By Juliet Umeh

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association, NiRA, has slashed the cost of hosting websites in Nigeria’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) the .ng, by forty per cent.

This is an incentive to have many Nigerians and corporate organisations patronise the platform, after a deliberate policy by the government to see the domain, which is Nigeria’s identity in cyberspace populated with indigenous hosts.

President of NiRA, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, said the decision to lower the cost became necessary after reviewing the growth trajectory of .ng domain names across the country over the last two years.

Recent statistics on the domain name registration, renewal, and restoration, revealed a drop with figures falling from 184,341 in November 2021 to 178,097 in January 2022.

The decision according to Rudman, has been communicated to NIRA’s accredited registrars, who are in charge of the domain name registration, renewal, and restoration.

NiRA operates a Registry, Registrar, and Registrant, 3R model, which means that it does not sell domains to the general public without the endorsement of all the registrars.

 He said: ” NiRA has decided to carry out a 40 per cent downward review of domain name prices on the .ng domains and a marginal reduction on .com.ng domains and others. We made it public after first announcing it at the registrars’ forum. The goal is to increase the number of domain names registered in the country by encouraging more people to register.”

“Previously, Registrars were classified as Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Standard, with each category receiving domains at different prices. However, NiRA recently removed such categorization in order to create a level playing field for all registrars and to remove all barriers for new registrars.

“We are hopeful that the price reduction and removal of Registrar categorization will drive domain adoption and allow other organizations willing to become NiRA Registrars to do so with ease,” he said.

 Rudman explained that the drop in registration figures from November 2021 to January 2022 was due to the effect of COVID-19 because by 2019-2020 registration actually increased.