By David Kezio-Musoke

ACCRA- Africa will no longer have to rely on other Regional Internet Registry (RIR) bodies, Adiel A. Akplogan the Chief Executive Officer of the African Registry for Internet Numbers (AfriNIC) has said. Akplogan told Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) here at the Accra regional summit, that AfriNIC is already managing the first stage of registering internet end-users with RIRs. This first stage is known as ‘request evaluation’. ‘Request evaluation’ is a way of allocating Internet Number Resources (INR) which are composed of Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol) addresses. One cannot get connected to the internet without an IP number. Akplogan told HANA that, “We will receive full and final recognition from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) by April 2005.” “We have, since the 1st of September last year, received 400 requests from Internet Service Providers (ISPs). RIRs no longer evaluate these requests, AfriNIC now does that,” Akplogan said. Akplogan said that it is important to note that AfrNIC is about registering and managing internet number resources allocation in the Africa region. “Numbers are used to uniquely identify different components on the net. AfriNIC doesn’t deal with name space management, domain names, but only number space,” he said. “More than 40 ISPs from more than 30 countries are giving AfriNIC support.” He added that 13 of them are currently paying their affiliation fees. Akplogan said AfriNIC is facing some challenges because it will have to be self financing after two years. He said the body also needs to drive the whole of Africa to participate in the process.