Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen
The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), the managers of .ng Country Top Level Domain (ccTLD) and the Kenya Network Information Centre (KeNIC), the managers of .ke ccTLD have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which allows Nigerians to register (locally) domains such as amasi.ke, fola.ke, aji.ke, nwazuri.ke, asha.ke, tinu.ke, uzodi.ke, fun.ke, ki.ke, chigo.ke, ron.ke, rola.ke, ugho.ke, adeni.ke, olani.ke etc which are all within the Kenyan name spaces.
The MoU which recently signed at the Villa Rosa Kempinski, Nairobi, Kenya, by NiRA President, Reverend Sunday A Folayan and Mr. Abdalla Omari, the CEO, KeNIC specified the mutual rights and obligations of the parties to foster a working registry relationship.
This partnership according to NiRA president was to enable accredited registrars under both registries to provide registrar services and associated services for prospective applicants/registrant.
Folayan noted that the MOU parties warrant that accreditation of registrars either under the NiRA and KENIC registries is deemed sufficient for the provision of registrar services with NiRA and KENIC and registrars shall not be required to undergo the accreditation process under the respective registry to provide registrar services.
He said the cooperation will give NiRA accredited registrars the opportunity to register domain names directly in the Kenyan Registry, pay in their local currency and vice versa.
Folayan said, “The MOU should boost the quantity of domain names registered at both registries and also have a positive impact on the domain name business in Africa.”
“The Nigerian ccTLD is open to the entire world, so very many Nigerian domain names, such as cheu.ng, cha.ng, samsu.ng, bi.ng, shoppi.ng, routi.ng, domaini.ng etc are registered by not necessarily Nigerian entities” he added.
The signing ceremony happened at the tail end of the ICANN Government Advisory Committee (GAC) Africa Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya.
It was witnessed by key players within the African and Global Internet Community, including the President/CEO of ICANN- Goran Marby, Internet Pioneer – Prof. Nii Quaynor, representing the African Internet Community, Immediate Past President NIRA – Mrs. Mary Uduma, NIRA Board of Trustees member – Emmanuel Edet, NIRA’s Financial Secretary – Sikiru Shehu, NiRA’s Chief Operating Officer Edith Udeagu and AFRINIC Board/ICANN ALAC member Seun Ojedeji
