Liberia IGF Urges Inclusive, Transparent Redelegation of the .LR Domain — A Strategic Move for National Digital Growth
The Liberia Internet Governance Forum (Liberia IGF) today issued a formal position urging the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) to adopt an inclusive, transparent, and nationally focused approach to the redevelopment and redelegation of Liberia’s Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD), .LR.
The LTA’s recent Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) dated July 8, 2025, seeking consultants to manage and develop the .LR domain presents a pivotal opportunity to secure Liberia’s digital sovereignty, enhance cybersecurity, strengthen national digital identity, and stimulate economic growth. However, these benefits can only be realized if the process is guided by robust multistakeholder governance and clear national objectives.
“The .LR domain is a national digital asset. If governed with transparency, inclusivity, and strategic intent, it will become a catalyst for secure e-government, trusted online services, and stronger local digital businesses,” said Peterking Quaye, Convenor of the Liberia IGF and Regional Director of the West Africa ICT Action Network – Liberia. “Liberia must ensure the redelegation process builds local capacity and keeps long-term national interest at the center.”
A well-managed ccTLD like .LR can significantly bolster Liberia’s national branding and build public trust in government and commercial e-services. Liberia currently has an estimated 1.6 to 1.8 million internet users, representing approximately 30% penetration of the population. Yet, the number of active .LR domain registrations remains low relative to this user base—likely only in the hundreds to low thousands—indicating substantial potential growth if the ccTLD is made more accessible, secure, and attractive to local users.
Beyond direct registration fees, a thriving .LR domain can generate broader economic benefits by reducing phishing and fraud through trusted government and service websites, boosting local digital businesses with enhanced branding and SEO advantages, encouraging local hosting and content creation, creating digital sector jobs, and improving e-government adoption via official domains for ministries and public institutions. While technical upgrades, DNSSEC implementation, disaster recovery systems, policy reforms, registrar training, and outreach campaigns require upfront investment, many countries have successfully recouped these costs through modest domain fees alongside broader economic gains from a robust national domain ecosystem.
The Liberia IGF recommends initiating the .LR redelegation process with a national multi-stakeholder consultation involving government agencies, internet service providers, the technical community, civil society, academia, private sector actors, and youth representatives to ensure alignment with national priorities and international best practices. Following this, a .LR Working Group should be established to provide oversight, policy guidance, dispute resolution mechanisms, and ensure transparency throughout the process. Proposals should prioritize local capacity development by encouraging partnerships between Liberian entities and international technical experts to facilitate knowledge transfer and sustainability.
Technical security standards must include DNSSEC, robust registrar accreditation, deployment of anycast DNS infrastructure for resilience, and clearly defined service level agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing uptime and incident response. The economic model should balance affordability for citizens with sustainable funding to finance registry operations and reinvest in outreach and capacity building. Government services should be migrated to authoritative .LR domains (e.g., gov.lr) to enhance citizen trust and mitigate phishing risks. Additionally, a national awareness campaign is vital to promote .LR adoption among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), non-governmental organizations, universities, and public institutions.
Regular public reporting on domain registrations, revenues, security incidents, and governance decisions must be mandated to ensure ongoing accountability. Liberia IGF advisors stress the critical importance of DNS security by prioritizing DNSSEC implementation and deploying resilient authoritative name servers through geographically diverse anycast nodes to reduce single points of failure and improve lookup performance.
A competitive registry-registrar model is recommended to stimulate market-based pricing and service innovation while enforcing minimum technical and policy standards. Data protection and privacy policies, including decisions on WHOIS data management (Thick vs. Thin), must align with Liberia’s data protection framework and international privacy norms. An accessible and fair dispute resolution policy, consistent with Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) principles where applicable, should be published to address trademark conflicts and cybersquatting issues effectively. Finally, registry financial operations should be transparent, with clear accountability on how revenues are allocated toward infrastructure maintenance, outreach efforts, and capacity building.
Liberia IGF calls on the LTA to invite the IGF and other key stakeholders to a consultative meeting before the REOI deadline, revise the procurement language to promote local partnerships and capacity building, and commit to transparency by providing clear outcomes and a public timeline for the redelegation and implementation process. “This is a generational opportunity,” said Peterking Quaye. “When guided by multistakeholder principles and sound technical policy, the .LR domain can become a powerful engine of trust, local digital growth and national sovereignty. We must get this right.”
