Dar es Salaam recently hosted the contest for the presidency of the Federation of African Engineering Organisations (FAEO), where Engineer Erick Ohaga was elected with 83 per cent of the votes cast. This strong mandate will enable him to strengthen the engineering profession and position African engineers more centrally in the continent’s development agenda. FAEO serves as the overall leader and unified voice of the engineering profession in Africa.
FAEO represents more than 1.5 million engineering professionals across five regional blocks and provides an important link between African engineers and international institutions. These include the World Federation of Engineering Organisations and the African Union. Eng Ohaga, Director of Nuclear Infrastructure Development at the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA), previously served as elected President of the Institution of Engineers of Kenya from 2022 to 2024.
Eng Ohaga's election gives him responsibility for leading a diverse continental engineering community operating under different professional, economic and regulatory environments. Describing the 83 per cent vote as both an honour and a significant responsibility, Eng Ohaga said the result represented confidence in the direction of FAEO and a mandate to deliver meaningful results for engineers across Africa.
He said his leadership would focus on listening, uniting and acting, rather than treating FAEO merely as a representative organisation. According to Eng Ohaga, engineers expect greater opportunities for young professionals, stronger standards, mobility across African countries, meaningful participation in major infrastructure and industrial projects, and greater recognition of engineering as a driver of economic transformation.
His priorities centre on three broad areas: developing African engineering capacity, increasing African participation in major projects, and strengthening collaboration among engineering institutions across the continent. He said continuous professional development, mentorship and leadership development would be strengthened, with particular attention to young engineers and women in engineering.
Eng Ohaga also wants FAEO’s performance to be measurable, proposing establishment of a baseline during the first 100 days and publishing an annual performance dashboard supported by verifiable evidence. Among his targets are active participation by all member organisations in at least one FAEO programme or technical platform each year, five continent-wide technical initiatives during his term, and a continental mentorship programme reaching 5,000 young engineers.
For Eng Ohaga, Africa’s infrastructure deficit is not simply a consequence of insufficient engineers, but a wider gap between engineering talent and the systems required to transform expertise into completed infrastructure. He argues that engineers should be involved throughout the project cycle, from conception and design to financing, construction, operation and maintenance, and that Africa must move beyond technology transfer towards technology creation.
Key points
- Engineer Erick Ohaga elected as FAEO President with 83% of votes.
- Ohaga's priorities include developing African engineering capacity and increasing African participation in major projects.
- FAEO represents over 1.5 million engineering professionals across Africa.
