Emerging African Internet Institutions
By Nil Quaynor
IN THE PAST FEW YEARS BOTH THE PUBLIC AND Private sectors of the African continent have been
preoccupied with establishment of basic high-speed Internet connectivity and development of human
resources. The goals have been largely achieved, with the exception of about half a dozen countries,
most of which are on the verge of attaining full connectivity. Some of the countries on the continent
have continued expansion of the Internet onto regional capitals and to rural communities. Several
applications also have been experimented with, including telecenters and business centers and business centers as vehicles for attaining a semblance of
universal access.While the physical interconnections were being developed , governments were creating enabling environments in support of the
telecommunication sector in general. Governments in the region have accomplished this primarily by liberalization or privatization
of national PTT’s. Governments have
articulated that limited competition and foreign participation in the sector bring investment, technical, and management expertise
into it.In the meantime, professionals in the industry on the African continent also were developing institutions that focus on
Internet-specific issues. The purpose of this article is to summarize what is publicly known about those burgeoning institutions.
There are at least seven institutions at various
stages of development. The institutions and their relationships are shown on the following page in figure 1.The African Networking Symposium (ANS) is a meeting place for all of the various organizations to discuss issues, test ideas,
present results, and `obtain feedback. The first official meeting of the ANS took place as part of ISOC’s annual conference at
INET ’97. At INET ’98, the success of the ANS was recognized and the programs was expanded to become the Developing Countries
Networking Symposium. The concept of ANS itself, however, lives on as a forum for African Internetworking exchange, wherein
ideas and other groups are nurtured.The African Regional Network Information Center (AfriNIC) is the Internet numbering authority for the region. The AfriNIC Regional
Registry is counterpart to APNIC, RIPE and ARIN. It is the most developed of all the emerging institutions on the continent.
It is expected that African organizations that currently obtain Internet protocol address space from RIPE or the InterNIC will in the
future obtain IP address space from AfriNIC. AfriNIC will allocate IP address space to members and non members, following the
same policies and guidelines for each.
The concept of ANS lives on as a forum African Internetworking exchange,
wherein ideas
and other groups are nurtured.
AfriNIC will charge – according to a fee structure – for
services of allocating address space and maintaining databases. AfriNIC is
governed by a board of trustees with an advisory council and has an executive director.
The African Internet Group (AIG) is an association of past and present students of ISOC
Networking Technology Workshop, formerly
known as the Developing Countries Workshop.
The movement has been in existence since INET ’95 in Hawali. Its effectiveness
lies in its ability to maintain continuity ans bring
focus to the experience of Africans during acquisition of the technologies. The mission
was, clearly, to effect technology transfer
to the continent. At maturity, the AIG has the potential of becoming the African Internet
Association, because there are several
hundreds of the workshops.
African Chapters (AC) is a loosely coordinated organization of ISOC chapters located in
the African region. The idea for it was first
put forth at the INET ’98 birds-of-feather meeting of chapters. The African chapters
will share ideas on programs, experiences,
promotional schemes, and exchange programs among the chapters.
As part of the evolving structure of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), it
became necessary that ccTLD holders reach
consensus on their role in the proposed Naming Council of the new IANA. Over 100 ccTLDs
signed on to a proposed worldwide TLD
(wwTLD) group and were organized naturally along continental regional lines. The African
group is the AFTLD.
The African Internet Service Providers (AFISP) in attendance at the World Bank
–sponsored Global connectivity conference held in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1998 resolved to organize themselves into a commercial group
known as AFISP.
The grouped to focus on regional ISP needs, including interconnects, as well as to become
a lobby group
for addressing tariffs and related issues.
As is well known, having technology is easier than organizing people
to make full use ofthe technology presents.
The African Information society initiative (AISI) is a program of the United Nations
Economic Commission
for Africa. The African ministers of state have signed a commitment to the program , aimed
at creating the
environment for developing an information society. There also is strong focus on needs to
increase teleden
Table 1. Contact Information:able 1. Contact Information
Group Web/Listserve Contact Person E-Mail Address
ANS www.isoc.org.gh Nii Quaynor quaynor@ghana.com
AfriNIC www.afrinic.org Alan Barrett, South Africa apb@iafrica.com
AIG aig-l@arcc.co.ke Shem Ochuodo, Kenya shem@arcc.co.ke
Pierre Dandjinou, Benin sdnpaf@intnet.bj
AC Tarek Kamel, Egypt tkamel@idsc.gov.eg
AFTLD Nii Quaynor, Ghana quaynor@ghana.com
AFISP Bessie Saidi, Malawi bessie@malawi.net
AISI www.un.org/depts/eca Makane Faye, Senegal faye@un.org