Representatives of South Africa's ZA Central Registry (ZACR) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) have signed an agreement that would see the launch of the .africa internet domain name.

The agreement outlines the contractual terms by which the ZACR will launch and administer the .Africa geographic top-level domain (gTLD) starting in May this year, according to a statement.

It was further revealed that the agreement specifies that the top-level domain to which it applies is .africa and states that "ICANN designates ZACR as the registry operator for the TLD".

Alice Munyua of the African Union Commission (AUC) and ZACR said, "The drive to establish Africa's own space on the worldwide web began many years ago, but officially commenced with the submission of a formal application in February 2012. The Singapore agreement signals the morphing of the technical launch phase of dotAfrica into the commercial launch phase. We've come to the end of the beginning, and the beginning of great things for Africa on the web."

ZACR's Lucky Masilela added, "The finalisation and acceptance of contracting terms from ICANN means nothing can stop the dotAfrica show. In May 2014, the curtains will rise and the first of the dotAfrica domains will become available for application during the initial sunrise and land rush phases..."

The dotAfrica project is among the new generic top-level domains and is a pan-African identification for regional online operations.