Honours for Uduma, CFA, Hassan @ NiRA Presidential Awards 2016

PR@ITRealms:

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) recently held a gala and web awards night organised to recognise all those using the .ng domain names.

The event had two sets of awards; the first was the .ng web awards while the other was the Presidential awards. The .ng web awards recognised companies and institutions that have effectively used the .ng domain over the years and have indirectly helped to promote the Nigerian brand online.

The other set of awards were given by the NiRA President to organisations and individuals that have been committed to the development of the ICT industry in Nigeria. Mary Uduma, erstwhile President of NIRA received the special recognition award for her contributions to the growth of the .ng domain name ecosystem. Another recipient, was Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr. (CFA), Presenter, Tech Trends on Channels TV and Founder, Techsmart.ng, who received the NiRA Presidential Award for Youth Development, an award that recognizes and encourages youths with a combination of the best .ng website, best online local content and best use of ICT and finally, Dr. Wunmi Hassan, who was recognised for her role in the advancement of women in technology.

NiRA's ultimate goal is to get more Nigerians to use the .ng domains because Nigeria currently has less than 100,000 .ng domains while South Africa has over 1 million .co.za domains.

Winners of the .ng competitions preceding the gala and awards night also received gifts from NiRA.

 Correspondent/GEE

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Pix: CFA receiving his award form NIRA president, Sunday Folaya and vice president, Muhammed Rudman (2) a cross section of awardees

25 countries storm Contonou for ICANN domain names, trademarks workshop

ITRealms:

A two-day workshop on domain names, trademarks and rights protection on the continent ends at the Hotel Novotel Orisha Cotonou with 25 African countries participating, ITRealms reports.

Also, ITRealms reports that over 80 attendees came from the 25 participating African countries.

The workshop put together by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ITRealms gathered was opened by Komi Koutche, the Beninese, Minister for Information and Communications Technology in the company of Mr. David Olive, ICANN’s Vice President for Policy Development Support.

Additionally, ITRealms gathered that participants cut across the country code Top Level Domain  (ccTLD) managers, registrars, practitioners of intellectual property rights, rights protection specialists to name a few and had the opportunity to share best practices for the protection of users' rights on the continent.

According to Olive, “Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) will have a profound impact on brand owners, regional industry and consumers,” stressing that it is important that ICANN supports Africa in its strategy to promote Internet industry.

He also revealed to ITRealms that the workshop affords ccTLD managers and registrars to be better equipped for the rapid implementation of measures for the security, management and promotion of ccTLDs.

“This is a critical part in enabling the Domain Name industry to flourish in African digital economy,” he said.

Pierre Dandjinou , the Vice President of ICANN for Africa, disclosed to ITRealms that the protection of rights is hardly addressed in Africa and mechanisms for protection of existing rights are not very popularized on the continent hence the workshop,

“As many African countries having started to organize their structures of intellectual property rights, it may be necessary to better inform them on the relationship between domain names, trademarks and the mechanisms for conflict resolution,“ Dandjinou said.

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Photo: Pierre Dandjinou , the Vice President of ICANN for Africa

.gov.ng records 86,089 emall accounts

courtesy: DigitalSENSE Business News [RN]

Till December 31, 2012, Nigeria recorded a total of 86,089 registered electronic mail (email) accounts created on .gov.ng domain names, across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

This is coming as over 250 websites is hosted under this platform out of the estimated 420 government websites, which increased from 370 in 2011, while over 200 servers have been deployed.

Mrs. Efem Nkanga, the special adviser on media and publicity to the Federal Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, made these disclosures while reviewing the just ended year 2012 with DigitalSENSE Business.

She also said the ministry championed the drive to ensure the migration of all governments MDAs to .ng domain, adding that over 382 MDAs have been connected in Abuja and other parts of the country. 

While in excess of 200 Servers were deployed to host more than 94 MDAs, including the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Nigerian Army, Pension Commission (PENCOM) to name a few.

Mrs. Johnson, CommTech Minister

“… Till date registered email accounts in government on .gov.ng domain names have hit 86,089, with more than 250 websites hosted on .gov.ng platform,” she declared.

According to her, the Ministry of Communication Technology created a year and five months ago, had facilitated the transformation of Nigeria into a digital economy within the period under review, thus has achieved a number of milestones and has set in motion a number of initiatives that will fast track the development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

The ministry, she said, has four agenda on its priority list including the agenda to connect Nigeria through facilitation of a ubiquitous broadband infrastructure, stressing that Connect Nigerians provides access to infrastructure and device ownership to promote inclusive development.

 
In addition, she revealed that the project encourages local content by promoting local value added in the industry in the area of hardware, software among others. Further, she said, the project promote ICT in government- by facilitating eGovernment to ensure transparency, efficiency, productivity in governance and citizen engagement. 

Remmy Nweke
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