NiRA Says Africa ‎DNS 2015 Forum as Leapfrog for Domain Services on Continent

Stakeholders from around the globe, in the African Domain name business gathered recently in Nairobi, Kenya, for the third edition of the Africa Domain Name System Forum 2015, to discuss the challenges, opportunities and the future of Africa’s Domain Name Industry.

This annual event enables Registries, Registrars and other stakeholders share experiences, interact and learn from each other about the Domain Name Industry.

According to Sunday Folayan, president of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) in an e-newsleter circulated by the Association,  “This year’s event was rewarding as it fostered discussions on cross border collaboration between NiRA and KeNIC, our Top Level Domain counterpart in Kenya”.

The NiRA delegation had Board, Staff and Registrars in attendance.

Mrs. Mary Uduma, the immediate past president was among the moderators and panellists at the Forum.

The event presented the numerous opportunities available to Africa in the DNS industry, which other countries in the world had taken up to the benefit of their countries.
 
“We actualized our dream of encouraging and rewarding performing (by sales volume) NiRA Accredited Registrars by sponsoring two Registrars to the Africa DNS Forum 2015 at Nairobi, Kenya. This is a show of appreciation of the work done to project the .ng brand, our collective resource and identity. We look forward to providing more of these opportunities to all, so please sell more .ng domains!”, NiRA president said ‎
 
The growth of the DNS Industry in Africa provides employment opportunities to Youths.

In Kenya, for example, students in the universities operate as resellers to Registrars in their country.

They are involved in the process of claiming and advertising their country identity in the cyberspace.

“This is something we can and should copy in Nigeria. We must always advertise Nigeria positively to the world.
 
“In the coming months, we will mount aggressive marketing campaigns to bring NIRA to the consciousness of Nigerians and beyond. As usual, we welcome your suggestions and advise always,” Folayan added.‎

The purpose of the Africa DNS Forum was largely to bring together ccTLD Registries, Registrars, and stakeholders from Africa and around the world to share, learn, interact and discuss ways of how the African Domain Name Space can be improved upon by sharing experiences and best practices in the Domain Name Industry at a global level and of the emerging business opportunities.

The take for this year’s event are that the industry players need new business strategies to improve the DNS industry in Africa; continuous collaboration of African ccTLD and development of capacity and talents necessary in Africa in order to get the digital economy to where it is expected in the black nation.‎