Zimbabwe’s Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, Tatenda Mavetera, has been elected chairperson of the Council of Ministers in Charge of ICT under the Smart Africa Alliance, giving Zimbabwe a more prominent role in shaping the continent’s digital agenda over the next two years.
The election took place during the eighth meeting of the council, where ministers also chose Côte d’Ivoire’s Djibril Ouattara as vice-chair.
The appointment places Zimbabwe at the centre of one of Africa’s most important digital policy platforms. The Smart Africa Alliance brings together African governments around a shared goal: building a single digital market and accelerating the continent’s digital transformation through stronger connectivity, aligned policy and cross-border innovation.
For Harare, the outcome carries political and strategic weight. It signals growing recognition of Zimbabwe’s role in continental digital conversations at a time when African governments are under pressure to turn digital ambition into practical delivery.
Smart Africa said the new council leadership will serve for a two-year term, succeeding outgoing chair Léon Juste Ibombo of the Republic of Congo and outgoing vice-chair Samuel Nartey George of Ghana.
In remarks published after her election, Mavetera described the role as both an honour and a responsibility. She said her focus would be on regional integration, harmonising ICT policies and accelerating projects that help close the digital divide.
She also framed Africa’s future as inseparable from digital transformation, arguing that stronger cooperation could help create a single digital market that supports young people, entrepreneurs and economic modernisation across the continent.
That agenda sits at the heart of the Smart Africa project. The alliance has consistently pushed for deeper coordination between African states on digital infrastructure, innovation and regulation, arguing that fragmented systems make it harder for the continent to compete at scale. In that context, the council chair is not simply ceremonial.
The post influences how ministers coordinate priorities and drive implementation across member states. This is an inference based on the council’s role inside the alliance and the strategic weight Smart Africa gives to ministerial coordination.
Mavetera’s election also adds to Zimbabwe’s growing visibility in continental digital governance. Earlier reporting around Smart Africa’s Africa AI Council showed that she had already joined a smaller group of ministers helping to shape the continent’s direction on artificial intelligence, including governance, innovation and skills development.
The timing matters. African countries are trying to move from digital policy language to systems that work in practice. That includes affordable broadband, interoperable platforms, digital public services and policies that allow businesses to scale across borders. The challenge is no longer only about vision. It is about execution. Mavetera’s election, therefore, comes at a moment when delivery will matter as much as diplomacy.
Smart Africa itself has continued to expand. Reporting on the latest council meeting said the alliance now includes 42 member states, underlining the scale of the platform and the expectations attached to its leadership.
For Zimbabwe, the post offers an opportunity to project influence beyond its borders in an area that increasingly defines economic competitiveness. For the alliance, it places a new chair at the centre of a continent-wide effort to connect markets, align systems, and make Africa’s digital ambition more than rhetoric.
The harder test now lies ahead. Leading the council will require more than speeches about transformation. It will demand coordination, credibility and the ability to bring governments with very different levels of digital readiness into closer alignment. But for now, Zimbabwe has secured a visible seat at one of Africa’s most consequential digital tables.
