The African Union (AU) officially launched on July 3, 2017 the domain name .africa, which will be the digital identity of the continent.
It was during the 29th Summit of the Union which took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the wake of the official launch, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Abou Zeid Amani, announced the start of a campaign to encourage businesses and institutions to adopt the new African domain name. The said campaign will run for six months and will involve all African countries, we learned.
The creation and adoption of an .africa domain name is a project that was one of the main achievements of the previous president of the AU Commission, Nkosazana Ndlamini-Zuma, who considered that “Africa , today, claims its own digital identity. The .africa will allow us to tell our own story ”.
In principle, the arrival of .africa should put an end to the 32-year use of .com by African official bodies.
The .africa extension finally arrives after four years of gestation. And for Moroccan entrepreneur Hamza Aboulfeth, a member of the extension creation committee, it is above all a great showcase for the continent. “It is nevertheless an extension that will cover an entire continent, whether in the field of insurance, whether in the field of banks, etc. So I as a professional can tell you that this domain name is worth gold, “he told RFI.
One of the strengths of this tool is its price. It costs $ 18 to attach the .africa extension to a website address, while it costs a fortune in some countries for local extensions.
“For example, Namibia: $ 2,000. In Burkina Faso, it is quite high, it is in the 200 dollars. So, of course, .africa today would always be cheaper “, enthuses Hamza Aboulfeth. The success of the new internet domain would also do good for the African Union funds. The revenues from .africa will help fund the African Continental Organization Commission.
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