The Nigeria Internet Registration Association, NiRA has said that following the approval of a National Policy on the Nigerian Government Second-Level Domains during the Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting recently, the federal government has set a progressive strategy towards achieving the digital economy project in the country.
The approval was granted by FEC following a presentation by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ibrahim Pantami on the need for all ministries, parastatals and officials to jettison the yahoo and gmail domain addresses to embrace the .ng domain.
President of NiRA, Mr. Muhammed Rudman said the Policy was developed to strengthen public confidence in the use of digital technologies and participation in the digital economy.
He said NiRA is a multi – stakeholder-led organization and Registry for the .ng domain name. It maintains the database of names registered in the .ng country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) in the interest of Nigerians and the global Internet community.
He noted that the policy is also in line with the implementation of the Nigerian e-Government Master Plan, approved by the Federal Executive Council in August 2018.
The Master Plan has the vision to create a world-class open and digitalized government that connects with people to drive efficiencies in public administration, the responsiveness of civil services, and transparency in governance leading to improvement of the quality of life of Nigerians.
Rudman said Pantami’s presentation at FEC clearly distinguished him as a Digital Economy Crusader who has shown understanding of the need to intensify the adoption of Nigeria country code top-level domain (ccTLD), .ng within and outside the government circle.
Rudman said that the need to switch over to .ng is no longer negotiable in view of the significant role it plays in the country’s digital economy agenda.
“The National Policy as adopted by FEC is apt because for years NiRA has been pushing for the government to accelerate the adoption of the second-level domain (. gov. ng, .edu.ng, .mil.ng) under the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD.ng).
“So, what the Minister has done is commendable because the main objective is to eliminate the use of private mails for Government business and official correspondences by the end of the year 2022”.
Rudman said that with proper awareness of the Nigerian domain name, the local content would not only grow but will help to save the country capital flight and over-dependence on foreign domain platforms
Source: Vanguard
