Eddy Mabano Kayihura was yesterday selected as the next CEO of the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), a pan-African internet registry.

The 43-year-old Rwandan takes the seat that has been vacant for three months after the former CEO Alan Barrett resigned from the office. He will start his new duties on November 4t in Ebene cybercity in the island nation of Mauritius where the organization is based.

Until his new job, Kayihura has been the Chief Technology Officer at Bank of Kigali, and before then, he was the CEO of Broadband Systems Corporation (BCS), which is among the biggest distributors of internet in the country, that among other achievements was charged with the Fiber Optic connectivity in the country covering over 3000 kilometres in 30 districts and 11 border points.

Kayihura’s appointment was as a result of a rigorous recruitment process by the AFRINIC’s board of directors.

The new boss of AFRINIC comes a wealth of experience in information technology, software development, and network engineering among others.

After he was named, Kayihura told The New Times that this appointment points to "a vote of confidence” for Rwanda as a technology forerunner in Africa.

"We [Rwanda] have not yet built a cybercity. That means that we still have a long way to go,” he said.

Among AFRINIC’s responsibilities, Kayihura is to build on the existing infrastructure of the 15-year-old organisation to boost the new version of IPv6 - Internet Protocol that can host more addresses that the exhausted IPv4 - and spread further the connectivity coverage.

AFRINIC is a regional internet registry (RIR) for Africa.

There are five RIRs worldwide. The organisation distributes and manages internet number resources. It also sets policies and trains personnel in order to support Internet technology usage and development across the continent.

According to Dr. Christian D. Bope, Chairman of AFRINIC Board of Directors, Kayihura comes on board when the institution is gearing up its operational capacity.