The Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has declared its strategy to use media platforms to educate the public on the economic and technological benefits of taking up the .ng domain name, by calling on media practitioners to step up the civic education process.
Speaking at a reception organized by the Association to welcome attendees to a-day .ng Media College in Lagos, Mrs. Mary Uduma, NiRA’s president, noted that the .ng domain name is an exceptional identifier for every possible Nigerian on the global web.
NiRA is chiefly the registration office for .ng Internet Domain Names and keeps the databank of names registered in the .ng country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).
Mrs. Uduma said it has become vital that Nigerians are knowledgeable to take advantage of ccTLD, from the time when Nigeria could realize this system which was hosted in the United States by Randy Bush, approximately 12 years ago, adding that even though 60,000 domain names have been registered under the .ng Internet Domain Name, there is a big space for large corporations, government agencies, SME’s, NGO’s and individuals to leverage.
Commenting about the Media College, NiRA president said: “The essence of the .ng Media College is to enable us interface with the practitioners who are critical stakeholders in disseminating information as regards .ng domain name registration. Also the Media College accords NiRA opportunities to explain some policies and operational guidelines in the registration process. In all, we know the media are able to lead the course on public awareness on, .ng domain name adoption and switchover.”
She went further to explain that ever since the Association was established on March, 23, 2005 as a stakeholder-based society, it has moved a step further to take on a multi-layered registry unit for its operations, maintaining that they have licensed Registrars to work with them. Bedsides this, the registrars may decide on employing the services of re-sellers
“Currently, we are giving Nigerians 10% discount on registration with the aim to get our local businesses online. Content is the currency for the future and Nigeria cannot be left behind”, she said.
According to NiRA’s vice president, Mr. Sunday Folayan, Nigerians now have a direct registration right on the second level as well as added advantages following the modification of the Association’s Domain Name Policy in 2013.
He noted that the Association reserves the right to keep some list of domain that shall not be available for registration like restricted names such as military, offensive names and government, among others. While reserving some superior names such as bi.ng, cooki.ng, etc. for auctioning.
The second level domain names include .edu.ng, peculiar to degree awarding institutions; .mil.ng for military and similar purposes; .com.ng open for business registration; .sch.ng for non-degree awarding institutions; .name.ng open to personal names; .net.ng open to network organizations; .org.ng open to NGOs; and .premium.ng is reversed for auction.
Speaking with regards to the policy thrust, Mr. Folayan said that, at present NiRA does not operate Internationalized Domain Names (IND), allowing domain names in the users’ natural languages.
The Media College held at NiRA’s new administrative center in Lagos involved host of ICT media experts’ in Nigeria.
