The Nigeria Internet Registration Association, the body that manages the .ng country code TLD, has announced plans to give out 100,000 free domain names to Nigerians in 2014.
According to a report by ThisDay, the initiative is in celebration of Nigeria’s centenary and hopes to promote the use of .ng domains among its citizens.
NiRA president, Mary Uduma, made the announcement at its end of the year get together and forum on Dec. 19. She said that in 2009 there were less than 20,000 .ng domains registered, and now there are about 60,000 registered domain names. The goal is to increase this number by 250 percent before the end of 2014.
To help promote adoption of the .ng domain name, Uduma said registrars should take advantage of the opportunity to offer free domain names.
More details about the free .ng domain names will be released at the end of January by NiRA, according to the report, and free domain names will become available in February.
While free domains may help increase adoption, they also come with their own problems. Last year, Mali offered free country code TLDs, which subsequently resulted in Mali having the most phishy top-level domain of any country in the world.
