Rwanda has been re-elected to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Council for the coming four years term (2019-2022). Rwanda was re-elected with 131 votes.

ITU is the United Nation’s ICT body while the Council is its governing body. It comprises 48 member states of which Rwanda is one of the 13 African representatives.

Rwanda was re-elected during the on-going ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The Minister of Information and Communications Technology and Innovation, Paula Ingabire, told The New Times that being part of the governing body is beneficial to the country.

"Being part of the council provides us a platform to influence decisions on broad telecommunications policies and strategies that will respond to today's dynamic, rapidly changing telecom environment,” she said.

Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, and Uganda are other African countries that were elected to the council.

Other regions represented on the council include Western Europe with 8 countries, The Americas with nine countries, Eastern Europe and Northern Asia with 5 countries, Asia & Australasia with 13 countries.

Chairmanship of the council will be decided at the first Session of the Council, early next year. The mandate of the council starts January 2019.