Ajayi joins NIRA Executive Board, promises global perspective to .ng

DigitalSENSE Business News

Mr. Lanre Ajayi giving his acceptance speech@5th NIRA, AGM

Nigerian Council member to the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Mr. Lanre Ajayi has been elected into the Executive Board of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA).

DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that Mr. Ajayi was the immediate past president of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and current president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

A former vice president, Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), and holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Lagos.

Responding, Mr. Ajayi appreciated the support received so far from members and executive board of NiRA towards his appointment into the GNSO till date and promised to bring about global perspective to domain name management into NIRA, as the association grow its market share and acceptability across the globe.

Ajayi’s election came through after the fifth Annual General Meeting, proceeded by the elections into some five vacant positions in the Executive Board of NIRA, which also saw to election of the Messrs Abimbola Olayinka, Sikiru Shehu, Biyi Oladipo and Akinbo Cornerstone Adeolu.

While Mr. Ajayi, who is the managing director of PiNet Informatics joins the board, alongside Abimbola Olayinka, who was the former treasurer, Messrs Sikiru Shehu and Biyi Oladipo emerged as the pioneer Financial Secretary and new Treasurer respectively. While Mr. Akinbo Adeolu joined from Board of Trustee for a two-year tenure.

On the other hand, Mrs. Mary Uduma and Messrs Sunday Folayan, Muhammed Rudman, Remmy Nweke and Tope Fashedemi retained their positions as the president, vice president and executive board members of NIRA for another term of two years.

This is coming as all subsisting members of the Board of Trustees were returned for the second term in addition to adoption of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) into the BoT to represent the interest of the government of the federation, more so as the supervising agency.

 NiRA is the repository of the Nigeria’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) .ng and was founded in 2005 as a multi-stakeholder group with currently 41 registrars.

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eBusiness Life inducts Johnson, Opeke, others into Tech Women Hall of Fame

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 As part of the just concluded International Girls in ICT Day Celebration, eBusiness Life Communications has instituted an award to celebrate deserving women that have made their marks in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Nigeria.
 

The award is a means of inducting these professionals into the circle of ICT women achiever tagged “Tech Women Hall of Fame.”

Confirming this to DigitalSENSE Business News, the Chief Executive Officer/Editor-in-Chief of eBusiness Life, Mrs Ufuoma Emuophedaro said that those honoured during this year’s maiden induction included Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, who was honoured as the ‘Best Policy Contributor’, Chief Executive Officer of MainOne Cable Company, Funke Opeke, as the ‘Tech Achiever of the Year,’ and the Chief Technical Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mrs Lynda St. Nwafor as the ‘Tech Supporter of the Year’ as well as the Group CEO, Omatek Ventures (Best Woman Tech Entrepreneur).

Others include the Director, Policy, Competition and Economic Analysis, NCC Mrs Lolia Emakpore, (Best Fit in Regulation) and CEO, FutureSoft Resources Limited, Ms Nkemdilim Uwaje (Amazon of Youth Tech Empowerment).

Mrs. Emuophedaro explained that instituting the award was a way of appreciating the women who have made remarkable impact in the field of ICT in Nigeria, and have contributed immensely to the growth and development of the industry.

She however challenged the recipients to ensure that their knowledge does not end with their achievements, but are inculcated into younger girls through mentorship arrangements.

According to her the lack of trained female professionals women now account for less than 20 per cent of ICT specialists.

“The European Union calculates that in ten years’ time there will be 700 000 more ICT jobs than there are professionals to fill them; globally, that shortfall is estimated to be closer to two million,” she said.

Mrs Emuophedaro said the award will become an annual event and will go a long way in encouraging young girls and instilling an ‘I can do attitude’ in them. She encouraged the students to look up to the recipients as they have a lot to offer in terms of encouragement and knowledge transfer.

The recipients who pledged to further work towards the development of ICT as a means of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) also said they will work with eBusiness Life to ensure a structured knowledge transfer to the girls.

During the event, Ms Uwaje opted to stand as a liaison between some of the interested girls and some women Non-governmental Organisations that are geared at developing girls in ICT related fields. 

Mrs Emuophedaro also pointed out that eBusiness Life is in the process of gathering students from different schools to form ICT Girls clubs in their various schools as a means to engage and organise them for fruitful practical experiences.


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Onyekwere lauds IXPN, NIRA collaboration on LICF

L-R: Vice President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Engr. Sunday Folayan,

Representative of DG NITDA, Mr. Aristotle Onuma, Special Assistant to the Minister of

Communication  and Technology, Engr. Seyi  Onabanjo, Representative of Chairman, Internet

Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN),  Engr. Sam Adeleke and Representative of NCC,

 Dr. Sylvanus Eliliohia, during the Local Internet Content Forum  (LICF)  on Sustaining LIC,

 the way forward for Nigeria in Lagos.

Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Deacon Chima Onyekwere, has commended the collaboration between IXPN and Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA).

Speaking at the openings session of the two-day forum on Local Internet Content (LICF) jointly hosted by the two organizations, Onyekwere, who was represented by another member of IXPN Board, Chief Sam Adeleke, former president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) told DigitalSENSE Business News at the MUSON Centre, venue of the forum in Onikan-Lagos, that both organizations have not lost their objectives.

 “… So it was not surprising that this forum on Local Internet Content is happening today,” he asserted.

According to him,

The sole objective of Local Internet Content Forum, he highlighted, was to create a mind shift for the local content producers from hosting outside the shores of Nigeria to localizing home grown contents.

He also expressed the hope that LICF would achieve this through correcting some misguided opinions about the reliability, security, and stability of .ng domains by NIRA and readiness of IXPN to assist in keeping the local internet traffic local within the country.

According to him, presently, IXPN has built and still committed in the process of building more regional sites in all the geo-political regions of the country, with connection to a Point of Presence (POP) at Saka Tinubu, while the Abuja and Port Harcourt POPs have also been commissioned.

He pointed out that IXPN Network Infrastructure consists of the Network Operation Centre cum Switch Room (NOC/Switch) which is the hub of operations with secured access facility with fire suppression system and fully redundant power system, whereas operating a 24/7 support services.

Remmyy Nweke/DigitalSENSE Business News

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