ICANN and ZA Central Registry (South Africa) signed a Registry Agreement during the ongoing ICANN 49 conference in Singapore. The agreement delegates the new gTLD .africa, which will be operated by ZA Central Registry. The signing ceremony was attended by Akram Atallah, president of ICANN's Global Domains Division (GDD), and Lucky Masilela, CEO of ZA Central Registry (ZACR).
The .africa application from ZA Central Registry was the only one after earlier this year ICANN rejected a rival application from DotConnectAfrica due to the applicant’s lack of local government support. Representatives of DotConnectAfrica filed an Independent Review Process appeal against ICANN, insisting that the decision be overturned. The agreement with ZA Central Registry seems to put a lid on the dispute over the domain’s fate. The new gTLD is expected to be delegated within two or three months.
