ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade spoke to the African community and shared his plans of growing the number of accredited registrars five-fold with the African Internet stakeholders.
During an Internet Governance meeting in Addis Ababa, Chehade said he wants to see 20 more African registrars in a year. At the moment, only 5 African registrars are ICANN-accredited. ICANN's accreditation terms require financial assurances from banks and insurance companies, which many companies in the region are unable to obtain.
"Dr Tarik Kamel and I made commitments yesterday. We will be talking to the African Development Bank, we will work with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, we have relationships in the insurance industry. We will put our personal relationships — and I hope all of us cooperate on that — to change this", Chehade says.
Chehade has committed to having first answers by mid-July, when the ICANN conference in Durban, South Africa, will take place.
