.ng domain name registration

.ng domain name registration

.NG is the top-level country-code domain name system for the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Domain:


.ng Domain Price

Prices in US Dollars ($)
TLDTransferRenew
.ng$7.60$7.60
.com.ng$1.60$1.60
.net.ng$1.60$1.60
.org.ng$1.60$1.60
.sch.ng$1.60$1.60
.i.ng$2$2
.name.ng$1.25$1.25
.edu.ng$3$8
.mobi.ng$1.60$1.60
.gov.ng$3$8
TLDTransferRenew

.Free .com.ng & .org.ng Domain Names 
We offer one .com.ng or .org.ng domain name when you purchase any of our Web Hosting with cPanel  plans, on an annual payment cycle.


.ng domains

With about 183,000 active domains as of August 2021, .NG is fast gaining popularity in Nigeria.
.NG is available from Web4Africa, a leading Accredited .NG Registrar, under the following 9 extensions:
  • .ng: domains can be registered directly on the 2nd-level. An example is web4africa.ng. The extension is open to registration from any part of the world.
  • .com.ng: this is still the most popular .ng domain and while it is intended for Nigerian companies, there are no restrictions on where it can be registered from.
  • .org.ng: this is intended for Nigerian non-profits and can be registered by Non-Governmental Organizations, communities etc.
  • .edu.ng: this domain extension is moderated and available strictly to fully accredited Nigerian tertiary academic institutions only: Universities, Polytechnics, monotechnics, Colleges of Education, Colleges of Agriculture etc.
  • .name.ng: An open domain intended for personal/individual use.
  • .sch.ng: intended for other Nigerian academic (non-tertiary) institutions not covered by .edu.ng. It is used by authorized Nigerian secondary and primary schools, as well as other accredited schools.
  • .net.ng: intended for licensed Nigeria telecommunications and Internet Service Providers and their networking equipment.
  • .mobi.ng: for mobile-friendly websites.
  • .gov.ng: another strictly moderated .ng extension that is only available to the Federal, State and Local Governments in Nigeria, as well as their respective Ministries, Departments and Parastatals. Web4Africa does not register .gov.ng domains for Federal institutions. Those need to approach NITDA directly.
  • .i.ng: Perfect for domains like bik.i.ng, climb.i.ng


The closed domain extensions (.edu.ng, .gov.ng, .net.ng, .sch.ng) are strictly available to qualified institutions located in Nigeria only. Applications for the closed .ng domains need to be supported with official documentation. To minimize any potential misunderstanding, please contact us to clarify if you need more information, before making a domain application.




Who Needs a .NG Domain Name?

To understand who needs a .ng (pronounced dot ng) domain name, we first need to clarify the purpose of .ng domains. .ng is the domain name system for Nigeria the same way .uk is to the United Kingdom and .za is to South Africa. The .ng domain name system is useful for anyone who wishes to set up a website in Nigeria and/or for Nigerians.

The .ng domain name system aims to be world-class in several ways, by following the best practices of other leading domain registries around the world, and setting new standards as schemed by the stakeholders behind it in Nigeria.

The .ng domain system is split into different domain categories, depending on the purpose for which you intend to register a .ng domain name.

The first category of .ng domains is open to registration by just about anyone in the world. They are termed open domains.

  • .com.ng – can be registered by anyone for the purpose of setting up a commercial website as is the convention with .com domains. Just like .com as well, people have registered .com.ng domains for other purposes outside commercial enterprises.
  • .org.ng – this .ng domain category is intended for non-profit organisations in Nigeria and is thus gaining popularity among NGOs in Nigeria who wish to have an online presence.
  • .mobi.ng and .name.ng are intended for websites designed to display perfectly on mobile devices and personal websites respectively. These two have not witnessed much use.

The other 4 types of .ng domain names are tightly restricted by the .ng registry in that they strictly enforce the rules surrounding them to ensure that only qualified entities register them, and for the right purpose too.

