NiRA Delighted as ICAAN Commissions First Office in Africa

Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has commended The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the opening of ICANN’s first Engagement Office in Africa.

NiRA delegates were in attendance at the ICANN 55 meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, when the announcement was made by Steve Crocker, ICANN Board Chair.

He broke the news of the opening of ICANN’s first African Office in Nairobi, Kenya.

While making his opening remarks, Dr. Crocker said: “I’m proud to announce that ICANN’s first engagement center in Africa will open in Nairobi, Kenya. We were overwhelmed by the warm reception from the Kenyan Government and community. Community members from across the African continent traveled to be part of this important event.

“The past 18 years have witnessed efforts to introduce and develop the Internet across Africa. ICANN's Africa strategy, developed in 2012, recognizes the strides made by African pioneers such as Nii Quaynor.

“These advocates have worked tirelessly to prepare Africa for the digital age. Over the past three years, the dedication and goodwill of ICANN community and staff members have been instrumental in implementing the Africa strategy. We hope to continue on this path, increasing our institutional engagement and outreach – key elements of ICANN's Africa strategy.

“Today, we recognize Africa's increased awareness and participation in ICANN and the greater Internet ecosystem. This trend culminated at the last ICANN Public Meeting, ICANN55, held in Marrakech, Morocco.

“Of about 2,000 total participants, over 900 participants came from Africa. During that meeting, the ICANN Board of Directors and senior leadership announced the opening of the first ICANN engagement office in Africa. The Nairobi office was to support the work of the Global Stakeholder Engagement team in Africa – promoting effective institutional engagement and facilitating capacity building in the domain name space industry in the African region.

“This week, ICANN inaugurated the Nairobi office. We were humbled by the enthusiasm for ICANN demonstrated by the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Communications Authority of Kenya, Kenya Network Information Center (KeNIC), and local and regional communities.

“We look forward to deepening our engagement with African stakeholders, from governments to the private sector. Capacity building is key to Africa becoming an effective contributor to the Internet ecosystem. On behalf of ICANN, we want to reiterate our commitment to Africa. We urge our stakeholders to stay active and engage meaningfully in ICANN to ensure that Africa's voice is heard and her influence felt.

“Lastly, we want to acknowledge the efforts of the ICANN team and community in making this event a success.

Also speaking, Rev’d Sunday Folayan, NiRA’s President, said, “The Kenya office – called ICANN Engagement Centre – was formally opened on Tuesday 24th May 2016, in Nairobi. The opening of the Nairobi office comes after 6 years when the country played host to ICANN37 meeting in March 2010.

“ICANN’s Nairobi office will act as the organisation’s foothold in Africa and be focused on championing Institutional engagement with Stakeholders, including Governments, Civil societies, Technical and Academic Institutions. NiRA applauds the decision and has observed ICANN’s intent on becoming increasingly international in terms of its outlook, policies and the composition of its community. We at NiRA believe that the opening of this local office in Africa should create a more level playing ground for Africans”.

ICAAN is a nonprofit organization that is responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces of the Internet - thereby ensuring the network's stable and secure operation.

The Corporation performs the actual technical maintenance work of the central Internet address pools and DNS Root registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract.