AFRINIC

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 (AS) numbers 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 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. AFRINIC charges members annual fees to cover its operational costs.

AFRINIC has had significant organizational and legal problems. In 2019, a news website reported that an AFRINIC 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 AFRINIC 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 election integrity. The receiver held a successful board election in September 2025.