Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has appointed Peter Ukonu as the Director-General Abia State Technological Skills Acquisition Center Otti.
The announcement, made by Prof. Kenneth Kalu, Secretary to the State Government, highlights Ukonu’s extensive expertise in software engineering, automation, and digital transformation as decisive factors in his selection.
Ukonu, a Nigerian tech entrepreneur and automation expert, is best known as the founder and CEO of Byte Cognetics, the company behind Antly, Africa’s first No-Code AI Work Operating System (Work OS). Antly has rapidly gained traction for revolutionizing enterprise efficiency across Nigeria and beyond.
The platform empowers organizations to automate workflows, manage documents seamlessly, and eliminate tool overload addressing critical pain points in both the private and public sectors.
Under Ukonu’s leadership, Antly has positioned itself as a game-changer in the African tech landscape, enabling organizations, government agencies, and corporations to build tailored digital solutions. Its product suite currently includes AntlyX, a platform for constructing systems such as document management, asset and portfolio management, and CRM tools.
A second product, AntlyOne, is in development. Designed as a mobile-first app for Nigeria’s SMEs, AntlyOne will offer end-to-end business management from inventory and customer relations to payments helping entrepreneurs address persistent challenges like theft, shortages, and audit inefficiencies. As Ukonu wrote in a recent LinkedIn post, “Antly is the digital transformation tool organizations didn’t know they were missing.”
Beyond Antly, Ukonu’s career has spanned senior roles in software research and development both within and outside Nigeria, consistently demonstrating his ability to translate complex challenges into innovative solutions.
Governor Otti’s appointment of Ukonu signals a strategic push to equip Abia’s youth and workforce with cutting-edge technological skills. The Technological Skills Acquisition Center, under his stewardship, is expected to prioritize programs in AI, automation and digital literacy, areas where his hands-on expertise will prove invaluable.
What Governor Otti has inaugurated is not merely the placement of a technologist in public office, but the deliberate alignment of entrepreneurial ingenuity with state capacity. In this context, Peter Ukonu is poised to translate the governor’s vision into institutional change at the intersection of technology and public service, working alongside a team whose collective mandate is nothing less than to reimagine Abia’s developmental trajectory in the digital age.
