Nigeria sees 18,870 domains registered in 2014

Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) recorded a total of 18,870 domain names by end of 2014 though in the month of December 2014, the country recorded a drop in the .ng domain name purchase activities by the registrants.

According to Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), there was decrease in the number of domain names renewed in the same month mainly due to the festivities.

Also, NiRA noted that there was a remarkable increase in the transfer window. This could be traced to entrance of new registrars. Additional 1,503 domain names were registered, with renewal of 820 and transfer of 106 domain names.

According to The Independent, Nigeria, the number of NiRA Accredited Registrars remained at 47, with some applications for Registrar being processed.

Speaking on the Association’s activities in the year under review, the President, NiRA, Mrs. Mary Uduma, said that despite not meeting set target in 2014 in terms of domain name registrations, the Association witnessed a good year with increase in awareness of .ng domain names and domain business in Nigeria.

She said, NiRA saw a growth in the number of Registrars and domain names thus setting the stage for more growth in all spheres of the domain name business in Nigeria.

According to Uduma, “NiRA participated and hosted many awareness programmes/ events events geared at public awareness of .ng domain names and .ng ccTLD.

NiRA hosted the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) in June 2014 and also had the opportunity of hosting Africa in Abuja in July 2014 during the ‘Africa DNS Forum’”.

“NiRA participated actively in the Africa Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) in July 2014 and eNigeria all hosted in Abuja, ‘Nigerian Content Consultative Forum’ at Bayelsa, ‘Standard for IT Park’ at Enugu hosted by NITDA and numerous other progammes in a bid to continue creating the awareness of the .ng ccTLD and its operations. NiRA was also at ICANN, AFTLD, IGF and GITEX events last year.

She described the growth of NiRA and domain names as very important. “With the commitment and efforts of NiRA Board of Trustees, Executive Board members, staff, Registrars and Registrants, targets were set to increase the number of domain names and the accreditation of registrars. Reasonable increases and progress were made in the .ng domain name business. Even though the growth of NiRA is commendable, the journey is still far from being the best Registry in Africa”.

She added that the Association is competing in a global market and is set to work more assiduously in 2015 and in years ahead towards realising set goals.

The NiRA President said that NiRA is geared to listening to industry stakeholders and paying attention to global trends and would expand its sales to include opening up other zones and release of two letters word domain names to the public. This is in addition to reducing the number of premium domain names and pleaded with industry stakeholders to continue to support their programmes.