Domain Name Registration, Renewal Slide in Three Years

Nigeria has recorded a slight decline in the country’s code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD) registration in the last three years, from 2015 to 2017, according to the recent release of .ng domain name report by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA).

In its previous report, which was released in July 2017, NiRA, which is the body responsible for the country’s domain name registration and control, put the total number of registered domain name at 95,059.

The past report had raised the hope of Nigerians that domain name registration would surpass the 100,000 mark by December 2017. Although the domain name registration surpassed the 100,000 mark as at December 2017, NiRA in its latest report on .ng domain name registration and renewal as at 4th January 2018, said there was a slide in the number of domain name registration in the last three years.

In technical parlance, domain name which could be ccTLD or generic top level domain (gTLD), is the country identity of individuals and organisations in cyberspace. For anyone to have access to internet activities privately, the individual must register with a domain name that represents a country. For instance, Nigeria’s domain name in cyberspace has the suffix .ng, Canada is .ca, South Africa is .za, United Kingdom is .co.uk, among others.

Analysing the latest report on .ng domain name registration and renewal, the President of NiRA, Revd. Sunday Folayan, said: “Though we noted the slow down in fresh registrations and renewal of .ng domain names from October, November to December 2017, the general slow-down could be attributed to many reasons, including consumer spending slowdown and focusing on essentials.”

According to the report, the total number of active .ng domain names as at December 2017, is 101,695, which is a slight increase from the 76,907 recorded in December 2016.

The latest report, however, clearly shows a decline in fresh domain name registration and renewal since 2015.

For instance, the report shows that in October 2015, Nigeria recorded a total of 2,101 domain registration, but in November of the same year, the figure dropped to 2032, and further dropped to 1,702 in December

same year. In October 2016, domain name registration was 3,483, but increased slightly in November same year to 3,732 and later dropped to 3,027 in December same year. In October 2017, Nigeria recorded 4,211 domain name registration, but the figure dropped to 3,974 in November same year and further dropped to 3,560 in December same year.

In the same vein, renewal of registered .ng domain name also declined in the last three years. In October 2015, the total number of renewal was 1,276, which declined to 1,117 in November same year, but increased slightly to 1,157 in December same year. But in October 2016, the total number of renewal was 1,823, which dropped to 1,499 in November same year, and further dropped to 1,371 in December same year. In October 2017, the total number of renewal of registered .ng domain name was 2,126, which increased slightly to 2,280 in November same year, but drastically dropped to 1,917 in December same year.

Although the total number of registered domain name as at December 2017 is 101,695, out of that number, 18,717 are .ng domain names registered at the second level.