African governments support ZACR as registry operator

"The drive towards Africa's very own top level domain (TLD) continues to gather momentum and we need the support of all African governments and the broader community as that momentum gathers further steam," said Koffi Fabrice Djossou, who presented the ZACR's case for dotAfrica at the summit. He specifically called on all the delegates to provide the African Union with their letters of support for the ZACR to apply for and administer the dotAfrica TLD.

Promoting an African identity

Djossou is a member of the registry project team, which works closely with the dotAfrica steering committee (SteerCom), established to provide strategic and ethical oversight for the dotAfrica project. The multi-stakeholder SteerCom responsibilities include the development and establishment of the dotAfrica Foundation, which will play an important role in administering ICT related developmental projects and initiatives in Africa. Djossou pointed out that the goal is to promote an African identity for the continent, through African based administration and operation of the domain.

Djossou told the delegates that the administration of a continental domain name, as with any TLD, will present significant technical issues and challenges. The African Union (AU) was therefore only prepared to endorse an organisation that could demonstrate a strong technical ability and track record concerning the administration of a large domain name space.

Application will be submitted

Transparency, reliability, technical ability, financial stability and continental representation were all key considerations for the AU in deciding which organisation to endorse. For these reasons the AU put forward the ZACR as its choice of registry operator.

He says that the AU and the ZACR have been working in partnership to prepare and submit the required application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This will be done before the April 2012 deadline. However, he added that since ICANN still has to make the final choice regarding the dotAfrica registry operator, additional demonstrations of support would be most useful.