On March 9, 2011, AfTLD Chairman Vikas Mpisane announced that it will seek the endorsement of the African Union in connection with AfTlD's application with ICANN to become the registry operator of the proposed .africa as a new gTLD. According to Mpisane, its organization is interested managing both DotAfrica and its French version .afrique since 50% of Africans speak French. The organization is confident that it will be successful on its bid for the DotAfrica project because the support expressed to them by the African community, African governments and its close relationship with other Africa internet organizations such as [[AfNOG]], [[AfriNIC]] and [[AfrISPA]].<ref>[http://www.aftld.org/html/english/news_dotafrica.html AfTLD takes on .africa]</ref> | On March 9, 2011, AfTLD Chairman Vikas Mpisane announced that it will seek the endorsement of the African Union in connection with AfTlD's application with ICANN to become the registry operator of the proposed .africa as a new gTLD. According to Mpisane, its organization is interested managing both DotAfrica and its French version .afrique since 50% of Africans speak French. The organization is confident that it will be successful on its bid for the DotAfrica project because the support expressed to them by the African community, African governments and its close relationship with other Africa internet organizations such as [[AfNOG]], [[AfriNIC]] and [[AfrISPA]].<ref>[http://www.aftld.org/html/english/news_dotafrica.html AfTLD takes on .africa]</ref> |