VICTORIA, Seychelles: Seychelles plans to begin rolling out a digital Human Resource Management System (HRMS) across its public service in 2027, with Vice-President Sebastien Pillay saying the transition must reduce administrative delays while protecting jobs.
Pillay outlined the timetable during a strategic briefing at State House on Wednesday with representatives of FreeBalance, a Canadian company specialising in public-sector financial and human resource management systems.
He said the success of digital transformation should be measured by improvements in government performance, particularly how long administrative processes take and how quickly services reach the public.
Introducing technology, he stressed, would achieve little unless it made government more efficient and responsive.
Beyond Replacing Paper With Screens
Pillay acknowledged that Seychelles had struggled to digitalise at its intended pace despite the country’s small size.
He said new systems needed to be accompanied by changes to the administrative structures and procedures that underpin them. Converting paper documents into electronic files would not resolve delays if the work behind those processes continued to depend heavily on manual tasks.
Officers might still need to enter and verify information manually during the early stages, he said. The longer-term objective, however, was to connect systems and reduce repetitive work.
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The HRMS is expected to modernise workforce management and support the digitalisation of related government processes.
Public Officers To Be Retrained
Pillay also sought to reassure public servants concerned that new technologies, including artificial intelligence, could threaten their jobs.
“We wouldn't want to go in a direction whereby technology replaces people, leaving their jobs,” he said.
Public officers would instead be retrained and equipped to work with the new systems, he said, allowing technology to strengthen the workforce rather than displace it.
He also outlined plans to develop local technology infrastructure so that more digital transactions could be processed within Seychelles, reducing reliance on systems operated abroad.
Part Of A Broader Digital Agenda
The planned HRMS rollout forms part of the government’s wider digital programme under President Patrick Herminie, who took office in October 2025 with Pillay, the former Leader of the Opposition, as his deputy.
In June, Pillay relaunched the government portal, egov.sc, during celebrations marking Seychelles’ 50th anniversary of independence.
According to State House, he described the relaunch as a step towards Herminie’s ambition to position Seychelles among the leading digital economies within five years.
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At the launch, Pillay said the portal had gone more than a decade without meaningful review and had largely served as an entry point to government email for public servants.
Seychelles has previously been recognised among Africa’s stronger performers in digital government. According to the Seychelles Nation, the country ranked third in Africa in the United Nations E-Government Survey 2022, with a score of 0.6793.
Managing The Transition
Wednesday’s briefing also addressed how the rollout would align with government priorities, including communication, change management and the involvement of public officers throughout the transition.
Margaret Moumou, Secretary of State for Cabinet Affairs and Civil Service and Head of the Civil Service, attended alongside project managers from the Department of Public Administration and the Department of Information Communications Technology.
FreeBalance, headquartered in Ottawa, works on digital government and public administration projects across Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.
State House said the discussions helped clarify the government’s expectations and the need for the HRMS to address the practical requirements of public institutions.
For the government, the test will be whether the system translates into quicker decisions, fewer administrative bottlenecks and a more accountable public service, while giving officers the skills to manage the transition.
