[rpd] Questions about IP Allocation rate

[Andrew Alston]

I've run the data downloaded from the AfriNIC stats page to create a graph
(attached)

This graph shows space allocated per country and classified as "Government"
or "Government Entity" and is done in terms of number of /24s.

Thanks

Andrew


On Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 12:10 PM Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:

> Hi Ben
>
> Yes lets get us get that data from Afrinic. It would be interesting to
> know how many African Govt have Internet Resources or which govt entities
> have internet resources in each country.
>
> Cheers,
> *.**/noah*
>
>
> On Tue, 14 Oct 2025, 5:41 am Ben Roberts - AfriNIC, <
> ben.roberts at afrinic.net> wrote:
>
>> Ok. What we probably need is to have IP allocation statistics by African
>> country. We can ask Afrinic for this to be complied. From that you can work
>> out how many IP addresses a country has per capita of population.   Our
>> policy setting needs to be guided by data and research, not rumour.
>>
>> According to this website, Eritrea has just over 5000 IP addresses.
>> https://lite.ip2location.com/eritrea-ip-address-ranges This is on the
>> extreme low side for a country of nearly 4 million population. Seychelles
>> on the other hand with population under 150,000 has multiple tens of IP
>> addresses (allocated to Seychelles registered companies) per capita.
>>
>> Countries that have very low uptake of IP addresses will likely be mostly
>> ones where regulators have not opened up the space to grant new ISP
>> licences, my example of Eritrea has only one AS number for instance. Whilst
>> AfrNIC can hold back some space for countries that forgot to build their
>> digital economies…, the regulators in these countries need to be engaged to
>> tell them “it’s now or never”.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On 13 Oct 2025, at 22:25, Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> Ben
>>
>> There is critical structural challenge in the continents digital
>> landscape and you more than anyone knows this very well that we also suffer
>> from uneven maturity of Digital Public Infrastructure and Government
>> Networks (GovNet), which directly impacts the equitable deployment of
>> essential digital services across majority of countries across our
>> continent.
>>
>> Look we are talking about numbering infrastructure that would support
>> services like e-government, digital IDs, and public/private data exchanges,
>> while aligning with AFRINIC's exhaustion-phase policies.
>>
>> We can not shy away from these reality or pretend that there is lack of
>> foresight from actors at Afrinic and the community at large.
>>
>> Its a known fact that many of our African governments lack operational
>> GovNets and strategic reservations of IPv4 address space from AFRINIC could
>> serve as a targeted incentive to bridge these gaps.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> *.**/noah*
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 13 Oct 2025, 8:34 pm Ben Roberts - AfriNIC, <
>> ben.roberts at afrinic.net> wrote:
>>
>>> I think The DPI systems are normally run by state owned digital agency
>>> entities which are already mostly LIRs having some space. It is not quite
>>> as you describe being state owned LIRs that have sovereign owned IPs that
>>> are independent of LIRs..
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>> On 13 Oct 2025, at 20:01, Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:
>>>
>>> 
>>> 54 African States are taking public services online.
>>>
>>> Digital Public infrastructure (DPI) is nolonger an idea. Its a real
>>> thing. DPI is critical. The private sector will tap into that
>>> infrastructure. Its here now.
>>>
>>> Each of the 54 African states need address space indepedent of LIR space
>>> in each sovereign state.
>>>
>>> These are not ideas that actors in the private sector care about or
>>> think about.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> *.**/noah*
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, 13 Oct 2025, 5:52 pm Andrew Alston, <aa at alstonnetworks.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> I was wondering if there were updated statistics for the amount of
>>>> space allocated in the last 3 years.  In addition to this information
>>>> regarding exactly how much free space is still available in the IPv4
>>>> unallocated pool (excluding reservations)
>>>>
>>>> I ask this because depending on the allocation rate - we may wish to
>>>> consider revising the soft-landing policy that currently reserves a /12
>>>> worth of ipv4 space for "future uses, as yet unforeseen".
>>>>
>>>> I point out that the soft landing policy was ratified in 2011, and if
>>>> we still, after 14 years, have not been able to articulate a clear reason
>>>> for such a large reservation, I think it's time we look at most, if not
>>>> all, of that /12 back into the main unallocated pool that can be allocated
>>>> for African resource holders that actually need it.
>>>>
>>>> Amongst other reasons, sitting with unallocated, unannounced, reserved
>>>> space like this leaves the space vulnerable to hijacking and malicious use
>>>> or even potential theft.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>>
>>>> Andrew
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> RPD mailing list
>>>> RPD at afrinic.net
>>>> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> RPD mailing list
>>> RPD at afrinic.net
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>>>
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