LESOTHO · TECHNOLOGY
Key Facts
- —What Lesotho is A mountain kingdom of about 2.4 million people, entirely surrounded by South Africa and long dependent on it for power.
- —What happened Prime Minister Sam Matekane opened the UN session that launched the Blueprint for National AI Strategies on 21 September 2026.
- —The test The UN says Lesotho is the Blueprint’s first country application, with compute judged against real energy and water limits.
- —The constraint Only 60.6 percent of Basotho had electricity in 2024, World Bank data show. Data centres need power and water.
- —The scale Lesotho’s entire 2026/27 budget is M30.97 billion, about US$1.9 billion. No cost has been published for the compute roadmap.
- —Why it travels Paraguay courts AI data centres with Itaipú’s 14,000 megawatts. Lesotho’s only hydro plant generates 72.
The United Nations picked a small mountain kingdom to test its new method for turning AI ambition into a costed national plan.
Prime Minister Sam Matekane presented the Lesotho AI Blueprint work in New York on Monday, 21 September 2026. The United Nations says the kingdom is the first country to apply its new Blueprint for National AI Strategies.
Lesotho is a small mountain kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa. The World Bank put its population at 2.36 million in 2025.
Its whole economy is worth about US$2.6 billion a year. Income per head is near US$1,090.
What Happened at the UN in New York
Prime Minister Ntsokoane Samuel Matekane arrived in New York on Sunday, 20 September 2026, for the 81st UN General Assembly. He spoke the next day at Digital Cooperation Day, run by the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies.
The day’s theme was Shaping A Global AI Future Through Science, Policy, and Capacity. Matekane gave the opening remarks for the session that launched the Blueprint.
His communications minister, Nthati Moorosi, sat on the panel. The UN describes that session as the Blueprint’s launch and its first country application, in Lesotho.
Lesotho brought some standing to the room. It has served as chair of the African Union’s Specialised Technical Committee on Communication and ICT.
What the Lesotho AI Blueprint Actually Is
The UN calls the Blueprint a guided, interactive platform and methodology. It accompanies a government from mandate to an adopted, costed and achievable national AI strategy.
In plain terms, it is a workbook for writing a plan a country can pay for. The Lesotho AI Blueprint test asks one question first: can the country get enough computing power?
The UN puts it plainly — the entry question is access to compute and infrastructure under real energy and water constraints. Data centres need both, and Lesotho sells its water to South Africa rather than having spare power.
That constraint is measurable. Only 60.6 percent of Basotho had an electricity connection in 2024, on World Bank figures.
The kingdom’s sole hydro plant, at ’Muela, generates 72 megawatts from three turbines. Before it opened in 1999, Lesotho drew all its power from South Africa.
The water runs the other way. Under a 1986 treaty Lesotho delivers 780 million cubic metres a year to South Africa’s Gauteng province.
A second phase lifts that to 1.27 billion cubic metres once the Polihali dam is finished in 2028. The authority running it reports the dam as 44 percent complete.
From Strategy to Implementation, in Numbers
Matekane said Lesotho has finished planning and begun Phase One of its National Compute Roadmap, 2026 to 2029. The assessment behind it took more than a year.
It covered computing capacity, data centres, internet links, skills and financing. Lesotho now has three digital policies, a government data centre and a chief digital officer.
The wider plan is the National Digital Transformation Strategy 2024–2030. It targets full broadband coverage by 2030, up from 58 percent internet use today.
The strategy rests on five pillars: rules, digital government, infrastructure, digital skills and digital business. Lesotho ranked 145th of 193 countries on the UN’s e-government index.
It also aims to lift electricity access from 54 to 67 percent of people by 2030. World Bank data put access at 60.6 percent in 2024, leaving four in ten unconnected.
That strategy names the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the EU among possible funders. It carries no cost figure at all.
Scale sets the ceiling. Lesotho’s total 2026/27 budget is M30.97 billion, about US$1.9 billion, on the budget speech tabled in February.
Water royalties supply M4.953 billion of that, roughly US$303 million. Selling water to South Africa pays for about one sixth of state spending.
On identity, Lesotho is not starting from zero. Its biometric national ID has covered about 85 percent of the population since registration began in 2013.
In February 2026 the ministry signed a digital ID work plan with UNICEF. It builds on MOSIP open-source software for biometric registration and online checks, with no published rollout date.
Lesotho has joined the 50-in-5 campaign, which helps poorer countries build shared digital systems by 2028. UN-India funding has already paid for high-performance computing upgrades and training.
Why This Matters for Business in Africa
Nothing changes this week for anyone trading with or living in Lesotho. Permits, banking and payments work as before.
Being first carries no money with it. The Blueprint is a method for writing a costed plan, not a fund that pays for one.
The medium term is the point. If the Lesotho AI Blueprint work delivers, the country becomes a place where data rules and digital services are predictable.
Being the UN’s test case also brings attention and technical help. Moorosi has said openly that she wants hyperscalers and development banks to look at data centres there.
That contest is global, and Latin America is in it. Paraguay is courting AI data centres with surplus power from the Itaipú dam.
Itaipú has 14,000 megawatts installed across 20 units, its operator says. Lesotho’s ’Muela plant has 72.
Paraguay also had near-universal electricity access in 2024, at 99.8 percent. That is the distance a compute roadmap in Lesotho has to cover.
Lesotho’s own officials are cautious. One ICT director warned the work must not become another policy document that gathers dust on a shelf.
A government diagnostic this year called the country’s data ecosystem emerging but fragmented. It used a sharper phrase too: asset-rich but connection-poor.
A consultant on the same project said the country writes strong policy but struggles to implement it. That is the honest measure of what was announced in New York.
What Is Not Known
No budget, no cost estimate and no timeline have been published for the compute roadmap. No launch date exists for the new MOSIP-based digital ID.
Three policies, on AI, data management and broadband, were validated in August 2026. Whether cabinet has adopted them is not public.
The economics are hard. The IMF’s 2025 review put Lesotho’s government spending at about 53.5 percent of GDP, with the wage bill near 17 percent.
Growth is thin as well. The IMF recorded 2.6 percent real growth in the 2024–25 financial year, falling to a projected 1.4 percent.
It found real income per person fell 12 percent between 2016 and 2023. A country in that position has little room for a failed IT project.
The next real signal will be a published cost and date for the Lesotho AI Blueprint work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lesotho the first country to use the UN AI Blueprint?
Yes. The UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies says Lesotho is the Blueprint’s first country application, launched on 21 September 2026.
Has Lesotho launched a new digital ID?
No. It already has a biometric national ID covering about 85 percent of people, and the MOSIP-based upgrade has no announced launch date.
How much will the Lesotho AI Blueprint work cost?
No cost has been published. The national strategy names the World Bank, African Development Bank and EU as possible funders, without any figures.
Sources: Reporting draws on the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, the Government of Lesotho, the Lesotho News Agency, UNICEF, the International Monetary Fund, Lesotho Times and ITWeb Africa. Population, GDP and electricity-access figures come from the World Bank; water transfer and hydropower figures from the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority; budget and royalty figures from Lesotho’s 2026/27 budget speech; and generating capacity from Itaipú Binacional.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. How we use AI · Report an error