RICTA to register 5,000 web domain names by 2016

The Rwanda Information Communication Technology Association (RICTA) targets to register about 5000 web domain names by 2016, following the re-delegation of Rwanda’s Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), “.rw” from Belgium a couple of months ago.RICTA late last year gained all the rights from Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to manage the government’s web which was formerly managed in Belgium by Frederic Gregoire, a Belgian entrepreneur, under his Swiss-based company NIC Congo – Interpoint.After gaining all the rights, RICTA embarked on registering thousands of companies and promoting Rwanda’s identity on the web within in the next three years.Previously Rwandans had opted for international web domain names; because little was known of “.rw” and they were not aware of the procedures involved to access it.“It’s our task to ensure that our national identity is used by Rwandans. We want to reach a level where most of the Rwandan companies are registered under .rw,” Ghislain Nkeramugaba, the CEO of RICTA said at the formal launch of “.rw” on Thursday in Kigali.He stated that currently they have registered about 1800 domain names.RICTA is a non-profit making organisation representing the Rwandan Internet community. It comprises different ICT institutions and individuals. It was formed in 2005 with the objective of managing the country code top level domains, among other purposes. Nevertheless, RICTA also plans to launch second level domains, among others, .co.rw, .org.rw, .net.rw, coop.rw and ac.rw. The ICT body also provides registry services such as registrar management, domain name registration, renewal, dispute settlement services, and maintains the .rw register system.Nkeramugaba said that RICTA sells .rw at a wholesale fee of Rwf30, 000 to companies or registrars, who resell it to individuals at a fee of their choice.According to Igor Ciza, the general manager of Afriregister, a local company that registers and hosts web domain names, many people have started registering their organisations under .rw which wasn’t the case before repatriation.“It takes a few hours to register a web domain and managing .rw in Rwanda is very crucial because people are aware of the procedures involved in registering their web company names.”

National

RICTA to register 5,000 web domain names by 2016