Africa set to take control of own domain names

May 2004

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) should offer more support to the African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) -- the organisation that was recently set up to distribute and administer domain names on the African continent. This is the view of Dr Tarek Mohamed Kamal, a senior adviser to the Egyptian ministry of communications, who is also Egypt's
representative on AfriNIC.

AfriNIC is an African body aimed at administering the process of assigning internet names and numbers to African websites. Until now, either American or European organisations, acting under the auspices of California based Icann, have been responsible for assigning internet addresses to all African websites.

The process of setting up AfriNIC has taken several years, but the new organisation will officially begin operations later this year. A high level meeting to finalise plans for the launch, is due to be held in Dakar, Senegal later in May.

AfriNIC's operational activities will be spread through four African countries. It will be legally incorporated in, and administered in Mauritius, the training centre will be in Ghana, while the technical operations will be run from South Africa and mirror and disaster recovery operations will take place in Egypt.