The Coalition for Digital Africa has launched an initiative aimed at strengthening internet infrastructure across Africa to allow access to the web in local languages.

Undertaken by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and in collaboration with the Association of African Universities (AAU), the project focuses on making websites, applications and email systems within Africa’s higher education institutions ready to support all domain names and email addresses.

At the launch of the project at the headquarters of AAU, the Vice President in charge of Global Stakeholder Engagement for ICANN, Pierre Dandjinou, explained that the project is set to create awareness of Universal Acceptance within higher education institutions in Ghana and across Africa.

Universal Acceptance, he explained, allows all valid domain names, unique addresses and email addresses to be validated, stored, processed and displayed correctly and consistently regardless of script, language or character length.

“It is a fundamental requirement for achieving a multilingual internet, where internet users around the world can navigate entirely in local languages and scripts,” Pierre added.

Speaking at the launch was the Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim-Fordjour. He indicated the project was important to enhance multilingual and digitally inclusive internet and in turn bridge skill gaps.

“It is my understanding that Universal Acceptance is a fundamental requirement for a truly multilingual and digitally inclusive Internet. For our case in Ghana and Africa, Universal Acceptance and Email Address Internationalization will ensure that our email mailbox names can use characters in local languages and scripts,” the minister said.

He added that, “higher education is at the center of the development debates – therefore it is important that our young people, computer science students, IT staff and related professionals are not left behind in the developments of the internet industry. Quality higher education has proved to be key in bridging the skill gaps in the African region.”

Also speaking at the launch, General Secretary for AAU, Prof Olusola Oyewole reiterated the importance of project. He highlighted that the project will “strengthen the accessibility of internet across the continent, with a specific focus on making email systems and other communication platforms of higher education institutions ready for Universal Acceptance (UA) and Email Address Internalization (EAI)”

The project is also set to implement a robust internet infrastructure on which email and digital platforms are running.