(Pr. Eng) Manager of the Road Management System Roads Authority of Namibia
Prg. Sophia Belete-Tekie is a Professional Engineer with a BSc Degree in Engineering at honours level and is Head of the Road Management System (RMS) of the Roads Authority of Namibia and has been practicing Engineering for the thirty two years. She has obtained various diploma and certificates in project management, strategic management, leadership certificates from Stellenbosch University and many renowned institutions. She is a member of the Engineering Professions Association (EPA) Council since 2000 and was the first woman President for two terms; and in June 2019 was elected as the President of the EPA. She has served as vise-President and as the honorary secretary on the Council previously. She was the member of the Engineering Council of Namibia since 2005, and was the first woman vise President of the Engineering Council of Namibia term 2013 – 2018 and spearheaded the public relations committee of the council for years. She is currently the President of the Engineering Council of Namibia. She is originally from Ethiopia and a Namibian citizen. She has presented papers in various National, Regional and International forums on RMS and road sector reforms, in women in engineering, governance and leadership and on Asset Management through her knowledge and experience of thirty two years.
She has been involved in the Road Sector Reform of Namibia and has hands on knowledge and experience when it comes to Road Management of roads on policy, strategy and safety aspects because she is one of the few left in the country who understands the Road Maintenance Initiative movement to focus on road preservation rather than only capital projects.
She was a member of the World road association committee (Piarc) on Asset Management and Financing; and was also a member of the Technical Committee of Performance of Road Administrators and Road Funds of Piarc. She also severed an alternate member of the National Qualifications Authority Council. She has been part of the team who developed a state of the art Road Management System of Namibia which has put Namibia on the map and has realized it to be from a Vision to a reality. Mrs Tekie has been special guest speaker in many countries, forums, workshops on Women in Engineering; Needs and Numbers for Namibia as she championed the project as a project leader on behalf of ECN and EPA the first to be done outside South Africa; Road Sector governance, and Asset Management Systems. She is also a member of the International Road Federation Africa coordination committee. Her passion lies, in empowerment of women, in training young engineers, in promoting governance and ethics, and lastly of being an agent of change in society for the betterment of the world.