Nigeria’s .ng web addresses cross 250,000 milestone

The Nigerian Internet Registration Association, NiRA, says that the number of registered .ng website addresses had officially crossed 250,000.

The NiRA President, Adesola Akinsanya, said in a statement made available on Thursday in Lagos that the increase was driven by a surge in new sign-ups and fewer users abandoning their web domains.

Akinsanya said that July was the country’s strongest performing month of 2026 for .ng domain growth.

“Active registered web addresses grew from 243,953 in June to 249,897 by the end of July, representing an increase of 5,944 domains from the 243,953 recorded in June.

“This figure places the registry only 103 domains short of the 250,000 milestone.

“The registrars have also recorded over 3,000 new registrations in early August.

“In addition, during July alone, the registry recorded 11,044 new web address registrations and 6,766 renewals.

“Together, accredited domain sellers (registrars) processed 17,810 registrations and renewals—the highest single-month volume recorded this year.

“Crossing the 250,000-domain milestone is an important achievement for the .ng community,” Akinsanya said.

He noted that the achievement reflected joint efforts by NiRA, accredited domain sellers, and millions of Nigerian individuals and businesses building an online presence.

Akinsanya said the milestone demonstrated increasing recognition of the .ng domain as an important component of Nigeria’s digital identity.

He added that NiRA would continue working to make .ng web addresses more accessible, secure and useful for all users.

NiRA’s Chief Operating Officer, Mrs. Seyi Onasanya, explained that July’s strong growth was also driven by a drop in domain deletions—when users let their web addresses expire or cancel them.

She said: “Deletions fell to 5,646 in July, the lowest monthly figure in 2026.

Expired domains accounted for just 31.7% of overall domain turnover in July, down from 42.7% in June and over 50% during the first five months of the year.

“The July numbers are encouraging because they show that growth is not only coming from new registrations but also from stronger retention,” Onasanya noted.

She encouraged domain sellers to reach out to customers early with renewal reminders and offer multi-year registration plans to prevent avoidable address drops.

Onasanya also pointed to steady growth across both direct and sub-category web addresses: “Direct .ng addresses (Second-level domains like yourname.ng) recorded 4,659 new registrations and 2,357 renewals in July.

“These are considered premium digital identities with potential search engine visibility advantages.

“Extension addresses (Third-level domains like yourname.com.ng) recorded 6,385 new registrations and 4,409 renewals.”

Onasanya said customer education, proactive renewal reminders, expiry notifications and incentives for multi-year registrations would help sustain growth and reduce avoidable domain deletions.

To safeguard the network, she said that the Agency was also urging domain sellers to adopt Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

Onasanya stressed that the DNSSEC was an advanced cybersecurity protection tool designed to prevent website tampering and identity spoofing.

She noted that currently, only 15 out of 164 accredited domain sellers (9.15%) had enabled this security tool.

She urged more domain sellers (registrars) to adopt DNSSEC to strengthen security and digital trust across the .ng ecosystem.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that .ng is Nigeria’s official country-code web address extension and is managed by NiRA. NAN