The Nigeria Internet Registration Association wants .ng to become the default domain at company registration, asking the Corporate Affairs Commission to bake the country code into every new business filing. The proposal landed at NiRA’s 18th Annual General Meeting in Lagos, where industry leaders said adoption is now an execution problem, not awareness.
If approved, the policy would treat .ng the way Nigeria treats a Tax Identification Number: assigned at incorporation, attached to the legal record, no opt-in. NiRA estimates Nigeria has more than 65 million micro, small and medium enterprises but only about 240,000 active .ng registrations across all sub-zones.
NiRA President Adesola Akinsanya is using that 0.4% gap to argue that growth through awareness alone has hit a ceiling.
Inside the Lagos AGM Push
NiRA’s 18th AGM at the Radisson Blu Ikeja drew domain registrars, federal regulators and tech founders into one room about why Nigeria’s local namespace is undersold. Akinsanya opened by reframing the country code as a sovereignty asset rather than a back-office utility, citing NiRA’s registry charter and mandate document as proof the legal authority to push for default adoption already sits with the body.
“.ng is more than a domain, it is Nigeria’s digital identity,” Akinsanya told members, adding that every organisation registering under the country code is “investing in the sovereignty and credibility of Nigeria’s presence in the global digital economy.” Chief Operating Officer Oluwaseyi Onasanya then told members the registry has hit a stable plateau and is ready to push deeper into partnerships rather than chase one-off registration spikes.
The 65 Million Question
Nigeria has roughly 65 million MSMEs by NiRA’s count and about 240,000 .ng records active across the registry. That spread is the math behind every speech at the AGM, and it dwarfs the year-on-year growth headline that opened the meeting.
Total registrations crossed 215,000 in mid-2024 and reached 231,853 by November of that year. The year-on-year rate is creeping. The underlying business population is not.
Stakeholders argued the current trajectory will never close the spread without compulsory rails. The figures most cited at the meeting:
- 65 million plus MSMEs estimated across Nigeria’s economy.
- 240,000 total active .ng registrations across all sub-zones.
- 15,216 .ng transactions in January 2026 alone, including 8,111 new sign-ups.
- Second largest ccTLD by volume on the continent, behind only South Africa’s .za.
Set against the MSME base, those figures describe a country whose physical commerce dwarfs its local digital footprint by three orders of magnitude.
Why CAC Integration Is the Key Lever
The boldest proposal at the AGM was procedural: bolt .ng registration onto the Corporate Affairs Commission’s incorporation portal so every new entity exits CAC with a country code domain attached to its legal record. Today, founders pick a domain after they register, often months later, and usually default to .com because that is what their preferred registrar markets first.
Stakeholders also asked for tax incentives on .ng registration costs and a rule that government contractors carry .ng email and web addresses to bid. The contrast between today’s voluntary path and the proposed default is sharp:
| Stage | Current Pathway | Proposed Pathway |
|---|---|---|
| Domain decision | Made post-incorporation by founder | Issued at CAC certificate stage |
| Default extension | Foreign (.com) via reseller marketing | .ng auto-attached to legal record |
| Renewal billing | Yearly USD invoicing offshore | Yearly NGN invoicing through accredited registrar |
Former NiRA President Muhammed Rudman put it more bluntly. “Adoption of .ng among new businesses must be driven through policy and institutional alignment,” he said at the AGM. “The frameworks already exist, what is needed is coordinated political will.”
What January’s Numbers Reveal
The January 2026 transaction report is the data point Akinsanya has been quietly leaning on. Of the 15,216 transactions logged that month, 8,111 were new registrations and 7,105 were renewals, a near even split that suggests the registry is no longer growing on novelty alone.
The breakdown matters. Most new sign-ups concentrated in third-level domains like .com.ng and .org.ng, which are cheaper and act as the entry point for Lagos and Abuja SMEs testing an online presence for the first time.
Premium second-level .ng renewals also outpaced new second-level sign-ups, with 2,424 renewals against 1,956 new registrations. That has not happened before in the registry’s published history, and it suggests Nigerian businesses are starting to treat their .ng as core property rather than a placeholder.
