Mauritius-based DotConnectAfrica is laying claim to the .africa generic top-level domain (gTLD) for which SA's ZA Central Registry is the African Union's endorsed bidder. This is in spite of the fact that DotConnectAfrica inadvertently applied for the wrong domain, at a cost of US$185 000, and is unlikely to succeed in meeting the stringent requirements for geographic gTLDs.
The ZA Central Registry, also known as UniForum, says it intends to administer the .africa domain on behalf of the African digital community as a whole. Its bid to run the .africa domain system is backed by the .za Domain Name Authority and SA's department of communications and has the support of the African Union Commission.
Domain Incite, an industry website, reported in July that the African Union Commission had explicitly endorsed UniForum to "administer and operate" the .africa domain "on behalf of the African community". Furthermore, the commission said its endorsement of UniForum was "the only formal endorsement provided by the African Union and its member states".
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