The adoption and use of the Country Code Top Level Domain name (ccTLD), Nigeria’s .ng, is on the upward swing, as the figure hits 100, 000.This statistic was given yesterday by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), when the management team paid a courtesy visit to Rutam House, headquarters of The Guardian newspapers.
The increase witnessed in the adoption of .ng may have shown a gradual decline in the patronage of foreign domain names by individuals and businesses in Nigeria, which has been the norm for years and had subsequently, resulted in increased capital flight from the economy.
Countries around the world strive to promote their respective domain systems in order to retain substantial part of the Internet expenditure in-country.NiRA team, led by the President, Sunday Folayan, informed that Nigeria’s .ng ranked second largest after South Africa, which has about one million registered .za.in Africa.
Folayan, who described NiRA as one of the best successes and story of Public Private Partnership in Nigeria, said the new data showed an improvement in the number of domain registrations, stressing that Nigerians have re-strategised in their plans for promoting their online business and hence there is improvement in the domain name count.
The NiRA President commended The Guardian for championing the course of .ng in the country, especially, as it relates to adoption and several print privileges that the domain name has enjoyed through the platform.
Speaking more on the .ng adoption, Head, Business Development, NiRA, Mrs. Kemi Adepoju, said the association is doing everything possible to further populate its use in Nigeria, which include promotions, use of youths as ambassador, to identify and convince companies not using the domain name to adopt it; use of the social media platforms to passage messages and enlighten the public.
The Chief Operating Officer of NiRA, Mrs. Edith Udeagwu, informed that Nigeria will be hosting this year’s African Network Information Center (AFRINIC) open public policy meetings from November 27 to December 4th in Lagos. AFRINIC is the regional Internet registry (RIR) for Africa. It hosts two open public policy meetings every year in various locations throughout its service region.
Udeagwu, who disclosed that Folayan doubles as the Chairman of AFRINIC board, informed that several issues that borders on Internet Protocol (IP) development, especially migration from IPv4 to IPv6 will be discussed, where experts will sensitise on what Nigeria and other African countries must do to migrate as fast as possible to avoid Internet blackout.
Giving more insight on the dangers of not migrating, Head, Technical Department, Abubakar Muhammed, Nigeria must do everything possible to avoid Internet shut, saying that the consequences are dire.
Muhammed said the AFRINIC conference will be opening another vista in Internet development across the world, “so Nigeria must not be left behind in adoption.”
Folayan added that the AFRINIC meetings provide unique opportunities for Internet-related individuals and organisations to gather and to discuss the policies governing Internet number resource distribution in the African region. The meetings, he added, would serve as platforms to share technical knowledge, and to attend workshops and tutorials.
