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The Ondo State Ministry of Finance, the Ondo State Pension Transition Office and SmartApps Limited have confirmed that Ondo Pay, the State’s AI-enabled Human Resources and Payroll Platform, has processed the payment of ₦9,699,505,353.53 in pensions and gratuities to 2,802 beneficiaries since its deployment; one of the clearest demonstrations yet of the dividends of Ondo State’s digital governance drive.
The figures reflect a marked improvement in the collation and disbursement of outstanding pensions and gratuities across the State’s civil service, secondary school teaching and non-teaching staff, and parastatals; areas long constrained by fragmented, paper-based records and manual verification.
Where retirees previously faced years of uncertainty over unresolved entitlements, Ondo Pay’s centralised pension migration and audit-backed workflows have enabled the State to systematically identify, verify and clear outstanding obligations dating back to 2015.
The most recent instalment within this effort saw the flag-off of ₦3.82 billion in gratuities to 985 retirees, covering the 2020 batch and outstanding beneficiaries from 2015 to 2019; comprising 509 retirees from the 2020 batch and 476 from the 2015–2019 batches. Beneficiaries were drawn from the mainstream civil service, secondary school teaching and non-teaching staff, and parastatals, with retirees confirmed to be receiving bank alerts as verification and disbursement continued.
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Officials say the pace and accuracy of these disbursements would not have been achievable under the State’s previous manual processes. Ondo Pay’s Bank Verification Number-backed verification, auditable approval workflows and centralised records — the same capabilities that underpinned the platform’s earlier rollout across human resource management, pension migration and civil servant self-service — have allowed the State to collate historical claims, reduce duplicate or non-genuine records, and disburse funds with a level of speed and accountability not previously possible.
The Commissioner for Finance, Mrs. Omowumi Isaac, said the outcome was a direct dividend of the Governor’s commitment to digital innovation in governance. She said:
“Governor Aiyedatiwa’s unwavering support for digital innovation has given this administration the tools to fulfil obligations that had, in some cases, gone unresolved for years. Ondo Pay has allowed us to see, with clarity and confidence, exactly who is owed, how much, and how quickly we can pay them.”
For SmartApps Limited, the technical partner behind Ondo Pay, the outcome illustrates the wider potential of AI-driven platforms built specifically for government. The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of SmartApps Limited, Mr. Godwin Odoma, said:
“What we are seeing in Ondo State is what happens when digital infrastructure is built around the real problems governments face, not adapted from generic tools. Solutions like Ondo Pay show that artificial intelligence, properly deployed, can bring governance itself into the information age — turning backlogs into resolved obligations, and fragmented records into a single source of truth. This is a model for what subnational governments across Nigeria and beyond can achieve when they invest in digitisation with intent.”
Since its rollout across human resource management, pension migration and mobile self-service for civil servants, Ondo Pay has been positioned as a foundation for more transparent and accountable public administration in Ondo State. The scale of pensions and gratuities now disbursed marks a tangible return on that foundation, with digitisation translating directly into faster, more reliable payments for the retirees it was built to serve.
Ondo Pay is an AI-enabled Human Resources and Payroll Platform deployed by the Ondo State Government and powered by SmartApps Limited. Jointly issued by the Ondo State Ministry of Finance, the Ondo State Pension Transition Office and SmartApps Limited, Ondo Pay integrates payroll administration, pension migration and secure employee self-service — backed by controlled access, authentication and auditable workflows — to help government pay the right beneficiary, the right amount, at the right time.