The closed domains are classified into:

  • .gov.ng – meant for Nigerian Federal, State and Local governments and their Ministries, Departments and Agencies
  • .edu.ng – meant for Nigerian tertiary academic institutions including Universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnics, Colleges of Education, Colleges of Agriculture etc.
  • .sch.ng – meant for Nigerian primary and secondary schools
  • .mil.ng – meant for The Nigerian Army, Navy, Airforce and their institutions
  • .net.ng – for network providers

When setting up a website that targets Nigeria, there could be no better way to do so than by making use of a .ng domain name under the most relevant category as explained in this write-up. Whether you are setting up a blog, a news website, an online directory or an e-commerce store targeted at Nigeria, you need a dot ng domain name.

To do so, you would want to choose Web4Africa as your .ng domain registrar. Web4Africa has accreditation from the .ng registry to register .ng domain names and is already one of the leading .ng registrars going by the thousands of .ng domains in our portfolio. Web4Africa offers you a control panel to easily manage every aspect of your domain name and even registers it for free when you buy web hosting for at least a year.



How to choose .NG Domains

From the registered domain names, we have found it necessary to educate .ng domain patrons and prospective customers on how to choose a .ng domain name. The following suggestions are not rules but only intended to make your internet marketing more effective.

Keep your domain name short and simple

Choosing a domain name is like choosing a brand name for your business or product. The name should be simple and easy to remember. It must be especially easy to pronounce over the phone or radio. Considering .ng domains are still relatively few, several choice words are still available to register as domain names; especially words that best reflect your business.

You can register a simple English word that best describes your business. Compound words or adjectives would only bring unnecessary complications. Keep it simple and memorable.

Avoid the word “Nigeria” where it is possible

The essence of the .ng domain name system is to identify websites related to Nigeria. The mere fact that your business/organization website ends with a .ng, .com.ng or .org.ng in itself portrays your website to be that of a Nigerian commercial entity or non-profit organization.

In essence, adding the word “Nigeria” before or after your name when registering a .ng domain name is redundant and can only make things unnecessarily complicated. Again, short is better.

Avoid hyphens

Although the .ng registry accepts domain names that contain hyphens, it is best to avoid those. The key principle is to keep your .ng domain names as simple as possible.

Questions and suggestions are welcomed in the comments area below.

To register your .ng domain name, simply head to our registration page.



Making sense of .org.ng domain names

.ng is the domain name system for Nigeria and .org.ng is essentially a subset of .ng, targeted at not-for-profit organizations in Nigeria. The .org part of .org.ng is derived from the English word “organization”.

The following types of entities are usually more suited for .org.ng: cultural institutions; associations; religious and civic organizations; open-source software movements; environmental initiatives; social/fraternal organizations; health organizations; free legal services; clubs and community volunteer groups. Obviously, it is most appropriate that the entity be Nigerian, or located in Nigeria.

The .org.ng is a semi-open domain name system. This implies that there are no strict limitations on who can register .org.ng domain names. Anyone can apply from any country in the world. Do note however that, the domain registration should not be intended for fraud, deception or misrepresentation. The .ng registry also forbids obscene words from being registered.

Some popular .org.ng domain names are listed below:

  • jamb.org.ng – Joint Admissions Matriculations Board (JAMB) is a body that organizes a unified tertiary matriculation examination in Nigeria.
  • waeconline.org.ng – the domain name serves as the website address for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) e-Registration website.
  • otours.org.ng – Osun State Ministry of Home Affairs, Culture and Tourism
  • kucped.org.ng – Kutashi Centre for Peace and Development, an NGO.

Should you want to register your .org.ng domain name now, Web4Africa is your best choice. Web4Africa, a leading accredited .ng domain registrar offers .org.ng domain names and other types of .ng domain names at reasonable prices and offers every customer a control panel to manage all the aspects of the domain name. Your .org.ng domain name would be activated instantly if you paid online. Web4Africa accepts Nigerian Debit / ATM cards online, and also accepts payments through multiple international payment gateways.



