Global commodities trader Trafigura has appointed Chipokota Mwanawasa as its executive director for Zambia, placing a Zambian national with a background in mining, energy and economic policy at the head of its activities in Africa's second-largest copper producer.
Trafigura announced the appointment on 16 October. Mwanawasa will be based in Lusaka and will coordinate the group's metals and minerals, energy and logistics business in Zambia, including strategic business development. She will also lead the company's engagement with commercial, institutional and government stakeholders.
From State House to the trading floor
"Zambia is central to the world's supply of copper and other metals and minerals." – Chipokota Mwanawasa, executive director, Zambia, Trafigura
Mwanawasa joins Trafigura from the Office of the President, where she served as a policy advisor on economic policy, foreign investment and sector reform. Before that, she was deputy head of the Presidential Delivery Unit, which supports the implementation of Zambia's National Development Plan.
She also has direct mining experience, having worked at Konkola Copper Mines, one of the country's largest copper producers. Trafigura said she brings more than 10 years of experience across mining, energy, infrastructure and agriculture.
"Zambia is central to the world's supply of copper and other metals and minerals, and its energy sector underpins the country's economic development," Mwanawasa said in the company's statement.
Trafigura's footprint in Zambia
Trafigura has operated in Zambia for more than 20 years, trading and financing commodities. Together with its subsidiaries, it employs about 300 people in the country.
In her new role, Mwanawasa will also support the group's Zambian subsidiaries, including Servara and Puma Energy. Servara, Trafigura's wholly owned logistics, storage and transport business that previously operated under the Impala Terminals brand, runs 29,000 square metres of storage in Ndola. Puma Energy operates about 74 fuel retail sites, four terminals and three aviation fuel sites in Zambia.
Gonzalo De Olazaval, Trafigura's global head of metals and minerals, said her experience across Zambia's mining, energy and policy landscape made her well placed to lead the group's activities. He described the appointment as a reflection of Trafigura's long-term commitment to the country and to its customers in the region.
Why it matters
The appointment comes as Zambia pushes to lift copper output to three million tonnes a year by 2031. This week Lusaka is hosting the 2026 Zambia Mining and Investment Insaka at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre from 19 to 23 October, where the government is seeking deals and joint ventures to support that target, according to the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development.
For a group that moves copper, fuel and freight through the Copperbelt, the role puts someone with experience inside government and at a major producer in charge of its relationships in the country as the industry expands.