AFRINIC (African Network Information Centre) is the regional Internet registry (RIR) for Africa and nearby islands in the Indian Ocean, responsible for allocating and registering Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and autonomous system numbers (ASNs) in its service region. It also provides related technical and administrative services that support the Internet in Africa. Established in 2004, with headquarters in Ebene, Mauritius, AFRINIC is one of five regional Internet registries that coordinate a fundamental part of the technical infrastructure of the Internet.
AFRINIC is a not-for-profit organization with about 2,400 members across 56 countries in its service region. Members include Internet service providers, Internet exchange points, governments, academic institutions, and other organizations and businesses that operate computer networks. AFRINIC allocates IP address space to members, maintains registration databases, develops policies in consultation with members and the wider Internet community, and provides technical training for network operators. It provides two types of IP addresses for members to use in their networks: IPv4 addresses, which are well-supported but scarce, and IPv6 addresses, which have less widespread support but are plentiful. The organization charges members annual fees to cover its operational costs.
AFRINIC has had significant organizational and legal problems. In 2019, a news website reported that a staff member had modified the registration information for 4.1 million IPv4 addresses to sell them on the grey market. In 2020, AFRINIC and a member company, Cloud Innovation Ltd, began a series of legal disputes related to IPv4 address allocation, which led to frozen assets, many injunctions, and, in 2022, the dissolution of the organization's board of directors by the Supreme Court of Mauritius. AFRINIC operated under court-appointed receivership starting in 2023. In June 2025, the receiver tried to conduct a board election, but halted it due to concerns about electoral integrity. The receiver held a successful board election in September 2025. Cloud Innovation has continued lawsuits against AFRINIC, including a petition to the Supreme Court to dissolve the organization.
Operations and programs Internet numbers
The Internet relies on unique numbers, called Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, that identify each device connected to the Internet. As a regional Internet registry, AFRINIC receives large blocks of these numbers from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which is affiliated with the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). AFRINIC is responsible for the allocation and registration of IP addresses and related autonomous system numbers (ASNs) for Internet service providers and other network operators in its service region, which includes Africa and part of the Indian Ocean.
There are two types of IP addresses, each with a specific length and format. Regional internet registries manage IPv4 addresses, which are short and well-supported but in limited supply (see IPv4 address exhaustion), along with IPv6 addresses, which are long and plentiful but not yet supported by all systems (see IPv6 deployment). AFRINIC manages about 6% of the global IPv4 address pool, a smaller amount per capita than other regions.
As of 2023, about a third of AFRINIC's ASNs are allocated to South Africa, and about half of its ASNs are allocated to South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. Among its IPv4 addresses, 55% are allocated to South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco. South Africa and Egypt have 86% of IPv6 addresses assigned.
WHOIS database The AFRINIC WHOIS database contains registration details of IP address blocks and ASNs that it allocated. The database shows the organizations that hold the resources, where the allocations were made, and contact details for the networks. Resource holders are responsible for updating their information in the database. It can be searched by using the web interface on the AFRINIC site or by directing a whois client to whois.afrinic.net. AFRINIC also supports the Registration Data Access Protocol, the successor to the WHOIS protocol.
Routing security support Internet Routing Registries (IRR) operated by RIRs facilitate Internet traffic, including improving the security of Border Gateway Protocol routing. Originally AFRINIC encouraged members to register their Internet number resources with the Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC). In 2013, AFRINIC established its own IRR. Staff reported that 1,767 members used its IRR in 2024.
However, IRR entries can be inconsistent or inaccurate. AFRINIC also supports Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI), a way to use public key certificates to verify the association between Internet numbers and the organization authorized to use them. RPKI improves the security of the Internet by reducing the risk of Border Gateway Protocol hijacking. In 2025, staff reported that 720 members have adopted RPKI, with 11,216 Route Origin Authorizations.
Domain Name System services AFRINIC enables reverse DNS lookup for its IPv4 and IPv6 address blocks, allowing people to look up an IP address allocated by AFRINIC and find any associated domain names in the Domain Name System (DNS). AFRINIC also publishes reverse DNS zone data, including to support Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC).
To improve the resiliency of DNS in its service region, AFRINIC offers secondary DNS hosting services for primary name servers in Africa. This service is used by the operators of some African country code top-level domains. Operating and using DNS name servers and other Internet infrastructure within Africa increases the speed of Internet traffic and reduces related costs.
Policy development Staff develop AFRINIC's Internet number allocation policies in collaboration with the organization's members as well as the broader Internet community. Representatives from governments, standards organizations, companies, academia, news media, the technical community, civil society, and other not-for-profit organizations participate in AFRINIC meetings, which include policy discussions.