Nigeria Internet Registration Association

Before the year 2005, registering a Nigerian Top-Level Domain (TLD) was quite cumbersome, but the establishment of NiRA in 2005 put an end to the daunting process. NiRA being a stakeholder-led entity started with the certification of .ng domain registrars and established an automated domain registration system. The system uses an Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP), which enables NiRA Accredited Registrars to connect to the registry servers and perform the domain transactions.

Due to an update to the NiRA Registration Policy, anyone from anywhere in the world could register directly at the second level (example: web4africa.ng) instead of at the 3rd-level (example: web4africa.com.ng) from 16th April 2013.

.NG Domain registrations have shot up from a few thousand back in 2005 to over 130,000 as of May 2019.



5 Reasons NG Domains have increased drastically in number since 2005

NiRA, the official registry for the .ng domain extension, recently announced that the number of domain names under .ng has exceeded 100,000. The recent boost further consolidates .NG’s position as the 2nd most popular domain extension in Africa*.

.NG is the official top-level Domain Name for the Federal Republic of Nigeria and has been managed by NiRA for about 11 years now. The registry operates a “3R” model where NiRA serves as the Registry, accredits Registrars to handle domain management on behalf of Registrants.

Registrar – Registry – Registrant (3R) Model
.NG has experienced a tremendous explosion ever since the “3R” model was introduced and a proper EPP registry system was implemented. With domain registration being mostly a commercial operation, registrars were naturally motivated to make a profit and were thus aggressive with new domain registrations.

Large Market
It also helps that Nigeria is Africa’s largest population. With a youthful population of over 185 million people living in Nigeria as of November 2017 and an estimated Internet penetration of about 50%, growth was inevitable. .ng is intended for Nigerian websites. The strongest patronage is by Nigerians in Nigeria.

Competition
Steep competition among registrars has also meant that retail .ng registration prices have dropped over the years. New registrars often try to make a mark on the market by offering .ng domains at the lowest pricing possible, although some with higher renewal pricing. Many registrars also bundle 3rd-level .ng domains (like .com.ng and .org.ng) with their annual web hosting plans as “free domains”, thus increasing the number even further.

Foreign Exchange (forex)
Another factor that has driven the growth of .ng within Nigeria is the increase in the Naira pricing of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) like .com, .org, .biz due to the drastic weakening of the Naira (Nigeria’s national currency) relative to the US Dollar. The prices of generic domains from most registrars within Nigeria suddenly doubled, while the prices of .ng domains naturally stayed the same, or even reduced, in some cases.

Wide Adoption
An aggressive marketing and promotion drive of the .ng by the .ng registry and .ng registrars in Nigeria has meant that big well-known brands like Google Nigeria, Nigerian e-commerce websites like Jumia Nigeria, most tertiary academic institutions like the University of Ibadan, Federal and State Government and their parastatals have adopted .ng for their websites and email. This has, in turn, had a domino effect on other smaller entities to do the same.

* .za leads with over 1,100,000 domains while .ke comes 3rd with just over 72,000 domains.

Web4Africa is a leading Platinum-level NiRA Accredited Domain Name Registrar offering all .ng domain extensions to clients worldwide.



Other info

TLDMinimumMaximumSpecial charactersDuration (years)Privacy ProtectionDNSSECRenewal Grace periodRedemption Grace periodDeletion periodDomain LockingEPP CodeNotes
.ng363Not supported5Not supported28 days60 days5yesyes

Web4Africa is an Accredited .NG Registrar
Web4Africa is a platinum-level NiRA Accredited Domain Registrar. NiRA is the registry for .ng domains. Web4Africa offers .ng domains to clients in Nigeria and worldwide. We also offer a .NG WHOIS Lookup Tool for checking the public records of the domains.

Domain:

.NG Domain FAQs


How soon would the .ng domain be registered?

With exception of moderated domain extensions like .gov.ng and .edu.ng, most other .ng domain registrations go through instantly. Another exception is where the .ng registry has flagged a domain for scrutiny. Where this is the case, Web4Africa would contact the domain applicant to verify the intention for the domain name.