Imagine a brilliant student, praised by all juries, but unable to hand in homework on time. That is, more or less, the digital portrait of Tunisia in 2025. On international honor rolls, the country shows a fine success. In the everyday life of entrepreneurs, reality tastes like waiting in line.
This gap is not a technical detail. It says something about how a country measures itself, tells its story, and, sometimes, misreads itself. For behind the flattering scores lies a simple, almost embarrassing question: what is the use of a digital state that users do not use?
This question is at the heart of a policy paper titled “Digitalization in Tunisia: a flattering ranking, a failing reality,” published in November 2025 by IACE and the EcoTous platform. The work contrasts international indices with surveys conducted among business leaders, and the contrast is striking.
The showcase: a well-rated country
On the showcase side, everything is going well. In the United Nations online administration development index, Tunisia scores 0.69 in 2024, above the world average (0.64) and well above the regional average (0.42).
It is classified among countries with a high level of digital development. The World Bank’s GovTech maturity index also assigns it 0.688 in 2022, ahead of the global and regional averages across all evaluated dimensions. The provision of digital public services even reaches 0.760.
The counter: where the numbers clash with reality
Yet it is enough to leave the honor roll to enter the office of a business leader. According to the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey 2024, obtaining a connection to the electrical grid takes on average 110 days in Tunisia, compared with 68 days in the MENA region and 37 days in lower-middle-income countries.
A commercial license requires 78 days, compared with 72 in the region and 44 for comparable countries. As for the operating permit, it climbs to 111 days, whereas the region requires 25 and comparable countries 21.
These delays come at a price. A chief executive of a large enterprise spends on average 9.3% of his weekly working time on administrative requirements. Each day of waiting is a delayed investment, a postponed recruitment, a potential competitor discouraged before even opening.
A digitization that shifts the problem
