Jordan has secured a $4.2 million World Bank grant to advance Jordan AI projects by preparing government applications, expanding Sanad services to businesses, and strengthening domestic research.
The funding forms part of additional financing preparations for the country's Youth, Technology and Jobs Project. This initiative supports digital skills development, technology adoption and employment opportunities across the nation.
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Jordan's Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Zeina Toukan, signed the grant agreement on October 31, 2026. The World Bank was represented by its Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Dalia Khalifa.
Developing Jordan AI Projects and Public Services
Rather than financing a full-scale AI rollout immediately, the grant will support developing and testing practical AI applications in selected government sectors. It also includes studies to establish project priorities and capacity-building activities for public institutions.
One of the main priorities is to identify practical ways AI can improve government operations and public service delivery.
The funded activities will include developing and testing AI applications that can simplify administrative procedures, improve service efficiency and automate multiple tasks and processes.
The initiative will also explore AI-powered tools for the Sanad platform, which is Jordan's official digital government application.
Expanding the Sanad Platform
These applications could eventually help public institutions process requests, manage administrative workflows and provide digital services more efficiently. However, the grant initially focuses on testing solutions and identifying suitable applications before wider implementation.
Jordan also plans to use the findings from these experiments and partnerships to prepare for establishing a National Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence.
The proposed centre is expected to bring together research, technical expertise and data resources to strengthen the country's ability to develop and deploy AI technologies.
Another major component of the grant is preparing Sanad for wider use by businesses.
The platform already gives citizens access to digital identity, documents, and government services. The next phase will explore how commercial entities can use it to interact with government institutions and complete administrative procedures online.
Driving Digital Growth and Investment
This will involve reviewing existing processes, identifying services suitable for digital delivery, and developing plans to extend the platform to business users gradually.
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The government also intends to redesign and simplify selected procedures before testing new digital solutions and preparing the technical specifications required for implementation.
Sanad's existing adoption provides a foundation for this expansion.
By June 2026, the application had recorded more than 2.7 million digital identity activations and nearly 400,000 daily active users, according to figures reported by Jordan's Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship.
Expanding the platform to businesses could extend its role beyond individual access to public services, creating a more connected digital channel between government agencies and the private sector.
Building on the Youth, Technology and Jobs Project
Beyond AI and digital government services, the additional financing preparations include activities aimed at attracting more foreign investment into Jordan's digital economy.
These will involve identifying international companies with potential interest in investing in the country, engaging specialised firms in priority markets and organising targeted investor meetings and promotional activities.
This connects the initiative to the wider objectives of the Youth, Technology and Jobs Project, which seeks to develop Jordan's ICT workforce, support technology businesses and create digitally enabled income opportunities.
The original project was launched in 2020 with $200 million in World Bank financing. It targets job creation, digital skills development, expansion of electronic government services and increased private-sector investment in digital services—Youth Technology & Jobs Project - Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship.
The additional grant builds on that existing programme by preparing a new phase focused more directly on AI applications and digital public infrastructure.
Evaluating Digital Transformation Progress
By the end of June 2026, the project had recorded 5,935 beneficiaries with documented new income opportunities against a target of 10,000. More than 12,400 people had received digital skills training, representing 83% of the programme's target.
The project had also supported digital skills education for approximately 760,000 school students and contributed to the digitisation of 178 government services, exceeding its original target of 100.
Government digital services had recorded approximately 52.9 million transactions, while digitally enabled government payment services accounted for more than 80% of the relevant payment services covered by the programme's results report.
These figures show the scale of the existing digital transformation programme and provide a starting point for assessing the next phase.
Engagement
