FG Orders MDAs to Move to One Portal by September

All ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs) of federal and state governments will, starting from September, transact their activities from one portal, according to Mrs.  Omobola Johnson, minister of Communication Technology.

Johnson said that government has made it compulsory for all MDAs to transact most of their businesses online through government portal to make it easy for Nigerians outside Abuja or the state capitals to connect with officials online - without having to be present physically.

She spoke at the opening ceremony of the ongoing Africa Domain Name System Forum, adding that this will reduce corruption and also help to decongest the cities as well as bring governance closer to the people.

The minister who was represented by Tope Fashedemi,  director of e-government at the ministry, said that  government has already begun the process for getting Nigeria covered with broadband to make e-governance hitch free.

While revealing the advantages of domain name, Mrs. Mary Uduma, president of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) said Domain Name Space (DNS) industry is a multibillion naira business which is yet to be tapped by Nigerians.

She said: “By registering just 1,000 firms or individuals on the .ng domain for just N100,000 per annum, a Nigerian domain name reseller will make N10 billion income.”

She said only 60,000 companies and government agencies have registered with the Nigerian Domain Name, .ng, so far, adding that out of the 60,000 less than 50,000 are active.

Mrs Uduma called on unemployed Nigerians to take advantage of DNS industry by becoming resellers of the .ng domain name.