AIRS chairman Dr Ezeilo (middle) collecting the award in his office
Elegbede Abiodun
Anambra State has gained international recognition as it emerged winner of the ‘Top Fan Vote’ category at the inaugural Google Maps Platform Awards 2025, for its ground-breaking project on the digitisation of property tax systems.
The award recognises the state’s innovative deployment of Google Maps and Earth Engine technologies to strengthen property enumeration, mapping accuracy, and internally-generated revenue administration through geospatial governance solutions.
Collecting the award on behalf of the Anambra State Government at his office, on Tuesday, following its delivery from Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, the Executive Chairman of the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service, Dr Greg Ezeilo, described the recognition as a validation of deliberate reforms driven by technology.
Ezeilo said, “The APLUC mapping initiative, commenced over a year ago, relied extensively on existing geospatial technologies such as Google Maps to obtain a comprehensive digital view of properties across the state.
“The exercise successfully identified approximately 1.5 million properties state-wide, with over 553,000 properties already properly clustered and captured for taxation and administrative purposes.
“This represents a dependable revenue stream for the state. Once the ongoing harmonisation process is completed, the benefits in revenue optimisation will naturally follow.”
The AiRS Chairman further commended members of the technical team, for their dedication to the successful execution of the project, noting that property taxation in Anambra State has now been firmly repositioned through technology-driven innovation and improvement science — placing Anambra alongside Lagos State at the forefront of modern revenue administration in Nigeria.
The Google Maps Platform Awards commemorates 20 years of global mapping innovation, with winners selected based on impact, creativity, technological application, and public voting.
The AiRS Digital Property Management Project emerged victorious from over 4,000 competing global entries within the category.
