AFRINIC takes part in the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda

From Left: Mr Pierre Dandjinou, VP, Stakeholder Engagement - Africa- ICANN, Mr Goran Marby, President and CEO, ICANN, Mr Eddy Kayihura, CEO AFRINIC and Mr Arthur N'guessan, Head of Stakeholder Development, AFRINIC, during the WTDCAFRINIC participated in the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) 2022 that took place in Kigali, Rwanda from 6th -16th June 2022. Under the banner of “Connecting the unconnected to achieve sustainable development,” the conference presented a unique opportunity to develop innovative approaches and new models of collaboration for connectivity and digital solutions in this final Decade of Action to achieve the SDGs. The WTDC is organized by The International Telecommunication Union, through its Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), every four years in the period between two Plenipotentiary Conferences to consider topics, projects and programmes relevant to telecommunication development.

Proposals submitted by AFRINIC and endorsed by African countries were taken into consideration in the final draft of the new Resolution 63 (Rev Kigali 2022), which was adopted by the ITU delegates during the plenary session. This is certainly a remarkable achievement for our continent that will be focusing on the effective deployment of IPv6 to accelerate the digital transformation. We expect this new resolution to be ratified during the ITU Plenipotentiary meeting in September 2022.

On the sidelines of the WTDC 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda, the AFRINIC delegation had fruitful meetings with partners and stakeholders which fostered ways for more cooperation and reinforcement of our complementary roles in the acceleration of Internet and digital service usage in Africa. AFRINIC has been cooperating with several African countries and the African Telecommunications Union on the effective deployment of IPv6 by 2026, to fulfil the growing demands for connectivity while ensuring a more robust network infrastructure.

From left: Mr Arthur N'guessan, Head of Stakeholder Development, AFRINIC and Ms Meriem Slimani, Standardization & Development Coordinator, African Telecommunications Union (ATU)

The delegation left Kigali with the full satisfaction of getting the warming support of our stakeholders, who are ready to contribute toward the sustainable development of AFRINIC and the Internet in Africa.

AFRINIC en Avant.

This blog was penned by:

Arthur Nguessun,
Head of Stakeholder Development,
engagement@afrinic.net
www.afrinic.net

AFRINIC strives to ensure a free and fair election process; however, It has come to our attention that certain entities are soliciting AFRINIC members to give up their MyAFRINIC login credentials to third parties.

All resource members are granted access to MyAFRINIC, the portal through which members can vote electronically and access other services.

We wish to remind our members about the importance and responsibility of keeping your MyAFRINIC credentials safe.

Sharing those credentials will be highly prejudicial to you, your organisation, the resources allocated to your organisation and AFRINIC.

Here are the top four reasons why you should not engage in this:

1. Account Hijack: Granting access to a non-authorised third party may result in a complete account hijack. You are at a greater risk of losing access to your resources.
2. Access to your company’s information by an unwanted third-party: By sharing your credentials, you are opening sensitive data related to you or your organisation’s network configuration and hence the third-party has the advantage to make configurational changes that would result in network problems on your infrastructure and communication of incorrect information to the rest of the Internet, thus impacting the global routing security.
3. Authorising a third party to cast a vote on your behalf: For AFRINIC’s elections, you will lose your credible vote to a third party whose interests may not align with your organisation’s vision, thus impacting the integrity of both the AFRINIC elections and the AFRINIC corporate governance.
4. Stealing of resources or misconfiguration: You are opening your account to someone who can do unauthorised changes to the sensitive network and IP-related configurations like transferring resources, deleting digital certificates, and user accounts, and changing user permissions, voting rights, and more.

Be aware of all we just mentioned and many other risks you take by sharing your account with others. Note that misconfiguration of your personal information or network information such as routes or RPKI can impact the Internet Routing Security and more.

You hold a stake in the global routing security, hence it is your responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the resources allocated to you.

Finally, AFRINIC relies on you to preserve the integrity of its elections, which will contribute to building a stronger AFRINIC.

Act responsibly. Thank you.

ARIN recently issued a final reminder on the imminent retirement of the ARIN non-authenticated Internet Routing Registry (IRR), which is planned for Monday, 4 April 2022, at 16:00 GMT. Click here (https://www.arin.net/announcements/20220321-irr/) for more information.

AFRINIC now offers its own Internet Routing Registry (IRR) Service to its members, click here (https://afrinic.net/internet-routing-registry) for more information.

For the sake of AFRINIC’s Board election, the AFRINIC Nomination Committee (NomCom) and Election Committee (E-Com) have been respectively entrusted with the tasks of the selection of candidates and the running of the elections.

