.Sch.ng Domain Requirements: Who Can Register?

An applicant qualifies for .sch.ng only when every required condition aligns. It must be an approved primary, secondary, or other non-degree-awarding institution, use an eligible Nigerian legal form, hold the relevant education approval, request a name that represents the approved school, and respect NiRA’s one-registration rule.

These conditions work together. A CAC certificate without school approval is not enough, and an approval letter cannot cure an ineligible institution type.

If you need the namespace basics first, read .sch.ng explained. This page focuses on the eligibility decision.

The five eligibility gates

Use this summary before gathering files:

Gate	Question	Pass condition
Institution	What kind of school is applying?	Approved primary, secondary, or other non-degree-awarding institution
Legal status	How does it exist under Nigerian law?	CAC-registered company, qualifying partnership, or sole trader/registered business name
Education approval	Who authorises the school to provide education?	Relevant accreditation body and government approval
Requested name	Does the label represent the applicant?	Same as or a similar variant of the approved school’s name
Registration count	Does this school already hold .sch.ng?	One registration for the approved school

The school should pass all five gates before it pays.

1) The applicant must be an approved school

NiRA’s current published policy identifies:

• approved primary schools;

• approved secondary schools; and

• other approved non-degree-awarding institutions.

The third group can cover an institution approved through another relevant authority, but “non-degree-awarding” does not mean “unregulated.”

A kindergarten, nursery, vocational school, or computer-training institution should confirm the exact legal and government approval route that applies to it.

The current Truehost order form includes Secondary School, Primary School, and Kindergartens in our selector. That operational list does not narrow NiRA’s published policy.

If an approved non-degree-awarding institution cannot select an accurate option, ask our support team for the correct route before paying.

Degree-awarding institutions belong elsewhere

NiRA reserves .edu.ng domain for approved and accredited degree-awarding tertiary institutions. A university, polytechnic, or degree-awarding college should not use .sch.ng as a temporary substitute while it waits for tertiary approval.

Use our .edu.ngguide to examine that namespace.

2) The applicant needs an eligible Nigerian legal form

NiRA lists three routes:

• a company registered with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission;

• a partnership recognised under Nigerian partnership law; or

• a sole trader or registered business name.

This is the legal-identity gate. The registration evidence should identify the same entity that operates the approved school.

The legal applicant, approval evidence, school name, and requested domain need a defensible relationship.

The live Truehost configuration screen currently labels its first evidence field Certificate of Registration with CAC.

NiRA’s policy is broader than that label.

If the school uses a partnership or sole-trader route, contact our support team for the accepted evidence path instead of uploading a document that does not apply.

3) The school needs relevant education approval

Legal registration and education approval answer different questions:

• legal evidence identifies the applicant; and

• approval or accreditation evidence shows that the institution may provide the relevant non-degree education.

NiRA requires approval by the relevant accreditation body and government. Its policy recognises approving authorities at local, state, and federal levels, depending on the institution.

Use the document issued by the authority responsible for that school type. Confirm that it remains current, identifies the institution, and includes the details needed to connect it to the applicant.

A CAC record for a business containing words such as “academy,” “college,” or “school” does not prove educational approval. Conversely, a letter mentioning a school cannot replace an eligible legal identity when the policy requires both.

4) The domain must represent the approved school

NiRA requires the registered name to be the same as, or a similar variant of, the applicant’s name.

For a fictional Bright Path Academy, brightpathacademy.sch.ng has an obvious relationship. A short form may also be defensible when the institution uses it officially, but availability does not make an unrelated abbreviation acceptable.

Compare the proposed label with:

• the legal-registration name;

• the education approval or accreditation name;

• the name on the school letterhead;

• any authorised abbreviation; and

• the signatory’s explanation of the request.

Where documents contain an old name, branch name, proprietor name, or trading style, prepare the connecting evidence before applying. Do not alter a certificate or invent a letter merely to make the wording match.

