Exhaustion of ipv4 addresses in AFRINIC region

Today any business is dependent on the Internet. And the Internet is dependent on IP addresses. In spite of all the ongoing work on the popularization of Ipv6 by RIRs for the present day the Internet is still using as the main communication recourse. At the end of 2017 all RIRs are officially entered to the IPv4 exhaustion phase and now ISP, IXP, governments as well as end users will face with getting additional IPv4 problem. Only 2 RIRs are still allocating IPv4 for LIRs: RIPE NCC and AFRINIC. But only African registrar is still allocating more than 1024 IPv4 per 1 company. Statistic shows that this situation is going to change in the 3rd quarter of 2019 and global IPv4 exhaustion will reach the maximum level.

You can buy this recourse from any company which is registered in the same RIR area as yours ( e.g. APNIC-APNIC / ARIN-ARIN). Every RIR except African allows members to transfer blocks within its region. Procedure and price for such transfers is already common on the market, more over there are several platforms and auctions for such transfers. 

The procedure in AFRINIC region is unknown because until recently almost nobody has faced with such transfer. There was no need in such deal because you were able to get allocation directly from RIR. Next year everything will change. Africa is region with the lowest web access index but according to many studies in the next 5-7 years the growth rate of the number of Internet users will reach 10-12 % per year. 

That is why many companies now beginning to look solutions and ways how to prepare for total IPv4 exhaustion. The thing is AFRINIC does not allow in its policy to transfer (either inform how to do it between 2 Africa based companies) withing its region. Only users who, after in 2005 AFRNIC was recognized by ICANN as an independent structure, have left old ASN registered by RIPE NCC, APNIC, ARIN in Africa as well as new one in another region are able to ask for transfer outwards current AFRINIC region.

Now many companies start to speculate on the market and and price per 1 IP can reach up to 18 EUR. The price on such oligopolistic market will only grow and we can not predict what will we face in 2019.