.africa

.Africa is the proposed Internet generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) for the African and Pan African communities and users wherever they may reside. The .africa TLD serves as a regional domain for individuals and entities based in and out of Africa.

History

The idea of dotAfrica started in 2000 by an entrepreneur with the support of Pierre Dandjinou and Nii Quaynor, who later registered dotAfrica.org in 2004. It was initially non- feasible, until Africa’s connectivity and digital sphere issues were at least resolved to some extent. When ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) decided to start a policy development process to consider the introduction of new gTLD’s in 2005, the idea of .africa was rekindled.

It was an opportunity for Africa to have its own domain name space. ICANN's Board of Directors authorized the launch of the new gTLD Program in 2011. The African Union Commission (AUC) saw this as a great way to add value to the Internet space and forge an African identity with the introduction of .africa.

In the Oliver Tambo Declaration adopted at the extraordinary Communications and Information Technologies Ministerial Conference (CITMC) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 2-5 November 2009, the African Union (AU) Ministers of Communications and Technology committed to "WORK TOGETHER to promote the use of Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) as they are a critical national resource whilst ensuring that the technical and administrative operations are at international standards to foster trust and use of African Domain Names in order to bring financial, economic and social-cultural benefits to Africa."^[1]

In the Abuja 2010 Declaration adopted at the Third Ordinary Conference (CITMC-3) held in Abuja, Nigeria, 6–7 August 2010, the Ministers requested the African Union Commission (AUC) to ‘’Set up the structure and modalities for the Implementation of the dotAfrica project”.^[2] This request followed the Addis Ababa Declaration on Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) adopted by the Summit of the AU Heads of State and Government held in Addis Ababa in January and February 2010, and the Executive Council Decision [EX.CL.559 (XVI)] that directed the AUC to promote better utilization and management of critical Internet resources.

After several meetings between the African Union (AUC) and African domain name experts affiliated with AfriNIC and AfTLD, the AU started setting up structures on how to implement the dotAfrica project. The AUC, in November 2011 released an RFP for applicants who were interested in applying, administering and managing the dotAfrica domain name for the African continent, provided they meet certain criteria such as having the financial and technical stability to run the Registry Operations for the TLD and having connections to the Africa ccTLD operators.^[3] Bids were submitted on December 8, 2011 and by December 15, 2011, the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) formerly known as UniForum SA was named the successful bidder in this RFP process.

The ZA Central Registry after having won the bid to run and manage the .africa TLD met with African representatives to establish a Steering Committee, which would have moral and ethical oversight over the .africa Top Level Domain. The Steering Committee consists of African Internet experts, Country Code managers, Registrars and others volunteering for a better Internet for Africa. In April 2012 ZA Central Registry submitted to ICANN its bid to become the Registry Operator for .africa. One of the criteria eligibility criteria to become a Registry Operator for a Geographic based TLD, was that the bid needs to be supported by minimum 60% of either the countries in that geographic area or the members of that community. With .africa being a geographic TLD, the ZA Central Registry needed to get support from a minimum of 60% of the countries in Africa. ZA Central Registry has received overwhelming support for the administration of the .africa Top Level Domain. Thus far 75% of African countries have endorsed the African Union Commission application for .africa. In addition, the African Union Commission/ZACR bid is supported by individuals wanting to reserve their names for launch and Internet society organizations namely: ITU, UNECA, AfTLD, AfriNIC and many others.

Steering Committee

ZA Central Registry established a Steering Committee to provide leadership and oversight for the application and launch processes for the .africa TLD, and provide an avenue for the greater African community to become involved. Members of the committee represent a broad range of countries and organizations within the African content, and participate on a voluntary basis. The Committee is the precursor to the planned dotAfrica Foundation, which will oversee developmental projects and initiatives relating to the Internet and Domain Name System (DNS) industries in Africa.

The members of the Steering Committee are:

• Mohamed El Bashir, Chairperson, representing Sudan
• Adiel Akplogan, representing AfriNIC and Mauritius
• Mohamed Tijani Ben Jemaa, representing AFRALO and Tunisia
• Edmund Katiti, representing NEPAD and Uganda
• Barrack Otieno, representing AfTLD and Kenya
• Alice Munyua,representing Kenya
• Alioune Badara Traoré, representing AfTLD and Mali
• Moses Bayingana, representing the African Union
• Victor Ciza, representing Central National De L'Informatique SA, the ccTLD manager for .bi, and Burundi^[4]

List of Countries Supporting the bid for .Africa

78% of African countries have endorsed the AUC bid for .africa, well above the ICANN requirement of 60% support needed. In addition, the ZACR bid is endorsed by the African Union Commission (AUC):^[5]

About the dotAfrica Registry Operator

The ZA Central Registry previously trading as UniForum s.a. was established in 1988, as a non-profit company. It is based in Johannesburg, South Africa and is currently responsible for the registry functions of the .ZA namespace. The registry has been operating for over 25 years and is the administrator for co.za, org.za, net.za, web.za. The ZA Central Registry currently boasts over 920 000 Co.Za domain name registrations, which is over 95 % of the total registrations in the .ZA ccTLD. This has thus made the registry the largest domain name registry on the African continent. ZA Central Registry also bid and got the chance to administer .Joburg, .CapeTown and .Durban will be launched in June.

Preparing For Launch

After a couple of years of going through evaluation and tests with ICANN, the registry signed four registry operator contracts at the ICANN Singapore meeting in March 2014. This officially appoints them as the official administrators of .Joburg, .CapeTown, .Africa and .Durban.

The public launch of the .africa TLD was initially proposed to be in May however due to the Independent Review Process (IRP) currently in progress between ICANN and DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust), launch has been delayed. The matter was originally expected to take between 6/ 8 weeks to resolve. ZACR is the official and only contracted party for the .africa TLD. A legally binding and enforceable contract was signed by ICANN and ZACR at the Singapore meeting in March 2014.

References

1. ↑ http://africainonespace.org/downloads/TheOliverTamboDeclaration.pdf
2. ↑ http://www.researchictafrica.net/multistake//African_Union_2010_Abuja_Declaration.pdf
3. ↑ http://www.au.int/en/content/request-proposals-african-union-commission-operation-dot-africa
4. ↑ Steering Committee, africainonespace.org
5. ↑ dotafrica.org

• Africa in One Space

• "Continent Ready for New Internet Address Regime". allAfrica.com. March 14, 2011. 
• "Announcing the Birth of the Dot.africa Generation". allAfrica.com. March 22, 2010. 

• http://africainonespace.org/news_item.php?id=667&title=Independent%20Review%20Process%20Delays%20dotAfrica%20(.africa)%20Public%20Launch

• http://africainonespace.org/news_item.php?id=617&title=ICANN+AND+ZACR+SIGN+LANDMARK+DOTAFRICA+AGREEMENT