The label must also follow syntax rules

NiRA’s general rules allow unaccented letters, digits, and hyphens. The label cannot begin or end with a hyphen or consist only of numbers. One- and two-character third-level names are not generally accepted for .sch.ng, and the current policy caps the complete domain at 64 characters.

NiRA can also restrict offensive, misleading, geographic, premium, or trademark-conflicting names. Passing the character rules does not override the school-name relationship.

5) Each approved school gets one registration

NiRA’s published .sch.ng rule allows one registration for each approved or registered school.

One proprietor may operate several branches, departments, programmes, or services, but that does not automatically create several qualifying schools. Use subdomains under the approved address for internal services when appropriate, for example:

• admissions.schoolname.sch.ng;

• portal.schoolname.sch.ng; or

• library.schoolname.sch.ng.

If a proprietor operates separately approved schools, each applicant must independently pass the institution, legal, approval, naming, and evidence gates. Shared ownership does not transfer one school’s approval to another.

Evidence to prepare for Truehost

Our live .sch.ng configuration screen currently requests three evidence links. These are current order fields, while NiRA’s policy remains the authority for eligibility.

Current field	Prepare
CAC certificate	A viewable link to the legal-registration evidence requested for the applicant’s route
Accreditation certificate	A viewable link to the relevant education approval or accreditation evidence
Approval letter	A viewable link to a typed, stamped, and scanned school letter that follows the current order instruction

The form asks you to place each file on Google Drive or another file-sharing platform and paste the link. Test every link in a private browser window. Give view-only access, keep it active through review, and avoid sharing unrelated records.

For the approval letter, follow the exact instruction shown for the order. A useful institutional letter normally identifies the school, exact requested domain, authorised representative, contact details, signatory, signature, and official stamp. Do not treat a copied sample or an unauthorised staff signature as evidence of approval.

Our general document guide provides scanning context. The dedicated registration steps page explains where the current fields appear without repeating the eligibility test.

Who should not apply for .sch.ng

Do not proceed when the applicant is:

• a degree-awarding tertiary institution that belongs in .edu.ng;

• an informal or unapproved tutorial centre;

• an education software, consulting, marketing, or supplies company that is not itself an approved school;

• an individual, employee, or contractor trying to own the school’s domain personally;

• a proposed school that has legal registration but no relevant education approval; or

• a branch or department attempting to bypass the one-registration rule.

An education-related name or activity does not create eligibility. If the project does not qualify as an approved school, review suitable open domain types instead.

Borderline cases

Applicant	What to verify
Kindergarten or nursery	Its legal form and approval as a non-degree-awarding institution
Vocational school	The responsible approval body, government recognition, and non-degree status
Computer school	Whether it holds the relevant agency and government approval referenced by NiRA’s charter
School group	Whether each proposed registrant is separately approved, not merely a branch
Renamed school	The documents connecting the former and current approved names
Franchise school	Which legal entity holds the local school approval and should own the domain

When the policy position is unclear, pause the purchase and ask our support team to confirm the evidence route for the specific institution. Do not choose the closest form option merely to move checkout forward.

Pre-payment checklist

Confirm every statement:

• The applicant is an approved primary, secondary, or other non-degree-awarding institution.

• Its Nigerian legal form fits one of NiRA’s listed routes.

• The legal evidence identifies the actual school operator.

• The relevant authority has approved the institution’s educational activity.

• The approval evidence is current and readable.

• The proposed domain matches or closely reflects the approved school name.

• The label follows NiRA’s character and naming controls.

• The approved school does not already hold another .sch.ng registration.

• The current Truehost form accurately describes the applicant, or support has confirmed an alternative route.

• Every evidence link opens without edit access or a personal sign-in.

If any statement is false or uncertain, resolve it before paying.

Continue after eligibility

An eligible school can now follow the registration steps for name search, evidence links, checkout, review, and activation checks. The school benefits article can help the team plan its website and email rollout after eligibility is established.

When the evidence pack is ready, register .sch.ng.

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