There should be more than 100,000 .ng domains by the end of 2017

President of the Association’s board, Sunday Folayan made the prediction in the latest edition of NiRA’s newsletter stating that the domain count for Nigeria’s top-level country domain has continued to grow, month-on-month.

“It is heart-warming that the number of domains in the registry continues to grow in excess of 2,000 domains monthly. This is due to the hard work of the Registrars and the Resellers, in making sure that .ng continues to be the domain of choice for all Nigerians. Thank you for your hard work in this regard,” Folayan said, according to a Nigeria CommunicationsWeek report.

“At the current rate, the number of active .ng domains will cross the 100,000 mark between October and November 2017. It is a milestone that we will celebrate, and is worthy of being celebrated.”

Apart from the increased online presence and visibility, this kind of milestone is also an economic win for Nigeria’s fledgling tech ecosystem, especially in these times of forex uncertainty.

NiRA board member and host of Channels TV’s Tech Trend show, Chukwuemeka F. Agbata, in an email comment given to Pulse Tech puts its better: “In terms of saving our scarce foreign reserves, this is also good news. Assuming there was no option of .NG, it will simply mean 100,000 X $10 (average cost of .com) = $1,000,000 saved annually. This may appear insignificant now but it becomes scary as the numbers go higher.”

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There is also the thing about Nigeria’s online identity, which its domain name also plays a major role in fostering.

“It means that more and more Nigerians and even foreigners are learning more about the .NG brand and opting for it. Imagine, how much value 100,000 domain names brings to the Nation, the number of businesses and individuals owning ventures online and imagine the potential when we hit say, 1,000,000 domain names which I hope happens soon,” Agbata told Pulse Tech.

However, the work doesn’t stop there. According to NiRA president Folayan, more Nigerians need to be aware of the .ng brand.

“When you see such hybrid domain names like distro-ng.com or distronigeria.com, please drop them an email and ask them whether they have heard of .ng before? Let us now get the word out there. .ng is for us all, and Nigerians should not hesitate to claim their identity and use it. Let us step up the campaign,” the NiRA boss said.

Agbata also agrees, saying, “Every Nigerian should be proud of the .NG brand because it’s our identity on the Internet.”

Back in April 2017, NiRA awardedPulse Nigeria “Best media online website” at the second edition of the NiRA Awards which took place at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos.