In a bid to promote local content in the IT industry, efforts by stakeholders across the country are in top gear to boost the rate of internet users’ dot ng (.ng) usage. One of such stakeholders is the President of Nigeria Internet Registration Association, NIRA, Mr Sunday Folayan, recently disclosed to newsmen in Ibadan recently that as at September, out of 27,862 domain transactions recorded so far in the country, a total of16,191 were for new registrations on .ng domain names. Folayan disclosed that a total of 27,862 .ng domain transactions were carried out as at the third quarter of 2015.
He said that a total of 11,263 domain names were renewed, while 408 domain names were transferred between registrars in the period. As at January this year, 1,542 .ng domain names were registered and 1,070 domain names were renewed, while 41 domain names transfers were carried out, adding up to a total of 2,653. According to him, NIRA registered 1,512 domain names, renewed 1,048 and transferred 45 names in February, resulting in 2605 transactions.
He added that in March, 1,805; 1,429 and 67 .ng domain names were registered, renewed and transferred respectively, giving a total of 3,301. According to a related report by the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in April, the association recorded a total of 2,943 domain names activities out of which 1,509 is new registration, 1,371 is renewal and 63 are transfers. In May, NIRA registered 1,511 .ng domain names, 1,237 were for renewal and 32 were transfers, giving a total of 2,780.
Folayan said that in June, the association registered 2,087 domain names, renewed 1,268 and transferred 54, making 3,409 activities engaged in. He added that NIRA carried out a total of 3,575 domain names activities of which 2,260 were registrations, 1,282 renewals and 33 transfers. According to him, in August 1,990 registrations were done, 1,178 renewals were carried out and 40 transfers attended to, adding up to 3,208 activities.
Folayan said that 1,975 registrations were carried out, 1,380 renewals done and 33 transfers, giving a total of 3,388 domain names activities in September. “The domain name renewal rate in September 2015 was higher compared to the renewals in other months of the year except in March. “The significant increase was with domain name renewals at the third level. In general, for September domain name registrations was the lowest in the past four months,” he said.
Folayan said that NIRA was still expectant of increased growth in the .ng domain name activities. He said that with more people appreciating the Nigerian Identity on the Internet, as the year progressed, more activities would be noted within the domain name industry. The NIRA president said that with increased public interest, greater awareness drive and some outlined outreach programmes; Nigeria was positioned for growth in the domain business.
He said that .ng (like our currency, the Naira and the +234 for country code) was the official Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), approved country code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) for Nigeria. According to him, registering domain names is better on the .ng ccTLD than on the generic top-level domain (gTLD) like .com, .org because search engines are optimised to look out for the .ng for Nigeria related entities.
He added that with the .ng domain name, branding and geo-targeting of local content to the Nigerian market would be made easier. “If Nigerians use the .ng, our primary DNS servers are secured and locally managed with multiple any cast servers located around the world,” the NIRA president said. He added that hosting businesses on the .ng would help to support the Nigerian economy and provide jobs for local Information Communication Technology (ICT) professionals, while promoting our local space in the process.
