The total domain names of the .ng registry have increased to 225,533, according to data made available by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA).

Mrs. Busayo Balogun, Head of Technical Services at NiRA, during her presentation at ICANN80

NiRA the registry for .ng Internet Domain Names and maintains the database of names registered in the .ng country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).

A team led by Mr. Adesola Akinsanya, the President of NiRA is currently attending Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Policy Forum, ICANN80, in Kigali, Rwanda.

In her presentation at the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) session, Mrs. Busayo Balogun, the Head of Corporate Services at NiRA said the Association had launched a dashboard for real time updates on .ng domain name registrations.

She said that the .ng domain name has continued to garner popularity in usage for websites and email addresses.

According to her, the dashboard shows the .ng domains have increased to 225,533 from 222,820 reported earlier in the year.

She told the audience that through its 3R – Registry, Registrar, Registrant – model of operation, NiRA contracts more than 100 registrars to provide registration services to the public.

“An end user selects a registrar to provide the registration service, and that registrar registers the domain chosen by the user. NiRA does not register user, directly. This model has really helped us to maintain decorum.

Earlier, Mr. Akinsanya reiterated NiRA’s commitment to driving .ng domain adoption and advancing Nigeria’s digital landscape.

“This growing trend underscores the domain’s significance and its role in establishing a strong digital identity for businesses and individuals alike.

“Additionally, we are currently conducting the .ng brand survey [https://form.jotform.com/niraworks/ng-brand-survey-2024] to gauge the awareness and adoption levels of the .ng domain among internet users in Nigeria.

“I encourage everyone to participate in this survey and share their valuable insights”, he said.

NiRA also received a rousing applause from participants at the ICANN80 as the ccNSO session lead, Joel Karubiu, former chief executive officer, Kenya Network Information Centre (KeNIC), said, “I see a lot of passion from the Nigerian team here”.

Mastercard has announced the winners of the third edition of its Women SME Leaders Awards, celebrating the achievements of women-owned and led businesses across diverse sectors in the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) region.

Launched in 2022, the Mastercard Women SME Leaders Awards is the first initiative of its kind to recognize outstanding female entrepreneurs shaping the future of the region.

“At Mastercard, we believe when we support women entrepreneurs, we are not only supporting the economy but also their desire to solve real needs. That’s why we are committed to creating an enabling environment for women to fulfil their potential as business leaders. The Mastercard Women SME Leaders Awards is an integral part of our women’s empowerment journey. This initiative helps us generate momentum so we can continue to uplift the most impactful women changemakers,” said Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development, EEMEA, Mastercard.

This year’s edition of the awards was open to all women owning or leading businesses with a turnover under US$13.6 million (AED50 million) and 6-50 employees that have their offices or offer their services in the EEMEA region.

The winners of Mastercard Women SME Leaders Awards 2024 are:

1. The Creative Leader: Fay Wong, Director and Partner, BID (UAE)
2. The F&B Leader: Laura Kaziukoniene, Founder and CEO, Super Garden (Lithuania)
3. The Visionary: Hanane Benkhalouk, Founder, Tawazoun (UAE)
4. The Leader of Tomorrow: Reem AlMusabbah, co-founder, Unipreneur Inc, and Head of Community Engagement and Membership, Women in AI UAE Technology (UAE)
5. The Health Custodian: Chelsea Hornby, Founder, Elle International (South Africa)
6. The Innovator: Farah Zafar, Co-founder and CEO, Lyvely (UAE)
7. The Retailer: Pamela Lilburne Opie, Founder and CEO, Linen Obsession Textile Trading (UAE)
8. The Educator: Jessy Radwan, Founder and CEO, Carerha (Egypt)
9. The Professional Services Leader: Yuliia Fedosiuk, CEO, UAPAY (Ukraine)
10. The Fashion & Beauty Leader: Leda Di Marti, CEO, Maelle Group (UAE)
11. The Media Leader: Jacqueline Lawrence, Highlands FM Radio (Tanzania)
12. The Social Impact Leader: İpek Koç Kıraç, Suna’nın Kızları (Turkey)
13. Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr Smita Francis, Founder and Chair, Namibia Women in Engineering Association (Namibia)
14. Home-Based Business of the Year: Alicia English, Executive Director, The Olive Exchange (South Africa)
15. Momrepreneur of the Year: Farah Ahmed Farag, Founder and CEO, The baby garage (Egypt)

The Women SME Leaders Awards 2024 jury included Mastercard’s Amnah Ajmal, Tamara Pupic, Managing Editor, Entrepreneur Middle East, and Nezha Alaoui, Founder and CEO, Women Choice.

