Buying a domain in Nigeria has two problems that buyers elsewhere never meet: most registrars price in dollars and charge a foreign card, and many Nigerian naira cards either decline international payments outright or cap them at a few dollars a month. The result is a familiar loop: find the name, reach checkout, watch the card fail, give up. The fix is a registrar that lets you pay in Naira through a local processor, so the dollar never touches your card.
The second question is which extension. A Nigerian business can choose between .ng and .com.ng, run by NiRA, the Nigeria Internet Registration Association, and the global .com, run by Verisign. They are priced and governed differently, and the right answer depends on who your customers are.
MailShrine Domains sells 150+ extensions, including .com, .ng and .com.ng, and takes payment in Naira through Paystack or in USD by card. The first-year price and the renewal are shown before you pay, WHOIS privacy and transfer lock are included, and two Business Email mailboxes come with the name, so orders@yourbrand.ng works the same afternoon.
Real-life example: Tunde's fashion label
Tunde Bakare runs Bakare Atelier, a made-to-measure menswear label in Surulere, Lagos, selling through Instagram and WhatsApp. His GTBank naira card declines every time he tries to pay a US registrar, and the one time it worked the bank converted at a rate that made a $13 domain cost far more than he expected. He wants bakareatelier.com or bakareatelier.ng, paid in Naira, with email that does not end in @gmail.com.
Tunde's goals this week:
- Pay for the domain in Naira from his bank app, with no foreign-card declines.
- Choose between
.ng,.com.ngand.comwith a clear reason. - Have
tunde@andorders@working before Friday's lookbook goes out.
.ng vs .com.ng vs .com for a Nigerian business
| .ng | .com.ng | .com | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registry | NiRA (Nigeria) | NiRA (Nigeria) | Verisign (USA) |
| Who can register | Anyone, no residency requirement | Anyone | Anyone |
| Typical price | Higher than .com.ng; priced by NiRA in Naira at wholesale | Lowest of the three | About $12.99 a year |
| Signal to customers | Modern, Nigerian, short | Clearly Nigerian, slightly longer | Global, no location signal |
| Governed by ICANN rules? | No, NiRA policy | No, NiRA policy | Yes |
| First-year promos | Rare | Rare | Common at many registrars |
| Best for | Brands selling mainly to Nigerians who want a short name | Local services, schools, shops | Brands selling abroad or to the diaspora |
Tunde sells to Lagos customers now and wants to ship to London and Houston next year. He buys .com as the main name and .ng as the local brand name that redirects to it. Both are available; a two-name plan is cheaper than buying the .com back later from someone else.
How paying in Naira works
When you pick Naira at checkout, the registrar quotes the dollar price converted at that day's rate and hands the payment to Paystack. Paystack takes a naira card, a bank transfer, or USSD, settles with the registrar, and the registrar pays the registry in dollars from its own wholesale account. Your bank sees a local naira transaction, which is why it does not decline it and why no foreign-transaction fee appears on your statement.
| Payment route | What your bank sees | Typical failure |
|---|---|---|
| Naira card at a US registrar | International USD transaction | Declined, or capped by the monthly international limit |
| Dollar card (domiciliary) | USD transaction | Works, but needs a funded dom account |
| Naira via Paystack on MailShrine | Local NGN transaction | Rare; retry with bank transfer if a card fails |
The renewal works the same way. Reminders arrive at 30, 7 and 1 day before expiry and the renewal can be paid in Naira again, so the dollar never becomes your problem at any point in the domain's life.
What you need before you start
| You need | Why |
|---|---|
| A naira bank account or card that works with Paystack | Almost every Nigerian bank does |
| Your full legal name and a street address | ICANN and NiRA both require accurate registrant details |
| A personal email you will keep | Renewal and transfer approvals go to the registrant email |
| Two or three spellings of your brand | bakareatelier versus bakare-atelier; buy the one you say aloud |
Step 1: Check the name across extensions in one search
Use the availability checker and type bakareatelier. The result lists .com, .ng, .com.ng and others with their availability and both prices. Tunde sees .com free at $12.99 and .ng free too, with the Naira equivalent shown when he switches currency.
Step 2: Switch the currency to Naira
The currency selector converts every price at the current rate. The converted number is what Paystack will charge, so the figure you see is the figure on your bank alert, with no hidden conversion on top.
