NIRA decries Nigeria $2m lost to foreign domain name registration

The Internet Registration Council of Nigeria (NIRA) is worried at the amount of money Nigeria loses to offshore registration of domain names such as org, net, com among other. In a figure released by NIRA, 300,000 Nigerian websites are registered on different domains that are renewed every year with N1, 000, which brings the amount to N300m (about $2m).
90 percent of Nigerian contents are hosted abroad which results in capital flight, but NIRA while speaking at a two-day Forum with the theme: ‘Sustaining Local Internet Content, the way forward for Nigeria’ through its Chief Operating Officer, Opeoluwa Odusan said they have simplified the process of registration on the country’s top-level domain name .ng through elimination of registrars.

“Direct registration has been reduced to N15, 00 so as to facilitate increased Nigerian content on the Internet, the hosting of such content, locally, and an increased adoption of .ng as the domain name of choice, particularly among Nigerians,” said Odusan.

The two days forum was designed to sensitive stakeholders and the general public on the significance of local Internet content, Nigerians identity on cyberspace, and the emerging relevance of local hosting of content which has a multiplier effect on the economy through capacity building, and job creation.

NIRA was founded on March 23, 2005 as a stakeholder led organization, charged with the management of the nation's CountryTop Level Domain Name (ccTLD), dot ng.