Chairman board of trustees of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) Dr. Adeola Odeyemi has re-iterated the need for all stakeholders in the Nigerian internet community to come together to promote the growth and development of its online presence through the growing adoption of the Nigerian top level domain. A Similar call had earlier been made by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Making this call at a press conference held in Lagos, Odeyemi noted that "the signing into law of the NITDA bill is the first solid step the ICT industry requires for rapid growth and relevant contribution to Nigeria's ICT development."

He explained that only a few users had been aware that there was a country top level domain: .ng which inadvertently had been hosted outside the country by a Technical Point of Contact person authorized by ICAAN (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers) and IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which are some of the international organizations responsible for coordination of internet activities globally.

He also stated that in response to the president's call, "we are pleased to return here today to inform the internet community and Nigerians at large that NIRA has been registered with the corporate affairs commission (CAC) and has been issued its certificate of incorporation". He stated that the association is ready to take further steps towards the overall vision of internet growth across Nigerian through private sector participations.

He stated that persons and organizations that have expressed desire to register domain names in the country have been presented with the opportunities to register under various foreign names including the following among many others:.com, .org, .co.uk, .za etc.
Dr Odeyemi also gave a breakdown of developments efforts made to bring the management of the nation's top level domain to include "the appointment of two of its own colleagues as Technical Point of contact for domain registration".

He called on members to note the following activities to get stakeholders in the internet community to make application for registration as members of NIRA and the actions taken so far by NIRA BOT to set up screening committee for membership enrolment.
Odeyemi disclosed that NIRA "is poised to take further steps towards the overall vision of internet growth across Nigeria through private sector participation".


To register, visit: http://db.register.net.ng/