The Federal Executive Council (Nigeria) approved the National Policy on Secondary Levels of the Nigerian Government during its meeting on February 16, 2022 and banned its workers from using generic domains.
Following this the presentation of a memo by Professor Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, TechEconomy.ng may report.
The Policy, according to a statement signed by Dr Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant (Research & Development) to the Minister, was developed to strengthen public confidence in the use of digital technologies and participation in the digital economy.
The Policy is also in line with the implementation of the Nigerian e-Government Master Plan, which was approved by the Federal Executive Council in August 2018.
“The Master Plan has a vision to create a world class open and digitalized government that connects people to drive excellence in public administration, responsive civil services and governance transparency leading to improving the quality of life of Nigerians ”.
The government said the increasing rate of cyber -related incidents has inspired countries to develop Policy instruments to effectively control and manage their use of Information and Communication Technologies in Government Institutions, specifically that is the electronic correspondence within the government. Some countries have put in place policies to ensure that official correspondence is conducted only using approved domains and platforms in Government Institutions.
Although, this is not the first time the Federal Executive Council has ordered workers to stop using generic domains, however, the government has instructed that the use of generic domains and private email for Government businesses and correspondence hinders identity, security and globalization. recognition of the Nigerian Government on the Internet.
Furthermore, the use of private emails for Government business is a major limitation on the capabilities to archive and back-up sensitive Government data thereby making it difficult to maintain historical correspondence and documents hosted on non-Government servers.
“Similarly, Government documents that must be deleted or destroyed after a period of retention are permanently hosted on insecure servers.
The Policy will be implemented by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
“It aims to promote transparency in governance; protecting Nigerian cyberspace; and advancing the Digital Nigeria agenda. It also aims to expedite the use of second -level domains (.gov.ng, .edu.ng, .mil.ng) under the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD.ng) with the primary goal of eliminating the use of top -level domains for Government business and the use of private emails for official correspondence by the end of the year 2022
“The Policy provides direction for the implementation of the mandatory use of second-level domains by the Nigerian Government by all Federal Public Institutions, and recommends its adoption by the State and Local Governments. The coverage covers the Nigerian Government second-level domain and email services in .gov.ng, .mil.ng, .edu.ng, .sch.ng, and any other second-level domains owned of the Nigerian Government which may be approved in the future.
“As part of the implementation of this Policy, Federal Public Institutions shall acquire a Nigerian Government Second-level Domain from NITDA and move to that platform with immediate effect. As part of the implementation of the National Policy and Strategy on Digital Economy (NDEPS), the Ministry will continue to position Nigeria to utilize technology to transform Nigeria into a sustainable and secure digital economy ”.
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