Low Numbers of .NG Domain Registrations

Nigeria will be offering an iPad 2 to any .NG Accredited Registrar who registers up to 5000 domains in a month. Nigeria recently launched a Switchto.ng campaign to boost .NG domain uptake and the registrations have been picking up at a healthy rate. According to Nigeria Internet Registration Association(NIRA) COO, the low uptake  is due to low level of awareness. This is definitely true as a .com.ng domains cost only $9.30 as opposed to the costly .co.ke domains which could cost anything from $22 to $40 depending on the domain registrar. (Link: Cheapest Domain Registrars in Kenya) . Another issue could be businesses avoiding a distinct Nigerian identity on the internet in branding online profiles due to the perception that they will be associated with fraud or scams(in the past, Nigeria plus Internet has been an explosive mix with past 419 scams).

In fact elsewhere in the world, many internet users now associate the whole country with scam and some have blocked Nigerian IPs or removed Nigeria from drop down shopping menu in eCommerce websites but there's no risk in the .NG domain namespace. It's one of the safest in Africa and you can't compare it to the scammy malware-filled .CM domain namespace for Cameroon. So Nigerians must begin trusting and buying their domains, charity begins at home. I  always see Nigerian companies choosing .COM, .ORG or .NET generic TLDs but adding an NG in the domain name for example vanguardngr.com ngrguardiannews.com punchng.com thenationonlineng.net  etc which is rather silly.

The number of .NG domains registered is only 40,000 in a country with over 40 million internet users. Clearly something is  amiss. Same situation obtains in Kenya and several African countries. African ccTLDs have never adopted a good commercial and marketing model  to increase uptake of the domains, so Africans are forced to register the .com .net .org domains. In Europe, the reverse is actually true.

Since many Africa ccTLDs are members of ccNSO, why not learn from best practices from elsewhere in the world, lower the prices, offer the right promotions and increase uptake of their domains? Domains are a right, not a privilege and Africans should be able to acquire country code domains at a low cost, since they are good for local search.

Many ccTLDs have refused to embrace change, even in the face of approaching new gTLDs. Hopefully, .africa will solve Africa;'s domain problem for once and for all.

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Domain Dialing Comes to Nigeria: SITER LLC SIGNS DEAL WITH .NG, REGISTRY FOR NIGERIAN DOMAIN NAMES, TO OFFER “DOMAIN DIALING”

Siter Domain Dialing has signed a contract with Nigeria Internet Registration Association to Offer its innovative domain  dialing service to more than 25,000 websites in Nigeria.The  contract will bring smartphone-based service to more than 25,000 websites.

 

 DAKAR, Senegal (October 26, 2011) --- Siter, LLC announced it has signed a new contract to offer its unique “domain dialing” service to the over 25,000 domain names affiliated with .NG, the official domain name registry for Nigeria.  The announcement was made this week as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meets in Dakar, Senegal to discuss the expansion of the Internet throughout Africa.

Domain dialing is a new concept provided via Siter - a free application for smartphones, whereby users can “dial” a domain instead of searching for or trying to remember a domain’s phone number.  The app also uses geolocation, customizing results to connect users to the company’s locations closest to wherever the user is.

“Smartphone usage is huge in Nigeria, with almost 5 million users nationally” said Ope Odusan, chief operating officer of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), which controls the .NG top-level domain. “Siter’s domain dialing is a natural fit for our businesses and we’re pleased to incorporate it into our offerings to people interested in .NG domains.”

The partnership, which will provide new and existing .NG users free access to update their company’s listings in Siter’s systems, will be official and go live at the end of 2011.

“Domain dialing provides a new way for businesses using .NG to connect to smartphone users around the world,” said Ricardo Vaz Monteiro, chief operating officer and co-founder of Siter.  “People who understand domain naming are excited to hear about how services like Siter can help them maximize the value of their domain names.”

Siter is based in Brazil, and has successfully included more than 25 million phone numbers into its system.  The free app is available for iPhone, Android, and most Blackberry devices.

For additional information on Siter, including details on how domain name registrants can use domain dialing, visit: http://www.siter.com.  For additional information on the Nigeria Internet Registration Association, visit: http://www.nira.org.ng.

