Minister for Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) Savannah Maziya has clarified that while Eswatini is not completely locked out of Google monetization, the country’s most viable path forward is to negotiate as a Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc to overcome its small market size.
Addressing the Senate during the debate of the Ministry of ICT’s financial year performance report 2025/26, Maziya sought to clear the confusion surrounding a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the government and the tech giant. The clarification follows growing frustration among local content creators and SMEs who have found themselves unable to access automated revenue features like the YouTube Partner Program or localized Google Ads.
The Minister revealed that international advisors and tech partners have deemed Eswatini’s individual population density too small to trigger Google’s standard commercial thresholds. Consequently, the Kingdom is being urged to aggregate its digital footprint with neighboring countries to gain the collective leverage necessary to command a seat at the table.
“We were told our population is not large enough to attract them individually,” Maziya explained. While she maintained that individual engagement remains a secondary track, the primary strategy now involves approaching the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to negotiate as a unified market.
This is intended to provide Swati creators with the scale required to make monetization a functional reality rather than a digital mirage.
Princess Ncengencenge also highlighted critical leadership vacancies within the Kingdom’s technological engine room. Lawmakers raised sharp concerns regarding the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP) and the Eswatini Post and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC).
Princess Ncengencenge specifically questioned the inappropriate arrangement of having a board member serving as the Acting CEO of RSTP. The Senate also pushed for a definitive timeline on a substantive CEO for EPTC, which has operated under acting leadership for nearly two years.
Minister Maziya acknowledged these gaps, stating that a new CEO for RSTP would be announced soon to ensure the institution can stabilize its operations and manage the sensitive national data migration currently moving to the cloud.