ICANN NomCom unveils 2026 leadership selections: Africa secures apex board, technical roles - ITREALMS

Demonstrating the continent's deepening technical expertise and strategic weight in global internet policy, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Nominating Committee (NomCom) has officially announced its leadership selections for the 2026/2027 term, reports ITREALMS.

The global recruitment cycle saw African experts capture critical seats across ICANN’s multistakeholder architecture, following an extraordinarily high level of regional engagement.

Out of 223 completed applications received worldwide, candidates from Africa accounted for 27.4 percent of the global pool, underscoring the region's expanding influence in safeguarding a stable, secure, and unified global domain name system.

The selections, formally released on August 12, 2026, place three distinguished African leaders into pivotal governance and operational oversight positions:

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• Dr. Catherine Adeya (Africa)  ICANN Board of Directors: Appointed to ICANN’s highest decision-making authority, Dr. Adeya brings extensive experience in public policy, digital development, and regional ecosystem expansion to the board.
• Tomslin Samme-Nlar (Africa): Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) Board of Directors: Selected to oversee the operational integrity of critical internet infrastructure, including the Domain Name System (DNS) root zone, IP address allocations, and Autonomous System numbers.
• Wafa Dahmani (Africa): Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) Council: Tasked with ensuring that African country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) registries maintain an active, decisive voice in global policy formulation.

These appointees will officially assume their duties at the conclusion of the ICANN87 Annual General Meeting in October 2026.

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