AIS’22 was officially opened at Le Méridien Hotel in Mauritius by the Honourable Deepak Balgobin, the Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation at the Government of Mauritius.

The Minister stressed the key role of the Internet and the need to have adequate mechanisms to protect the digital space. The Minister highlighted several initiatives being undertaken by the Mauritian government in this regard.

Dr Nii Quaynor also intervened during the opening ceremony. Dr Quaynor thanked the Government of Mauritius for their support of AFRINIC.

The AfNOG Day was held with more than 150 onsite and online participants. The Day saw AFNOG’s welcome speech, technical presentations and panel, lightning talks and technical tutorial. Speakers addressed issues around RPKI, IP Address Transition, cybersecurity, peering, open data, digital policies and divides. The speakers on the AfNOG day were namely Philip Smith, David Conrad, Dr Amreesh Phokeer, Piotr Kijewski, Moemedi Madisa, Willy Manga, Tracy Faustin, Nazar Nicholas and Moemedi Madisa.

There was also a very interesting panel for the NoG sessions where several country NOGs shared their perspectives on their activities.

Mark Tinka was moderating the session with panellists Isabel Odida from Uganda NOG, Kevin Chege from Kenya NOG, Maud Elliot-Ashong from Ghana NOG, Joshua from Nigeria NOG, Portia Rabonda from SAFNOG, and Cedrick Mbeyet for the Senegal NOG.

The presentation slides of the sessions are available here https://2022.internetsummit.africa/programme/agenda

The day ended with an opening cocktail where delegates interacted with some snacks, drinks and live entertainment.

Pictures on AFRINIC flickr

Interviews of the Day

Alain AINA called on governments, regulators and telecom operators to take responsibility for the development and autonomy of Africa in the digital arena. In clearer terms, he said what each of these actors must do in the deployment of IPv6 in Africa. For the winner of the Jonathan Postel Award 2019, the solutions are there and we must use them.

Mr Aina’s interview will be followed by Dr Phokeer from the Internet Society and Portia Robanda from Flexoptix, two of the sponsors of the African Internet Summit 2022.