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Ending of the Roadshow for DotAfrica (.Africa) and launching of www.AU.africa at the African Union Headquarters

Ending of the Roadshow for DotAfrica (.Africa) and launching of www.AU.africa at the African Union Headquarters

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January 28, 2018

Addis-Ababa, 28 January 2018: The roadshow around the continent to officially launch the new .africa (dotAfrica) geographic Top Level Domain (gTLD) ended at the 30th African Union (AU) Summit held at AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Sunday, 28 January 2018. During the opening ceremony of the AU Assembly of the Heads of State and Government, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat received the dotAfrica flag from the .africa Team leader that marks the end to the wide .africa awareness campaign across the continent.

The domain name roadshow, so critical to our future socio-economic well-being, began here on the 10th of March 2017. This pan-African continental roadshow was aimed at launching the new dotAfrica geographic Top Level Domain (gTLD) to the people of Africa. It was to wind its way through the vast African continent, all the way to the 30th Heads of State Summit, here in Addis Ababa.

The AU member states were represented by the different regions that the .Africa roadshow team made its way through - these included East, West, North, and Southern Africa with a final Summit attempt of Mount Kilimanjaro to hoist the dotAfrica flag on top of the highest peak of the continent. The .Africa flag flew a top the roof of Africa signifying that dreams for a brighter and more technologically advanced Africa are definitely attainable through dedication, collaboration and commitment.

It is worth to recall that dotAfrica gTLD was originally borne out of the need to create Africa’s own digital identifier as mandated by the Executive Council decision EX.CL/Dec.613(XVIII). The latter invites to “work together to promote the use of Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) as they are a critical national resource whilst ensuring that the technical and administrative operations are at international standards to foster trust and the use of an African Domain Name in order to bring financial, economic and social-cultural benefits to Africa”.

During the ending ceremony of the roadshow, the .africa flag was officially handed over to the Chairperson of the AUC, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat by the .africa team, represented by Mr. Lucky Masilela, CEO of the Africa Registry.

The Assembly also witnessed the official launch of the new AU website under the domain name .africa with a short video showcase. Now the official website of the Union is www.au.africa . The migration of Staff email addresses to “staffname@au.africa” will follow.

As stated by H.E. Dr Abou-Zeid, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy: “The .africa gTLD intends to promote African businesses, people and culture on the internet and will allow Africa to actively contribute to the digital economy. It is also a source of funding for the development of ICT projects on the continent”.

This gTLD brings the entire continent together as one united Internet community; enabling e-commerce, technology and infrastructure to flourish under one African umbrella.

.africa is active. It is unique in that it gives Africans that important sense of pride to help motivate them to achieve the very best for their continent and themselves. All Africans are invited to take ownership of .africa because this new domain truly belongs to every African.

For further information contact
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: dic@africa-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia
Sophia Nesri | PIDA Information Analyst | Department of Infrastructure and Energy | African Union Commission I E-mail: yankeyka@africa-union.org; sophian@africa-union.org

Media inquiry contact:
Esther Azaa Tankou / Head of Information Division/ E-mail: yamboue@africa-union.org / Tel: +251911361185

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