The President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Mr Muhammed Rudman has called for an improved investment internally to boost the Nigeria’s economy, which is largely driven by the Information and Communications technology tools.
While speaking at the 2021 Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH2021) held in Lagos, Nigeria recently, Mr. Rudman, also noted that the .ng domain name is a platform for unique positioning of brands and products online.
Rudman represented by Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata “CFA”, a director at NiRA, said that .ng domain name enables the connection of businesses to the entire world, making it possible for you to reach out to people irrespective of where they are, and showcase your skills, products and dreams.
Similarly, the NiRA’s President emphasised the need for increased internal dependence in Nigeria through improved local investments in the startup ecosystem.
He said that while most celebrated companies in the country are funded by foreigners, there is an urgent need to balance the investment portfolios to prevent future capital flights.
“These companies are all foreign-led and foreign-dominated, which we are thankful for because if those foreigners don’t bring the money, we’d probably not have these companies so we are thankful for that,” he said.
“But how can we now make the transformation in order to start building local resources in some of these companies?”
The answer given by Rudman was simply “practical and efficient ways of doing things”.
The resource you can get from your investment is almost predictable and that’s the beauty of how you deal with technology.
“Technology is an enabler, it’s a leveler, it levels the playing field,” Rudman reiterated.
All skills can be learnt at any level. Irrespective of who you are or where you are, you have the opportunity and what you need is access to the Internet.
“The good thing is that broadband penetration is growing and so we have all the indices we’ve been working for as a country. That is why we should be more calculative in ensuring that digital transformation has come to stay.
Explaining the essence of the .ng domain, Rudman explained that it gives businesses identity online and separates them from the cluster of others, especially on social media.
“Social media is amazing but if you’re a business owner it will be wise to own your uniqueness so people can reach out to you.”
Giving an instance, he pointed out the issue encountered by Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp recently, where all the platforms were shut down due to technical issue (already resolved). “Business owners who only rely on Instagram for their sales probably had to rethink the fact that anything can still happen in the future,” he said.
“The .ng domain is a platform for the unique positioning of your product. It enables the connection of businesses to the entire world, making it possible for you to reach out to people irrespective of where they are, and showcase your skills, products and dreams.
“The .ng domain is NiRA’s national brand and the company encourages small businesses to start with the domain so as to thrive seamlessly.
“I want to encourage everyone because we all have a collective responsibility to ensure we build the digital economy. At the end of the day, it is our responsibility to build the economy,” he told participants at AfriTECH2021.
Conclusively, he said: “A lot more is still possible, we need more collaboration and we need to be much more celebrated about what we do with the opportunities available.”