The Ondo State Governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has unveiled an Artificial Intelligence-powered digital platform aimed at automating personnel administration, retirement and pension processes, while equipping government with real-time access to information for decision-making.
According to the governor, the initiative goes beyond technology, representing a shift in how government thinks, works and serves the people.
Speaking at the launch of the digital system, tagged “Ondo AI”, held at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the governor’s office in Akure, Aiyedatiwa said the platform forms part of his administration’s push to phase out analogue processes in favour of a technology-driven public service that is more efficient, transparent and responsive.
He said, “Information and data have become indispensable to effective administration, the speed and accuracy increasingly determine the quality of government decisions.
“We are living in an age in which information is power, data is an essential resource, and speed and accuracy presently define effective administration.
“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 noted that the system would enhance the quality of government decisions, emphasising that accurate information remains central to effective leadership.
“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.
He further explained that the initiative aligns with his administration’s broader digitisation policy, which seeks to simplify processes, cut bureaucratic bottlenecks, strengthen institutional memory and bring government closer to the people.
“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 the government closer to the people,” he said.
During a demonstration of the platform, the Managing Director of SmartApps IT Limited, Mr Godwin Odoma, explained that the system would handle automation of civil service administration, payroll management, retirement processing and pension migration.
Odoma noted that the platform holds comprehensive records of civil servants, including photographs, appointment details, promotion letters, academic qualifications, complaints and other relevant documents, all instantly accessible to authorised officials.
He added that the system automatically notifies the government when a worker is nearing retirement, while civil servants can also use the self-service feature to check exactly how many days remain 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,” he said.
Delivering his welcome address, the Head of Service, Chief Segun Odusanya, described the initiative as a significant step in the state’s efforts to modernise the public service and align it with contemporary governance demands.
Odusanya noted that the public service continues to serve as the machinery through which government policies, programmes and initiatives are translated into tangible benefits for the people, adding that its effectiveness hinges on how human resources are managed, developed and deployed.
