Government Establishes Working Group to Take Control of .SL Domain
The Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation has established a Stakeholder Working Group to develop a framework for transferring the management of Sierra Leone’s national internet domain, .SL, to local control.
The initiative aims to bring the country’s domain registry, which currently operates outside Sierra Leone and supports more than 2,500 websites and email addresses, under local management to strengthen security, improve governance and ensure users are directed to authentic online platforms.
The process involves migrating the registry to digital infrastructure hosted in Sierra Leone and securing formal approval from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for the new management arrangement.
The working group was established following preliminary consultations with mobile network operators, internet service providers and university representatives. A wider national consultation is expected to present the group’s membership and mandate and build support for the proposed transfer.
First registered in 1997, Sierra Leone’s .SL domain was initially managed by Sierratel, before registration services were transferred to a private operator in 2007.
The initiative is funded by the World Bank Group through the Sierra Leone Digital Transformation Project.
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