The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) has said it is targeting a 250% increase in the .ng domain name adoption in the coming year.

The association says adoption of the .ng domain name has improved significantly from about 2,000 in 2009 to its current 50,000 registered instances.

The body says it is poised to pursue an aggressive awareness campaign next year to further increase the number of users of the domain name.

Speaking at a forum in Lagos, president of the group, Mary Uduma, said part of the strategy to increase .ng usage is to give out 100,000 free domain names next year to commemorate Nigeria's centenary celebration.

She said the initiative is planned to help propagate the use of the local content domain name by Nigerians.

Udoma also disclosed that an agreement has been reached to have all states and local governments with the .ng domain before the second quarter of 2014.

She noted that considerations are seriously being looked into the renewal fee of N50,000 registrars which has been raised as an issue.

“In 2014 we are also going to engage the media more and the free domain fiesta is also a major channel which strongly has a great import for public internet of Nigeria and global internet communities,” Udoma said.