Ghana and Rwanda are among thirteen African countries reelected to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) council, the governing body that oversees the organisation's activities, policies and strategies.

At the 2018 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference hosted recently in Dubai, the thirteen countries were reelected for a four-year term running from 2019 to 2022.

Ghana's Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said this would encourage the country to achieve more with its digitisation agenda.

Owusu-Ekuful said: "This re-election would also complement the work of the President in pursuing the Digital Ghana Agenda for a massive transformation of the country's economy through technology and broadband development, especially, as he is the Co-Chair of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocacy Group."

Rwanda's Minister of Information and Communications Technology and Innovation, Paula Ingabire, said, "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."

Along with Ghana and Rwanda, other African countries now represented on the council include Algeria, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Uganda.

Mali, Cameroon, Tanzania, Togo, Sudan and Mauritania were not re-elected.

In addition to the council seats, three Africans were also elected into ITU's Radio Regulations Board namely Elsayed Azzouz (Egypt), Samuel Mandla Mchunu (South Africa) and Hassan Talib (Morocco).