LAGOS: The Federal Government of Nigeria has ordered all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the country to migrate to the pan Nigerian domain name in their official websites and emailing addresses. It warned that Government ministries that flaunt the order would be slammed with appropriate sanctions. The .ng domain name is a national resource and a unique identifier for every Nigeria on the World Wide Web, while .gov.ng is exclusively preserved to be used by all government MDAs. The Minister of Communications, Omobola Johnson stated that the “utilization of the .gov.ng domain name by all MDAs is a critical step in the implementation of our e-governance strategy.” Johnson said a mass migration to the .ng domain by the MDAs and other Nigerians will ensure the implementation of the first step in their e-governance strategy. This strategy is aimed at connecting government within itself and with the citizens of Nigeria on a safe common platform to increase local traffic and thus reduce the overall cost of governance, she said The Minister said official email addresses ending in gov.ng are much more secure than those addresses obtained from the freely available internet mail services. The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Prof. Cleopas Angaye said it was important to ensure Nigeria participates in the cyber space by increasing “our local content and advancing the patronage of made in Nigeria ICT products.” Especially with the fact that the country is one of the fastest growing Internet user in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 44 million Nigerian Internet users.
