- After four years of paralysis from litigation and a botched June 2025 election annulled over a proxy dispute, AFRINIC elected a new board in September 2025—yet Smart Africa-backed candidates dominated, fuelling fears of external sway.
- Billed as a tool for harmonised policies, the Continental Africa Internet Governance Architecture risks overlaying state-led coordination atop community-driven models, potentially sidelining Africa’s IP resource guardians.
A registry on the brink
The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) has become a textbook case of institutional failure. Years of mismanagement, corruption allegations, and an acrimonious legal dispute with Cloud Innovation—its third-largest member—culminated in the dramatic annulment of the June 2025 board election over a single unverified proxy dispute. Valid votes were discarded, trust evaporated, and the registry’s ability to conduct democratic processes was exposed as unworkable.
Also Read: ICANN’s AFRINIC hypocrisy: CEO Lindqvist admits to funding a state-led power grab
Enter CAIGA: Coordination or capture?
Into this vacuum stepped the Continental Africa Internet Governance Architecture (CAIGA), launched in 2025 by the Smart Africa Alliance following a 2024 MoU with ICANN. Officially framed as a coordination mechanism to restore stability, CAIGA introduces paid memberships, a permanent secretariat, and provisions allowing heads of state to endorse reforms if community consensus stalls. Supporters argue it will accelerate IPv6 deployment and cross-border policy alignment. Critics, including Professor Milton Mueller, warn it simply replaces courtroom paralysis with “government football,” threatening the bottom-up principles that have defined RIRs worldwide.
Also Read: Is AFRINIC board working for Smart Africa? Fears of state-led capture
The path ahead: Reset or re-centralisation?
AFRINIC’s September 2025 board election—its first complete one in four years—offered a glimmer of recovery, yet the heavy presence of Smart Africa-backed candidates has intensified concerns. With Cloud Innovation openly calling for the failed registry’s dissolution and immediate appointment of a successor RIR, Africa faces a stark choice: genuine multistakeholder renewal or a slide toward continental political oversight. As broadband and cloud infrastructure surge across the continent, the governance model chosen today will determine whether Africa’s internet remains autonomous—or becomes another arena for external and state influence.
