[AfrICANN-discuss] PRESS RELEASE: AfTLD Successfully Concludes 5th Annual ccTLD Event

[Eric Akumiah]

 AfTLD  Successfully Concludes 5th Annual ccTLD Event

Accra, Ghana May 2011. Africa Top Level Domains (AfTLD) recently concluded
its 5th annual African ccTLD Event in Accra, Ghana. The event, which ran
from 18 to 22 April, comprised of a 3 day Attack Contingency Response
Planning (ACRP) workshop for African ccTLD managers, and a 2 day Policy
meeting and AGM.

Address by the Ghana Minister of Communications
The Policy Workshop had the honour of having an address by the Hon. Haruna
Iddrissu, the Minister of Communications of Ghana. Appreciating AfTLD for
choosing Ghana for this important Internet security event, the Minister
said the ACRP training came at a right time when Internet access has
increased tremendously and cyber attacks are the new generation warfare.
The Government of Ghana, he said, attaches to great significance to online
privacy, and plans to pass into a law the Data Protection Bill by July
this year.  The Minister also expressed Ghana’s support to the Africa
Union Commission (AUC) - led process of endorsing a suitable bidder that
will apply to ICANN for the delegation of the dot Africa new gTLD. AfTLD,
as the foremost TLD association in Africa, represented sufficient African
Internet community interests to manage the dot Africa new gTLD on behalf
of the AUC.

Address by Dr. Nii Quaynor
Dr. Nii Quaynor, a veteran of Internet development and governance in
Africa and globally and the current .GH chairman, in his welcome address,
reminded the meeting how Ghana was instrumental in establishing AfTLD
about a decade ago.  He urged African TLD managers to take note of the
imminent changes in the domain name policy environment globally. African
TLD operators, he urged, needed to be strengthened to meet the challenges
that ICANN’s new gTLDs will bring as many capacity challenges still faced
African TLDs, including higher level governance interventions.
He also added that there was a need to continue strengthening African
ccTLD capacity to overcome the challenges on security, and affirmed the
ACRP as a step in the right direction.  He echoed the Minister’s support
for an AUC endorsement of a suitable bidder to apply to ICANN for the
operation of .africa.

Overwhelming endorsement of AfTLD’s .africa bid
At the AfTLD AGM on 22 April, Vika Mpisane (AfTLD chairman) said the case
of the AfTLD .africa project was an illustration of the commitment of the
AfTLD to help African TLDs grow.  He added that he believed that AfTLD had
a good opportunity to win the endorsement of the African Union (AU) and
the approval by ICANN.  “We will do our utmost best to see to it that
AfTLD wins the .africa bid,” he said.

After the presentation of AfTLD’s .africa bid strategy, it was remarkable
that all the ccTLDs present expressed their support of AfTLD’s .africa
bid. Their unanimous view was that only AfTLD in the African Internet
community had the collective experience and know-how of setting up a
successful operation of a .africa registry. Some of the ccTLDs went as far
as stating openly that they lobbying their governments to support AfTLD’s
bid. This huge vote of confidence goes right against some of the recent
malicious views claiming AfTLD was not best suited to operate .africa.

Over 50 attendants were present at the event and the AGM, the majority of
whom came from 19 ccTLD managers present at the event. The event was
hosted by National Information Technology Agency (NITA) with the support
of the Ministry of Communications.

A PDF copy of the statement is attached.

Presentations and photos from event can be found on the event homepage at
http://www.aftld.org/gh2011.

About AfTLD
AfTLD was established in 2002 to act as a focal point for African Country
Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)
managers in coordinating, formulating, developing and presenting a unified
approach to issues related to the Domain Name System. AfTLD also presents
a forum for sharing ideas between the regions Internet community with an
aim of promoting the utilization of national country’s Top Level Domains.

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