I know some may say this is not the proper place to paste this topic ,but this the most visited section on this forum so I will just like to hear your opinions on this matter. The world we live in now is a global village and a local website is like a window into our nation.

As web designer myself ,I have always wondered why Nigerians and Nigerian businesses don't like to use the .com.ng domain for their websites. I mean in this day and age, all countries all over the world have a registered domain and all of them use their local domains proudly.

That can not be said in the case of Nigeria , only about 40% of Nigerian websites actually use the .com.ng domain. To add insult to injury quite a number of government websites do not use the .gov.ng domain.

Just take a look at the following Nigerian Businesses and government website

Globacom www.globacom.com (should be www.globacom.com.ng )
Punch Newspapers www.punchng.com (should be www.punch.com.ng )
INEC www.inecnigeria.org (should be www.inec.gov.ng )
PHCN www.phcnonline.com (should be www.phcn.gov.ng )
ETB www.equitorialtrustbank.com ( should be www.etb.com.ng)
Afribank www.afribank.com (should be www.afribank.com.ng)

How come silverbird a Nigerian owned company does not use the .com.ng domain but they use the Kenya domain for their Kenya branch

Silverbird Nigeria www.silverbirdtv.com
Silverbird Kenya www.silverbird.co.ke

The same goes for AIT

AIT Nigeria www.aittv.com
AIT UK www.aittv.co.uk

Even foreign companies don’t respect our domain

South African company MTN makes more money in Nigeria than anywhere else on the continent but they don’t respect our domain. They however respect Ghana ,Swaziland and all the other countries they operate in.

MTN Niegria : www.mtnonline.com
MTN South Africa : www.mtn.co.za
MTN Ghana : www.mtn.com.gh
MTN Swaziland : www.mtn.co.sz

Companies like Mobil that make so much money from Nigerian oil :

Mobil Nigeria www.exxonmobil.com/Nigeria-English/, /HR_Homepage.asp
(it should be www.exxonmobil.com.ng )
Mobil UK www.mobil.co.uk

Kudos to the following entities and many others for respecting our nation’s domain :

www.shell.com.ng
www.lagosstate.gov.ng
www.npf.gov.ng
www.emb-norway.com.ng
www.nta.com.ng
www.airfrance.com.ng
www.tribune.com.ng
www.etisalat.com.ng
www.tinapa.com.ng
www.total.com.ng
www.systemspecs.com.ng
www.visafone.com.ng
www.neximbank.com.ng
www.niconinsurance.com.ng
www.upperlink.com.ng
www.hitv.com.ng
www.champion.com.ng

We Nigerians are always talking about how proud we are of our country, how we love to fly our green white green flag but when it comes to the cyberworld we are either ashamed to associate our business with Nigeria or we just don’t care.

I mean I live in South Africa and I am yet to see a local South African website that does not carry the .co.za domain. This is because the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) ensures that all locally based businesses use the .co.za domain. However we in Nigeria allow foreign companies to disrespect our nation by using .com and .org even though they are conducting their businesses within our shores. It is as if these companies do not want to associate themselves with Nigeria but they our fine with taking our monies.

I think our Ministry of Information & technology should enact laws that will force these companies both Nigerian and foreign owned to use the .com.ng .com.org or .gov.ng domains.

P.S (side comment)

I must say that that I am disappointed in the federal governments website. Even the Nigerian police website beats the Federal governments website hands down. What is president Jonathan going to do about this. My president I believe Nigerians deserve a better looking website than that crap : www.nigeria.gov.ng .That website is appalling to say the least ,even your personal website www.rethinknigeria.com is outstanding when compared to that scrappy website representing Nigeria. And if I may ask ,how come your rethink nigeria does not carry the domain .com.ng. Shouldn’t you be leading by example. If you are rethinking Nigeria shouldn’t Nigeria be reflected in your domain? It will be best that you immediately instruct your webmaster to change the domain name to www.rethinknigeria.com.ng as this will fully represent the Nigerian image you are trying to portray. Furthermore ,I will appreciate it if you hire new web designers to redesign the Nigerian Federal Government’s website and include toruism as wel as investion info on it.

Here are a couple of African websites that your webmasters can borrow ideas from :

www.imostate.gov.ng (This is probably the best government website in Nigeria)
www.ikediohakim.com.ng (This is a high tech modern governor)
www.ghana.gov.gh
www.southafrica.net
www.southafrica.info
www.emansion.gov.lr
www.gouv.sn
www.republicoftogo.com
www.presidence.ne

because an average nigerian doesnt want to associate with anything nigerian - the reason, you may not know.

Good analysis but one of the reasons many big Nigerian establishments don't use the .ng domain is because .ng was difficult to register until a few years ago. A lot of marketing still needs to be done.

Before I support your argument, let me ask you some little question.
Does the USA use .co.us?
Why is it that the USA uses .com, .gov .edu (the primary extensions) without putting .us?
DYK that one can use .anything?

Now to your support. I think the Ministry of Information and Ministry of Communication should address this issue as soon as possible.

And why did they not settle for .ng instead of this .com.ng

I did rather continue with just .com - Or were they got carried away?

1. there's really nothing modern about ohakim
2. com.ng is useless, as is .uk . anything, internet doesn't have to be a matter of patriotism