Membership to UNAFRI is open to all Member States of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

As of 1 January, 2003, of the fifty-four (54) potential member States, the following twenty nine (29) had acceded to the Statute of the Institute:

Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.