ICT: African governments get behind Africa's domain name
30 March 2012
BizCommunity.com - March 29, 2012
Government ministers attending the recent Innovation Africa Digital (IAD) Summit in Ethiopia, this week pledged their support for the ZA Central Registry's (ZACR) bid to become the dotAfrica Registry Operator. The ZACR is a non-profit company based in South Africa, and is the administrator of the popular CO.ZA domain name space.
"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, which included key government ministers from Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda, including a variety of policy makers and regulators, to provide the African Union with their letters of support for the ZA Central Registry to apply for and administer the dotAfrica TLD.
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.
Category: ICT