NiRA Celebrates Decade of .ng Domain Name Management

Nigeria internet Registration Association (NiRA), the leading Country Code Top Level domain name registry in West Africa, has scheduled a number of activities to mark its tenth year anniversary.

Speaking during a press conference on Tuesday, Chinma Onyekwere, chairman, Board of Trustees of NiRA said that the Association is proud to celebrate a decade of managing Nigeria’s critical national resource and identity flagship on the internet, the .ng name string.

He said that NiRA has kept faith as the registry for .ng Internet Domain Names and maintains the database of names registered in the .ng country code Top Level Domain.

NiRA is a self-regulating body and managers of the .ng national resource, the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) name space in the public interest of Nigeria and global internet communities.

He listed activities for the celebration and means to building awareness and appreciation of .ng includes, the presence of NiRA delegates at the Africa DNS Forum/ICANN meeting holding in Morocco from 4th to 10th March, 2016; the NiRA Fair and Exhibition of the DNS industry to be mounted by NiRA accredited registrars, resellers, web hosting companies and software developers, on 12th March, 2016.

He added that there will be a Youth empowerment and wealth creation program on the 19th March, 2016; conferment of .ng Ambassadors; launch of .ng Scouts program; the .ng Social Media activities and a climax with the .ng 10th Anniversary Gala and Award night on the 2nd of April, 2016.

“At NiRA, we are passionate about local content development and we believe that great ideas begin with a simple inspiration and thereafter become stories that entertain, educate and capture the imagination of the audience. With our passion in mind, we launch the NiRA .ng selfie and animation competitions to create compelling local contents that inspire. We encourage Nigerians to take advantage of the opportunities offered by these competitions”.

The Chairman who said that the DNS industry is a revenue generator with abundant business opportunities in the .ng domain name industry, urged Nigerians to join in the noble act of promoting our businesses, our culture, our heritage and our economy online, by promoting .ng.

Earlier in a presentation, Reverend Sunday Folayan, NiRA’s president said that NiRA @10 is a milestone worthy of celebration.

He said that NiRA currently boost of 60,000 domain names registered in the country compared to about 2,000 domains it inherited during formation.

He said, however, there are 59,847 domains in the .ng domain of which 25% are reserved for obvious reasons.

“Today, we have 56 accredited Registrars who do the registration while NiRA runs the registry. 79% of the registrars are Nigerians with others from the UK, US, South Africa, etc., on domains by level, 63% representing 4,400 of the registered domains are on second level; 77% representing 10,000 of them are on third level, while others are on the fourth level”.

He added that the most domains are on third level which negates the notion that it was expensive to obtain .ng domain name, among other statistics he reeled out to buttress NiRA’s achievements in the past decade.

History Of NiRA
The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) was founded on March 23, 2005 as a stakeholder-led organisation, charged with the management of the Nigeria's country code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD), dot ng.

The transfer of the appropriate management of this important National Resource was coordinated by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on behalf of the Federal government of Nigeria.

Stakeholders within Nigeria’s Internet community participated in its formation. It was registered as an Incorporated Trustee on February 9, 2007.

NIRA's formation brought to an end the long years of controversy in the country, over the management of this critical national resource, following the intervention of the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

The re-delegation of the .ng ccTLD came nearly 12 years after the country code was hosted first in Italy, and later by Mr Randy Bush, an American. While Mr Bush was the technical contact for the ccTLD, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote served as the administrative contact.

NIRA's Constitution was adopted by Stakeholders, at a meeting held on March 28, 2006. A Board of Trustees (BoT) was elected among the stakeholders with Dr. Isaac Odeyemi as the pioneer Chairman, shortly after the adoption of the Constitution.

By May 1, 2007, the first Executive Board of NIRA was elected with Engr. Ndukwe Kalu of blessed memory leading a 10-man Board.

Today, NiRA has Chinma Onyekwere, chairman, Board of Trustees and Reverend Sunday Folayan as the President.