AFRINIC
 | |
| Type: | Non-Government, Non-Profit |
| Industry: | Registry |
| Founded: | 2000-2004 |
| Headquarters: | 11th Floor Raffles Tower Cybercity |
| Employees: | >50 |
| Website: | Afrinic.net |
| Key People | |
| Adiel Akplogan, CEO Viv Padayatchy, Chair | |
AfriNIC is the acronym used for African Network Information Center, which is the Regional Internet Registry of Africa.
Overview edit
All the information concerning African registered resources and domain names can be found within the AfriNIC Whois database; all this information and the AfriNIC database is available to the public for transparency purposes, but it is under copyright.[1]
The Creation of AfriNIC edit
AfriNIC started functioning as a registry and information center since November 2010. Before the creation of AfriNIC all IP Addresses were part of APNIC (Asia-Pacific Network Information Center), ARIN (the American registry) respectively RIPE NCC. The African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) is a non-governmental and not-for-profit membership based organization. Its main role is to serve as the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the African region. [2]
AfriNIC's mission is: ‘’"To provide professional and efficient distribution of Internet number resources to the African Internet community, to support Internet technology usage and development across the continent and strengthen Internet self-governance in Africa by encouraging a participative policy development."’’ [3]
According to ICANN, AfriNIC is a non-government, not-for-profit, membership based organization, located in Mauritius and has the main objective to serve the African Internet community. AfriNIC is the Regional Registry for Internet Number Resources for Africa. Membership is open to anybody following the registration process. Its policy development process is open to anybody without any specific requirements. [4]
ICANN, IANA and AfriNIC edit
ICANN recognized the provisions of AfriNIC since 2004, and this registry became operation starting with April 14 year 2005 when received the first allocation of numbering resources, IP Addresses and Autonomous System Numbers for Africa. Based on various analysis performed, AfriNIC received ICANN’s recognition in 2005. After AfriNIC joined ARIN, APNIC, RIPE NCC and LACNIC ( Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry), become the 5th RIR (Regional Internet Registry) at international level. [5] IANA together with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) allocate blocks of number resources to all five RIRs which allow and enable effective communication between networks and enable Internet traffic all around the world.
How to become a member of AfriNIC edit
In order to request for resources from AfriNIC database, one should first become a member. All new members must submit a specific request template, after reading the policies. The following steps should be followed:
- Check whether you are eligible to become an AfriNIC member;
- Submit the appropriate request template and register using the MyAfriNIC portal;
- Agree and sign the RSA (Service agreement);
- The documents must be sent to new-member[at]afrinic.net ;
- Any future requests will be carefully analyzed and evaluated. [6]