DSA applauds election of Ajayi into GNSO council

DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA) has applauded the recent election of two Nigerians into leadership positions at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), according to the 2011 Nominating Committee (NomCom) outcome.

ITRealms Online recalls that the immediate past President, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and chief executive officer, PiNet Informatics, Mr. Lanre Ajayi and youthful Nigerian technology professional based in South Africa, Mrs. Titi Akinsanmi, were elected into ICANN leadership positions in the current year according to the NomCom chairman, Mr. Adam Peake, recently.

While Mr. Ajayi was elected into the Generic Name Supporting Organisation (GNSO) council , Mrs. Akinsanmi joined the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC).

Reacting to the development, the management of DigitalSENSE Africa, through its Executive Director, Operations, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, said that their elections is a good sign of beautiful things to come the way of the country through the internet technologies.

Specifically, she said that DSA has confidence on Mr. Lanre, who is ably qualified to serve on that board having just ended his two-term tenure with the NIG and made inroads with his Internet for Jobs (I4J) initiative.

According to her, there is no doubt Mr. Ajayi would deliver on any assignment emanating from his participating in the council’s activities.

Mr. Ajayi, she said, has in the recent past motivated the relevant issues on Internet Governance in the country and across the West African sub-region.

“I am confident that he (Mr. Ajayi) would fly Nigeria’s flag across the global within the Internet community,” she said.

Industry observers recall that Ajayi had his Bachelors and Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Lagos, and has trained on Data Communications at GPT, Coventry, UK on a scholarship of the British Council.

He was further trained on Internet technologies and networking in Canada and Switzerland on the scholarships of the Internet Society (ISOC), even as he benefited from the fellowship of the Africa Network operator Group (AFNOG) to train on Internet technologies in South Africa and Ghana.

Mr. had worked for the Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) for 11 years before establishing PiNet Informatics, which is one of the first Internet Service Providers in the country.

While working at NITEL R&D department, he came up with a number of designs and devices which became the first set of patents held by NITEL. Just as he designed the External line plant monitoring device; the anti-cable theft device and he was in the team that developed a Nigerian Digital Exchange tagged ‘the Eagle project’ at a lab in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States in 1990. Ajayi has won several awards for his Research and Development activities among other achievements.

Remmy Nweke
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