In spite of its sensitisation campaigns, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has said the uptake of .ng domain names has not been as impressive as the organisation would have liked. NiRA president Mary Uduma cited infrastructure challenges as a reason for this situation.

Uduma said the absence of infrastructure to ensure broadband penetration to all nooks and crannies of the country, is one of the impediments affecting .ng domain uptake.

She noted that infrastructure will ensure that everyone has access to the internet to facilitate adoption of the country's domain names. "How many people have websites, how many people have email addresses, how many people have internet access, is internet everywhere in Nigeria? The price for internet access, how affordable is it? So those are the things that are impediments to .ng uptake.''

Inadequate knowledge about the internet is another challenge and, according to Uduma, not many Nigerians are aware of the business benefits associated with the .ng domain names.

She disclosed that NiRA, through its registrars, register and renew about 1,500 domain names annually, adding that the low rate of uptake is attributed to a general attitude towards what is locally produced.

"It is just the normal attitude of an average Nigerian. We think that the imported thing is better than the local or anything Nigeria. So it is just an attitude thing and .ng is as safe, secure and stable as .com, as .co.uk; it is just for Nigerians to embrace what we have,'' she said.

According to Internet Live Stats, in 2014 Nigeria had 37,59% internet penetration. In the beginning of April 2015 Nigeria's government, via the National Broadband Council, approved four fiber optic cable landing points in four coastal states to ensure widespread penetration of high capacity internet bandwidth.