Ref: dotafrica/2010/24/08

Africa's map in the digital inclusion!

24th August 2010

H.E Abdoulie Janneh
Executive Secretary
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

RE: Letter of appeal for a dialog on the .africa project

Dear Excellency, Mr. Janneh

I hope this letter find you well.

Following the recent meeting that is convened by African Union in Abuja, and in reference to the attached Press release,
it appears the AU express an interest to move forward with the implementation of the dotafrica project by requesting that
AU should be given a mandate of the African Ministers.

Additionally, the Abuja Declaration of the gathering of ICT Ministers, ref: AU/CITMC-3/MIN/Decl.(III) as briefly exhibited
below states the modalités of the implémentation of the dotafrica domain in cooperation with ECA and ITU etc.

The mandate issue was raised by DotConnectAfrica as a result of our last meeting with the African Union Commission
which we informed the meeting that they do not have a mandate to pursue or implement a domain name.

As you are aware, DotConnectAfrica, has been working on this initiatives with the early endorsement of AU and the ECA
for over a year. Given ECA’s particular role in coordination of the African Ministries and its familiarity with our particular
initiative, ECA is well positioned to act as an intermediary between the key stakeholders, this being the African Ministries,
DCA and other stakeholders.

DCA has positioned itself the ICANN in February 2011. In order not to miss this critical window of opportunity, it is
important to begin the process as soon as possible.

This discussion should includes the DCA governance model which is to include ECA, AU and ADB as trustees on the
Trust DCA established in Mauritius, as part of its non-profit, non-partisan status. We have attached the governance
model we have been building constituencies for DCA for your perusal.

It is to be noted that DCA understands the ICANN body and the workings of the said African organizations. Myself, I was
a former AISI Advisor to ECA. I was a Project Director to the successfully implemented fiber optic based, campus-wide
area Technology Network Infrastructure for the African Union, and a former ICANN policy advisor over generic names
such name as .com, .net and .asia, .eu. Additionally, we have already embarked on the process long ago with enormous
support and success across Africa, which should not be abandoned.

DotAfrica is very important to the next level of commerce and e-business across the continent and its international trading
partners, as such EA plays an important role in promoting this initiative. The practical aspects of dotafrica requires ECA
to take a leadership role in order to avoid the domination by internet governance organizations such as external policy
organizations such as ICANN and ISOC on one hand or largely political organizations on the other. If this is allowed to
happen the possibilities of dotafrica being implemented in the timeframe to take advantage of the technological advances
that are now happening across the continent may be lost.

Therefore, DCA appeals to the leadership of ECA to allow DCA as key stakeholder in the implementation of dotafrica to
enter into a dialog to the appropriate way forward.

In anticipation
Sbekele
Ms. Sophia Bekele, BS, MBA, CISA, CCS, CGEIT
Executive Director (.Africa)
www.dotconnectafrica.org
Attachments: AU Press Release on DotAfrica – Abuja
Abuja Declaration
DCA Governance Model

DOT Africa / A specific internet namespace for Africa

ABUJA, August 6, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/

The extraordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Conference of Ministers in charge of
Communication and Information Technologies (CITMC) held in Johannesburg in 2009,
acknowledged the benefit of the Generic Top-Level Domains (GTLds) and 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 use of African Domain Names in order to bring
financial, economic and social cultural benefits to Africa.

With a population of one billion, Africa hosts 86 millions of Internet users. The penetration rate is
8.7% which is rather good compared to the world average of 26.9%.

DotAfrica is that specific Internet namespace for Africa which is likely to be applied for
operation during the next round of new Generic Top-Level Domains (GTLds) which the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will be launching in the near
future.
The introduction of the DotAfrica will create an attractive regional home for the Pan-African
Internet community; as the first sponsored registry to be operating from Africa and therefore
serving the specific needs of its communities. It will echo ongoing operation and successes of
other sister community TLDs such as DotEu (DotEuropa) and DotAsia which have created a new
Internet identity for their users and business who seek more regional presence without being
confined within the limits of one country.

The Domain name DotAfrica is to contribute to the development of Internet on the African
continent and proposes to re-invest back proceeds into the social and technological advancement
initiatives within the community. A revenue allocation structure will be adopted by the DotAfrica
registry to guarantee that a portion of revenues will be directly re-invested into the community
through a grant program.

DotAfrica will be adding value to the namespace as a recognizable phrase which focuses on the
Africa identity. It is likely to capture the essence of the community served. Indeed, DotAfrica will
serve a community which spans over a large portion of region, therefore providing registrants with
accrued possibilities for establishing their Internet presence.

The project has been presented to the Experts session of the CITMC-3 which started in Abuja,
Nigeria, on 3 August 2010. The ministerial session, scheduled to take place from 6 to 7
August is expected to mandate the African Union to implement the Dot Africa on behalf
of the Member States in cooperation and partnerships with relevant stakeholders and
institutions, including the preparation and the submission of the DotAfrica application to
ICANN.

Source: African Union Commission (AUC)

2 Commitment. Good Governance. Diplomacy. Leadership

2010 ABUJA DECLARATION THIRD CONFERENCE OF AFRICAN MINISTERS
IN CHARGE OF COMMUNICATION AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
03 - 07 August 2010
Abuja, Nigeria
AU/CITMC-3/MIN/Decl.(III)

2010 ABUJA DECLARATION

HEREBY REQUEST THE AU COMMISSION TO:

Work with the ITU and with all the development partners to continue activities on harmonisation of policy and
regulations in Africa based on the platform created by HIPSSA project in order to implement the remaining
components of the Reference Framework adopted by the CITMC-2;

Jointly finalize with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, within the framework of the African
Information Society Initiative (AISI), the Draft Convention on Cyber Legislation and support its implementation in
Member States by 2012;

Set up the structure and modalities for the Implementation of the DotAfrica project;

DotConnectAfrica Governance structure for the .africa name

Governance Structure

Key Pan Board of Directors

African
Sponsor Org
CO-Sponsor
• AU Chairman’s members
• UNECA Advisory y
• ADB Businesses
Council • Internet orgs,
• IT org,
• Teleco
• NGO,
CEO
• Non-profit,
Functional VPs • Other relevant
Africa-based
Marketing & Customer Admin
Support
orgs
Bus Dev Staff Etc..

• Africa

3 Commitment. Good Governance. Diplomacy. Leadership