The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has said the number of .ng domains that have been registered since 2012 when the .ng domain names became available will soon hit 60,000. Mary Uduma, President of NiRA said between January and July 2014 alone, 11,075 domain names were registered.
She said the increased figures compared to those recorded since when the domain names became available showed the success of NiRA’s intensified action to populate the country’s domain name with the ‘Switch-To-.ng Domain Name’ campaign the association began in 2012.
HumanIPO reported the slow uptake of .ng domain names was blamed on the additional costs of changing details on a company’s letterheads and other documents. The lack of uptake of domain names which currently goes for about US$92 (NGN15,000) each, has also been identified as capable of fueling cybercrimes in Nigeria.
Uduma said: “Although the number appears impressive, Nigeria is still scratching the surface in terms of registered individuals and organisations and called for more registration of the country’s domain name.”
“With the 11, 075 domain names registered this year alone, NIRA would be getting close to 60,000 registered .ng domain names, since it began the campaign to populate domain name registration in the country in 2012.”
ThisDay reported a breakdown of the 11,075 registered .ng domain names, shows that in January, a total of 1, 429 domain names were registered; in February, 1, 498 were registered; in March, 2, 310 were registered; in April, 1, 690; in May, 1,413; in June, 1,333; and in July, 1,402 domain names were registered, bringing the sum total of all registered second and third level domain names from January to July 2014 to 11,075.
Among the figure, 7,280 were for renewal of registration, while 503 were registered by NIRA’ accredited registrars.
In an exclusive interview with HumanIPO, Ope Odusan, NiRA’s former chief operating officer (COO) justified the high cost of .ng domain registration and earlier this year, Uduma also announced that over 40,000 .gov.ng email accounts were created for officials of the Nigerian government.
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