The increasing need to hosting web content locally has brightened the prospects for Nigerian companies to leverage on the difficulties experienced by those who have had to sustain their hosting services abroad, but are now facing difficulties accessing dollars.
At the same time, many local companies are improving on their capacity to deliver quality services, which are commensurate with international standards, to satisfy the needs of individuals, commercial and non-commercial organisations, and government bodies which previously chose to host their content on foreign servers.
A combination of increasing cost of overseas hosting and the growing competence of Nigerian companies is now making it attractive for more people to spend locally and boost the economy.
Sunday Folayan, President of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), said last year that Nigeria loses up to N60 billion annually on .ng related domains, noting it would have been a significant revenue boost to the country had those domain names been hosted locally.
“On a rough estimate, the current Nigerian market is worth over N10 billion per annum with over 400,000 websites across the globe. This could mean a lot of business for Nigerian hosting providers if the gap between local and international service providers is closed,” said Ahmad Mukoshy, Founder, Gigalayer in an emailed response to BusinessDay’s enquiries.
“From an old research we conducted in 2013, we found out that more than 90% of websites owned by Nigerians are hosted outside the country. This is because the overseas hosting providers offer more affordable options, reliable technology and expert support service,” said Mukoshy.
Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director, Rack Centre, also provided some perspective on the erstwhile preference for foreign hosting, saying, “In the past, when the quality of Tier III hosting and providers of high quality high availability websites in high connected environments did not exist in Nigeria, people resorted to hosting with foreign web hosting companies. This was due to quality of functionality, availability, the global connectivity and customer service offered by those foreign providers.”
Today, the dynamics are changing, as Nigeria can now boast of globally acclaimed Tier III facility such as Rack Centre with comparable capability to what the foreign hosting providers offer.
Seun Kehinde, managing director, Qservers Network Ltd, noted that if the amount of money spent on foreign hosting was invested in local hosting firms, it would greatly improve the services being delivered.
Kehinde also said, “due to the exchange rate challenges, more people have decided to give local hosts a chance. This is the kind of opportunity local hosts need to show clients that we have the capacity to host, just like the foreign host.”
This surge of people giving local hosts a chance, according to Kehinde, has increased the rate of domain name transfers by 20 percent.
At the moment, the quality of services being offered by Nigerian companies in the webhosting space appears to be improving, resulting in greater confidence and patronage for local companies. The costs are also getting more affordable, as payment is made in naira, as against inconsistencies in dollar rates and even access.
Kehinde of Qservers emphasised that “Local hosting is cheaper (due to the exchange rates).” While Coker said “when you host with Rack Centre you are invoiced and payment is collected in naira. Hosting with us eliminates the difficulty and costliness of obtaining foreign exchange, especially with the current economic situation.”
Mukoshy on his part remarked that hosting locally offers “advantages such as security, accessibility (in support and payments) and latency (for speed of the website when accessed by Nigerians). Being in the same time-zone with one’s hosting provider can provide a lot of peace of mind too.”
Olusola Teniola, president, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), told BusinessDay. “The issue of cost versus trust in hosting websites locally as opposed to the general trend of resorting to foreign-based hosting sites was one that had strong merits about five to seven years ago, when there were very low numbers of neutral data centers present in the country.
“Now in 2017, there are at least four neutral data centers based in Nigeria that are very similar to what one gets in South Africa at Tier3 level grade. These are internationally certified and fully connected to the undersea fiber network that feeds into London and thus into the World Wide Web (WWW).
“The pricing of these hosting facilities will come down with the increased number of websites patronising them. As per availability and accessibility, the perception and the public awareness will need to be further developed,” Teniola said.
As Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director, Rack Centre said, “There are benefits of hosting in Nigeria. When businesses host abroad, they have to fund the foreign currency to pay for the service, they experience the slower performance due to the latency of network transit for their customers in Nigeria. So not only are there no longer reasons to resort to foreign hosting, there are significant benefits to hosting locally. Here ‘on ground’ in Nigeria.”
CALEB OJEWALE
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