NiRA announces date for commercial services on .ng

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), has announced its readiness to commence automated and commercial services come January 1, 2009.

President, NiRA, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, made this disclosure at the inauguration of an eight-man Auction Committee for the nation’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) name dot ng.

The committee which has the Vice President, NiRA and Director, Licensing at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Chairperson, Mrs. Mary Uduma and Publisher, Technology Times, Mr. Shina Badaru as deputy chair, also has NiRA’s Treasurer and Managing Director, Resort Saving & Loans Plc, Mr. Bimbo Olayinka and another director of NiRA and Head, Information Technology (IT), Aluko, Oyebode & Co. Ms Yetunde Johnson to serve as members.

Equally to serve in the committee are three of the newly accredited registrars; Messrs Omoniyi Ewete, Eugene Ohu and Destiny Amana, while Registrar Laison officer of NIRA, Mr. Emmanuel Amadi is secretary to the committee.

According to who was accompanied by the deputy chairperson of the Auction Committee, Mr. Badaru at the press meeting Friday, NiRA is now set to deliver on the key component of its mandate by going commercial.

«Come January 1, 2009 NIRA would commence automated and commercial service,»he declared.

Kalu also said that with the proposed commercialization of .ng, Nigerians all over the world and other interest in the .ng open domain would be able to register .ng domains with instant results.

Registrations, he said, would be possible through any of the NiRA accredited registrars, which currently numbering 29, with more to be accredited as requests come.

The registrars, Kalu said would offer online payment systems, thus instant domain registrations with domains visible 1 hour later.

He reiterated that as apart of the patriotic appeal to every citizen of this country, Nigerians have every reason to go for .ng domain.

Explaining that .ng domains would be one of the cheapest cctlds and second only to .com for the generic top level domains (gtlds) in pricing.

He stressed that as a virgin domain, many brand names are all available for proper name registration.

«All this makes the .ng domain a key domain of choice,» Kalu asserted.

While pointing out that it has not been an easy journey, he said, NiRA was born following the intervention of the immediate past president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

«The Internet community in Nigeria came together as one in the formation of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) to manage the country code top level domain (ccTLD) .ng,» he said.

Recalling that with the election of an executive board on May 1, 2007, «the stage was set for the realization of the .ng dream.»

Mr. Kalu further said that on January 16, 2008, NIRA signed an agreement with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to formally take over the management of the .ng ccTLD and by March 2008 the board had released for debate and input over 14 policies to guide the operations of the .ng ccTLD.

«After months of debate, the final policies were released on July 10, 2008,» he said.
Noting that with the release of these crucial policies the technical committee and the Registrar Accreditation committee went into action.

«While the registrar accreditation committee was charged to evaluate and recommend registrars for accreditation, the technical committee was tasked with putting in place a world class infrastructure that would meet the yearnings of Nigerians and registrants and the demands of the released policies,» Kalu outlined.


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