A Case for .ng Domains

Quite frankly, it is very amazing that a country with close to 100 million or more (depending on whose data you choose to use) has sold less than 100,000 .NG domains to local and international buyers. I find it to be a very interesting irony especially when I look at the numbers of .co.za domains that South Africa has been able to push out to the world.

May I ask why Nigerians are avoiding to use .NG domains? Who is to blame or is that we believe the .NG is not good enough or don't just understand its importance to our national brand or we probably need some sort of Government policy to make it somewhat compulsory?

Pardon me for asking too many questions at the same time, I am simply looking for answers.

Yes, I am a .ng ambassador ordained by NiRA - the association responsible for managing the string and part of my National service is to get more Nigerians to use this domain string. Yes, I get to convince some to switch but a vast majority of people give me all sorts of reason, why they won't use .NG and some of these reasons are simply based on hearsay or emotions.

If you are reading this post and you do have a domain, I'd like you to share why it is not a .NG brand?

Again, let me stress that the bane of any proper and sustainable development especially in technology is the creation and enforcement of policies.

Imagine, if we had a policy that clearly states that every registered company in Nigeria must use .NG and so as companies are being registered, CAC mandated them to choose and pay for a domain name which they must use. We know this is not an impossible feat, after all UK and a few other countries are enforcing such policies whether covertly or overtly.

Reasons to use .NG
It is a matter of Nation Pride
Nigeria as a Nation is blessed with a unique domain string known as .NG which is her country code top level domain (ccTLD) and we should be proud of this gift of nature.

Foreign Exchange is Scarce
I used to be happy paying for my VPS server but not anymore because of the ever increasing exchange rate and the same goes for .COM domain names. Using the .NG range of domains will contribute to saving our scarce FX.

SEO & Speed
Why do you think that Google would rather serve you results using google.com.ng when you search for stuff within Nigeria and if you travel to say Ghana and use the same device it will go ahead and serve you results via google.com.gh - what is even interesting is that in the case of Nigeria, Google has both com.ng as well as .NG, an example of a forward looking company.

Local Content
We must develop local content by supporting what is ours, imagine what will happen if only 1% of the reported 170 million+ Nigerians decide to own domains that fly the Nigerian colour online, that will be over 1 Million domain names that would eventually serve as the foundation for businesses, ventures and causes on the world wide web. Would that not further strengthen the Nigerian brand and dignify her on the Internet?

I must commend Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) for a good job so far but here is a call for more advocacy and education so as to get more Nigerians to appreciate what is ours and also get Government to lead the way and let others follow.

The reality is that if Government at any level still uses .com or .org domains, why should average small business owners, who obviously do not have as much resources as Government be urged to switch?


CFA is the founder of www.techsmart.ng and co-producer/presenter of Tech Trends on Channels TV.