Step 3: Choose the term
Both names can be registered for 1 to 10 years. Because the naira rate moves, a longer term locks today's converted price for the whole term. Tunde picks three years for the .com and one year for the .ng while he tests whether customers use it.
Step 4: Enter registrant details and leave privacy on
Tunde registers in his own name with his Surulere address. WHOIS privacy hides those details from public lookups; it is free and on by default. He uses a personal Gmail as the registrant contact so that losing a staff mailbox can never lose him the domain.
Step 5: Pay through Paystack
At the payment step he chooses Paystack, then bank transfer inside the Paystack window because his card has a low online limit. The transfer confirms in under a minute, the registrar sends the create command to Verisign and to NiRA, and both names show Active.
Step 6: Set up the mailboxes
MailShrine wrote the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records at registration. Tunde renames the default mailbox to tunde@bakareatelier.com and creates orders@. The two included mailboxes come with webmail, calendar, drive and two-factor authentication. The .ng is set to redirect to the .com in the DNS editor.
Tunde's checklist
- Searched
bakareatelieracross.com,.ngand.com.ngin one queryCompleted - Switched the price display to Naira before decidingCompleted
- Registered the
.comfor 3 years to lock the converted priceCompleted - Paid by bank transfer inside Paystack, no foreign card involvedCompleted
- Kept privacy and transfer lock onCompleted
- Create
orders@and put it on the Instagram bio and WhatsApp catalogueNot completed - Decide after 12 months whether the
.ngearns its renewalNot completed
Common mistakes
Letting a Nigerian hosting company register the domain in its own name. Many bundle "free domain" with hosting and list themselves as registrant. If you leave the host, the domain can stay behind. You must be the registrant.
Buying .com.ng only because it is the cheapest. It is a fine extension for a local service, but if you plan to sell abroad, the .com is the name customers will type. Price the decision over five years, not the first invoice.
Paying a stranger on WhatsApp to "buy it for you". The domain will be registered in their account. Transferring it to you later needs their cooperation and an auth code, and the 60-day lock after registration delays it anyway.
Ignoring the renewal rate because the first year was in Naira. Whichever currency you pay in, check the renewal figure. On MailShrine it is next to the first-year price.
Expecting a .ng to behave exactly like a .com. NiRA sets its own grace periods and policies. They are reasonable, but they are not ICANN's, so read the expiry reminders rather than assuming.
Check your work
Open the bank alert and the MailShrine receipt side by side. The naira amount should match to the kobo, with no separate "international transaction" line. In the dashboard both names should show Active, privacy and lock on, and email setup complete on the .com. Send a test email from tunde@bakareatelier.com to a Gmail address and check it arrives in the inbox.
FAQ
Can I pay for a domain with a naira card directly?
On MailShrine, yes: choose Naira at checkout and Paystack processes the card as a local transaction. At registrars that only accept dollars, a naira card is treated as an international payment and is often declined or limited by your bank.
Is a .ng domain only for people in Nigeria?
No. NiRA has no residency requirement for .ng or .com.ng. The extension signals Nigeria to visitors, which is a benefit if your customers are Nigerian and a neutral fact otherwise.
Will the renewal be charged in dollars later?
No. Renewals are offered in the same currencies as registration, and the reminders at 30, 7 and 1 day state the price. If the naira rate has moved, the converted amount will differ, but the dollar price only changes if the registry raises its fee.
Do I need a CAC registration to buy a domain?
Not for .com, .ng or .com.ng. You can register as an individual. Some restricted Nigerian second-level extensions have eligibility rules, but the three mainstream ones do not.
Can I transfer a domain I bought elsewhere and pay its renewal in Naira?
Yes. Transfers into MailShrine need the domain to be older than 60 days, unlocked, with its auth code, and the transfer adds a year to the term. If the losing registrar rejects it, the transfer fee is refunded in full. See the transfer section.
Next steps
- How to Buy a Domain Name: Step by Step — the six decisions in detail.
- How Much Does a Domain Name Cost? — price ranges by extension.
- Can You Get a Free Domain? What Free Really Means — why the hosting bundle is not free.
Citations & References
- Reference: NiRA: Nigeria Internet Registration Association
- Reference: IANA: .ng delegation record
- Reference: Paystack: Payment channels documentation
- Reference: ICANN: Registrant rights and responsibilities
Written by Samira K., small-business editor. Samira writes for owners who run the business and the IT, and wants the yearly bills to be as boring as possible.