Nigeria has advanced to second place in the Africa Domain Name Industry, as highlighted by a study from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in collaboration with PowerSoft Africa. This report underscores significant growth and improvements in Nigeria’s domain name system (DNS), placing the country ahead of many of its African peers. As of November 2023, African entities have registered 4.33 million country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and 1.4 million generic top-level domains (gTLDs). The domain name industry on the continent is expected to grow annually by 12.4%, presenting substantial opportunities for local providers. However, high internet access costs remain a challenge, with the average African spending about 4% of their monthly income on 1GB of data, which is double the global affordability target.
Infrastructure across Africa is improving with over 1.1 million kilometers of terrestrial and submarine fiber cables enhancing internet connectivity. Despite this, web content and domain hosting are concentrated in a few countries, highlighting the need for localized internet services. Nigeria benefits from several undersea cables, similar to South Africa and Kenya, and its .ng domain is well-managed with support from six Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and multiple data centers. The country boasts the highest number of internet users on the continent and has surpassed 215,000 registrations for the .ng domain, indicating significant growth in its DNS industry.
Stakeholders have expressed their insights on this progress. ICANN’s Interim President & CEO, Sally Costerton, emphasized the study’s role in understanding the DNS landscape’s evolution and identifying future growth opportunities, reinforcing ICANN’s commitment to supporting Africa’s internet infrastructure. NiRA President, Adesola Akinsanya, attributed Nigeria’s success to the collective efforts of NiRA, its executive board, registrars, and stakeholders, stressing the importance of increasing .ng domain adoption. Murtala Abdullahi, CEO of Smartweb Nigeria Limited, noted the growing acceptance of the .ng domain, highlighting Nigeria’s large population and rising interest in local domain names as advantages. Sir Remmy Nweke, Lead Consulting Strategist of DigitalSENSE Africa Media, emphasized the need for ongoing efforts to improve internet adoption, local hosting, and related infrastructure.
Encouragingly, Google has indexed 44.3 million web pages under the .ng domain, a significant increase from 16 million, demonstrating the rise in digital content and activity within Nigeria. The country’s progress in the Africa Domain Name Industry reflects strategic advancements in internet infrastructure and domain name registration. Continued efforts in enhancing local internet services, improving affordability, and increasing domain name adoption are crucial for sustaining this growth trajectory.
