By Benjamin Amu

March 5, 2010. The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), managers of Nigeria’s country code top level domain (ccTLD), .ng, has announced the release of a list of premium domains that will be available from March 1, 2010.

VP, Nigeria Internet Registration Association, Mary Uduma

Vice President, NIRA, Mary Uduma, explained that the move is in tune with the best practices in the industry whereby registries of TLDs delineate some names as “premium”, while stating the reason for the higher market value attached to 6,957 third level premium domain names released by the body.

The list containing mainly generic words have been placed on the premium list while she noted that the desire to quickly populate the .ng registry and to make it affordable necessitated placing a maximum price cap on the cost of some of such domains.

“The Board of Directors of Nigeria Internet Registration Association has approved the list of third level premium domains, and has endorsed the recommendations of the auction committee regarding the categorization and the pricing”, she said in a statement.

“The paramount objective is to populate the .ng registry. The list is subject to NiRA’s existing Policies and Procedures, and NiRA reserves the right to review the list and shall monitor the trend of uptake of the .ng domain name space from time to time, but not for periods earlier than six month-intervals”, NIRA said promising to abide by its policy on premium domains.

On the categorization of the third level premium domain names, NIRA said that the list is clearly categorized in order to avoid any uncertainty, while adding that the third level premium domain names are delineated as Registered Domains and Non-Registered Domains

The organization further classified it into two sub-categories. The first are names that are corporate identity or trademark that are duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria and are on the list of registered .ng third level domains prior to the re-delegation of the .ng registry to NiRA.

The second categories are names that are single words or compound words duly registered as third level domains in the .ng registry prior to the re-delegation of the .ng registry.

Others include are names that are corporate identity or trademark but not registered as third level domain in the .ng registry prior to the re-delegation of .ng registry. Also in the next category are names that are single words or compound words that are not registered as third level domains in the .ng registry prior to the re-delegation of the .ng registry.

NIRA noted that all premium third level domain names are to be sold by auction, adding that the pricing for domains in sub-categories A1 and A2 are fixed in accordance with the pricing for the list of Third Level Premium Domain names.

NIRA added that domains in sub-categories B1 and B2 are to be purchased in accordance with NiRA’s Auction process for Third Level Premium Domain names.

Regards to pricing, the organization pointed out that a concessionary capped price of N50,000.00 is to be charged for domains in sub-category A1, adding that concessionary pricing shall be effective from March 1, 2010, but shall not be retroactive as there would be no refunds of monies paid previously for any registrations or renewals of such domains.

A capped price of N100,000.00 for a Corporate identity or trademark duly registered in the .ng registry as well as with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria prior to    March 1, 2010, but after the re-delegation of the .ng registry

NIRA said a capped price of N200, 000.00 for a Single-generic-word domain in sub-category A2 and a fixed price of N100, 000.00 for a compound word-generic-word domain in sub-category A2

According to NIRA, “these pricing for categories A1 and A2 are for a limited period not beyond four weeks from the effective dates. The prices will revert to the conditions for domains in sub-categories B1 and B2 after the four-week period. Owners of the corporate identity or trademark will be given the “first offer of refusal” in sub-category B1. The “buy now” Price for any domain in sub-categories B1 and B2 is N500, 000.00. The pricing referred to here are prices for premium domains in the third level category of premium domains. The list of premium domains is deemed to be effective from March 1st, 2010”.