AfriNIC now a regional Internet registry

April 2005

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the African Network Information Centre's (AfriNIC's) application to become the fifth regional Internet registry.

The announcement was made at the 22nd ICANN international conference held in Argentina last week. The meeting voted to give full recognition to AfriNIC as the fifth regional Internet registry, dedicated to the allocation of numbering resources for the Africa and Indian Ocean region.

AfriNIC submitted its application for recognition as the official regional Internet number registry in August last year, and was granted provisional recognition by the ICANN board the following month. The three registries previously serving the region – APNIC, ARIN and RIPE NCC – transferred all services to AfriNIC in February.

ICANN president and CEO Paul Twomey said during a visit to SA late last year that ICANN wanted African input on identifying “appropriate modes and locations on the African continent for an ICANN regional presence”. He said an African office would be ICANN's first regional presence in the developing world and only the second outside North America.