The International Telecommunication Union Annual Regional Human Capacity Building Workshop took place in Abuja Nigeria. The event themed, “Strengthening Capacities in Internet Governance in Africa”, addressed pressing issues regarding Internet governance at a regional level. The workshop also addressed the challenges associated with the growth of the internet, and capacity development issues in the African region.

This is the second edition in a series of regional internet governance capacity development events organised by the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau in partnership with DiploFoundation and APC's African School on Internet Governance, and hosted by the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) of Nigeria -the training arm of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC ).

Among the panellists was AFRINIC’s CEO, Mr. Alan Barrett who urged all stakeholders to deploy IPv6 emphasising Africa’s lagging behind the rest of the world in IPv6 deployment. Mr. Barrett explained the ecosystem of the number protocols, highlighting the mechanisms of their distribution multi-stakeholder and policy development processes. He also highlighted the underlying technological challenges in Africa such as Internet performance, keeping Internet traffic and content within the African region.

‘’With approximately 100 million IPv4 addresses for a population of 1.2 billion, Africa’s IPv4 stock is almost exhausted. IPv6 represents the future of the Internet ‘’ underscored Mr. Barrett.

Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, in the opening address called on stakeholders in the telecommunication sector to put in place right polices to fast track digital growth in Africa.