Ensuring the stability and sustainability of the Internet in Africa in order to support the continent’s digital transformation. That was the objective of the workshop held on Friday 11 March 2022 at the NOVOTEL Cotonou Orisha between an AFRINIC delegation, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and Digitalisation and the member organisations of AFRINIC (African Network Information Centre) in Benin.
Ensuring the stability and sustainability of the Internet in Africa in order to support the continent’s digital transformation. That was the objective of the workshop held on Friday 11 March 2022 at the NOVOTEL Cotonou Orisha between an AFRINIC delegation, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and Digitalisation and the member organisations of AFRINIC (African Network Information Centre) in Benin.
Mr Oumarou Aboubakar CHABI BOUBACAR, Secretary General of the Ministry of Digital Affairs and Digitalisation, opened the meeting on behalf of the Minister. He stressed the importance of cohesive action among the various stakeholders. “The challenge is to work together, by maintaining secure access to the Internet, towards creating the conditions required for growth and socio-economic development in Africa and in Benin in particular,” he continued.
In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, digital transformation is one of Africa’s major strategic imperatives. As a non-profit organisation whose role is to secure public IP addresses (IPv4, IPv6, ASNs) and make them available to States and organisations in Africa and the Indian Ocean, AFRINIC is committed to playing its role as a facilitator in this respect.
“As part of our strategy for Internet growth in Africa, AFRINIC wishes to secure IP addresses and make them available in all African countries. It should be remembered that AFRINIC holds only 2% of the global pool of IP addresses, and our mandate is therefore to ensure that this 2% is allocated as a priority to African operators, so that they can use these resources to develop Internet infrastructure in Africa. The Internet is now an essential condition for the proper functioning of every economy in the world. This naturally applies to African countries, all the more so as the continent is rich in resources and talent just waiting to unleash their full potential. To do so, they need an enabling environment that depends largely on a high-performing Internet network. It is therefore more important than ever for us to join forces to work towards achieving the goals of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly with regard to increasing access to information and communication technologies, especially the Internet, in African countries. Our meeting with digital economy stakeholders is intended precisely to strengthen collaboration with them so that we work more closely together for an accessible, secure and resilient Internet,” stresses Eddy Kayihura, CEO of AFRINIC.
During the meeting, AFRINIC delegates and member organisations had the opportunity to discuss and assess the levers for accelerating the adoption and growth of the Internet in Benin. For AFRINIC, the aim is to provide appropriate technical assistance to stimulate Internet development there. Knowledge transfer is central to AFRINIC’s mission with its members: “AFRINIC devotes considerable resources to educating and training its members, because the management and distribution of Internet numbers goes hand in hand with building the capacity of decision-makers and engineers working in the African digital space. Thanks to this training component, AFRINIC and its members have to date helped connect more than 400 million people in Africa to the Internet. We intend to invest further in this direction so that Benin and the continent as a whole can realise the potential and promise of a dynamic digital future, ” says Eddy Kayihura, who also took the opportunity of this visit to reiterate the commitment of Africa’s Internet Registry to serving the continent’s Internet community in line with international quality standards and with the needs and expectations of its members.
The AFRINIC delegation’s visit to Benin is part of a wide-ranging programme called “ Jenga”, which aims to mobilise its members towards a common goal: joining forces to offer more secure and stable Internet services in Africa.