![CDATA[Ope Odusan, chief operating officer of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), has told HumanIPO the organisation supports the high cost of registering .ng domains, which become available today from NiRA’s accredited registrars.]]>
HumanIPO revealed earlier today NiRA’s accredited registrars will be charging a minimum of NGN15,000 (US$95) for .ng domains, ten times more than what they are charging for .org and .biz domain names.
In their defence, Odusan told HumanIPO the high cost was fixed because of the special values that .ng offers.
These, according to him, are not presented by .org and .biz domain names.
Odusan said: “The price was set higher because registration at .ng level has special value that you cannot get on .org and .biz.”
He added that most domain names have been registered on .com, .org and .biz, thus making .ng more attractive to interested buyers.
“As you know most names are no longer possible under the .org, .com and .biz. Most names have been registered so like a real estate, cyber estates in Nigeria can get expensive but for now names are still available on the .ng.”
He also explained the difference between .ng and .com.ng domains.
Odunsa said: “The difference is that it (.ng) is shorter. For example, anything.ng is shorter than anything.com.ng. Some people prefer short names for branding and so that is reflected in the prices.
“I think NGN15,000 (US$95) per domain per year is a fair price compared to the previous NGN500,000 (US$3,166) per year per domain for the .ng.”
