His Majesty has returned from international visits to Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates with promising leads for investment and trade. He has, once again, played the role of the country’s lead investment ambassador, effectively opening doors on the global stage.
What should follow is ensuring those doors are not left unmonitored by the very officials tasked with securing these gains once he returns. We expect that, while the King spearheads these missions, his officials move with equal urgency to ensure these high-level efforts do not fall through the cracks of a sluggish and, at times, compromised bureaucracy.
In Azerbaijan, he engaged with leaders about potential business opportunities and noted that the country is interested in starting trade with Eswatini. Discussions focused on sectors that could generate employment for emaSwati, with Azerbaijan offering support to enhance Eswatini’s economy and develop an industrial hub. He also reported on his return that an important agreement was signed with the UAE, allowing citizens with diplomatic and service passports to travel without visas between the two nations.
On the sidelines of his visit to the UAE, a possible investment from Turkmenistan emerged, following the King’s visit to that country, where he met with President Serdar Berdimuhamedov. A company from Turkmenistan, Ayolyn Gijeler, has since expressed serious interest in investing over E220 million in ICT, transport and immigration-related products in Eswatini.
A high-level delegation from Eswatini, led by Minister Manqoba Khumalo, met with the company’s executives while in the UAE, including Executive Director Hyolyberdi Abdurakhanov. Minister Khumalo welcomed the investment, highlighting Eswatini’s strategic position for business expansion. The company plans to return for further discussions in early June.
These are welcome developments and add to previous visits to countries, where various engagements have been held with business communities and where talks on investment in Eswatini are ongoing. This is an area that we need to follow up on more aggressively than ever, given the rising competition among countries to lure the best industries to grow their economies and provide much-needed job opportunities for their people. For Eswatini, this need is greater than most, having been recently listed by Statista, a data and market research site, as having one of the highest unemployment rates in the world in 2025.
As we seek investment, however, we must be more vigilant in our vetting. Last Sunday, we woke up to news that an investor came to the country full of promise, only to reveal they had an ‘empty suitcase.’ The company then sought financial assistance from the Public Service Pensions Fund (PSPF), which was convinced by its advisor to invest over E40 million in Triomf South Africa’s high-risk fertiliser project. It turns out that future returns are uncertain.
What is worse is that Triomf directors abandoned their operations without repaying the loan, raising questions about the initial investment advice from Inhlonhla, PSPF’s investment manager. This is not the first case of its kind in the country, and unless and until we are able to carry out proper vetting of those we call investors, emaSwati will continue to suffer the consequences of this shortcoming.
Equally concerning is how some genuine investors have been turned away because of unrealistic demands placed on them by greedy officials who see nothing more than a get-rich-quick opportunity. Some even try to steal ownership of the companies.
These incidents are seriously tarnishing the name of the King and the country. Perhaps the establishment of the Business One-Stop-Shop (BOSS) facility will help avoid the frustration some businesspeople go through when they have to rely on individuals to obtain the various documents required to set up shop in the country. His Majesty touched on the importance of this facility as part of his feedback from the trip to Azerbaijan.
These initiatives, of course, need dedicated civil servants and politicians who have the best interests of the country at heart. The country has great potential for investment. Taiwan has committed about E6 billion for an industrial hub in the country. Azerbaijani business interests have also requested land to develop an industrial hub to service the region.
We need investors like Kellogg Tolaram, who arrived at about the same time that Triomf was escorted by the Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA) to view factory shells in Matsapha. As reported by the Times SUNDAY, Kellogg Tolaram is now operational, while the opposite is true of Triomf.
The country has enormous potential to serve these investors. A recent report by the African Development Bank’s Africa Industrialisation Index 2025 has revealed that Eswatini ranks seventh among Africa’s most industrialised economies. It surpasses larger economies such as Nigeria and Kenya, though it lies behind Morocco, South Africa and a few others.
The report highlights Eswatini’s strengths in manufacturing as well as emerging challenges in maintaining its industrial leadership. Industrialisation is regarded as essential for job creation and economic resilience across Africa.
With this enormous potential must come outstanding commitment from individuals dedicated to serving the people, who need an economy that can afford emaSwati a decent living. The country possesses enormous potential, but its future remains at risk due to a lack of administrative follow-through. As Henry Ford once said: “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
Therefore, we must move beyond simply celebrating international interest. We need a dedicated mechanism to track these leads from the King’s boardroom to the factory floor.
His Majesty has returned from international visits to Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates with promising leads for investment and trade.