On the internet, Nigerians are opting for more global identities through web addresses.
Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), the body in charge of the process of registering .ng domains, Nigeria’s country code top level domain (ccTLD), is worried that Nigerians aren’t that enthusiastic about splashing out on a local address. So far only 80,000 .ng domains have been registered in the country but over in South Africa over a million .za domain names have been registered according to Sunday Folayan, NiRA president, who says .ng registration is “low and needs to be embraced.”
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.
