Ondo State has launched an Artificial Intelligence-powered digital platform aimed at improving personnel administration, retirement and pension management in the public service.
Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who launched the system tagged “Ondo AI” in Akure, said it would replace analogue processes with a faster, more efficient and transparent system while giving government real-time access to information for decision-making.
“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”.
Aiyedatiwa said the initiative goes beyond technology, describing it as part of efforts to change how government works and serves the people.
“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 added that digitisation would simplify processes, reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks, improve institutional memory and bring government closer to 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 the government closer to the people,” he said.
The Managing Director of SmartApps IT Limited, Godwin Odoma, said the platform would automate civil service administration, payroll, retirement processing and pension migration.
He said authorised officials would have instant access to workers’ records, while the system would alert government when an employee approaches 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.
The Head of Service, Segun Odusanya, described the initiative as a major step towards modernising Ondo State’s public service.
