- Nigeria’s .ng Domain Grows by 20% in 7 months
The registration of Nigerian domain name, .ng country code top-level domain, grew by 20 per cent to reach 123,812 from January to July 2018.
An analysis of data obtained on Friday from the Nigeria Internet Registration Association showed that the number of .ng domain increased by 20,716 within seven months.
In January 2018, the statistics showed that 103,096 .ng domain registrations were recorded by NiRA; 106,736 in February; 108,599 in March; and 111,146 in April.
According to NiRA records, the number of .ng domain was 114,308 in May, 118,264 in June, and 123,812 in July 2018.
The data showed that about 32,152 new domain registrations were recorded in the seven months under review; with 17,811 renewals and 587 transfers to other registrars.
According to NiRA, the growing number of registrations shows that Nigerians continue to embrace the .ng brand and indicates the efforts of the NiRA accredited registrars in growing the country’s ccTLD.
As of July this year, 103,939; 2738 active .ng domain renewals were recorded, 4,951 new domains were registered while 66 domains were transferred to other registrars.
The association stated that the .ng ccTLD is the second fastest growing registry in Africa.
Commenting on the increasing registration of .ng domain, the President, NiRA, Mr Sunday Folayan, noted that the synergy between the National Information Technology Development Agency and NiRA had greatly contributed to the adoption of .gov.ng domains by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies and positively impacted on the growth of .ng domain registrations.
Folayan, in Lagos recently, said there had been an exponential growth, about 50 per cent year-on-year, of .ng domain from 3,000 to over 100,000 in the last few years, adding that the market potential of Nigeria’s .ng domain was worth N37bn.
He added that the growth had been fuelled by the fact that Nigerians were beginning to realise that it was more expensive to register a non .ng domain.
According to him, the fall in the value of naira has made it clear for business owners that it is capital flight to register non .ng domain names.
The Chief Executive Officer, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, Muhammed Rudman, recently emphasised the importance of hosting websites within the country, saying the move would yield economic benefits for the country.
According to him, Nigeria is blessed with content from the entertainment industry, which can be monetised when the country interconnects with other African countries.
He said, “If the information is not closer to the end user, it means the end user will pay for that access, which will be expensive and there will be latency delay in terms of the distance. If Nigeria interconnects with most of the West African countries, it will ensure that all the major content providers will come into Nigeria. When they come into Nigeria, it means business opportunities for the data centres and the hosting companies.”
