During discussions at AIS 14  in Djibouti, it came out that many African academic and research institutions find the application process at AfriNIC too complex, which is certainly just a perception.
 
Acknowledging the fact that many of us feel more comfortable with a one-on-one support rather than posting on mailing lists, WACREN has set up a Support Team on the issue to boost IP resources allocation requests from academic and research institutions.
 
The objective is to secure IPv4 resources for academic and research institutions. AfriNIC is presently the only RIR that still has IPv4 address blocks and they will disappear very fast. So, now is the time to request IPv4 blocks and at the same time IPv6 resources, and start implementing IPv6.
WACREN urges African academic and research institutions to take the issue very seriously, and take advantage of the 50% discount for educational and research institutions, as per the agreement signed between the Association of African Universities (AAU) and AfriNIC in 2009.
 
African academic and research institutions are therefore encouraged to start the process of requesting IP resources for their institutions right now and contact the Support Team whenever they face challenges. As a starting point, we recommend you the following AfriNIC web page: http://www.afrinic.net/en/services/rs.

Institutions should feel free to also have their applications reviewed by the Team before submission to AfriNIC.

The Team is composed of:

– Alain Aina;
– Seun Ojedeji;
– Hubert Asior;

– Emmanuel Togo;
– Omo Oaiya.
 
It can be reached at iprm@wacren.net.
 
Please share this information with your various communities.