The .africa bid by ZA Central Registry received a boost this week when a controversial rival application from DotConnectAfrica (DCA) was rejected by the Governmental Advisory Committee, with DCA being invited to withdraw its application, reports MyBroadband.co.za. 

The bid by DCA was always seen as being unlikely to succeed for several reasons, one of the main ones being it did not have the key support of African countries and the African Union.

The ZACR bid to manage .africa had the support of over 40 of the 54 countries African countries.

"Some 75% of African countries have now endorsed the ZACR bid for .africa, well above the ICANN requirement of 60% support needed. In addition, the ZACR bid is endorsed by the African Union Commission," says ZACR Africa Liaison, Koffi Fabrice Djossou, in a statement reported in BizCommunity.

"The ICT ministers meeting was sufficiently satisfied that the ZACR, the most diverse bidding entity, has the required technical, administrative and financial know-how to make a success of Africa's proposed new home on the web," added Djossou.

gTLD was always seen as the frontrunner, especially after it was has selected by the African Union as its preferred registry operator to administer the domain.

With DCA's bid to manage .africa rejected, it now means ZACR is now the only remaining applicant for the pan-African gTLD.