NiRA

Type:	Non-Profit
Industry:	Registry
Founded:	March 23, 2005
Headquarters:	8, Funsho William's Avenue, Surulere, Lagos
Country:	Nigeria
Email:	admin [at] nira.org.ng
Website:	NiRA.org.ng
Facebook:	NiRAworks
Twitter:	@niraworks
Key People
Dr. Adeola Odeyemi, Pioneer Board Chairman Pastor Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, Current Board Chairman Late Ndukwe Kalu, Pioneer Executive President Adesola Akinsanya, Current Executive President Mrs Eyitayo Iyortim, Current COO

NiRA or Nigeria Internet Registration Association is the registry of Nigeria's .ng ccTLD.

NiRA follows the Registry/Registrar model according to which .ng domain names can be registered through a NiRA accredited Registrar. It does not directly register domain names.

History

In 1995, the ccTLD was delegated by John Postel to Iyabo Odusote from Yaba College of Technology in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2004 the Nigerian government requested redelegation to the the National Information Technology Development Agency. NiRA was started as a stakeholder organization in 2005 for the maintenance of the .ng registry. NiRA's Board of Trustees was elected in 2006 and its Executive Board in March 2007. In 2008, the Nigerian government and NiRA entered into a formal agreement for NiRA to become the sponsoring organization of the .ng ccTLD.

Leadership

Past Board of Trustee Chairman

Dr. Adeola Odeyemi

Deacon Chima Onyekwere

Past Presidents

Late Kalu Ndukwe

Mary Uduma

Sunday Folayan

Past Chief Operations Officer

Ope Odusan

Adebunmi Adeola Akinbo

Edith Udeagwu

.ng

In April 2013, NiRA opened .ng for registration outside of Nigeria. The .ng domain is an Open Use ccTLD; registration at the top level is open to anyone, with some restrictions and rules on registration of certain second-level domains. Leveraging the potential for domain hacking English words ending in -ing, the second-level domain i.ng is available for registration. Other second-level domains including com.ng, edu.ng, name.ng, net.ng, org.ng, sch.ng, gov.ng, mil.ng, and mobi.ng.

Switch to .ng

In 2011, NiRA started a 'Switch to .ng' urging Nigerian firms to register .ng domains. It aims to improve the visibility of Nigeria on the Internet by creating local content with ensured content security. As part of the campaign, NiRA offered 50,000 free .ng domain names to its customers in March, 2011.. With the support of NITDA and the excellent leadership of the Ministry of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, "switchto.gov.ng" was launched to convert Nigerian agencies and governmental bodies to .ng addresses.

Events

NiRA, in collaboration with other internet related bodies, has organized a lot of activities to date and contributed immensely to the growth and development of various organizations across Africa and in Nigeria. NiRA is supporting the growth and sustenance of organizations and associations with related reference, towards advancing the development amongst the Internet Industry.

• The Digital Sense Forum.;

• The Local Internet Content Forum (LICF);

• The Nigeria Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) .

Other expectations are:

• Corporate-1-Million i.e. NG Corps, NG Media College, NG Young CEOs et al;

• Centenary Giveaways[2];

• Internet Awards and Recognition, to mention a few.

==External Links==

• NiRA registrars [3].

==References==