Adiel A. Akplogan honored with the first African Network Information Infrastructure (NII) Service Award 2009

It was a moment of immense pride and pleasure for AfriNIC to have its CEO, Mr. Adiel A. Akplogan receive the first Network Information Infrastructure (NII) Service Award for 2009 by the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) for his contribution in establishing the very successful African Internet Numbers Registry, AfriNIC, and for his leadership and service to the African technical community.

The Award was presented during the AfNOG 10th Anniversary meeting that was jointly held with the AfriNIC-10 Public Policy Meeting in Cairo, Egypt, 10-21 May 2009.

Mr. Akplogan is playing an exemplary role for Internet development in the African Region. He continues to provide leadership in the numbers registry and has been a strong African voice in several global technical forums. "Adiel Akplogan has selflessly worked to establish AfriNIC and worked tirelessly to grow the membership, improve use of number resources and built an active technical community in Africa. This has resulted in the growth of a more robust Internet in Africa and development of an active technical community of LIRs who continue to develop policies appropriate for the region. This has enabled development of numerous applications throughout Africa that is impacting education, health and commerce in a notable way" said Dr. Nii Quaynor, Convenor of AfNOG. "While many people were talking, he was leading his small team to just do it" he added.

In his address, Adiel Akplogan thanked the AfNOG for this recognition and dedicated its Award to the community as without their support, none of the success being celebrated could happen. "We have a lot to do in our region, our generation has the obligation to make thing move! If we don`t, the coming will blame us and we will have no argument. The Internet is a tool for development, but without understanding the economics behind it and the fundamentals of the technology, this tool will be useless in our quest for a better life." said Adiel Akplogan.

Other honorees were AfNOG instructors who contributed significantly to the community include Alain Aina, Alan Barrett, Ayitey Bulley, Sunday Folayan, Mark Tinka, Chris Pinkham and Randy Bush. A special award was also given to the Honorable Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt who had been a long time contributor in the technical community in Africa and who generously hosted this event, and to Dr. Nii N. Quaynor for his significant contributions to the development of the Internet in Africa and the global technical community as early adopter and precursors in many Internet related activities and businesses in the region.

Adiel A. Akplogan is the Chief Executive Officer of AfriNIC, the Regional Internet Resource Registry for Africa since 2004. He carries an enriching experience of more than 15 years in the Internet Technology environment. He previously worked at CAFENet (an IT service company based in Togo - 1994-2000) as New Technology Director, and Symbol Technologies in France (2001-2003) as Information System Manager. From 2006-2009, he served as member of the UN Secretary General Multi-stakeholder Advisors Group for the Internet Governance Forum, and since 1999 he served as Experts on Internet Governance for the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).

Moreover, from 2005-2006 he served in the African Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (ATAC/UNECA). Currently, Mr. Akplogan is the Chair of the NRO Executive Council (Number Resource Organization) and was involved with setting up several technical coordination bodies, such as the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) where he serves as a member of the Administrative committee and the African ccTLD Managers Association (AfTLD). Mr. Akplogan is an Electrical Engineer and holds a M.Sc. in E-Business and New Technology Management.

AfriNIC the Regional Registry for Internet Number Resources for Africa is a non-government, not-for-profit, membership-based organization, headquartered in Mauritius (with operation centre in Egypt and South Africa) to manage Internet Number for Africa.

Please visit our website for more information www.afrinic.net.