Nigeria: domain name registrations, renewals slightly up from 178,079 in January 2022 to 178,755 in February 2022

The latest figures released by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), the organization in charge of managing Nigeria’s national top-level domain (ccTLD), which is the .ng domain name for Nigeria, showed an improvement registration, renewal and restoration. .

The figures, which THISDAY obtained from the official NiRA website, showed a slight increase in domain name registration, renewal and restoration in Nigeria from 178,079 in January 2022 to 178,755 in February 2022. .

THISDAY had last month exclusively reported a decline in .ng domain name registration and renewal, which NiRA attributed to the negative effect of COVID-19 that crippled businesses in 2021.

According to NiRA: “In 2020, Nigeria saw an increase in the number of registrations for Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) names but in 2021, the number of registrations dropped due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The drop in domain name registration in 2021 was not unique to the Nigerian market as it was a global issue caused by the effect of COVID-19.”

Giving the reasons for the slight increase in domain name registration and renewal in the month of February 2022, NiRA Chairman Mr. Mohammed Rudman told THISDAY that all those who until then could not use and could not renew their domain name registration last year, began renewing this year as the effect of the pandemic began to wear off. “The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is easing and countries are beginning to ease some COVID-19 restriction measures as businesses have started to gradually recover. I am sure the number of registrations and .ng domain name renewals will improve further in the coming months as more businesses resume full-scale operations,” Rudman said.

According to recent figures published by NiRA and obtained by THISDAY, the total number of active domain names for second-level domain names increased slightly from 53,999 in January 2022 to 56,191 in February 2022.

According to the figures, in February 2022, the total number of .ng domain name registrations was 5,327, while the total number of .ng domain name renewals was 4,312. of the same period was 132, while the number of active domain names for 3rd and 2nd level domain names was 122,564 and 56,191 respectively, bringing the total number of registrations, renewals and restorations of domain names in February 2022 to 178,755, which is an improvement from the 178,079 registered in January 2022.

The .ng domain name is Nigeria’s identity in cyberspace. While the Nigerian cyberspace identity ends in .ng, the United States of America cyberspace identity ends in .com, Canada in .ca and the United Kingdom in .uk. These cyberspace identities are used on the highway internet.

Addressing the importance of the internet to any nation, Rudman said one of the main benefits of the internet is that it could quickly connect people around the world. “You can be in New York communicating with friends in London, shopping at an online business based in Tokyo, or researching at a learning center based in Germany. In the digital age, the world is suddenly much smaller. Communicating, connecting, and sharing with people around the world has never been easier,” Rudman said.

He, however, stressed the need for domain name owners to start web hosting their domain names in Nigeria, instead of the usual practice of hosting web-based internet data and traffic outside. from the country.

“People might wonder why a local web host is better. After all, web hosting companies do indeed provide the same service as their overseas counterparts. I would like to remind domain owners that there are unique benefits of using a local web hosting company,” Rudman added.

Highlighting the importance of local web hosting, Rudman said, “One of the most notable benefits of having a website hosted on a server in a local region is that it will allow the website to load faster. Although the disparity in load times between a local server and one on the other side of the world usually takes a fraction of a second, it could have a huge effect on how consumers interact with your site.”

In the area of ​​support, Rudman said domain name owners would receive more support from local web hosting than those hosted outside the country.

“Even with the top ranked companies in the world things can go wrong with web hosting. A local hosting company will almost always provide a faster, more personalized solution. Customer service staff located on other continents, for example, might delay access to the required solution, due to time zone differences. schedule,” Rudman said.