E-Business
States, Local Govts. Get August Deadline on .ng
State governments’ ministries and parastatals as well as local governments in the country have till August this year to host their websites on the country’s top level domain name .ng, in a bid to protect state mechanism from deliberate and unintended abuse, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt.
.ng is Nigeria’s Code Top Level domain name, an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for Nigeria only.
The aim is to set up and operate a unified ICT infrastructure platform that permeates through all tiers of government and its agencies.
The creation of the .ng domain based websites and email addresses followed discovery that some civil servants have inadvertently transmitted sensitive government data and information through their own free email addresses which pose national security challenges.
Mary Uduma, president, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) said that according to federal government directive to that effect, all state governments, their ministries and parastatals as well as local government are to host their website and emails on .ng by the end of August this year.
Uduma, said, to meet the deadline, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is collaborating with NIRA to ensure a smooth migration for the states and local governments.
She noted that for the federal government ministries, departments and agencies compliance to their directive, a steering committee has been set up under the supervision of head of service of the federation with Galaxy Backbone the federal government registrar for the migration to work out modalities for the migration.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek recalled that e 2009, the federal government through Galaxy Backbone Plc, a public enterprise of the government had begun moves to replace so-called free email accounts like Yahoomail, hotmail used by government officials for communication with accounts ending in .ng.
Uduma added that NIRA is expecting to have some 2,000 websites from governments’ ministries, departments and agencies with additional 40,000 emails when the directives are fully complied with.
Aside government ministries and parastatals, she said that .ng registrars with the approval of NIRA are planning promos aimed at creating awareness on .ng.
“Registrars are planning promos such as Centenary promo among others where some websites will be registered free to increase the number of website on .ng. From these promos we are targeting about 150,000 in addition to existing 50,000 registrations and others we could achieve our projection of 250,000 registrations at the end of the year,” she said.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations however revealed that most businesses in the country shun .ng but rather prefer to register -ng.com or ng.com as against .ng.
Same is the case with emails where senior government officers are using yahoo, gmail among other email accounts against secured email account of their ministry account.
Ope Odusan, managing director of Africa.com Domain Services, said that the numbers of electronic mail also known as email on yahoo portal which belong to Nigerians are put at 2 million.
He explained that said that yahoo was able to attract this number of Nigerians to its email portal because the company offered the service free. He urged the federal government to replicate similar incentive to encourage Nigerian businesses to register with .ng which is the country’s top level domain name.
According to him, government could offer incentives such as one year tax break for any business that is registered in .ng or enter into public private partnership with information and communications technology companies that are capable of building hybrid data centres using energy efficient power to make the hosting of websites in the country cheaper.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations revealed that there are only 50,000 businesses registered in .ng while .com, .net and .org account for 600,000 of Nigerian businesses.
It was also gathered that other foreign domain names outside the three mentioned has some 50,000 Nigeria businesses on them, bringing the total of 650,000 of Nigerian businesses that are registered with foreign domain names.
All communities in Abia State are to be connected to Internet Service within the next 9 months, according to Dr. Alex Otti, state governor.
All communities in Abia State are to be connected to Internet Service within the next 9 months, according to Dr. Alex Otti, state governor.
Otti stated this at the Nnamdi Azikiwe State Secretariat premises at Umuahia, the state capital, while flagging off the first phase of the Umuahia Dedicated Internet Access/Wide Area Network And Managed Network Services Project (Project), saying that it promises to re-engineer efficiency and flexibility in operations and interactions within and amongst institutions, enhance policy execution, and engender a culture of outcome-oriented competition amongst civil servants.
The Project is being handled by iPNX, a major internet service provider.
At the ceremony, Otti, said the project includes distributing high-performance digital tools, laying fibre optic cables in public institutions, and installing infrastructure for high-speed data transmission.
He added that the initiative focuses on improving leadership efficiency, empowering civil servants with digital tools, and enhancing service delivery.
Transitioning to digital platforms would streamline government processes, enable faster communication among Ministries, departments, and Areas (MDAs), and improve engagement with development partners and the global community.
