The day that saw a flurry of new Top Level Domain (TLD) applications being filed with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), also saw an application by UNIFORUM South Africa (UNIFORUM), in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), for the Top Level Domain, .africa.
Octavia Kumalo, Marketing & Public Relations Co-Ordinator at UNIFORUM, told HumanIPO they expect to know whether their application with ICANN for the .Africa TLD is successful by the end of 2012.
She elaborated: “ICANN has established a review process which will theoretically last for 6 months. This process includes objection phases, where the similar strings can be contested, or if there are any objections to geographical names etc.”
UNIFORUM, a non-profit organization, which has been administering the South African CO.ZA domain name space since 1995, is the only application received for the .Africa domain by ICANN.
It was recently appointed as the .ZA Central Registry and will soon be assuming administrative control for other second level domains in South Africa — including net.za, web.za and org.za.
This may seem as a surprise to many but Octavia explains why they are the only applicant, she said: “Yes. We are the official nominee (applicant) as endorsed by the African Union and African governments.”
“We have also received widespread support from African ICT related organizations and institutions. We are undoubtedly the only official applicant for dotAfrica, and as confirmed by ICANN after the release of all applicant in the new gTLD process, we are the only applicants for .africa,” Octavia said.
In the Olivier 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 acknowledged the necessity to “Establish dotAfrica as a continental Top-Level Domain for use by organisations, businesses and individuals with guidance from African Internet agencies.”
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”.
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.
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. UniForum was the successful bidder in this RFP process.
It pleases to see an African organisation having taken the initiative to apply for the TLD as it would’ve been a little embarrassing for the continent if this function was outsourced to a foreign provider.
In conclusion, Octavia Kumalo had this to say: “Lastly, we see dotAfrica as an opportunity to support a number of critical support functions and initiatives, such as the development of African ccTLDs, Registrars and Online Content. dotAfrica also presents an opportunity to support thought leadership in the DNS space and in doing so to raise the standards by which Africa provides this critical Internet infrastructure.”
“A non-profit organization based in Africa, with the requisite skills, experience and resources, must surely be the best candidate for the job,” she added.
