Nira Propagates .ng at 2nd AGM

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (Nira) last week held its second Annual General Meeting at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja Lagos. Top on the agenda of the meeting was to receive the Annual Report and financial statement for the year ended May 31, 2008 alongside the Auditors’ Report. It was also part of the Ordinary Business of the meeting to receive a Business Plan and Budget for the current financial year of the association beginning June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009 while on the Special Business was a review of the constitution of the association.

Addressing the gathering, Engr. Ndukwe Kalu, president of the association identified the strength and weaknesses of the association as itemized in the Nira business plan. He pointed out that organizational structure and manpower, network infrastructure, registrar base and the fact that .ng is a virgin domain are the strength of the association whereas bad public image which Nira has with registrants and issue of finance are some of the challenges faced by it .To mitigate these problems, Kalu said the body would go on registrar appeal using goodwill and effective customer service to work on the registrars as well as embark on public enlightenment campaign to publicize Nira as efficient , fast and reliable organization. In addition, the body will give incentive to old registrants in consultation with the registrars and embark on mass orientation after the technical infrastructure has been put in place.

In the area of finance, Kalu said their financial situation is a major weakness that could deter the progress of the association and tom counter this; the body has planned to offer endorsement opportunity to various firms which in return will provide cash or services to the association. The body according to Kalu would offer premium domain which will attract a special price for individuals, bodies or agencies that want to have a special domain as a way of generating fund for the association. He also noted that in the regular registration that the association will make sure that the domain name is well populated even as he intimated that they will make defined projects available for corporate sponsorship taking into consideration the interest of the association.

Further, Kalu considered rising internet penetration in the country, person/brand protection as companies are registering multiple domains for corporate names and product brands to ensure protection and rising content need in the country as existing opportunities to fully populate the various SLDs for .ng

On the action plan, Kalu identified a three-point agenda for the association. He said that the body will strive to massively propagate .ng domain by working closely with their registrars. So far, the board has approved the selection of thirty five provisional registrars from within and outside Nigeria.

Nira also discovered security as a major issue and has adopted the anycast implementation with multiple providers which Kalu said will offer protection to any form of attack on the cyber space. Finally, he said that fine quality content will be provided by the association to cut across the interest the majority of the people.