anti-corruption agencies with a view to improving delivery of services.

“While this support has always been semi-automated, our newly upgraded technology platform with AI-enabled features has fully automated that citizens – government engagement process thereby effectively democratizing citizens participation in anti-corruption and accountability efforts in Nigeria.

Olusegun Elemo emphasized further that petitions on service delivery and public finance management issues which used to take weeks and months for citizens and marginalized communities to submit to anti-corruption agencies for investigation can now be done in less than five minutes using the newly enhanced “Value for Money” platform.