By 
By Chinedu James
The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) is projecting registration of .ng domain names would hit 1 million in the next five years.
President of NiRA, Rev. Sunday Folayan made this assertion in a recent interview in Lagos stating that registration of .ng domain names has witnessed an exponential growth of over 100,000 from 3000 in the past few years.
“We believe that with this growth rate, in another five years, we should hit one million domain names,” said Folayan.
According to the NiRA’s boss, many Nigerians are increasingly coming to realize that registering a non .ng domain cost more money with the fall in the value of naira; a ,ng domain means less capital flight in addition to the fact that more businesses wants an online presence which aids promotion.
As more local businesses go online, they are opting to use the ,ng domain name. NiRA expects a rapid adoption of .ng in less than a decade that could make its projection even too conservative.
Before now, the domain name .ng, the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) of Nigeria has experienced low patronage as businesses prefer to host their websites outside the shores of the country particularly in the USA meaning that over 72% revenue on registration is lost to a foreign market.
But there is a gradual but steady shift to .ng as businesses accept the business case to use .ng for their online presence.
