On Wednesday, 31st July 2019, the Nigeria Internet Registration Association through its Special Purpose Vehicle, NIRA Academy, organized its 1st Web Hosting Conference in Nigeria at Nelo’s Place, 2 Yomi Oshikoya Drive, Off Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja, Lagos.
The conference brought together Web hosting companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Data Centers, NiRA Accredited Registrars, Web developers, Programmers, Network Administrators, IT Entrepreneurs and Academics from the IT community to discuss Web hosting in Nigeria, educate stakeholders about how to run a successful Web hosting business and promote the adoption of local hosting in Nigeria. There was also a session on the technicalities of Webhost management.
In his welcome address, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, the President of NiRA said that Nigeria has the population to grow any business of her choice and Nigerians need to focus and plan on how to develop the country’s ICT infrastructure and harness this asset so as to unlock the potential of our huge population. He further stated that local hosting is critical for any country that wants to develop its Internet infrastructure and empower its citizens as well as ensure the sovereignty of national data. He informed the Conference that Nigerian government’s realization of the need for cloud localization brought about the National Cloud Computing Policy by NITDA, which was aimed at promoting the migration of national data to local cloud with a goal of achieving 30% migration by the end of 2024. A few years ago, the Federal Government of Nigeria also setup Galaxy Backbone PLC, a company empowered to provide Internet and Hosting Services for government ministries, departments and agencies. Mr. Rudman encouraged local hosting for Nigerian businesses as a step in the right direction towards improving Nigeria’s economy. He emphasized the need to invest locally, with business plans which should be strategically focused towards developing our country, Nigeria.
Other notable speakers at the conference included David Balogun, the Chief Operating Officer of Garanntor Limited who spoke on “Becoming an Entrepreneur in the Web Hosting Business”, Mr. Oluwarotimi Onifade, Web Advisor Supervisor, Trefoil Networks Limited who spoke on “Domain and Reseller Hosting Services” and Mr. Jude Chukwuebuka Ogbonna Server Admin, SmartWeb Nigeria Limited who spoke on “Web Host Management”.
The conference ended with a closing remark by Mrs. Edith Udeagu, Executive Secretary of NiRA. She expressed appreciation to the sponsors, facilitators and participants for making the conference a huge success. Mr. Sikiru Shehu, the Dean of NiRA Academy, Mr. Toba Obaniyi, the Vice President of NiRA and the NiRA President gave appreciation awards and certificates to all the sponsors of the conference.