COMESA has new CEO

Zimbabwean Sindiso Ngwenya has been appointed CEO of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), an organization working to harmonize ICT regulations and policy in the region.

Through the regulatory and policy harmonization program, COMESA hopes to remove constraints to ICT usage among member states in order to promote regional integration.

The program is meeting with resistance from some countries, including Djibouti and Uganda, but Ngwenya is expected to persuade them to accept the EU-funded program.

COMESA is also working on the Comtel Project, construction of broadband infrastructure that will connect all countries in the region with the aim of bringing down the high cost of telecommunication.

Ngwenya is expected to come up with a new design of the Comtel Project in order to speed its implementation after two years of delays. The project's redesign follows the completion of member countries' fiber-optic cables, and the project is now expected to be operational by 2010.

Ngwenya, who was previously COMESA's assistant secretary general, takes over from Erustus Mwencha of Kenya, whose mandate has come to an end.