NiRA announces auction date for premium domains

Still basking in the euphoria of attaining re-delegation of the nation’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has announced the July date for the inaugural auction of some designated domain names as premium.

Even as NiRA has called for input into the processes with deadline fixed on June 16, 2009.

NiRA President, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, made this known at the weekend, noting that such premium domains comprised an assortment of unique levels for which auction would be conducted periodically.

This auction, he said, has been scheduled to take place between July 23 and 30, 2009, during the forthcoming Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Assembly billed for Abuja and organized by the Computer Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN).

Ndukwe also said that this would serve a dual purpose of further opening up the nation to the internet world, as the bidding is anticipated to attract international participation as well as provide the necessary funding for the association.

Additionally, he said, NiRA has dispatched consultation document to provide stakeholders with the guidelines for the auction process, which could still be accessed online at NiRA’s website, www.nira.org.ng and its forum platform.

According to him, the consultation period for the auction will last for two weeks which deadline has been fixed on June 16, 2009.

Nigeria’s presence on the Internet, he said, is about to receive a new boost with the expected massive registration of .ng domain names at different levels.

Currently, he said, NIRA’s price for domain names registration is among the lowest in the domain market of any country in the world.

“This is a deliberate pricing policy by NIRA in order to encourage greater up take of the .ng domain at the shortest possible time,” he said.

Ndukwe explained that the group having put in place a world class automated registry system built on the Cocca Registry Software and six anycast servers from four Anycast service providers around the world, with the accreditation of 29 Registrars, with more local and international registrars to be accredited, “NIRA is set for the next level to make .ng domain the premium domain in Africa and the world at large.”

In furtherance, he said, NIRA has identified some domain names as premium, and unique levels for which auction would enable it realize needed funds and make these domains available to the world with the appropriate content.

In order to give the auction process a focused strategy, an Auction Committee was constituted and mandated by the NIRA board to fashion out modalities for a viable and transparent auction process.

As said by him, after exhaustive deliberations the detailed auction procedures was approved by the NIRA board, hence categorized into three, namely Platinum, Gold and Diamond domain auction respectively.

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