One of the cornerstones of such a task is the “MyAfrinic” login credentials which serve as an identifying instrument in this exercise.

It has come to AFRINIC's knowledge that some of its members may have been solicited, together with such financial incentive, for the purpose of sharing their MyAfrinic login credentials in view of the AFRINIC's forthcoming board's elections.

Whilst AFRINIC strongly condemns such an attempt, we find it apposite to remind our members that the login credentials are private and confidential to our members only. We also find it appropriate to remind our members that voting is a right attributed to our members only and it is essential that the integrity of AFRINIC's elections is preserved at all times.

Consequently, we advise our members to be aware of the risks associated with sharing their respective login credentials to third parties, and that AFRINIC shall not be held liable or responsible for any damage or harm caused as a result of such unauthorised disclosure.

AFRINIC calls upon members to exercise caution and act in the best interest of the Community.

Sincerely,

Eddy Kayihura M.
Chief Executive Officer
African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) Ltd.

In partnership with SmartAfrica Secretariat (SAS), AFRINIC is a member of the Smart Africa Data Centre & Cloud for Africa Project Working Group.

The Data Centre and Cloud for Africa Project was launched by SAS under the leadership of the Republic of Djibouti (Smart Africa member state) to address the challenges associated with the Data Centre and Cloud market in Africa.

To implement this project, a Working Group has been set up and its scope and objectives are:

• To conduct a comprehensive feasibility study that will cover detailed technical, market, legal and regulatory, economic, financial, and social aspects and most importantly assess the bankability of potential Data Centre & Cloud projects that will be identified in the course of the study.
• To create a Data Centre and Cloud Service Blueprint which will serve as a reference point and baseline for Smart Africa member states for the development of their respective Data Centre and Cloud Service Policies and Strategies.
• To collaborate with Smart Africa members states, the private sector members and other interested stakeholders 

Specifically, AFRINIC is taking part in this WG under the Technology & Security Workstream and is represented by 4 of our staff: James Chirwa, Cedric Mbeyet, Brice Abba and Stephen Honlue. Moreover, the Smart Africa Secretariat granted AFRINIC to assist in leading the Technology & Security Workstream and Mr Stephen Honlue has been selected.

The Board of Directors is required to appoint a Nomination Committee (NomCom) every year, in terms of Article 9 of the AFRINIC's Bylaws <https://afrinic.net/bylaws#nomcom>.

For the purpose of constituting the NomCom 2022, the Board hereby makes a public call for volunteers from the African Internet community to fill three (3) open positions. The Board election process and guidelines, published at <https://www.afrinic.net/election-process/board/2022>, provides additional information about NomCom responsibilities, the election process, and timelines.

If you are interested to serve on the NomCom 2022, then please send your expression of interest, including a short biography of yourself, by email to legal@afrinic.net by 17 March 2022 (23:59 UTC).

Your attention is hereby drawn to Article 9.1 of the Bylaws which provides that "no person shall be qualified for appointment to the NomCom if he/she is a candidate for election to the Board or is domiciled in a region whose seat is open for renewal during an election". For more information about the role and functions of NomCom, please see Article 9.3 of the Bylaws.

The Board further expects NomCom members to:

• Be neutral;
• Have no interest (direct or indirect) in the results of the elections being held;
• Be trustworthy members of the AFRINIC community;
• Be able to demonstrate a good knowledge of the AFRINIC business environment;
• Be able to use their best effort to discharge their responsibilities.

Please note that members of NomCom do not receive any remuneration.

AFRINIC staff will provide logistical support to NomCom throughout its mandate. Such support includes publication of the list of nominees, a compilation of comments, mailing list moderation, website update, communication with nominees, and other duties pertaining to the roles and responsibilities of the NomCom. Travel support will also be provided for the Chairperson of the NomCom 2022 to attend the Annual General Members' Meeting (AGMM) at which the elections are to be held.

For information purposes, the following elections are to be held at the 2022 AGMM.

AFRINIC Board of Directors elections:

• Seat 1 (Northern Africa), to serve a three-year term. This seat is currently held by Professor Habib Youssef
• Seat 2 (Western Africa), to serve a three-year term. This seat is currently held by Dr Emmanuel Adewale Adedokun
• Seat 7 (region-independent), to serve a three-year term. This seat is currently held by Mr Oluwaseun Ojedeji

Governance Committee

One Governance Committee position is up for election by the AFRINIC Membership to serve a three-year term from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025. The seat is currently held by Mr Laurent Ntumba Kayemba.

Regards,

Subramanian Moonesamy
Chairman, AFRINIC Board of Directors