By Emma Elebeke

Stakeholders in the nation’s information technology, IT sector have charged Nigerians to consider the importance of making use of local content by switching over to Nigeria’s internet domain names otherwise called country code top level domain (ccTLD), .ng.

Cleopas Angaye

The call was made at one day workshop entitled “Switch to .ng” organized by the Nigeria internet registration association, NIRA in collaboration with Nigeria information technology development agency, NITDA in Lagos.

In his keynote address, the Director General of NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye said that the need for Nigerians to switch over to .ng is no longer negotiable in view of the significant role it could play in the development of the economy.

Proper awareness

With proper awareness on the Nigerian domain name, Professor Angaye stated that the local content would not only be grown but will help to save the country the cost of capital flight over dependence on foreign domain platforms impose on the economy.

According to him, the initiative if adopted will also encourage knowledge sharing among Nigerians and equally enhance progress in the development of IT in the country. He noted that task of developing IT in Nigeria is the task of every citizen and to achieve that, further steps have to be put in place by all stakeholders to ensure proper awareness creation on the use of .ng.

.ng’ll make businesses grow

He further stated that the use of .ng by local entrepreneurs will go a long way in growing their businesses and making them popular.

“Nigerians should spread the news to their friends, relatives and to everyone for us to give .ng the priority it deserves. We owe it a duty to spread the gospel to everyone,” he added.

While stressing the importance of the use of the domain name by all Nigerians, he challenge young stars not to feel inferior in switching over from from foreign brands but urged them to see the current war as a task that must be done.

To fast-track the process, he called on the government to consider the advantages the nation stands to benefit from it and help in spreading the gospel through legislation and sensitization of the populace, and by also making it compulsory in all government establishments.

.ng, a national resource

A national resource, .ng is a unique identifier for every possible Nigerian on the world wide web. The realization came after nearly 12 years in which the country code was hosted in the United States by an American, Randy Bush. It was managed by NITDA on behalf of the Federal Government until NIRA took over, after its constitution was adopted by the stakeholders. In her address, NIRA Vice President, Mrs. Mary Uduma said NIRA unveils premium Nigerian Internet domain names

Uduma, explained that the move is in tune with the best practices in the industry whereby registries of TLDs delineate some names as “premium”, while stating the reason for the higher market value attached to 6,957 third level premium domain names released by the body.

Some domain names

She listed some of the released domain names as : .com.ng, .edu.ng, name.ng. .net.ng and .org.ng. Others are .sch.ng, .gov.ng and .mil.ng among others.

The list containing mainly generic words have been placed on the premium list while she noted that the desire to quickly populate the .ng registry and to make it affordable necessitated placing a maximum price cap on the cost of some of such domains.

“The Board of Directors of Nigeria Internet Registration Association has approved the list and has endorsed the recommendations. The paramount objective is to populate the .ng registry. The list is subject to NiRA’s existing Policies and Procedures, and NiRA reserves the right to review the list and shall monitor the trend of uptake of the .ng domain name space from time to time, but not for periods earlier than six month-intervals”, NIRA said promising to abide by its policy on premium domains.” she said.

Categorization

On the categorization of the third level premium domain names, NIRA said that the list is clearly categorized in order to avoid any uncertainty, while adding that the third level premium domain names are delineated as Registered Domains and Non-Registered Domains

The organization further classified it into two sub-categories. The first are names that are corporate identity or trademark that are duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria and are on the list of registered .ng third level domains prior to the re-delegation of the .ng registry to NiRA.

The second categories are names that are single words or compound words duly registered as third level domains in the .ng registry prior to the re-delegation of the .ng registry.

However, others include are names that are corporate identity or trademark but not registered as third level domain in the .ng registry prior to the re-delegation of .ng registry. Also in the next category are names that are single words or compound words that are not registered as third level domains in the .ng registry prior to the re-delegation of the .ng registry.

Meanwhile, other speakers who spoke at the occasion joined their voice in calling on Nigerians to see more of the benefits derivable from the use of the local domain name.