IndabaX Eswatini: VAT File & Pay Predictive Analytics Challenge
IndabaX Eswatini: VAT File & Pay Predictive Analytics Challenge supports modellers developing predictions of late VAT filing and payment to help Eswatini Revenue Service improve compliance and planning.
Funder: Zindi
Due Dates: September 25, 2026 (Start) | October 31, 2026 (Submission close) | October 31, 2026 (Submission selection close) | November 6, 2026 (Reveal)
Funding Amounts: 50,000 SZL prize pool: E25,000 first place, E15,000 second place, E10,000 third place
Summary: A predictive modelling competition to help the Eswatini Revenue Service identify VAT returns likely to be filed or paid late.
Key Information: Open only to Eswatini IndabaX participants and Eswatini residents, competing individually or in teams of two.
Description
This IndabaX challenge, hosted on Zindi, supports predictive modelling for the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS). ERS processes approximately 3,900 VAT returns and payments each month and quarter. The competition aims to identify taxpayers at risk of late filing or payment, enabling earlier compliance interventions and more effective revenue and resource planning.
Participants use historical VAT records for returns due through June 30, 2025, mostly from 2020 onward, to predict outcomes for returns due between July and November 2025. Models must produce probabilities for eight filing and payment outcomes, using only information available before each return was due. A single model or separate filing and payment models may be used. The top three solutions will be presented to ERS for consideration, individually or as combined approaches to strengthen VAT compliance analysis.
