The dotAfrica (.Africa) TLD introduced as a new gTLD (Generic Top Level Domain) for the promotion of African business, people and culture on the Internet has is in its 4th Phase and final week from 26th June 2017.
The .Africa domains as the geographic Top Level Domain’s (gTLD’s) landrush phase started since May 5 and Nigerians that do not have prior rights to a domain name have been encouraged to apply.
According to Managing Director, Web4Africa (www.web4africa.africa), Mr. Oluniyi Ajao .Africa domains are available from Web4Africa, an accredited .africa domain name registrar.
Mr. Oluniyi Ajao, explained that certain names that have got prior rights associated with them will not go through unless the applicant has validated rights in the Mark Validation System (MVS) or Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) database.
At the end of the Landrush phase, he reemphasized, all uncontested domain applications will be delegated while all contested domain applications will proceed to an Auction Phase. Applicants will be notified by the .africa registry on the Auction process should this occur.
Domain auctions will last a minimum of 3 days. Any bids within the final 12 hours will extend any auction by an additional 24 hours.
.Africa has already demonstrated serious interests from global brands and entities within Africa who are trademark owners as about 1,000 domains were successfully secured during the Sunrise Phase, making it one of the top ten largest number of domain name reservations during the sunrise phase of the new geographic Top Level Domain (gTLD) ‘s launch process.
The General Availability phase would follow, from 4th July 2017. The domains would then be available on a first-come-first-served basis.
“We are in Africa, and Africa is in us. We believe in the future of Africa and that .africa would offer Africans a strong identity on the World Wide Web”, Mr. Ajao said.
Established in 2002, Web4Africa is an ICANN Accredited Domain Name Registrar offering popular top-level domains (like .com, .net, .xyz, .africa) and country-code domains (like .ng, .za, .uk) to clients worldwide. Based in Johannesburg South Africa, Web4Africa offers Web Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Dedicated Servers and related solutions from 4 datacentres across Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.
The .africa Landrush Phase opens on 05 June 2017 and closes on 30 June 2017
