The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. It is responsible for the distribution and management of Internet number resources - IP address space (IPv4 and IPv6) and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) - in its service region, which includes Africa and the Indian Ocean region. 

AFRINIC’s mission is to provide professional and efficient distribution of Internet number resources to the African Internet community, to support Internet technology usage and development across the continent and to strengthen Internet self-governance in Africa through a bottom-up, multi-stakeholder Policy Development Process (PDP).

Internet number resources are allocated to AFRINIC and the four other RIRs by Public Technical Identifiers (PTI). PTI is responsible for coordinating the Internet’s unique identifiers and performs the IANA functions, which include coordination of domain names, Internet number resources and protocol parameters.  

There are four other RIRs worldwide: 

- APNIC, serving the Asia Pacific.

- ARIN, serving Canada, the United States, and many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands.

- LACNIC, serving Latin America and the Caribbean.

- RIPE NCC, serving Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia.

Each of the five RIRs re-allocate Internet number resources they receive from PTI to their members within their own geographical regions according to their respective community developed policies.