To populate the .ng domain name space, we must focus our efforts on increasing public awareness of the .ng domain name and its benefits to all. We are working hard to capture the attention of Nigeria’s 148 million active internet users who have yet to adopt their .ng online national identity. We have increased our use of traditional and virtual media in the last month, which has been very rewarding in terms of populace engagement.
Business Day exclusively published a thought leadership piece on the 31st of May 2022 under the headline – ‘How NiRA plans to boost adoption of .ng and digital economy’ – reiterating the opinions of experts who say the government needs to effectively enforce compliance for the plans to achieve any meaningful result and to drive the digital economy initiatives of the government. According to policy experts, the journey towards economic diversification requires everybody’s commitment to the development of a robust digital economy and in this case demands the use of the Nigerian Second Level Domain by all government-owned websites and official emails. They also canvass broadening the partnership between the public and private sectors. This is because many Nigerian business platforms are not yet onboarded to the .ng platform and many of them are not aware of the immense benefits and how it will boost their business outlook both local and international. The .ng is the internet country code Top-Level-Domain (ccTLD) for Nigeria.
Speaking on Nigeria Info 99.3 radio on the 1st of June 2022, we shed more light on the Domain Name System in Nigeria, answering questions around the recent .ng domain name price reduction and emphasising the uniqueness of the .ng domain, asides it being the identity of Nigerians online. We mentioned that there are a lot more benefits to using the .ng domain name especially for Nigerian business owners in terms of search engine optimization for Google’s localization.
The only way to succeed as a nation is to be proud of our identity, trust ourselves as a people and gradually, experience growth in its tangibility. As an act of patriotism to deepen the strength of our digital economy, I urged our listeners to adopt the .ng domain name.
NiRA has recently taken over the Chairmanship of the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum, and we are positioned to continue to build the ecosystem from where the Nigeria Communications Commission handed over the reins. We look forward to robust stakeholder engagement and have already participated in the West Africa IGF which held in Accra, Ghana, at the end of May. NiRA is presently participating at the Policy Forum of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Policy Meeting holding at The Hague, Netherlands, collaborating with global stakeholders to continue to make the internet a productive and safe place for all.
It has already been such a progressive year for NiRA and we do not plan to slow down. We will continue to work hard, engage with the public and private sector to properly position .ng in the minds of everyone. I am grateful to the Executive Board of NiRA and commend the team at the Secretariat for a job well done so far.
As the first half of the year comes to an end, we wish you a productive 2H, 2022.
Thank you.
Muhammed Rudman
President, NiRA.