Nigeria’s Internet could be leaving millions of potential users—and billions in potential economic value—on the sidelines because some digital systems still struggle with local languages, scripts and non-traditional email addresses.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is urging government agencies, businesses, developers and technology providers to embrace Universal Acceptance (UA), a technical standard designed to ensure valid domain names and email addresses work properly across websites, applications and other digital platforms.
The commission made the call Thursday at the 2026 Universal Acceptance Adoption Workshop in Lagos, organised by the NCC in partnership with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
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Why Universal Acceptance matters
Opeolu Oyebanji, head of the Internet Infrastructure Unit in the NCC’s Cyber Security and Internet Governance Department, said UA supports the regulator’s goal of building an Internet ecosystem that is secure, resilient, inclusive and interoperable.
In practical terms, UA means digital systems should be able to accept, validate, process, store and display every valid domain name and email address, regardless of its language, script or length.
That matters in a country as linguistically diverse as Nigeria.
Oyebanji said wider UA adoption could make online services more accessible while encouraging local digital content and creating opportunities for businesses, developers and innovators.
Nigerian websites still have compatibility gaps
ICANN’s assessment of Nigerian websites suggests that the problem is not merely theoretical.
Yaovi Atohoun, ICANN’s Stakeholder Engagement and Operations Director for Africa, said the organisation tested 100 Nigerian websites for UA readiness.
About half presented no compatibility issues, particularly sites that primarily publish information. Problems became more apparent on platforms that require users to enter information.
The assessment included testing email addresses containing characters from different writing systems.
Atohoun said 16 websites rejected a Bengali email address, with 14 of those sites using WordPress.
Another 27 websites produced unclear responses during testing, and 12 of those also ran WordPress.
ICANN has contributed code to WordPress to address some UA-related issues. Atohoun said WordPress 6.9, released in 2025, addressed one aspect of the problem, while another plugin was undergoing testing.
The business case could be substantial
Universal Acceptance is not only about inclusion. ICANN also sees a commercial opportunity.
Atohoun cited a 2017 study that estimated the potential economic value of full domain-name UA adoption at more than $9.8 billion, describing the figure as conservative.
His warning to businesses was blunt: companies that fail to update their systems could be missing opportunities to serve new customers.
As Internet users increasingly interact online in different languages and scripts, UA-ready platforms could give businesses access to audiences that conventional systems may currently struggle to serve.
Adoption requires more than awareness
The NCC says simply discussing UA is no longer enough.
Oyebanji called for organisations to test their websites and applications, identify compatibility problems and fix them. He also said UA should be considered from the beginning of the technology lifecycle—including system design, software development, procurement and service delivery.
The responsibility, he stressed, does not belong to the NCC alone.
Effective adoption will require cooperation among government institutions, registries, registrars, software companies, developers, universities, businesses and the wider technical community.
The commission has already held UA awareness programmes, including workshops in 2023 and 2024. The latest initiative is intended to move the country beyond discussion and toward implementation.
Developers have a role to play
Atohoun urged software developers and system administrators to add Universal Acceptance to their technical skill sets.
As the Internet becomes more multilingual, he argued, the ability to build systems that work across different scripts and internationalised domain names could become a competitive advantage.
The implications extend across much of Nigeria’s digital economy.
Government portals, banks, online retailers, schools and other services that require users to register accounts or provide email addresses all stand to benefit from better UA compatibility.
Nigeria’s next step: from awareness to action
The NCC wants stakeholders at the workshop to identify the technical and institutional obstacles slowing UA adoption and agree on practical measures to address them.
The broader objective is straightforward: make Nigeria’s digital infrastructure work for the people who use it—not just for the systems it was originally designed around.
For users, that could mean fewer rejected email addresses and broken registration forms.
For businesses, it could mean access to customers they currently struggle to reach.
And for Nigeria’s increasingly multilingual digital economy, Universal Acceptance could become less of a technical upgrade and more of a basic requirement for an Internet that is genuinely open to everyone.