On Aug 30, 2021, at 18:00 , Rubens Kuhl <rubensk@gmail.com> wrote:

AFRINIC approves IPv4 for the purpose of leasing every day. It’s what ISPs do. It’s the definition of an LIR.

Yes, most LIRs are also in the connectivity business and provide addresses (mostly/exclusively) to customers of their connectivity services.

Which is why CI informed AfriNIC in their request that they were going
to have no network and provide connectivity-less services to CI
customers, right ?

However, there’s no such policy requirement in the AFRINIC governing documents.

All RIRs were subject to RFC 2050, now RFC 7020, which states:
"1)  Allocation Pool Management: Due to the fixed lengths of IP
      addresses and AS numbers, the pools from which these resources
      are allocated are finite.  As such, allocations must be made in
      accordance with the operational needs of those running the
      networks that make use of these number resources and by taking
      into consideration pool limitations at the time of allocation."

If there is no network, there is no use of such number resources.

   This document provides information about the current Internet Numbers
   Registry System used in the distribution of globally unique Internet
   Protocol (IP) address space and autonomous system (AS) numbers.

   This document also provides information about the processes for
   further evolution of the Internet Numbers Registry System.

   This document replaces RFC 2050.

   This document does not propose any changes to the current Internet
   Numbers Registry System.  Rather, it documents the Internet Numbers
   Registry System as it works today.