BY MBONGENI NDLELA
MBABANE – Eswatini’s drive towards service excellence has received a major international boost after renowned customer experience expert and IRDM founder and director, Dr. Oliver Museka, was selected to receive the prestigious Global Excellence in Customer Experience Leadership and Service Transformation Award in Spain.
The award will be presented during the Clevenard Global Awards 2026, scheduled for August 30 in Alicante, Spain, where leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers and industry experts from across the world will gather to celebrate excellence and transformational leadership.
The recognition places Dr. Museka among a select group of global changemakers whose work continues to influence organisations, industries and communities beyond their national borders.
For Eswatini, the award is more than a personal achievement. It is a recognition of the country’s growing influence in promoting customer service excellence, organisational transformation and professional development.
Dr. Museka is the Founder and Director of IRDM, a company that has become a leading force in customer experience consulting, service excellence training, leadership development and organisational transformation. Through IRDM, he has worked with businesses, government institutions and organisations across various sectors to improve service delivery, customer satisfaction and operational performance.
Over the past 15 years, Museka has established himself as one of Southern Africa’s most respected voices on customer experience, helping organisations understand the importance of placing customers at the centre of their operations.
His influence extends beyond the boardroom. As Executive Secretary of the Eswatini Customer Experience Practitioners (ECxP), Museka has played a pivotal role in professionalising the customer experience industry in Eswatini and creating platforms for knowledge sharing, skills development and service innovation.
He is also recognised as one of the architects behind the country’s annual Customer Service Week celebrations, an initiative that has helped raise awareness about the importance of customer care and service excellence in both the public and private sectors.
Museka’s expertise has taken him across Africa and beyond, where he has delivered keynote speeches, training programmes and advisory services on customer experience strategy, leadership, employee engagement and organisational culture.
His work has impacted sectors ranging from banking and financial services to healthcare, hospitality, retail, telecommunications and government institutions.
The international recognition comes as Museka continues to advocate for a customer-centred culture in organisations, arguing that excellent service is no longer a luxury but a critical competitive advantage in today’s rapidly evolving business environment.
Speaking after the announcement, Museka expressed gratitude to the people and institutions that have supported the service excellence movement in Eswatini.
He dedicated the award to the nation, saying it reflects the collective efforts of government, the private sector, founding members of the initiative and the dedicated professionals who have worked tirelessly to improve service standards across the country.
He thanked the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade for supporting the vision from its early stages and acknowledged the business community for embracing service excellence as a catalyst for growth and competitiveness.
Museka further praised his team and fellow customer experience practitioners whose commitment has helped transform what started as an idea into a national movement.
The award ceremony will form part of the four-day Clevenard Open Project 2026, an international forum themed “A Global Celebration of Business, Culture, Creativity and Human Connection.”
In addition to receiving the award, Museka will deliver a keynote address on building customer-centric cultures and transforming organisations through service excellence and human-centred leadership.
His participation will place Eswatini at the centre of global conversations on leadership, innovation and customer experience, while showcasing the country’s growing contribution to professional excellence on the international stage.
For many industry observers, Museka’s latest achievement serves as proof that expertise developed in Eswatini can compete and be celebrated on the world stage.
As he prepares to represent the Kingdom in Spain, Dr. Oliver Museka carries with him not only an international accolade, but also the hopes of a nation determined to build a culture where excellence, professionalism and customer service become defining characteristics of its future economy.
