AFRINIC’s members: the owners missing from the register

AFRINIC’s members are the networks it serves.

They are its Resource Members, the networks whose number resources AFRINIC registers. AFRINIC’s bylaws keep a second category, the Registered Member, for its directors. AFRINIC describes itself as “a nonprofit, member-based organisation”, and a member-based company belongs to those members, not to its Board, its Receiver or any government.

The register names eight directors and one company.

The Registrar of Companies’ record of AFRINIC, issued on 28 October 2026, lists the eight directors, each registered on 12 September 2025, and Cloud Innovation, a member from 9 October 2026, the day of the Supreme Court’s rule. On our information, more than 2,000 resource members have been left off. As we said on 1 November 2026: “If thousands of members qualify for registration, put thousands of names on the register.”

The Court ordered one Resource Member onto the register: us.

On 11 June 2025, on AFRINIC’s own application, the Supreme Court directed that AFRINIC’s register be rectified to add us as its member under section 91 of the Companies Act. A ruling of 19 June 2025 corrected a category and left that order in place. The order names Cloud Innovation, and we demand equivalent recognition for every Resource Member, on the basis of each member’s entitlement.

A member signs AFRINIC’s own form, and the form says the addresses are not the member’s.

Every network that registers with AFRINIC signs its Registration Service Agreement, and in it has to acknowledge that the number resources “are not property (real, personal or intellectual)”. If the agreement ends, “AFRINIC will immediately revoke the number resources” and stop its services “without incurring any liability whatsoever”. AFRINIC’s liability to a member is capped at six months of fees or 100 USD, whichever is greater. That is the keeper of the book writing its own name on every deed.

The proposed constitution would keep the networks one step away from their own company.

Its Articles 6.5 and 6.6 attach statutory registration and Companies Act rights to directors, while describing Resource Membership as contractual. Its Article 7.4 leaves out the members’ power to set AFRINIC’s general policies, and its Article 8.6 lets the suspension and termination of members be delegated to officers. Members must still approve any amendment, and we ask them to reject these.

A member can leave AFRINIC, but not with the addresses AFRINIC issued.

Since 4 February 2026, in AFRINIC’s own words, “AFRINIC-issued IPv4 cannot be transferred out of the region”. Its own assessment said what the rule is for: “AFRINIC will not lose its current resource members to other RIRs in outgoing transfers.” A registry that cannot lose its members has no reason to serve them.

Members should have two things: their place in the company and their addresses.

We advocate secure ownership of lawfully held addresses, continuity of use, transferability and the freedom to change registry. A network’s place in a registry and its ownership of its addresses are two different rights, and we defend both. Every eligible Resource Member should be on the register, with a vote under the constitution as it is written.