The award ceremony featured insightful discussions by prominent industry leaders from across the region. Aleksandra Agatowska, CEO, PZU and Co-founder, LUU Kids, and Ola Doudin, Co-founder, BitOasis, joined Nezha Alaoui in a panel discussion on breaking the glass ceiling in the SME space. Amnah Ajmal, Alya Al Zarouni, COO, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and Mila Smart Semeshkina, CEO & Founder, Lectera.com and Founder & President, Women’s Empowerment Council, explored ways of fueling business growth through innovation and creativity. Wrapping up the agenda, Fadi Ghandour, Chairman, Wamda Capital and Founder of Aramex, shared his perspectives on the importance of perseverance for every entrepreneur during their business journey.

The Women SME Leaders Awards aligns with Mastercard’s global pledge to connect 25 million women entrepreneurs to the digital economy by 2025 as part of its efforts to build a more sustainable and inclusive world. The company achieved the goal in June 2023 – two years ahead of the deadline.

Following two years of virtual events, the award ceremony took place in person for the first time at Bluewaters Forum by Banyan Tree Dubai.

Airtel Africa, a provider of telecommunications and mobile money services in 14 countries across Africa, has published its 2024 Sustainability Report.

The report highlights Airtel Africa’s progress across its key sustainability targets, including support for its people and communities, promoting financial and digital inclusion, and initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of its operations.

Segun Ogunsanya, Airtel Africa’s outgoing Group CEO, said: “I’m very proud of the strides Airtel Africa has made in advancing our sustainability goals. While targets are vital to driving change, our mission is much bigger: to transform people’s lives through connectivity, products and services fostering digital and financial inclusion while unlocking the potential of the next generation.”

The report shares progress highlights for the company’s four sustainability pillars: ‘Our business’, ‘Our people’, ‘Our community’ and ‘Our environment’.

Our business: Airtel Africa continued to expand telecommunications services, supporting economic growth and development across the continent. Key milestones include:

• Growing the customer base to 152.7 million across 14 markets
• Attaining ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 certifications which demonstrate Airtel Africa’s compliance with international standards and commitment to data privacy and security
• Expanding the 4G network and reaching 70.7% of the population in these markets, a 4.9% increase since 2022/23
• Introducing 5G services, now covering 4.14% of customers, primarily in urban areas

Our people: Airtel Africa is committed to creating a working environment where all employees can achieve their full potential. Key milestones include:

• Increasing workforce and leadership diversity, with 35.4% of new or open leadership roles filled by women, raising the representation of women in senior management to 22.3%, up from 19.5% the previous year
• Enhancing diversity and inclusion and advancing female talent through the ‘Women for technology’ programme which benefitted 54 high performing women and resulted in a 21% increase in internal promotions from this group as of 31 March 2024
• Investing $1.2m in training and development programme

Our community: Airtel Africa is transforming the lives of individuals, families and communities across Africa by building opportunities for better futures. Key milestones include:

• Driving financial inclusion for unbanked populations by growing Airtel Money’s customer base to 38 million people. This is particularly significant for the financial inclusion of women in Africa, who make up 38% of Airtel Money’s customers
• Advancing digital learning across Africa through the five-year $57m partnership with UNICEF, connecting almost 1,200 schools to the internet and providing free access to online educational platforms to thousands of students in 2023/24

Our environment: Airtel Africa is working to address and minimise the impact of the company’s operations on the environment. Key milestones include:

• Publishing the ‘Journey towards a net zero future’ in May 2023 which outlines the scenarios for the reduction of scope 1 and 2 emissions while setting out a near-term target to reduce emissions intensity by 62% from March 2022 baseline
• Announcing the scope 3 strategy in November 2023 which sets out the partners and suppliers’ engagement programme (PSEP) to further advance our engagement with the supply chain
• Launching our new multi-million data centre business, Nxtra by Airtel, in December 2023 and commencing construction of one of Africa’s largest data centres in Lagos, Nigeria, which will incorporate modern energy efficiencies to complement the ongoing work on reducing carbon emissions across existing sites

Airtel Africa’s Sustainability Report 2024 adheres to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework and the GSMA’s recommendations for the telecommunications industry.