Wednesday 14th Dec. 2016 was a day well spent, sharing some ideas with Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, the Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on ways to move Information Technology forward in Nigeria.
I led the Executive Board of Directors of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) to brief him on our activities, and the various strides within the ambit of the Memorandum of Understanding that exists between NITDA and NIRA for the management of the .ng National Resource.
Happy with what NIRA has done so far, he was desirous of further collaboration and we immediately picked two low-hanging fruits, arising from the NIRA presentation, which necessitated further meetings and meetings with his staff to drill down and bolt those issues.
There is no doubt that NIRA is one of the few successful and functional Public-Private Partnerships in Nigeria today. I cannot thank enough, members of the Board of Trustees, Members of the Board of Directors , the hard working Staff and all stakeholders in NIRA for giving life to our collective dreams. I learnt more than two things in the course of the visit, and these will guide me moving forward, as the Chief Steward in NIRA.
Our advocacy for local hosting in Nigeria has been on for some years now. Local hosting needs Local Contents to be effective. Events and workshops have been organized to make Nigerians conscious of the need to host locally in Nigeria. This means hosting servers, websites and other forms of electronic contents.
NiRA continues to partner with with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) through its Office of National Content (ONC), Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and several other organizations to host events via the Local Internet Content Forum (LICF). This is apart from the ongoing campaign of SWITCHTO .gov.ng for Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
When fully adopted, the domino effect of local hosting by most people would be:
- Job opportunities
- Reduction of capital flight
- Data security
- Faster access
We have organized meetings with several interested groups on ways of creating the enabling environment for local hosting in Nigeria. With a good percentage of government establishments having .gov.ng domains, It is very obvious the Nigerian Government is keen on local hosting of its contents. we are canvassing on these establishments hosting their contents locally. We are passionate about this. We have issued a clarion call to all and sundry to commence local hosting of Nigeria Contents. We have the contents, from Nollywood, culture, tourism, etc. The Nigerian market is eager for local hosting.
The call for local content hosting is a collective responsibility, as the registry, a registrar, a registrant, an Internet Service Provider, a developer, a blogger etc. Let us all in our own little ways support this advocacy.
I call on all of us, to be advocates for hosting our contents locally, this would help our dear Nation out of the present economic recession. It is a task to be done!
Merry Christmas and Happy, Prosperous New Year in Advance!
Your President,
Rev’d Sunday Folayan
