BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Eswatini Investments Promotion Authority (EIPA) and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) have trained 60 Eswatini businesses on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The training took place yesterday (Thursday, May 30, 2024) in Ezulwini, where the businesses were able to get training on marketing tactics, through the use of AI. A training session was hosted in Ezulwini where a speaker from Taiwan, Chang Wei-Rong, who is the CEO of Good You Digital Inc., trained the participants.
According to information sourced from EIPA’s social media pages, registered participants varied from micro, small, and medium enterprises, which have commonly become known as the MSMEs. Other registered organisations were business support organisations, parastatals, educational institutions, marketing professionals and many more.
EIPA External Trade Manager Sibusiso Mnisi was pleased to have received support from TAITRA. Mnisi stated that they had mainly the MSMEs, which meant they were up-skilling businesses, which needed to grow their marketing capacity in order to become the large enterprises the country could boast of tomorrow.
Mnisi further said according to the Information and Communication Technology Access and Use Survey Report 2022, conducted by the Eswatini Communications Commission (ESCCOM), 50.31 percent of individuals across the country reported that they had access to internet.
“This holds a huge opportunity for businesses to reach the population through the use of AI, especially in an age where digital marketing is growing and can be used as a tool to break into the export market,” Mnisi said.
The half-day session covered two topics and was aimed at introducing the concept of AI for marketing to the business people present. The first topic looked at five great content marketing methods with AI tools in 2024 and the second covered how generative AI can boost marketing specialists’ productivity. The speaker and trainer, Chang, has over 18 years’ experience in the media industry.
The Government of Eswatini recently launched the national ICT strategy, Digital Eswatini which will guide, amongst other things, the development of online platforms for business in Eswatini.
According to the Assessment of Eswatini’s E-commerce Readiness Report released by ESCCOM, e-commerce is a significant driver of economic growth and Eswatini must ensure that future development plans and strategies are up-to-date with recent advancements and address the challenges related to e-commerce that the country currently faces.
With so much weight being thrown behind the development of e-commerce in Eswatini, the business environment needs to be ready to adapt by having the mechanisms to participate ready and fit for purpose as the platforms begin to increase in popularity.
In conclusion, Mnisi said, “Out of the 50.31 percent of individuals across the country reported to have access to the internet, 60.4 percent of those surveyed reported to have purchased clothing, footwear, sporting goods or accessories online in 2022. Through these stats, we can clearly see the benefits of marketing your goods online. It is always vital to look at ways of marketing your business to the chosen market if you want to grow. AI offers a few simple pointers on how you can do so in a creative way while saving time and costs. We encourage businesses around Eswatini to stay updated on our social media platforms. We often post opportunities for business on these pages that benefit our followers. We can be found at Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority on Facebook and LinkedIn and @eipaeswatini on Instagram.”
