By Paul Joseph
The Ondo State Government has launched an Artificial Intelligence-powered digital system aimed at automating civil service administration, retirement processing and pension management.
The system, known as “Ondo AI,” is expected to provide government with real-time personnel information, improve administrative efficiency and support faster decision-making across the public service.
Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, who launched the Digital Human Resource Management System at the Cocoa Conference Hall, Governor’s Office, Akure, on Thursday, said the initiative was part of efforts to move the state away from analogue administrative processes.
Aiyedatiwa said government could no longer operate a 21st-century public service with systems designed for another era.
«“We cannot expect the 21st-century public service to operate an analogue system indefinitely, with systems designed principally for another era. This is the technological era. We cannot remain and be working with an analogue system,” the governor said.»
He said accurate and timely information was essential to effective governance, noting that decisions made by leaders depended largely on the quality of information available to them.
“Leadership is about decision-making. And every leader takes decisions based on the information at hand. If the information is accurate, the decision will be near accurate. And if the information is inaccurate, the decision will be false,” he said.
The governor, however, stressed that the effectiveness of the digital platform would depend on the integrity and accuracy of information entered into the system.
He charged officers responsible for managing the platform to ensure that personnel data were accurate, warning that government could only access reliable information when the right data were uploaded.
Aiyedatiwa said the digitisation programme was designed to simplify administrative processes, reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks, strengthen institutional memory and improve the relationship between government and citizens.
“For us, digitisation is not technology for its own sake. It is a means of simplifying processes, reducing unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks, improving institutional memory and bringing government closer to the people,” he said.
He urged public servants to embrace the innovation despite possible adjustments during implementation, saying reforms required institutions to continually adapt.
“I urge every public servant to embrace this innovation. There may be adjustments and challenges along the way, but reform is never achieved by standing still. We have to keep moving,” he added.
The Head of Service, Chief Segun Odusanya, said the initiative represented a significant step towards modernising the state civil service and making it more responsive to contemporary governance demands.
Odusanya said the public service remained the machinery through which government policies and programmes were translated into benefits for citizens, making effective human resource management critical.
He noted that personnel administration had largely depended on manual records and traditional procedures which could no longer adequately meet the growing demands of government operations.
According to him, the digital platform would strengthen personnel records, improve workforce planning, facilitate timely decision-making and reduce delays associated with manual processes.
He added that the system would give government a comprehensive view of its workforce, including officers’ deployment, competencies, career progression and areas requiring further development.
Odusanya also urged officials to maintain confidentiality, data protection and security while ensuring that personnel information remained accurate.
During a demonstration of the platform, the Managing Director of SmartApps IT Limited, Godwin Odoma, said the system would automate civil service administration, payroll management, retirement processing and pension migration.
Odoma said the platform contains comprehensive records of civil servants, including photographs, appointment details, promotion letters, academic qualifications, complaints and other relevant documents, which authorised officials can access instantly.
He said the system would automatically alert government when an employee approaches retirement, while workers could use the self-service platform to check the exact number of days remaining before their retirement.
“With the self-service application, you don’t have any reason to say you don’t know when you are going to retire,” Odoma said.
He added that civil servants would also be able to access their monthly payslips through the platform, while the Office of the Head of Service could generate information on workers due for retirement in a particular month.
According to Odoma, the system is also designed to minimise delays in pension payments by facilitating the transition of workers from active service to pension without unnecessary gaps.
He said the automation had positioned Ondo State to meet the required Disbursement Linked Indicators under the World Bank’s HOPE-GO programme, where automation and transparency are among the requirements.
Odoma urged civil servants to scan the relevant code or download the OndoPay application from the Google Play Store, enter their CS number and begin using the self-service platform.
The event was attended by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Taiwo Fasoranti; Chief of Staff, Prince Segun Omojuwa; members of the State Executive Council; labour leaders; Permanent Secretaries and other accounting officers.
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