AFRINIC


AFRINIC is the regional Internet registry for Africa. Its headquarters are in Ebene, Mauritius.
Before AFRINIC was formed, IP addresses for Africa were distributed by the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre, the American Registry for Internet Numbers, and the RIPE NCC. ICANN provisionally recognised AFRINIC on 11 October 2004. The registry became operational on 22 February 2005. ICANN gave it final recognition in April 2005.

Organisational Structure

Board of Directors

The AFRINIC Board consists of a nine-member Board of Directors. Six of the directors are elected to represent the different sub-regions, while two directors are elected to serve on the Board-based solely on competency as opposed to regional representation. The last seat on the Board is filled by the .
Elections are held at each AFRNIC , which is conducted around May/June every year. takes place both on site at these meetings and prior to the meeting via online voting.

Council of Elders

The AFRINIC consists of six former AFRINIC chairpersons.
They fulfill an advisory role and harness all their experience leading the organisation as former Chairs.
The Members of the AFRINIC Council of Elders are:
  1. Dr. Nii N. Quaynor
  2. Mr Pierre S. Dandjinou Board Member: 2004-2010
  3. Dr. Viv Padayatchy - Board Member: - 2005-2011
  4. Mrs Maimouna Ndeye Diop Diagne - Board Member: 2010-2013

    AFRINIC Staff

AFRINIC staff carries out the daily operations of the organization.
The Staff is structured in nine departments: CEO's Office, HR and Administration, Research and Innovation, Finance and Accounting, External Relations, Communication and Public Relations, Member Services, IT and Engineering, and Capacity Building. These divisions encompass all AFRINIC activities, including that of acting as a central source of information for Members.
AFRINIC's open policy development process also invites stakeholders interested in Internet number resources from around the world to participate. These include representatives from governments, regulators, educators, media, the technical community, civil society, and other not-for-profit organisations.

Public Policy Meeting

Each year, AFRINIC conducts two public policy meetings. These give the community the chance to come together for policy development, information sharing, and networking. The first Public Policy Meeting of each year is known as the Africa Internet Summit, and the second is held as a standalone meeting. The meetings are held in various locations throughout Africa.

IPv4 exhaustion

In April 2017, AFRINIC became the last regional Internet registry to run down to its last /8 block of IPv4 addresses, thus triggering the final phase of its IPv4 exhaustion policy. As a result, AFRINIC has now implemented a soft landing policy for allocating the last /8 to its users, in which, at the end of Phase 2 of the exhaustion period, each AFRINIC customer will be eligible for just one final maximum allocation of a /22 block of IPv4 addresses until the block is exhausted.

AFRINIC training

AFRINIC conducts a number of training courses in a wide variety of locations around the region. These courses are designed to educate participants to proficiently configure, manage and administer their Internet services and infrastructure and to embrace current best practices.

WHOIS database

The AFRINIC WHOIS Database contains registration details of IP addresses and AS numbers originally allocated by AFRINIC. It shows the organisations that hold the resources, where the allocations were made, and contact details for the networks. The organisations that hold those resources are responsible for updating their information in the database. The database can be searched by using the web interface on the AFRINIC site or by directing your whois client to whois.afrinic.net.

The AFRINIC membership

Major Internet Service Providers, Internet exchange point, governments and academic institutions.

Policy development process

AFRINIC's policies are developed by the membership and broader Internet community. The major media for policy development are the face-to-face Public Policy Meetings, which are held twice each year, and mailing list discussions.
OpenTransparentBottom-up
Anyone can propose policies.AFRNIC publicly documents all policy discussions and decisions.The community drives policy development.
Everyone can discuss policy proposals.AFRINIC documents all policy discussions and decisions to provide complete transparency of the policy development process.

Economies

AFRINIC's service region is divided into six sub-regions in Africa for statistic gathering purposes and for Board of Directors elections to ensure regional representation.
These sub-regions are: Northern, Western, Central, Eastern, Southern and the Indian Ocean.
AFRINIC's service region also includes several islands located in the Atlantic Ocean which are listed in the Western or Central African regions.
EASTERN REGIONWESTERN REGIONCENTRAL AFRICANORTHERN AFRICASOUTHERN AFRICAINDIAN OCEAN
BurundiBeninCameroonAlgeriaAngolaMauritius
DjiboutiBurkina FasoCentral African RepublicEgyptBotswanaRéunion
EritreaCape VerdeDemocratic Republic of the CongoLibyaLesothoComoros
EthiopiaCôte d'IvoireEquatorial GuineaMoroccoNamibiaMayotte
KenyaGambiaGabonSudanSouth AfricaMadagascar
TanzaniaGhanaRepublic of the CongoSouth SudanSwazilandSeychelles
RwandaGuineaSão Tomé and PríncipeTunisiaMozambique
SomaliaLiberiaChadWestern SaharaMalawi
UgandaMaliMauritaniaZambia
NigerZimbabwe
Nigeria
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Togo