I refused to become a pioneer registrar when NIRA asked me to because I understand what they see .ng domain names to mean - avenue to make money even if service delivery is horrible.

Simply register a .com domain name and move on. I don't see why you should even negotiate with them at all, it doesn't make any sense.

This sort of thing happens offline too.

I started with www.lagosetores.com as a domain name and when I wanted to register the name with CAC I was informed by my lawyer that someone had reserved the name and that Lagos State sees the name as one that benefits from the name of the State.

When asked what next to do I asked him not to bother as I was going to drop the name and even drop the domain name. That same day I registered www.justwebservices.com and after updating the information on business cards, contacts everything became normal again.

It is not about the name, it is about the quality of service. Who would have thought that names like amazon, google, yahoo, facebook etc would have been linked with successful online businesses?

Drop the name, move on and focus on your business and when the registrant does not see anyone negotiating for reduction they will face reality and sit up.

Normally there are always restricted names but it is the duty of NIRA and/or the registrants to ensure that no one is allowed to register such names without knowing the cost or without paying the fee. It is wrong to inform clients after they must have registered such names that they must part with thousands of naira to keep such names.

Good luck.

@abhost, you are wrong.

Nira wants to defraud you, they already got a buyer for that domain name and wants to scare u from it.

BizBooks:

@ Dokki,

I think you are right. In fact some years ago, Microsoft forgot to renew one of their sites, Passport.com . A good samaritan renewed it and handed it back to Microsoft. Read the story here: http://www.out-law.com/page-4049

Domain business na fraud.

I have been online for years and been involved in the domaining industry, i have never heard such rubbish. if you have so much money, i would advice you to look for a super dotcom name and buy.
let's face it, 350k converted to $ would be at least $2300. that sum would buy you a very nice premium dotcom domain.
what's in it for a .com.ng shit anyway.