Mbabane – Eswatini’s government’s digital road remains narrow, with a report claiming that 93% of its work is still done manually or in hybrid mode, rather than totally online.
The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Digital Landscape Assessment report offers a picture of either redundant digital services or unimplemented initiatives within the 22 ministries.
Only 2/22 ministries have digital/ICT strategy; 15/22 have dedicated ICT staff, with 18 staff concentrated in just seven ministries. The assessment of the country’s government digital goal set in 2011 has been found to be 75% of planned commitments delivered or partially done, with only 31/419 government services available on e-Government. 
Digitisation has barely reached half at 1.9/4 on the average maturity score and out of this, not a single ministry fulfils the advanced stage of Tier 4, the research notes.
Following at Tier 3, the ministries of ICT, health and home affairs are classified progressing, while 16 ministries are classified as developing (Tier 2), and three – the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration & Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Development – are at an early adoption stage.
The 22 ministries were evaluated in March and April 2026, over the course of a year, according to the 2015-2019 e-Government operational framework commitments. The aggregate score for developing (Tier 2) was determined.
“Overall, the government is in a transitional phase from manual to digital operations, yet to achieve a fully coordinated, well-governed, and impactful digital transformation,” the report reads.
The country still faces infrastructure, skills deficit, overburdening of RSTP, lack of coordination and budgetary constraints, with the former remaining a stumbling block with Swazi.Net rated poorly by most ministries.
“The majority of ministries operate on 1MBps or less, making meaningful digital service delivery impossible.
“ICT skills deficit is the single most critical risk: 15 of 22 ministries have zero dedicated ICT staff. Only 4 ministries have formally designated ICT leads. This gap cannot be addressed through RSTP alone,” the read states.
The e-Government Operational Framework comprises 153 commitments, with only 25% of commitments fully implemented, while 35% were partially implemented, and a significant 41% were not implemented at all.