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"Switchto.NG" : Nigeria's .NG ccTLD Domain marketing Campaign Launched

 Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), managers of Nigeria’s country code Top Level Domain, .ng in collaboration with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) recently organized a great workshop to increase the adoption of the .NG domain names particularly, amongst Nigerians.

This month I have been focusing my efforts in illustrating the various ccTLD marketing/branding initiatives from across the world that can be adopted by African ccTLD registries to increase the adoption of the local ccTLD domain names. The NIRA effort comes just at the right time.

According to NIRA, "the Switchto.ng Campaign is an affirmative action on the value of .ng, and why the Nigerian government, Ministries, Departments and Agencies should adopt the Nigerian identity.  It is a call to Nigerian institutions, industries, SMES, individuals to switch to .ng." The objectives of the Switchto .NG Campaign are :

• Educate the public on the existence of the .ng (country code Top Level Domain) as Nigeria's identity on the internet.
• Provide a forum for Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to understand the policies and procedures for registration of .gov.ng domains
• Provide an opportunity for NiRA accredited registrars who can provide information for domain name registration to engage with the public
• Promote the use of .ng domains across the six geo-politial zones of Nigeria
• Provide information on the Infrastructure and technical overview of managing the .ng domain system.
• Allow exchange of information between the ICT stakeholders both public and private.
• Discuss Cybersecurity as it relates to Internet email scam due to use of non .ng domiciled domain name extension

I had the chance to look at the Switchto.NG Presentation and I must say it's quite impressive.NIRA wants to register over 250,000 domain names in the .NG namespace which is expected to contribute an estimated N250million Naira to the Nigerian economy. Given that Nigeria has a population of over 150 million people with over 40 million internet users, this is a very realistic target. According to a Nigerian source, there are about 17,000 domain names registered in the .com.ng namespace alone, which being the second level domain for commercial enterprises, will account for the vast majority of domain name registrations under the .NG namespace.

 Innovative marketing, world-class registry services and pricing will play a key role in endearing the .NG domains to Nigerian businesses, organizations and people but there are some other factors beyond NIRA's and Nigeria's control. The so called perception or trust issues.

 The activities of a few Nigerian 419 scammers has put a dent on the global image of the entire nation as far as trust in the internet marketplace is concerned. Many online transaction tools have blocked transactions from IPs originating from Nigeria. Many internet users are not likely to trust websites with .NG TLD due to online consumer awareness of Nigeria as the source of scams. It will take some time for NIRA to build the trust required that will shield .NG registrants from unfair perceptions or misinformation. The internet industry needs to trust Nigeria because Nigeria, with such advantageous demographics and rapid developments in broadband and access, will be the inevitable key player in the internet marketplace in Africa and also globally.

NIRA must also deal with competition from .com and ironically .co.uk domains(someone please explain to me why Nigerians love these domains? Is it the large Nigerian community in the UK or the other thing that I would not like to mention) .

Other problems identified by NIRA that might hinder the uptake of .NG domains include ignorance and lack of awareness by the public of the .NG Brand; perceived instability of the .NG domain name system, the dearth of funding for the Nigerian DNS infrastructure, inadequate government mandate and the permissiveness of aberrations(the Nigerian Government appears indifferent  to its officials using yahoo, Gmail, .com, .co.uk for officials transactions).

NIRA is also capitalizing on the domain hacks in the .NG namespace-the fact that there are many English words that end in .ng such as Fishi.ng , so.ng ri.ng bli.ng-to boost .NG domain name registrations amongst Domainers and domain hackers. The same strategy was employed by Libya's .LY namespace.

One thing that NIRA has conveniently left out is pricing. Any discounts, promotions, price reductions? Price is a key barrier to entry in the adoption of many ccTLD domains in Africa, even amongst the well performing ccTLD registries like Kenya's .KE. But on a positive note, if NIRA gets the Switchto.NG campaign right and with Kenya and South Africa's registries having taken off, the future looks brighter for Africa's DNS industry. Let's get more Africans on African Domains :) (ignore the pun)

You can view the presentation by NIRA Chief Operating Officer Ope Odusan on Slideshare here(Sorry Ope, I uploaded this without your permission) Also available below:

Switchto.NG: Nigeria Internet Registration Association, NIRA Presentation: An Engine for Growth

View more presentations from domainsafrica

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