[AfrICANN-discuss] Why NiRA Records Low dot ng Registration

Fri Dec 9 10:16:20 SAST 2011

AR Inne,

To me it looks great achievements to .ng although Nigerian themselves are claiming that the registration is still low.

Congrats to .ng and thanks Inne for sharing the article.

Just responding to Mshana’s e-mail, google has opted to provide e-mail accounts using .com only and not otherwise. I personally spoke to Vint Cerf during the UN IGF in Nairobi for the possibility of gmail.co.tz e-mail accounts to Tanzanians but it was turned down. All in all, we have to work hard in advising our fellow Africans to brand their services/businesses/products using their ccTLDs and  identify themselves in cyber space using their ccTLDs.

Back to the domain registration figures:

40,000 .ng domains from 2008 in a country with a population of 160 Million people

Compared to

4,300 .tz domains from 2009 in a country with a population of 45 Million people.

It shows that Tanzania has a long way to go as compared to Nigeria and that more efforts should be made in the marketing/publicizing/sensitizing on the usage of .tz domain names. Based on the above figures and assuming the proportion based on population, then .tz domain names should have been at least 10,000! A challenge to tzNIC (.tz registry manager)

All in all, let’s not get discouraged with the numbers, let’s keep on trying assisting our fellow Africans take back their ccTLDs and increasing the respective ccTLD registrations.

Abibu - .tz registry.    

From: africann-bounces at afrinic.net [mailto:africann-bounces at afrinic.net] On Behalf Of Dr Yassin Mshana
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 3:19 AM
To: africann at afrinic.net
Cc: uduma mary
Subject: Re: [AfrICANN-discuss] Why NiRA Records Low dot ng Registration

Thank you AR for this article.

I was there when NiRA was being constituted and had been aware of the movements to have <.ng> back to Nigerian hands - back in 2005/6 a little was known by the many countries about importance National Identity in tr Cyber...

Nigeria like all African countries have their Names back now.

The remaining steps is to promote the use of their  ccTLDs!!

I find that partnering with social- friendly giants like Google is the Strategic Opportunity to boost Registrations - this has to be boosted by massive Advocacy and Promotion campaigns - otherwise it will like having a good shop but close doors and windows...

Another strategy would be to have an email space - mostly people register for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc ect - why not have aaaa at google.ng or csvs at yahoo.ng?

That is my humble observation on this near missed opportunity.

Kind regards

Yassin
(in Sweet Sierra Leone!)

2011/12/8 Anne-Rachel Inné <annerachel at gmail.com>

Why NiRA Records Low dot ng Registration

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/why-nira-records-low-dot-ng-registration/104542/

08 Dec 2011

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Minister of Communications, Mrs Omobola Johnson

By Emma Okonji

Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has identified low level of awareness creation as a factor militating against the ‘dot ng’ domain name registration in the country.

According to NiRA, only about 40,000 domain names have been registered since the inception of the sales of domain names in 2008.

Chief Operating Officer of NiRA, Mr. Ope Odusan, who spoke to THISDAY on the status of ‘dot ng’ domain name registration, challenged registrars of the nation’s Country Code Top Level Domain name (ccTLD) to raise the volume of registration of the ‘dot ng’ domain name and to create more awareness among Nigerians and corporate organisations, on ‘dot ng’ domain name registration.

Odusan, who spoke shortly after the Registrars’ Forum organised by NiRA in Lagos at the weekend, commended registrars for the level of registration carried out so far, but challenged them to increase registration figures in order to address appreciable size of Nigerian population that is well over 160 million.

As an incentive to boost ‘dot ng’ domain name registration in the country, Odusan promised to offer iPad 2 to any registrar that registers up to 5,000 domain names in a month.

In technical parlance, ‘dot ng’ domain name is Nigeria’s identity in the cyberspace. Every country has its identity and must be identified as such when sending electronic mails through cyberspace, via the internet.

The cyberspace address of individuals or organisations in Nigeria must end with ‘dot ng’. For example, an organisation known as Dudu Enterprise can have a domain name of www.dudu.com.ng The identity simply identifies the organisation as Nigerian organisation. People can have individual domain names such as samuel.com.ng,

South Africa has .za, while Canada has .ca, and their citizens are identified by their domain names.

NiRA, the agency responsible for the control and administration of domain names in Nigeria has been in the forefront campaigning for the registration of domain names with the country’s  identity, and discouraging the use of alien domain names that end with yahoo.com

Odusan called on Nigerians to take advantage of accredited registrars in the country and register their domain names as second or third level domain names.

Presenting awards to registrars at the Registrars’ Forum and End of Year Get-Together organised by NiRA for all registrars, Odusan commended all registrars for their efforts in registering the dot ng domain name.

The award was based on the registrars with the highest volume of registration figures from the month of August to November 2011. 

As the names were called, one particular registrar kept surfacing as ‘Registrar of the Month’ for the months of August, September, October and November. The registrar, Upperlink Limited, eventually swept all the awards as it emerged ‘Registrar of the Month’ for August to November,

In August, Upperlink Limited registered 229 domain names, in September, it registered 249 domain names, in October, it registered 627 domain names, and in November, it registered 2,403 domain names, topping registration figures in all four months under review. Upperlink was presented with four plaques as the Registrar of the Month for the four consecutive months.

Sharing the secret of the firm’s consistent win, Technical Manager for Upperlink, Mr. Shola Akinsanya, who received the awards for Upperlink said the firm sold domain names at pocket friendly rates, coupled with its aggressive campaign in sensitising Nigerians on the importance of owning a domain name.

He said Upperlink partnered Google on its recently concluded one week web fair in Lagos, from where it had more opportunities to talk to thousands of participants at the web fair.

Upperlink, he said, had invested so much on advertising ‘dot ng’ domain name and that more Nigerians were becoming aware of the need to identify with the nation’s ccTLD

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