Nigeria concludes redelegation of .ng ccTLD

Finally, the internet coordinating agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), weekend, concluded the redelegation of Nigeria’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) name, .ng.

A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country or a dependent territory. Some examples of ccTLD are .us for United States, .uk for United Kingdom, .de for Germany, . nz for New Zealand, and .eg for Egypt to name a few.

Disclosing this in a telephone conversation, President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, said it is a milestone for the country to achieve the full local management and control of its ccTLD, .ng.

Champion Infotel recalls that .ng ccTLD journey began a decade and four years ago, precisely in 1995 with the first delegation to Mrs. Ibukun Odusote as the then administrative point of contact. And by 2004 stakeholders were engulfed in controversy over who hosts the ccTLD locally, majorly between a non-governmental organization, the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), which attracted the attention of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who consequently, directed the Nigerian Internet community represented by the G22 to reach a consensus on a not-for-profit and all inclusive body to manage the .ng ccTLD, thus giving birth to NiRA board of trustees in 2005. This was followed by the election of the NIRA executive board in May 2007.

For NiRA president, this moment of completing the redelegation processes as demanded by ICANN and its administrative affiliate, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), is a turning point in the existence of .ng ccTLD.

“For us, we have set our Vision 20 2020 as Vision 20 2011, that is, for Nigeria to make the ccTLD top 20 by year 2011,” he declared.

Ndukwe also said that with the conclusion of the redelegation, NiRA executive board inaugurated over two years ago at an all-inclusive stakeholders meeting in Lagos, could now go full-length into the commercial aspect of the .ng management, which was entrusted on NiRA at inception of the management in May 2007.

According to him, at exactly 4pm GMT, May 13, 2009, Verisign effected the ICANN approved root server changes to the .ng ccTLD, a few hours later ICANN/IANA followed the board approved redelegation of the Nigerian ccTLD on the IANA website.

This, he said, effectively brings to an end the long desire and expectation of the Nigerian Internet community to effect redelegation of the .ng ccTLD and full local management.

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