• NiRA has recorded over 212,000 .ng domains in use by mid-2025, introduced premium domain pricing and security extensions, and increased registrar numbers to drive growth.
• Key challenges remain: modest adoption compared to potential, periodic declines in registrations or renewals, domain abuse and infrastructural constraints.
NiRA’s Role and Recent Innovations
Established to govern Nigeria’s.ng country-code top-level domain (ccTLD), the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) is responsible for a number of initiatives that the showcase its expertise as well as influence in regional and national internet governance. NiRA reported a component of under President Adesola Akinsanya, the situation registered 94,723 new.ng domain names and upgraded 61,227 in 2024, bringing the overall number of web addresses under management around 212,890. To improve access while improving the registration pipeline, it also accredited 23 new registrars throughout the period in question.
Among its technical and policy innovations is the implementation of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) to protect the integrity of domain name resolution within the .ng namespace. NiRA has also instituted a Registrar Incentive Programme, which rewards registrars that perform well in bringing new registrations or renewals. Another innovation is the “premium .ng domains” campaign, which offers high-value domain names in key sectors (e.g. health.ng, agro.ng, finance.ng) at more affordable rates to boost recognition and trust.
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Industry Context, Challenges and Trustworthiness of NiRA
As one of Africa’s better functioning ccTLD registries, Nigeria ranked second on the continent in domain name registrations in 2023 in a study by ICANN & the Coalition for Digital Africa. The wider domain-name industry in Africa is growing at roughly 12.4% annum according to that report, with increasing internet penetration, multiple undersea cables, more IXPs and data centres contributing to improved infrastructure.
Still, challenges persist. After a steady rise, the number of .ng registrations, renewals and restorations dropped slightly in December 2024 to about 229,583 from earlier months, indicating fluctuations and an issue of retention, not just new sign-ups. More broadly, awareness among small businesses of the importance of using .ng domains remains suboptimal; many prefer foreign generic TLDs.
Legal and regulatory alignment is another obstacle. While NiRA has policies for domain disputes modelled on UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy) and governance best practices, enforcement and public knowledge of intellectual property rights in domain names can be fragmentary. NiRA has also collaborated with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to strengthen data protection and policy frameworks.
