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African Network Information Centre

AFRINIC
Abbreviation	African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC)
Formation	11 October 2004
Type	Not for Profit
Focus	Allocation and registration of IP address space
Headquarters	Ebene, Mauritius
Location	Mauritius
Services	Internet Number Resources Management (ASNs, IPv6 and IPv4)
Official language	English and French
Key people	Dr. Christian Bope, Chairman Alan Barrett, CEO
Affiliations	IANA, ICANN, ASO, NRO
Staff	50+
Website	www.afrinic.net

AFRINIC (African Network Information Centre) is the regional Internet registry (RIR)^[1] for Africa. Its headquarters^[2] are in Ebene, Mauritius. Before AFRINIC was formed, IP addresses (IPv6 and IPv4) for Africa were distributed by the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), and the RIPE NCC. ICANN provisionally recognised AFRINIC on 11 October 2004.^[3] The registry became operational on 22 February 2005. ICANN gave it final recognition^[4] in April 2005.

Organisational Structure

Board of Directors

The AFRINIC Board consists of a nine-member Board of Directors.^[5] 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 Chief Executive Officer.

Elections are held at each AFRNIC Annual General Meeting (AGMM), which is conducted around May/June every year. Voting takes place both on site at these meetings and prior to the meeting via online voting.

Council of Elders

The AFRINIC Council of Elders 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 (AFRINIC Board of Trustees Chair: 2001-2004)


2. Mr Pierre S. Dandjinou (AFRINIC Chair: 2004-2008) Board Member: 2004-2010


3. Dr. Viv Padayatchy (AFRINIC Chair: 2008-2011) - Board Member: - 2005-2011


4. Mrs Maimouna Ndeye Diop Diagne (AFRINIC Chair: 2011-2012) - 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 (but mostly the African region) 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 (AIS), 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 (102/8), 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.^[6]

AFRINIC training

AFRINIC conducts a number of training courses^[7] in a wide variety of locations^[8] 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^[9] 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 (for example, whois -h whois.afrinic.net 196.1.0.0/24).

The AFRINIC membership

Major^[10] Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Internet exchange point (IXPs) , 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,^[11] which are held twice each year, and mailing list discussions.

Economies

AFRINIC's service region^[13] 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.

See also

• 
  Address Supporting Organization (ASO)


• 
  Internet Governance Forum (IGF)


• 
  Number Resource Organization (NRO): an organization of the five RIRs


• 
  World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

References

External links

• AFRINIC website


• FIRE Africa website


• AFRINIC’s learn website


• AFRINIC Blog


• AFRINIC Meetings archive


• Internet Society (ISOC)

Coordinates: 20°14′42″S 57°29′30″E / 20.2450°S 57.4916°E / -20.2450; 57.4916