GDNR to improve the country’s local domain name service

The Ghana Domain Name Registry (GDNR), under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD), has organized the maiden inaugural Domain Name Service (DNS) forum 2022 with the objective of creating a platform for discussions on how to improve the country’s local domain name space through the knowledge of world best practices in the domain market as well as put in place measures to protect the DNS industry in Ghana.

The Deputy Minister for MoCD, Ms. Ama Pomaa-Boateng (MP) who read the speech on behalf of the Sector Minister, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP), said it was necessary to have conversations on Ghana’s local domain name space given the fact that everyone had become aware of the benefits of digital technologies that were safe and accessible by all citizen.

She reiterated that digitalization had made it imperative for the government and all relevant stakeholders to have a discourse on DNS since there had been attacks on DNS, particularly targeting the financial sector.

“According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) 2021 Global DNS Threat report, 91% of financial organizations have faced at least one DNS Security attack which is estimated to cost nearly $1.1 million to the financial sector”. Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful explained.

She said it was against this background that the government appointed the GDNR as the manager of the .GH domain name registry with the aim to promote the development of the Internet Space in Ghana.

She stated that the GDNR, an Agency under the MoCD, was also responsible for the domain name operations in Ghana, adding that the GDNR’s objective was to encourage the adoption of the .GH domain name registrations so that Ghanaians could have their goods and services online for their customers and promote E-commerce.

The Minister however explained that the GDNR was currently going through a transitional period before taking full duty as the manager of the Ghana Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).

Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful also indicated that as part of efforts to build a resilient digital ecosystem, the government of Ghana through the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation in line with its digitalization agenda was taking pragmatic steps to transform the economy by harnessing the power of the Internet to empower and improve the lives of all Ghanaians.