Onasanya described the pattern as a maturing book of business, telling AGM attendees the trajectory shows “increasing trust from stakeholders” and a shift from speculative grabs to long-term ownership.
Whether that trust translates into the volume Nigeria’s economy actually demands depends on whether CAC and the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy choose to act on the AGM proposals.
The Capital Flight Argument
The macro case for default .ng is foreign exchange. Almost every .com, .co.uk or .net registered by a Nigerian business is paid in dollars to offshore registrars like GoDaddy, leaking hard currency precisely when Nigeria is fighting to defend the naira against further slide. Country code TLDs sit outside this dollar funnel, which is why ICANN’s country code TLD policy framework hands sovereign control of pricing and currency to each national registry.
NiRA has used the phrase “billions of naira” in two separate stakeholder briefings this year to describe the cumulative outflow. Akinsanya has framed the gap as an unforced error against peer economies that have built far larger registries off smaller GDPs.
Countries that prioritise country-code domains have been able to build millions of registrations.
How Government Adoption Sets the Floor
The Federal Executive Council has already pulled part of the lever. Workers across federal ministries were ordered last year to switch official communications to .ng addresses, a directive NiRA cites as proof the executive branch can act without waiting on parliament. Public sector adoption is the floor, the AGM concluded, and the private sector default is meant to be the ceiling.
The arc tells the story of a registry climbing without a policy spine, and of stakeholders now asking the executive to provide one. NiRA’s published registry milestones trace the trajectory:
- 2005: NiRA established by presidential order to manage the .ng ccTLD.
- 2022: Registry crosses 183,792 domains.
- November 2024: Registrations reach 231,853.
- 2025: Federal Executive Council mandates .ng for federal worker communications.
- April 2026: NiRA formally calls for an executive order tying .ng to CAC registration.
If the executive order arrives, the structural change at CAC would be the first lever to compress the 65 million to 240,000 gap from the supply side instead of the demand side.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the .ng domain and who runs it?
.ng is Nigeria’s country code top-level domain, introduced in 1995 and managed by NiRA, a not-for-profit registry established by presidential order in 2005. Registrations are processed through more than 150 accredited registrars, who handle billing, technical setup and renewals on the registry’s behalf.
Will my business be forced to use .ng if I register at CAC after the policy passes?
The proposal does not block foreign domains. It simply ensures every new CAC certificate carries an attached .ng record. Founders would still be free to also register a .com, but the .ng would become the legal default tied to the corporate file, mirroring how a Tax Identification Number is auto-issued today.
How much does it cost to register a .ng domain?
Pricing varies by sub-zone and registrar. Third-level domains like .com.ng or .org.ng typically run between 4,000 and 6,000 naira a year, while a premium second-level .ng can range from 15,000 naira upward depending on the name. Renewals are billed in naira, removing the dollar exposure that defines .com renewals.
What is the difference between .ng and .com.ng?
A .ng is a second-level registration that sits directly under the country code. A .com.ng is a third-level registration under the commercial sub-zone. Third-level extensions like .com.ng are cheaper and account for over 60% of new sign-ups, while .ng is treated as the premium tier reserved for established brands.
Does using a .ng domain help search ranking inside Nigeria?
Yes. Google uses ccTLDs as a strong geographic signal, meaning a .ng site is more likely to surface for searchers physically in Nigeria than an equivalent .com hosted abroad. NiRA cites this SEO uplift as a secondary commercial reason for the push, alongside the foreign exchange savings.
Can I keep my existing .com if my company already operates on one?
Yes. The proposed framework targets new incorporations and does not retire existing foreign domains. Companies already on .com are being encouraged to register the matching .ng as a defensive asset and redirect, but no migration deadline has been proposed.
If the executive order lands in current form, Nigerian companies incorporated after the cutoff will be born on .ng by default. The domain selection moment, the one that has sent two decades of Nigerian businesses to .com first, will quietly disappear from the CAC counter.
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