I have a lot of speaking engagements talking about the Nigerian ccTLD .ng. I also write a lot about it, and I know you read from me, through this bi-weekly enewsletter.
Sometimes, journalists take what I say or write and turn them into stories. This is very helpful for spreading the .ng goodies and indeed, I do not mind the stories, I however mind when the facts are distorted to achieve some other aim, eg dragging our dear country, Nigeria down.
Take this online story as a case:
The journalist could have done a little bit more work to end up with a more balanced story, and this is why:
1. I read sarcasm in the write-up … I read “What is there to be proud of in Nigeria?”. I think we should educate those who think there is nothing about Nigeria to be proud of. Very many people are proud of .ng and NIRA and we will always excuse those who are not.
2. There are no “New TLDs” mentioned in the story. NTLDs such as .xyz, .pro, etc. If the writer had included any of those NTLDs, as well as other African Country TLDs, like .MW for Malawi, .MU for Mauritius, .KE for Kenya etc, it will be clear that .ng is not expensive.
3. The Article compares .ng with com, net, biz, org. Indeed it should compare .com.ng, .net.ng etc to those domains. It should then compare .ng to new GTLDs like .PRO, .XYZ etc. The article was very silent on the price of .com.ng in comparison to .co.za or even co.uk.
4. The article did not recognize the fact that .ng is available for registration now, but no one can register under .za or .ke. It is strictly co.za and or.ke for now. The UK opened up .uk in 2014, .us is not available for registration.
5. .com, .net, .org etc have been in existence for over 20 years, with hundreds of millions of domains. The unit cost is very low for them now. As a Country code Top level domain, .ng cannot play any price war now, just to push up numbers, because we have Infrastructure to maintain and staff to pay. The .ng pricing is purely based on the running costs, since NIRA is not-for-profit.
6. NIRA has a price charter that already details the price of domains, as the numbers increase. This guarantees that with volume, the unit prices will drop lower. The Article could have used this information, which is available at the same source that the attribution made to me, was taken from.
Friends, We must begin to tell the .ng story the way it should be told. We must balance our eagerness to see .ng everywhere, with the reality that not everyone understands what we are, what we do and how we do it.
I look forward to welcoming the author of that story and a number of his colleagues to the upcoming .ng Media College, a bi-annual event where the DNS business is discussed with the Press.
I remain at your service.
Rev’d Sunday Folayan
President, NIRA Executive Board