*Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, has directed   Federal Government workers to stop usage of generic Internet domains for official communication, stressing ‘what is most important is ‘.ng’ that is our national identity’

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

Sequel to the approval of the country’s ‘National Policy on the Government, Second Level Domain’, the Federal Government has directed its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to stop the usage of generic internet domains for official communication.

ConsumerConnect reports Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, Honourable Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, issued the directive Wednesday, February 17, 2022, during the government’s weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, FCT.

The Minister noted that the development implies that government MDAs and other Federal public institutions in Nigeria are required to migrate from generic domain in their Web sites and their e-mails to the government’s second-level domain under government top-level domain.

Prof. Pantami said: “This policy has been approved, and it focuses more on mandating Federal public institutions, Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), and all institutions as long as they are for government.

“They should migrate from using generic domains in their websites and their emails to our second-level domain under government top-level domain.

“For example, you will discover today, some government institutions will engage in official communications, using private e-mail: yahoo.com, hotmail.com, gmail.com.

“And it is an official communication and someone may retire or will complete his tenure or the tenure can be terminated, and he will go with the same e-mail. And in that e-mail, there are many official documents.”

This, the Minister said, will no longer be tolerated, explaining that the official domain must be dot government dot ng.

Pantami noted the move would project the national identity, promote national security, boost Nigeria’s global ranking, fight poverty, encourage transparency and boost public confidence.

Stressing the seriousness of the fresh directive to the civil servants, Pantami further stated: “So, this will not be tolerated by the government anymore. Any official communications must be using an official e-mail and that e-mail should not be a generic one, it must be ‘.gov.ng.’ What is most important is ‘.ng’ that is our national identity.

“There are many categories of the second-level domain, some are for military, you will see like mil.ng mil is a short form of military.ng for Nigeria. You can see .gov.ng — Gov for government and .ng for Nigeria.”

He added: “So, there are categories of the second-level domain, while our country top-level domain.ng must be there in our Web sites so that whoever gets access will know that this Web site is from Nigeria, while for e-mail, it must reflect the official name.”