The Zambian government has appointed Sydney Mupeta as CEO of the Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) with immediate effect.

Mupeta was serving as acting CEO following the resignation of Dr Mupanga Mwanakatwe in February this year.

During his tenure as acting CEO, Mupeta presided over a company that improved on peformance and recorded consistent growth in revenue and positive EBITDA since May due to prudent resource utilisation and exciting product offers - including the recently launched Zamtel Kwacha, according to a statement issued by the company.

Mupeta joined Zamtel in 2012 as CTO in charge of driving the technology strategy aimed at delivering network modernisation and enhance quality of products and services.

Under his leadership, the company has continued on an accelerated growth trajectory both in revenue and subscriber numbers coming on the back of an aggressive subscriber acquisition drive, attractive marketing and product offers, reads the statement.

The company has also grown from 1.5 million to over 2 million customers in 7 months and declared profit of K14.5 million in July this year for the first time since 2012 when it was repossessed from Libya's LapGreen Network by the current administration.

"As CEO, Mupeta brings many years of experience in telecommunication as a seasoned engineer and technology leader with more than 16 years of experience in planning, designing, operating and modernisation of telecommunication networks in Central and East Africa," said the statement.

Previously, Mupeta worked for Ericsson as head of design and planning, responsible for technology roadmap and migration for Airtel Networks in the region. He also served as senior planning engineer for Celtel.

Zamtel is the country's smallest operator, while MTN Zambia is the largest with close to 6 million subscribers followed by Airtel Zambia with well over 4 million customers.