The governor also announced a mandatory digital literacy requirement for civil servants, making proficiency in technology essential for career growth.
Assuring that while the government would provide training, those unwilling to embrace technology risk becoming uncompetitive in the evolving civil service structure.
Plans are underway to expand digital access across Abia, with an agreement already in place to lay fiber optic cables in Aba, Umuahia, and Ohafia.
Otti directed Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, chief information officer to ensure that within nine months, every community in Abia must have reliable network service, enabling businesses to thrive virtually.
The Governor urged the people of Abia to embrace technology as a tool for empowerment rather than a replacement for human roles as the use of technology ought to be on enhancing service delivery and economic development, as well as keeping human decision-making at the core of governance.
The commencement of the initiative marks a major milestone in Abia’s journey towards a fully digital economy.
Ilukwe, described the project as a critical foundation for a digital government, emphasising its role in modernising service delivery.
Ilukwe said Phase I of the initiative prioritises multi-tenant buildings and complexes housing multiple MDAs and assured that MDAs not included in this phase would be covered in subsequent stages.
“Even as we are rounding off this phase, we are already preparing for the next, by the end of this service year, the entire government offices in Umuahia will be interconnected on a single network,” Ilukwe said.
Mr Ejovi Aror, group managing director, ipNX, expressed gratitude to Gov. Alex Otti for the opportunity to be part of the state’s digital transformation journey.
“This partnership signals the beginning of a new chapter in the journey towards building a digitally connected, technologically advanced, and economically empowered Abia State,” Aror said.
Visa, global payment services giant, has announced plans to establish a data centre infrastructure in Nigeria.
Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe and Vice-President Kashim Shettima
According to a statement by Stanley Nkwocha, senior special assistant to the president on media and communications (office of the vice-president) on Friday, Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, spoke during a courtesy visit to Vice-President Kashim Shettima at the presidential villa in Abuja.
“This is in addition to its investments of over $1 billion in the country, including a substantial technological partnership with @moniepoint to foster digital payment solutions, a $200 million investment in Interswitch, and a partnership with @thriveagric to empower smallholder farmers and enhance food security in Nigeria,” the statement reads.
During the meeting, Torre said the plan to establish the data centre infrastructure aims to bring new technologies into the Nigerian market that would bolster the nation’s growing digital economy.
“Visa has been making investments and will continue to make these investments in Nigeria,” he said.
Responding, Shettima welcomed Visa’s expansion efforts, assuring the delegation that the partnership between Visa and the Nigerian government would continue to flourish.
The vice-president commended the company for investing in ThriveAgric, noting that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is deeply committed to repositioning the agriculture sector, which remains a top priority in its 8-point agenda.
“Nigeria is where the action is. Of the 10 fintechs in Africa, about eight are in Nigeria, with moniepoint as the newest addition,” Shettima said.
“Agriculture is key to the 8-point agenda of the present administration. President @officialABAT is really keen on repositioning the agriculture industry here, and we have to invest in technology, we have to invest in modernisation.”
On January 23, Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech company, announced it secured investment from Visa to support the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe and Vice-President Kashim Shettima
Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has approved N242.8m for the procurement of a Microsoft 365 licence for its Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) as part of efforts to digitise the service’s operations.
Mr Michael Ango, acting executive chairman of FCT-IRS, disclosed this after the FCT Executive Committee meeting chaired by Mr Nyesom Wike, the minister of FCTA, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ango said that the FCTA was making significant investments in technology to enhance revenue generation and collection.
“So, this is also one of those investments in technology that the FCT is undertaking.
“The licence, if procured, will enhance our ability to move most of our manual processes into automated processes.
“It will enhance our ability to communicate within our offices,” he said.
The executive chairman added that the move would also reduce the use of paper and ensure better record-keeping through the storage of information and documents in the cloud.
According to him, “The licence will essentially enhance our operations and assist us in generating revenue for the development of the FCT under Wike’s leadership.”
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