.ng

Overview

• .ng is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Nigeria.
• It is overseen and managed by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA).
• Registrations are available at both the second level (example.ng) and third level (example.com.ng), with NiRA reserving the right to register premium second-level names.

History

• The .ng ccTLD was first delegated on 15 March 1995.
• Initial administrative contact at delegation was Ibukun Odusote (Yaba College of Technology); early technical operations were handled by an Italian institute (Instituto per le Applicazioni Telematiche) and later by Randy Bush.
• In 2004 the domain was redelegated to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
• In 2009 the .ng ccTLD was redelegated to the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), which currently functions as the registry.

Usage and Audience

• .ng is very popular in Nigeria and is intended for entities connected with Nigeria.
• As of May 2020 there were 157,072 registered .ng domains (registry figure from NiRA).
• As of March 2022, there were 75 registrars accredited by NiRA.
• Distribution of registrations (reported figures):
  • Nearly 70% of .ng domains are registered under .com.ng (commercial use).
  • About 7% are under .org.ng (mainly local non-profits).
  • Approximately 17% of active .ng domains are registered directly at the second level (example.ng).
• Third-level registrations (e.g., under .com.ng) are often significantly cheaper than second-level names.

Registration Rules

• General policy: .ng is an open-use ccTLD but specific second-level domains have varying levels of restriction (open, semi-open, closed).
• Open second-level domains include:
  • .com.ng — commercial entities and businesses
  • .name.ng — individuals/personal names
  • .net.ng — ISP/telecom infrastructure
  • .org.ng — not-for-profit entities
  • .mobi.ng — mobile-specific sites
  • .i.ng — general purpose (also promoted for domain hacks)
• Closed or restricted second-level domains include:
  • .gov.ng — government bodies
  • .edu.ng — degree-awarding and higher-education institutions
  • .sch.ng — secondary and other academic institutions (regionally administered)
  • .mil.ng — military establishments
• Name reservation and restriction categories include:
  • Offensive names (as determined by the NiRA Executive Board)
  • Restricted names (e.g., those that might mislead or imply official status)
  • GeoNames (geographical and place names as determined by NiRA)
  • Existing Nigerian trademarks (registration may be refused without trademark owner consent)
  • Premium names (generic or high-value names may be auctioned or sold via bidding)
• Character and length rules (NiRA policy):
  • Allowed characters: letters a–z (unaccented), digits 0–9, and hyphen (-).
  • A domain must not start or end with a hyphen.
  • Domain names cannot consist of only numeric characters.
  • Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are not offered (names starting with "xn--" are not allowed).
  • Domains of one or two characters are generally not allowed except if offered by auction at the second or third level.

SEO and Brand Impact

• The registry considers second-level (example.ng) names more valuable for their typically shorter length; such names are often priced higher (premium) compared with third-level names like example.com.ng.
• NiRA reserves premium or notable names and may make them available via auction or competitive bidding (example cited: google.ng reserved by NiRA).
• Widespread local adoption (.com.ng dominance and overall popularity in Nigeria) suggests strong country-level brand recognition for businesses targeting Nigerian audiences.

Notable Cases or Examples

• NiRA reserves the right to register premium second-level domains; the policy documentation cites examples such as "google.ng" as a class of premium registrations.
• The .i.ng second-level domain is explicitly promoted to enable domain hacks or creative English words ending in "-ing"; an illustrative example noted in registry materials is "bubbl.i.ng".
• Key historical figures in the delegation and administration of .ng include Ibukun Odusote (initial administrative contact) and the successive redelegations to NITDA (2004) and NiRA (2009).

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       NG

organisation: Nigeria Internet Registration Association
address:      8 Funso Williams Avenue
address:      Alaka Surulere
address:      Lagos
address:      Nigeria

contact:      administrative
name:         President
organisation: Nigeria Internet Registration Association
address:      8 Funso Williams Avenue
address:      Alaka Surulere
address:      Lagos
address:      Nigeria
phone:        +234 806 269 6840
e-mail:       president@nira.org.ng

contact:      technical
name:         DNS Administrator
organisation: Nigeria Internet Registration Association
address:      8 Funso Williams Avenue
address:      Alaka Surulere
address:      Lagos
address:      Nigeria
phone:        +234 803 348 0113
e-mail:       tech_support@nira.org.ng

nserver:      NS2.NIC.NET.NG 2001:500:14:6040:ad:0:0:1 204.61.216.40
nserver:      NS3.NIC.NET.NG 185.38.108.108 2a00:fea0:dead:0:0:0:0:beef
nserver:      NS4.NIC.NET.NG 185.28.194.194
nserver:      NS5.NIC.NET.NG 196.216.168.41 2001:43f8:120:0:0:0:0:41
nserver:      NSA.NIC.NET.NG 41.222.79.3

whois:        whois.nic.net.ng

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.nira.org.ng/

created:      1995-03-15
changed:      2025-09-01
source:       IANA