Domain Registration Related News
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.
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