The federal government has announced the end to the culture of paper-based bureaucracy in the State House, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Federal Civil Service Commission and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and 33 Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) from Wednesday.
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, disclosed this Wednesday when announcing the completion of the implementation of the presidential and administrative directives for the MDAs and Ministries and Extra-Ministerial Departments (MEMDs) to operate an entirely paperless system by December 30, 2025.
She said to consolidate these gains and end the culture of paper-based bureaucracy, the 38 MDAS and five MEMDS would no longer accept paper submissions through their physical registries, adding all correspondence to the MEMDs should now be sent to the official registry email addresses, which can be found on the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation website.
In addition, she urged citizens to also track their correspondence with individual MEMDs through the Federal Civil Service Paperless portal.
“In simple terms, a paperless civil service means that citizens and the international community no longer need to send traditional paper letters with envelopes to communicate with the Federal Civil Service.
“Instead, a scanned letter sent via email or correspondence, with attachments from a personal or organisational email address, to any MEMD would be sufficient. The days of missing, lost, or misplaced files are gone, leading to more efficient service delivery,” Walson-Jack said.
The Head of Service noted the approach would not only provide a clearer audit trail of documents and faster response times but also make accessing government services more convenient, transparent, and trustworthy for citizens and businesses alike.
She stressed that official government email addresses had now been created for all civil servants for secure, professional, and auditable government communication at scale, stating this will strengthen sovereignty over official correspondence, enhance responsiveness across MDAs, and reduce reliance on unofficial communication channels.
Olawale Ajimotokan
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