The
Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), the body in charge of the
registration of Nigeria's country code Top Level Domain name (ccTLD), otherwise
known as '.ng domain name', has said Nigeria is still far from meeting
the set target of registering 250, 000 domain names in the country.
President
of NIRA, Mrs. Mary Uduma, who gave the information in a telephone interview
with THISDAY Newspapers, said NIRA had in 2013, set a target to register up to
250,000 .ng domain names, but was unable to meet the target at the end of 2013.
This compelled NIRA to
set the same 250, 000 target in 2014.
Despite
the shift, the target is yet to be met. Uduma said NIRA had been able to
register only about 60,000 .ng domain name at the last, which is just 24 per
cent of the 250, 000 targeted domain name registration.
When
NIRA took over from the National Information Technology Development Agency
(NITDA) in 2009, the county had only 2,000 registered domain names. Although
NIRA has been able to increase the figures to 60,000, it is still
far from the set target.
Blaming
the slow registration exercise on three factors, Uduma said NIRA would likely
reduce the target to 100, 000 in 2015, and come up with new strategies to
accomplish it.
She
listed the three factors militating against the speedy registration of .ng
domain name in the country to include lack of access to the internet, fear of
insecurity in trading with .ng domain name, and blunt refusal by most Nigerians
in patronising Nigerian products.
Although
there was slight increase in the number of .ng domain names registered in
November this year, and a slight decrease in the number of domain names renewed
in the same month, Uduma said the figure is still below the set target.
According
to the domain report from January 1 to November 30, 2014,
released by NIRA recently, additional 1,742 domain names were registered, with
renewal of 828 domain names and transfer of only 33 domain names, bringing it
to a total of 2,603 domain names recorded in the month of November 2014.
The
total registration of domain names in November 2014, was lower in the
month of October 2014. According to the report, so far this year, from January
to November 30, 2014, there were 17,367 domain names registered in the country.
The
number of NiRA accredited Registrars increased to 47, with some applications
still undergoing processing.
As
at November 30, 2014, the total registration figure was 17, 367, renewal of
registration was 11,084, while transfer was 659, bringing it to a total of
29,110 recorded .ng domain names in the country, the report said. Every month,
at least an applicant completes their registration process and commences
registration of .ng domain names, the report added.
Uduma,
who, however, commended the efforts of registrars in the registration of .ng
domain names in the country, said Nigeria had not attained a steady growth rate
in domain name registration every month, as the figures fluctuate with every
new month, depending on new registration and renewal of registration.
"NIRA
is making plans to beef up registration and renewal by 2015, by increasing the
number of registrars and encouraging them with incentives to go all out in
convincing Nigerians to believe in .ng domain name and to get them registered
with the ccTLD name.
She
also assured Nigerians who are still skeptical in registering the .ng domain
name for reason of insecurity, to change their minds, since the .ng domain name
is as secured as .com or .co.uk domain names.
In
technical parlance the .ng domain name is Nigeria's identity in the
cyberspace that gives Nigerians access to the internet. Every country has its
own domain name and NIRA is doing everything possible to ensure that Nigerians
drop their foreign domain names, which have the suffix .co .uk; .co.za; .co.ca;
.com, among others, and embrace the .ng domain name, which is Nigeria's
identity in cyberspace.
Thisday
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