The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN) are holding their Capacity Building Workshop for the African Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) in Nairobi on the 23rd and 24th of January 2017.

ICANN’s work entails impacting in the African Domain Names Space and spurring more active participation of the African Community in the wider Internet ecosystem. It has worked closely with the community to initiate flagship projects across Africa targeted at different challenges facing not only the African Domain Names Space (DNS) Industry but also the overall participation of the African Community in the global Internet Ecosystem.

Dubbed “Harnessing the Potential of the Africa GAC Members for better Participation in ICANN”, the workshop is aimed at encouraging the entire African Community to join and partner with it in reviving and propelling the African Domain Name Industry including Africa’s participation in ICANN.

In his Keynote speech at the function, Cabinet Secretary ICT, Mr. Joe Mucheru, underscored the high premium Kenya places on ICT because potential to drive the entire economy. The Internet influences the way we interact, learn, and work. It also enables governments’ provision of services and citizens’ access to the services. To this end, it is important for the government to work with ICANN in its role of influencing policy so that Kenya is not left behind in this knowledge driven era and digital economy.

“The proliferation of ICT innovations, improved government services and job creation are all benefits arising from Internet growth.

There is no doubt that the ICT sector is the catalyst for competitive and dynamic economies.  The onus is therefore on us to pay more attention to critical supportive factors, including infrastructure, cyber security and legislative and policy frameworks, with emphasis on access and e-inclusion” CS Mucheru said.

He encouraged the African Union (AU) to maintain African Traffic in Africa to grownational and regional Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) to support the goals of most African Governments of achieving the availability, accessibility and affordability of the Internet to the general population.

“The borderless nature of the Internet has continued to unite the world through the global cyberspace. The GAC is an excellent platform to leverage, in order to build our capacity to effectively participate and contribute to policy making at ICANN, the pivot of Internet” he added.

Also present at the function was the Minister of Information in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Hon. Barrister Adebayo Shittu. He commended Kenya for the strides it’s made in ICT and urged that the cost of internet infrastructure and connectivity be made consumer friendly to enable Africa to effectively participate in the internet revolution globally.