.africa domain: everything you need to know about Africa’s new digital identity

Courtesy of the AU, Africa now has a new digital identity. Similar to .com, .africa is the new Internet domain for Africa.

Former AU leader NkosazanaDlamini-Zuma said the launch will help bring the continent together as an internet community. With .africa, Africa finally got its digital identity.

According to a statement from the AU, the initiative will bring the continent together under one roof as an internet community so that e-commerce, technology and infrastructure can flourish.

So far, several attempts have been made to expand internet broadband in Africa.

While Zuckerberg failed in his quest to expand internet broadband in Africa in 2016, with the sudden explosion of the SpaceX rocket, AU has managed to create a bigger space for Africans on the internet.

32 years after registering the world’s first domain name, the African Union has introduced .africa to the continent. .Africa should be to Africa what the .eu domain is to Europe.

As stated in the AU’s Agenda 2063, the pan-African federation intends to increase broadband internet penetration by 10 percent in 2018.

It is worth noting that the new domain name for Africa is not the first to be made available in Africa. There were already individual domain names such as .za (South Africa); .ao (Angola); .zw (Zimbabwe). However, .africa has a much more unified factor than a continental web address.

With approximately 1.1 million of the 2 million website registrations in Africa, South Africa leads in online engagement. It is hoped that the launch of the .Africa domain will help many more African nations to use the internet for all the good reasons.

The report confirms that the South African ZA Central Registry will be responsible for the registration of .africa.

Lucky Masilela, CEO of ZA Central Registry, has no doubt that this will increase Africa’s online presence and will also be of great benefit to most African businesses.

World Bank statistics say that there are approximately 22% of sub-Saharan Africans use the internet, making it the region with the lowest internet penetration rate in the world. In terms of online presence, the global average is 44%.

Another interesting part of the.africa internet domain is that it has been drastically reduced to an insanely cheap price. Compared to the usual exorbitant $250 to register a website, .africa is only $18 away from anyone looking to register on the continent.

.africa will help internet companies provide the continent with relevant goods, services and information. Interestingly, this is not just limited to people in Africa, but also to people outside of the continent.

The idea of ​​a new domain name for Africa will help boldly place the continent on the internet map. .africa makes it possible to provide businesses and information specifically for Africans at an affordable price.

As of July 2017, members of the general public were able to register .africa domain names. Registrations were made according to the “first come first served” principle.

The AU said the commission is funded and operated with proceeds from domain registrations.

According to a European body that monitors domain names, the Council of National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR), over 300 million domain names are in use.

.com leads with around 125.8 million registered domains. It is to be hoped that Africa’s new Internet domain will generate significant demand among Africans.

Registering and activating a .africa domain name is easy. All you need to do is get in touch with an ICANN accredited registrar by clicking here and get started.

See also: How Africa can feed the world by 2050

You can also become an accredited registrar by following the steps below.

  1. Create an account on the ZACR portal or log in if you already have an account
  2. Complete your account information, including ICANN registrar accreditation information.
  3. Accept the registry-registrar agreement
  4. Request a legal review from the ZACR legal team
  5. Get started with technical accreditation for the .africa gTLD namespace
  6. Technical Accreditation for Launch (Sunrise & Landrush) – This is an optional step that allows the registrar to participate in the launch phases.
  7. Request live credentials when you complete the launch accreditation – you will receive credentials to attend the launch. If you fail launch accreditation, you will receive general availability credentials.
  8. If you are an ICANN accredited registrar, however, if you do not have technical accreditation to get started, you can manually join the Landrush phase by using the web RAR available on the ZACR registration portal.
  9. Or just visit registry.africa to start the process.

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