BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– Venturing into the digital space might be the best career choice a liSwati can make.
According to the newly-launched ‘Digital Economy Diagnostic Eswatini’ report which was officially released last week, the demand for digital skills in the country is currently high.
The report discussed this in its sixth chapter titled ‘Digital Skills’, under the ‘Demand for Digital Skills’ chapter.
However, the report clarified that currently, there were no estimates of the demand for individuals with different kinds and levels of digital competencies.
“There are no skill surveys in Eswatini, though the National Human Resource Planning and Development Unit of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is planning to conduct a National Skills Survey focusing on selected growth sectors including agriculture, energy, education and ICT, manufacturing and agro-processing and tourism.
“When completed, the results will provide a better understanding of the demand for different occupations and the skills required, including the digital competencies needed. For this chapter, we focus on the available—albeit limited—data on the demand for digital skills. In 2018, the Eswatini Economic Policy Analysis and Research Centre (ESEPARC) 92, conducted an Industry Labour Force Skills Gap Investigation focused on the automotive, electrical engineering, and ICT industries,” read the first publication of the ‘Digital Economy Diagnostic Eswatini’ report.
The report further went on to explain that the study found that shortage of digital competencies was a major bottleneck for the development of these industries, especially within the electrical engineering and electronics areas, which were closely connected to the development of digital technologies.
“Based on interviews with a sample of private and public companies and graduates from Gwamile Vocational and Commercial Training Institute (VOCTIM) and Eswatini College of Technology (ECOT), the leading TVET institutions in Eswatini, the ESEPARC has identified key occupations where there is an abundance or scarcity in technicians93.
“It also has also identified the key competency areas where there are specific skills deficiencies, and these are outlined in Table 4 below for the ICT industry. Technicians in short supply in the ICT industry include network engineers and operators, programmers and software and system developers and engineers. The study found that the country’s ICT graduates are competent in installing and running software and can provide home and office support in basic assembly, disassembly and set-up of computer hardware. However, they lack the advanced coding and programming skills to develop original, Eswatini-owned software and systems,” read the report.
ESEPARC is the acronym for the Eswatini Economic Policy Analysis and Research Centre.
According to a World Bank Digital Economy Diagnostic for Eswatini, the digital economy presents Eswatini with a range of opportunites to advance its economic growth and improve both public and commercial services.
The five pillars of Eswatini’s digital economy are digital infrastructure, digital platforms, digital financial services, digital skills, and digital entrepreneurship – are evaluated in the paper. The Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa, which aims to see every African citizen, company, and government digitally empowered by 2030, is supported in part by the World Bank through the Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A).
According to a press statement sent out by the World Bank, Eswatini might gain from a digital revolution, which had the ability to promote inclusive and sustained economic growth and give the nation’s young labour much-needed jobs. The speeding up of technological diffusion may offer a chance to open up new routes for receiving high-quality public and private services.
