Exclusive by Benjamin Amu

Lagos. February 5, 2010. The Central Bank of Nigeria,the nation’s banking regulator, military institutions and scores of other government agencies have missed a 2009 year-end deadline to migrate their websites onto Nigeria’s n.g, the nation’s virtual equivalent of country border on the global Internet.

D-G, NITDA, Cleopas Angaye

The Federal Government last year issued a December 31, 2009 deadline to all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) under government to comply with the directive, citing issues of national identity and security concerns.

According to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), which last year announced the deadline, government’s reason for the directive is mainly to promote national identity and safeguard security of government transactions in cyberspace, hence, non compliance by the MDAs is being addressed by the government agency responsible for implementing the nation’s IT policy direction.

Director General, NITDA, Cleopas Angaye told TECHNOLOGY TIMES in an interview to review the state of compliance with the directive by MDAs that the agency has set up an internal committee to review the matter.

“We have set up a Committee and they are reviewing the issue and they will soon submit their report to me”, Angaye said in a phone interview from his Abuja office and declined further comments on the matter, “until the Committee submits its report.”

Governor, CBN, Sanusi Lamido

NITDA manage the .gov.ng domain under the .ng, the specific Internet address set aside for use by only government institutions and agencies while others are being managed by over 20 commercial registrars that have been accredited by the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA), a multi-stakeholder non-profit body representing the nation’s Internet community that also manages the nation’s Internet name.

Last year, Angaye had given a roadmap under which all MDAs under government are expected to have moved their websites, most of which are currently hosted under commercial and other Internet addresses like “.com”, “.org”, among others

NIRA last year announced that all domains registered under the nation’s .ng Internet name prior to January 1, 2009 would expire by July 8, 2009 following the automation of domain registration flagged off by the group.

Late President, NIRA, Ndukwe Kalu had then said that with the commencement of automated registration of .ng internet names, it will now be a paid service carried out by 29 registrars that have been appointed by NIRA to ease acquisition. Prior to the flag-off of the automated mode, acquisition of Nigerian domain name was usually very cumbersome.

NIRA had then said that, “all domains registered before January 1, 2009 would expire by July 8, 2009. There would then be a further grace period until end of same month. By August 1, 2009 any such domains not registered would be suspended and deleted in 7days thereafter.

Following the NIRA announcement to domain name holders, registrar have also followed up with notices followed up with notices to people holding .ng domain names to ensure they are in compliance ahead of the expiration deadline.
Registrations can no longer be done directly and are no longer free but would be at a cost determined by the various registrars. With the wide variety of registrars we believe we are living in interesting times as concerns domain pricing and service, said NIRA.

However, automatic deletion of domain names did not apply to .gov.ng and .edu.ng used by government agencies and educational institutions respectively but they were subsequently suspended.

NIRA is also renewing the entire structure and framework on the nations internet names systems that will result in a shift of some names systems that will result in a shift of some levels of registration, auction of some premium names and creation of new domains within the period.

Under the plan, for the .gov.ng domain names further policy reviews were undertaken such that state government MDAs and local governments had to move to the fourth level of registration under state zones. Only Federal government and state executives can be on the .gov.ng domain.

Also, new domain names have been introduced like .sch.ng, .mobi.ng, name.ng while designating some domain names as premium and auctioned to subsidise the low registry fees charged by accredited registrars.

NIRA said that under its management, the process has now been fully automated and built on a robust infrastructure such that with the simplified registration and domain management system, names can now be registered instantly and become visible on the Internet within one hour.

However, government sources complained that they have encountered difficulties with registering their domain name request through NITDA which currently manages the .gov.ng. Others said they were unaware of the directive asking them to migrate their websites from commercial domains by end of last year.

Only a handful of Federal government agencies are on the Nigerian Internet domain including Ministry of Information and Communications, National Centre for Economics Management & Administration, National Information Technology Development Agency, Nigerian Communications Commission, Federal Ministries of Commerce, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and Corporate Affairs Commission, among others.

Other  government MDAs not on dot ng includes; Bureau of Public Enterprises Central Bank of Nigeria, Department of Petroleum Resources, Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigerian Mining Corporation, Nigerian Ports Authority and National Export Processing Zone Authority.

Others are Nigerian Tourism Board, National Orientation and Public Affairs, National Council on Privatization, National Broadcasting Commission, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Police, Nigerian Customs Services, among others.