Why all MDAs must be on .ng

Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, at the weekend, has given security as the reason why all government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), must switch over to .gov.ng domain. Johnson said that the domain was more secure than those on freely available internet mail services.
The minister stated this at the workshop on effective management of domain name .gov.ng organized by Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA). According to Johnson, .gov.ng is a national domain and exclusively preserved to be used by all government MDAs.
NIRA was established on March 23rd, 2005, out of the directive of the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to manage this critical resource of the country. The Federal Government has entrusted NIRA to manage ‘.ng’ internet name space.
According to her, ‘The domain name ending with ‘.ng’ is a national resource. It is unique identifier for every Nigerian on the world wide web while “.gov.ng’ is exclusively preserved to be used by all government MDAs. In addition, Official email addresses ending in .gov.ng are much more secure than those addresses obtained from the freely available internet mail services.
At present, close to 40,000.gov.ng email account have been created for all principal officers, permanent officers, permanent secretaries, heads of parastatals, directors and other management staff of various MDAs and new easy to remember domain names are being created. This will allow affairs of the state to be run more securely within the national domain space.’
Johnson who was represented by Mrs. Moni Udoh, noted a mass migration to the .ng domain by MDAs and other Nigerians will ensure the implementation of the first step in our e-government strategy aimed at connecting government within itself and within itself and with the citizens of Nigeria on a safe common platform that will increase local traffic and thus reduce the overall cost of governance.”
In his welcome address Director General National Information Technology Development Agency,  Professor Cleopas Angaye, said most of the global economy is based online and it is imperative for the nation to fly its flag and actively participate in cyberspace.
“The level of ICT penetration in the country also calls for developing efforts to serve indigenous market, attract foreign direct investment and contribute to our Gross Domestic Product. For instance, the Nigerian Internet population has witnessed tremendous growth with a boost from 2,418,679 users in 2005 to an estimated number of about 10 million Internet users in 2008 and currently over 44 million thereby positioning Nigeria as one of the fastest growing Internet users in sub Saharan Africa.
The need to annex these obvious potentials for national development in a beneficial way to the country and entire citizenry must therefore be collectively pursued.”  he said.
He stressed that the domain would ensure that MDAs have websites through which they propagate their mandates, activities and interact with the general public.

Techno Nigeria