Regional internet registry the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) this month marks its 18 year since it was established in 2005.
Since then, AFRINIC has distributed over 111 million IPv4 addresses, 10 000 /32s of IPv6 addresses and 2 281 ASNs in Africa, according to a statement.
Based in Mauritius, AFRINIC is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for the distribution and management of internet numbers like IPv4, IPv6 addresses and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) for Africa and the Indian Ocean.
AFRINIC says its journey began in the mid-1990s when organisations providing internet services and other network operators in Africa were required to get internet number resources from other regional registries.
The challenges, it states, led to discussions about forming a dedicated regional internet registry for the continent.
Resultantly, AFRINIC was established after being accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to become the fifth regional internet registry.
Mauritius was chosen as the regional headquarters, Egypt as the technical base, Ghana as domicile for capacity building and South Africa was selected to host the data centre.
“The government of Mauritius, through the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications, welcomed AFRINIC in Mauritius and provided the first office at Cyber Tower, Ebene, on a rent-free basis.
“Other African governments were instrumental in the setting-up process. The government of South Africa, in particular, took charge of all expenses during the first year of operations, while hosting the first two AFRINIC staff.”
Dr Nii Quaynor, one of the founders, adds: “It took the elders a decade to build consensus for forming AFRINIC. We must have a strong AFRINIC community before the end of the next decade.”
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