Corporate influence vs. community voice: Who wins in AFRINIC’s election?

Corporate influence vs.

• AFRINIC’s governance breakdown has deepened concerns about its ability to manage Africa’s IP resources effectively.
• Cloud Innovation has called for AFRINIC’s dissolution, urging ICANN and the NRO to appoint a new, functional registry.

AFRINIC’s governance unravels

AFRINIC’s years-long governance crisis has now reached a tipping point. The African Network Information Centre, once responsible for managing the continent’s IP resources, is increasingly described as a failed registry—its credibility crippled by persistent internal dysfunction and leadership disputes.

Cloud Innovation Ltd., AFRINIC’s third-biggest member, has launched a formal call to dissolve the organisation, calling the move a necessary reset to restore accountability and ensure continuity of Africa’s internet infrastructure. The company argues that AFRINIC’s governance has become irreparably broken, making it incapable of conducting transparent or democratic operations.

Cloud Innovation is urging ICANN and the Number Resource Organization (NRO) to immediately appoint a new Regional Internet Registry (RIR) to replace AFRINIC. The proposed move, it says, would safeguard Africa’s connectivity and prevent further instability in IP resource management.

Also read: AFRINIC’s hidden scandal: How legal fees exposed a culture of corruption
Also read: Proxy voting reforms for AFRINIC: What a fair model should look like

The struggle for Africa’s digital future

The deepening crisis at AFRINIC has wide-reaching implications for Africa’s digital sovereignty and the integrity of the global internet governance system. With the registry paralysed, Africa’s internet infrastructure risks being drawn into a power struggle between regional stakeholders and international institutions.

Critics argue that ICANN is quietly extending its control, using mechanisms such as the ICP-2 compliance document to justify intervention in regional internet governance. Such actions, they warn, threaten the bottom-up, community-driven model that underpins the open internet.

As AFRINIC falters, the battle lines are being drawn between corporate influence and community voice—a contest that will shape who truly governs Africa’s digital future and how the continent’s online independence is defined in the years ahead.