Zambia’s Kezias Mwale Is ATU’s Next SG

Zambia’s Eng. Kezias Kazuba Mwale has been elected as the next Secretary General of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), succeeding Kenya’s John Omo, whose second and final term ends on 31 December 2026.

Mwale was elected during the Seventh Ordinary Session of the ATU Conference of Plenipotentiaries (CPL-26) in Abuja following four rounds of voting. He will officially assume office on 1 January 2027 for a four-year term in accordance with the ATU Constitution.

The closely contested election saw Mwale secure 21 of the 34 votes cast in the fourth round, defeating South Africa’s Cynthia Lesufi, who received eight votes, and Cameroon’s Valery Hilaire Ottou, who garnered five. Candidates from the Republic of the Congo and Tunisia exited the race in earlier rounds.

Before his election, Mwale served as the ATU’s Director for Radiocommunications, a position he has held since 2012. In that role, he has overseen the Union’s work on spectrum management and coordinated Africa’s common positions for the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conferences. Prior to joining the ATU, he held engineering and spectrum management roles at the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA).

“I accept this mandate with a deep sense of responsibility,” Mwale said after his election. “Mindful that leadership is not a privilege to be enjoyed, but a trust to be honoured and carefully guarded.”

He pledged to work with governments, regulators, the private sector, academia, civil society and development partners to advance the Union’s mandate.

Mwale takes over from John Omo, who has led the continental telecommunications body since January 2019 after being elected at the ATU Plenipotentiary Conference in Nairobi in 2018. He was re-elected unopposed in 2022 for a second term.

During his tenure, the ATU expanded its membership with additional member states and new associate members drawn from telecommunications operators, technology companies, equipment manufacturers and academic institutions. The Union also continued coordinating Africa’s common positions during global spectrum negotiations at successive ITU World Radiocommunication Conferences.

More recently, under Omo’s leadership, the ATU expanded its focus beyond traditional telecommunications issues into emerging technologies. The organisation signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (UN-ODET) to collaborate on artificial intelligence capacity building and digital public infrastructure across Africa. It was also named among the partners supporting the ITU’s AI for Good Lab initiative announced in Geneva earlier this month.

Reflecting on the transition, Omo said he would continue leading the organisation until the end of his term while ensuring a smooth handover to his successor.

“Between now and then, even as I discharge my mandate, I will be working with the Secretary General-elect,” he said. “I will provide him with the information, cooperation and institutional support required for an orderly assumption of responsibility.”

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, who chaired the Conference of Plenipotentiaries, thanked Omo for his service. The leadership transition will be completed in Nairobi, where the ATU General Secretariat has been based since 1999. The organisation is expected to relocate its headquarters to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the future, a process that will now fall under Mwale’s leadership.

The Conference also elected 25 member states to serve on the ATU Administrative Council for the next four years, with Kenya retaining its seat alongside Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda as representatives of the Eastern Africa region.