The National Digital Transformation Unit (NDU) is a government agency established by royal decree in order to catalyze digital transformation efforts on a National level addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). NDU was first incubated under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy and Planning, and eventually became a separate entity with an official national mandate. NDU is to drive digital transformation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the welfare of vulnerable groups taken into consideration. The latter is in line with Vision 2030, which is heavily aligned with the SDGs.
NDU sees the individual as their ultimate beneficiary, by ensuring coordination among all stakeholders and relevant ecosystems, policy coherence, identifying gaps and hurdles and addressing them. In doing so, socio-economic outcomes are optimized. This is done under the umbrella of the National digital strategy, led and created by NDU.
NDU, through its efforts, strives to put the Kingdom on the world map as a frontier nation in growth driven by digital transformation. One of NDU’s main objectives is to be on par with advanced nations and to be in a position to help less developed countries.

https://ndu.gov.sa/

• Saudi Arabia

• Youth
• Older persons
• Women
• The unemployed
• The poor
• Remote and rural communities

NDU covers the entire kingdom. However, several local government authorities followed suit and created their own specialized adaptation of a digital transformation function within their entities. The Ministry of Civil Service currently has a Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation; the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education have recently created Digital Transformation units.
Regionally, The Sultanate of Oman created an information Technology Authority to transform Oman into a sustainable knowledge society. Additionally, Kuwait adopted a digital transformation strategy as a vital component of the overall strategy of the country.

NDU was established as a permanent government agency. It is government funded, thus sustainable. A. NDU has an annually allocated budget of 34 million USD, guaranteed by royal decree to carry out its functions. The budget was used to hire the right resources, procure headquarters, carry out roles and responsibilities, engagements and execute pilot studies.

The National Digital Transformation Unit (NDU) regards digital transformation as a powerful tool to transform the Kingdom into an inclusive, forward-looking nation in economy, people, governance, environment, and overall living. One of NDU’s main objectives is to provide access to quality, reliable and affordable basic services to everyone, irrespective of location within the Kingdom or socio-economic status.