Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa with a population of over 180 million. One would expect that the netizens of nigeria would prefer .ng over .com. However, only 80,000 internet users adopted Nigeria’s top level domain, NIRA official laments.
According to premiumtimesng.com, Sunday Folayan, President of the association, noted that only 80,000 dotng (.ng) domain names have been registered so far in Nigeria. He announced the figure during the “NIRA 2017 .ng Awards, aimed at celebrating the achievements and innovation of Nigerian internet initiatives in Lagos.
QZ writes that on the face of it one simple explanation for the low rate of adoption is price. Compared to more popular web domains available in Nigeria, the country’s .ng domains are far more expensive, costing more than double what it takes to register a .com, .org or .net domain.
But another reason .ng domains are not flying off the rack is likely because .com web addresses offer a global outlook, something that’s cherished in Nigeria’s marketplace.
“Experience has shown clients prefer .com domains because of their dreams of going global and not just being a local business,” Dikachim Nwankwo, a Lagos-based digital media strategist, tells Quartz. “The hype behind .ng domains was about getting clever domains such as trendi.ng or shoppi.ng but Nigerians have not been proven to care much about that,” Nwankwo says.