The African Union Commission has endorsed a project that encourages members to reserve top level domain names in their countries as well as a domain name for Africa as a continent (.Africa). The Commission has mandated ZACR Central Registry to bid for a domain name for Africa. This was revealed in a presentation by Lucky Masilela and Alice Munywa, which was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Auditorium on April 7, 2014.The administrators of the project have found it necessary to engage African governments and other stakeholders on the continent to have names that are special to them reserved. These will include geographical names like country names and cities, culturally significant names or events and any other that African entities will find special attachment to themselves.

 

Lucky Masilela of the African Union Commission explain the project

Masilela explained that it was important for any country and Africa as a continent to have geographic top level domain names (gTLDs) reserved for their use. “The city of Mbabane, for example, could reserve the domain name .Mbabane for purposes of brand protection and showcasing. This means that a business that uses this domain name will be set apart from others in the same town when it comes to branding,” he explained.

 

Alice Munywa explained that for an operator to register or reserve a geographical top level domain name they would need the approval of the government. “The reserve name list categories are defined as follows:

  • Geographic names, which refers to names of towns and cities
  • Religious, cultural and linguistic identifiers, which refers to words used in religion or culture
  • Economic and public interest names
  • Offensive names, which refers to words that are deemed offensive

The motivation for the reservation must be submitted with the application,” she explained.

 

To facilitate this process for Swaziland, the Directorate of Communications in the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) has been tasked to co-ordinate the collection of names that users would like to reserve.

For information users can visit https://www.registry.net.za/launch.php

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