Domain Name System industry worth billions of dollar rots away
Domain Name System is a new emerging industry which is worth several billions of dollars which rotting away as this country is yet to take the lot of opportunities which this industry offers.
This assertion was made by Sikiru Shehu Dean NIRA Academy, with Tony Nwakaegho at an aside during the just concluded 2nd Edition of .ng Academy held in Lagos, adding that as at today the domain name counts in the whole world is about three million, but back home within this domain name count the entire continent of Africa have just less than two million and in Nigeria about 66,000 domain numbers.
“When you do your projection with about 170million as our population, you can see how large this industry will have been, apart from this there are other ancillaries such as domain name, web site development, domain hosting. You can name a lot of sub industry that can come out of this industry. I see a huge opportunity to generate jobs, creating wealth and employment opportunities,” he declared.
The NiRA Academy, he said is an about empowering person through DNS knowledge, set to see how to make known to the fore through skill development, capacity building and how we can further create awareness as far as this new industry is concerned.
Commenting on why Africa is taking the back seat in the DNS industry, Sikiru said that it is becoming part of our culture to take the back seat in everything during the industrial revolution up till date we have been used to take things from abroad without giving back.
He cited low awareness, poor internet infrastructure and penetration; lack of government policy in member countries that can drive the uptake of Africa ccTLDs; preferences for foreign Domain names; poverty of minds and ideas; insufficient skilled personnel for the DNS industry; absence of creative and innovative DNS entrepreneurs (Internetpreneurs).
“I have been to some of our Harbours in this country to see containers bring all sorts of things but you find these containers going back empty. But the good thing about digital era is that if you are well positioned you can reverse that trend. Instead of downloading from aboard we up load our content and in Africa we are rich in content and culture to showcase all that we have to the world through this platform,” Dean NiRA Academy said.
Nigeria as a country, he explained has over the years been a consumer of finished products, services and even uploads of recent from abroad.
According to him, both individuals and government have a big role to play in making sure that we have passion for this new industry, stressing that government should play a leading role as far as this industry is concerned because if there are policies that will encourage the uptake of .ng for instance then it makes it easier for the industry to grow faster.
“We heard that they have just passed a bill on procurement into law and what we heard the bill is saying is that they must buy Nigerian goods and services.
“.ng is our unique internet infrastructure that we should be very proud of and if this law is extended to take care of buying of even a domain names it will be a good starting point for us as a country,” he pointed out.
He highlighted that there are challenges in getting content to where it should be, insisting that we have content, but selling that content is difficult because we don’t have the wherewithal and that is one area being looked into to see where to get the means and put this content for people to buy.
“In this continent I see other countries try to dress like Nigerians, eat our food, listen to our music which was not so years ago when we listen to Michael Jackson and others. Now we listen to P- Square and others Nigerian Artistes. We need to know how to get this content to the world and we will be there,” he enthused.
NiRA has made it possible with the Academy, he said where we teach soft skill and tech aspect, adding that the tech aspect is ongoing, but soft skill is how to market DNS in Nigeria and Africa. He disclosed that the Academy is set to do that with a lot content that it wants to push out in teams of content and curriculum.
He noted that the challenge is on all to join hands with NiRA at ensuring that the country does not lose the opportunities being offered by this digital era in turning Nigeria into a producer of products and contents for the internet.
“NiRA Academy and Resource Centre (of .ng registry, NiRA) has been charged with the mandate as derived from NITDA to develop the Domain Name Industry in Nigeria through partnership and collaboration with stakeholders. The media is the catalyst Nigeria DNS industry is waiting for more awareness, and mobilizing through advocacy.
“The Academy is poised and ready to breed Nigerians to take advantage of the jobs and business opportunities, wealth creation, financial rewards .ng domain name has to offer.
Caption
Mr Sikiru Shehu Dean NiRA Academy (Front row in black suit) flanked by participants of the Academy 2016 in Lagos recently.