The primary forums for policy development are public policy meetings and mailing list discussions. Each year, AFRINIC conducts two public policy meetings that give members and other stakeholders the chance to come together for policy development, information sharing, and networking. The first public policy meeting of each year is part of the Africa Internet Summit, which is an annual multi-stakeholder event co-organized by the African Network Operators Group, and the second is held as a standalone meeting. The meetings take place in various locations throughout Africa.
Together with the four other regional Internet registries, AFRINIC is part of the Number Resource Organization, which serves as the ICANN Address Supporting Organization. This enables the RIRs to coordinate with each other and make joint policy recommendations to ICANN.
Capacity building and partnerships As part of AFRINIC's capacity building initiatives, staff conduct training courses for network administrators, network architects, and other network engineers across its service region. Workshops include Internet number resource management and implementation of IPv6 networks. AFRINIC also offers online training courses on topics including IPv6 deployment, Internet number resource management, DNSSEC, and RPKI.
In 2021, AFRINIC and the African Telecommunications Union established a partnership to accelerate adoption of IPv6 networks in Africa, due to IPv4 address exhaustion, and to develop tools to measure Internet performance. AFRINIC has supported the deployment of regional root name server copies that are compatible with both IPv4 and IPv6.
AFRINIC and the Internet Society have worked together to train staff of Internet exchange points and Internet service providers to support routing more of Africa's internet traffic within the continent instead of externally. The organizations have also partnered on measurement initiatives to evaluate Internet performance and reliability across Africa. For example, they built a route analysis tool to learn about and monitor the amount of interconnection between Internet exchange points within Africa. Together with MANRS, they have also trained network engineers for national research and education networks to improve the security of their networks.
To promote Internet expansion in Africa, AFRINIC has administered grants through its Fund for Internet Research and Development (FIRE Africa).
Organization As required by ICANN policy for regional Internet registries, AFRINIC is a non-profit, non-governmental, community-led entity. The relevant ICANN policy is Internet Coordination Policy 2 (ICP-2), "Criteria for Establishment of New Regional Internet Registries".
Service region
AFRINIC's service region is the continent of Africa and adjacent islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, including Madagascar. It is divided into six sub-regions to ensure regional representation on the organization's board of directors: Eastern Region, Western Region, Central Africa, Northern Africa, Southern Africa, and Indian Ocean.
Members Membership is open to individuals, companies, organizations, and governments that are based in and providing services in Africa. Companies and organizations with memberships include Internet service providers, Internet exchange points, data centers, universities, and banks.
Board of directors
The organization's by-laws prescribe a nine-member board of directors. Six directors are elected to represent the six sub-regions, and two directors are elected based on professional expertise. The last seat on the board is filled by the chief executive officer.
Members elect directors at annual general member meetings, normally in May or June. The organization's bylaws define quorum for this meeting as the presence of four regional directors, one non-regional director, and five members. Members vote at the meeting and prior to the meeting via electronic voting. The elected directors serve three-year terms.
The directors elect a chair of the board and a vice-chair. The directors appoint a chief executive officer, which is a staff role.
Council of Elders The AFRINIC Council of Elders, which consists of up to six former board chairs, advises the board. The council is not elected by organization members. In 2023, the Council of Elders consisted of Nii N. Quaynor, Pierre S. Dandjinou, Viv Padayatchy, Maimouna Ndeye Diop Diagne, and Christian Bope.
Staff Staff carry out the daily operations of the organization, including technical and administrative responsibilities. The staff is structured in several departments: CEO's Office, Finance and Accounting, People and Productivity, Capacity Building, Communications and Public Relations, Infrastructure and Security, Member Services, Registry Products, Stakeholder Development, and Value Added Services.
History Formation
Before AFRINIC formed, IP addresses for Africa were distributed by the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), and the RIPE NCC. At an Internet Society conference workshop in Malaysia in 1997, Alan Barrett, Nii Quaynor, Sana Bellamine, and Nasha Abdel-Baki developed a proposal for an African regional Internet registry. An initial board of trustees came together in 2001, chaired by Quaynor.
The organization was established in Mauritius, with plans for technical operations in South Africa, backup and disaster recovery in Egypt, and training coordination in Ghana. ICANN gave AFRINIC provisional approval in October 2004. The registry became operational in February 2005, and ICANN gave it final recognition in April 2005. Adiel Akplogan served as the founding CEO and stayed as CEO until 2015. Barrett became CEO in 2015.