BY MBONO MDLULI
EZULWINI – The costs of communication in Eswatini are not much expensive, when compared to other countries in the SADC region.
This is a view expressed by Business Eswatini (BE) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) E. Nathi Dlamini on March 12, 2025 during the panel discussion held to look at the communication costs in the country.
Dlamini based his assertion on a study that was done in 2022 among SADC countries. He said countries that were considered expensive were Botswana and Tanzania. Eswatini was there in the middle, having considered as not expensive.
Having said that, Dlamini quickly mentioned that there was room for improvement by telecommunications companies in the country in reducing the communication costs, where possible.
He mentioned that he got many complaints into his office, pertaining to the non-affordability of communication services in the country. The business people would tell him that it became difficult for them to do business with communication costs being high.
Dlamini urged the communication giants such as MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile to understand that each time they were asked to reduce their costs, they were asked from the business perspective by business people who wanted to make profits while producing their products, as the nature of businesses was to make profits, after having provided their respective goods and services.
Eswatini Communications Commission (ESCCOM) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mvilawemphi Dlamini also mentioned that they were flooded with complaints of costs, as a regulator. However, he had concerns regarding the costs.
He felt the communications industry in the country was being bullied into reducing costs, yet the industry players incurred huge costs when they provided services to customers. He said it would not be sustainable for these companies to keep reducing costs because they were also in business to make profit, in order for them to be available in future, giving even better services.
The ESCCOM CEO said many products were relatively expensive in the country, if complaints from the people were anything to go by. However, members of the public are able to pay for products such as electricity, water, food and other products, despite that they complain of their expenses.
He wondered why would people buy these products and expect to be given communication services at reduced costs. Dlamini reminded the nation that the country was below the threshold used to be determined if the country is expensive or affordable.
He said what was also concerning was that the data the people complained about in most cases was not used for profitable reasons, but they were used on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X etc. This means that the data is used for leisure purposes, according to the CEO.
