NiRA Expects Paradigm Shift in PP Sectors Policies on .ng Registration

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), said, it views n.g domain name registration as paramount in paradigm shift in government and private sector policies and practices.
 
This NiRA’s expectation was contained in a presentation by Mrs Mary Uduma, president of the Assocation titled: ‘Leveraging Multistakeholder Ecosystem for .ng Growth’, delivered at the 6th Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum.

 Uduma who was represented by Akinbo Cornerstone, said added that the prerequisites for .ng scale up are multi- faceted, requiring collaboration of various sectors including Government.

Aside requiring a paradigm shift in government and private sector policies and practices, the strategy to achieve this has to be flexible and dynamic, capitalizing on proper utilization of existing and emerging opportunities.

Uduma maintained that the process needs enough scope for different actors to lead at different times and at various levels and partnership formed on the basis of transparency, accountability and mutual sharing of responsibilities, risks, and benefits.

On the sidelines of Government’s efforts, the NiRA Boss said, “The Ministry of Communication Technology is taking a giant leap with the creation of Cross-Platform that allows for an online registration portal that can be used for registration of Companies with the Corporate Affairs Commission;

“The eGovernment has gone a step further to agree and set a deadline for migration of all Government Websites to switch to .gov.ng before August  27,  and under the leadership of Mrs. Omobola Johnson, MCT and NITDA has contributed immensely to .ng growth.

The private sector, she said, “Partnership formed on supporting Local Content growth has increased the uptake of the .com.ng by the likes of Google.

“The .ng Registry can boast of zero downtime due to the like of MainOne Cable highly impressive support for managing bandwidth.

“Many more MoU are in the kitty to be signed for promoting enduser orientation and awareness by service providers such as MTN, AIRTEL, to mention a few”.

Uduma, however, admitted that more has to be done for greater results on the registration.

Earlier, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, executive director, Operations, DigitialSENSE Africa Media, said the Forum was created and nurtured as a think-tank platform where Nigerian internet stakeholders converge to raise and address germane issues concerning the ICT sector, particularly, computing, internet governance-related issues, towards helping to further Nigeria in the ever rapidly advancing phenomenon of global ICT.

Speaking on the theme of the Forum, ‘Internet Governance, eBiz and Open Access in Nigeria,’ she said it offers Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecom operators, value added service providers and other stakeholders the enabling ground to articulate a stand on internet governance issues and accurately align NDSF on IG4D position into the national, regional, Africa and global agenda.

 While addressing the Forum, specifically, the students in attendance, she said, “It is pertinent at this juncture, to remind all young internet users, particularly, to always be mindful of what they post on the internet because everything posted on the net is traceable to the author. Therefore, you are passionately advised to mind the stuff you post and the language with which materials are posted on the internet for global consumption.”

She said the issue has become important because the result of what one posts online for the consumption of the global village remains his/her permanent signature and model of his/her image, which will definitely rub off on the future contacts.