HOW MINISTER SAVANNAH'S BUSINESS ACUMEN LANDED GOOGLE DEAL

MBABANE – Securing digital search engine, Google, was not a simple stroll in the park for the Government of Eswatini.

Instead, it took government’s dedication and most importantly, the business acumen of Minister for Information, Communication  and Technology (ICT) Savannah Maziya.

In a sit-down interview with this publication, the minister shared how difficult it was for her to get the digital giants into the country.

“Yes, we worked as a ministry, but I had to call the Google people, the management. We ended up being an agenda item on the Board meetings. And so, to go and say to Google, there is a country called Eswatini that wants to work with you, when they have forged ties with big countries was not easy,” she said.

The minister said the Google people did not even know that the Kingdom of Eswatini is a small population with a variety of challenges.

“So you really have to stand and say please buy me. I put my head on the block and convinced them that this journey, we will walk it and succeed. And we will do so in a professional and ethical manner, and eventually deliver the best services to the people. My focus is to deliver to the people and create job opportunities”.

Elaborating she said: “I had to bring my entire business acumen and put my life on the line because I know that His Majesty really wants the Kingdom of Eswatini to attain First World status. With his dream, and my drive, plus the country’s potential, we have something here. You might not see it now, but I promise you that if it is something that we all want, we will both win in the end”.

She said in the business world, she has learnt that it is important for a person to be known as one who is impeccable with their work.

“At this point, I feel like we can walk the journey together to the promised land, and one day, we will look back and say ‘wow’. I am not saying that I am the best, but that consistency to market the country and be able to sell our advantage worked out. Just because we are small in number does not mean that we must not push to get the best”.

Giving a lowdown on her plans going forward, the minister said she is still focused on the two major projects, that being the installation of the fibre optic and the second being the ‘Government in Your Hand’ concept.

“We understand that government money has a lot of needs including healthcare, education as they are all important sectors. So what we have done is looked at two areas of what to do from May this year going forward. It is not always as simple since the budget sometimes, you can have it written down, but it does not necessarily mean that you have it”.

Explaining how the fibre optic project will go about, she explained that they will work with the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) via or in coordination with the Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC).

She said the exercise of putting the fibre optic throughout the country is supposed to start next month or in June the latest.

“The fibre optic is one that is big enough not only for our own country’s requirements when it comes to telephoning and data, but we want it to be big enough to be even be able incorporate investors and data centres besides Royal Science Technology Park (RSTP).

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