Rwanda is looking to increase the country’s digital footprint, particularly on the internet, with the Ministry of ICT and Innovation in partnership with RICTA Rwanda, the .rw registry, launching a campaign to increase awareness and adoption of their ccTLD .rw.
The three month campaign that is currently underway has been dubbed ‘Nahisemo .rw’ with the Minister of ICT and Innovation telling local media there is need for Rwandan enterprises, businesses and institutions to use .rw as their domain of choice if the country is to increase and stamp its digital footprint.
“As we launch the ‘Nahisemo .rw’ campaign we are aiming at increasing Rwanda’s digital profile by rallying Rwandan businesses and organisations with web presence to take-up the .rw country level domain. Uptake of the .rw domain is a good fit into our vision of transitioning Rwanda into becoming a digital economy which will see the creation of a new marketplace, consolidated into a single digital market for the region and also for the continent,” Paula Ingabire said.
“There is this notion that other domains are better than our country domain. Having a .rw identity promotes local consumption and promotes localisation of our businesses. We encourage Rwandan businesses with global footprint to localise their domain names and also have that pride that they are a Rwandan brand. We also calling upon businesses and organisations working in Rwanda to use the .rw domain because it affirms to our collective commitment to promote the consumption of locally home grown solutions,” she added.
The country as a whole has slightly more than 8,000 domain names. Out of this, 4,000 are .rw and the rest are spread through a number of other top-level domains.
According to RICTA’s Acting CEO, Grace Ingabire, Rwanda’s recorded internet growth will be undoubtedly insignificant if the country lags behind in terms of .rw country domains. She added that the more the country increases the number of .rw registrations the better it is for the country’s digital economy. She encouraged Rwandan businesses to embrace .rw.
For every Rwandan website registered outside it’s a loss to our digital economy. If all Rwandan businesses register RW, our digital presence as a country also increases which is an added advantage to our efforts to promote our Rwandan identity online,” said Grace Ingabire.
