Digital Government Authority

Saudi government authority set up in 2021 to regulate digital government across public bodies, set technical standards, oversee government cloud use and measure the quality of state digital services.

Industry: Digital government regulation | Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Founded: 2021

About Digital Government Authority

The Digital Government Authority (DGA) is the Saudi government body responsible for regulating and developing digital government work across public-sector entities. It is headquartered in Riyadh, has legal personality and financial and administrative independence, and is organisationally linked to the Prime Minister.

The Council of Ministers approved the authority's creation in March 2021. The same decision cancelled the Yusr government e-transactions programme and abolished the National Center for Digital Certification. Its board is chaired by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and the governor sits on it. In August 2021 the board approved the authority's first regulatory framework, which Arab News reported was built on eight principles, including once-only data collection, digital by design and mobile first. Eng. Ahmed Alsuwaiyan has served as governor since the authority was set up.

The DGA's functions include helping prepare the national digital government strategy, setting technical standards for government digital transformation, overseeing the governance of government cloud activities, building national digital government skills, and providing consultation and research. Its stated strategic goal is to place Saudi Arabia among the top ten digital governments worldwide. It runs the Whole of Government Program, which integrates government agencies into a unified digital system, and a cloud adoption programme for government entities. In 2022 it launched SADAF, its digital government investment and procurement centre.

At LEAP 2026 in Riyadh, the DGA announced the 2026 edition of its Digital Experience Maturity Index. It gave Saudi government platforms an overall score of 87.06 percent across 59 platforms, up from 50 the year before, based on a survey with more than 805,500 participants. Absher scored highest at 94.38 percent.

At the same event the authority organised the Saudi Digital Exhibition and signed partnerships with STV, covering access to government use cases for startups in its AI fund, and with Hong Kong's Applied Science and Technology Research Institute on AI research, talent exchange and sandbox testing. It also approved Naver's cloud-based digital twin platform as the standard for local government use, after Naver delivered digital twins covering Makkah, Medina and Jeddah.

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