NetAfric, a web hosting company has set a daunting task to register one million subscribers in Nigeria within one year. The company recently introduced products such as web hosting, email accounts, data transfer bandwith to the business community, non-governmental organisations, professional bodies and individuals in Nigeria.

The company which is positioning itself to become one of the leading web hosting companies in Africa has started operations in Nigeria, and after attaining one million subscribers, they plan to introduce their services to other Africa countries such as Ghana, South Africa and the Gambia and Angola.

But is the one million subscriber mark really feasible? Is it a reasonable goal given the current economic recession?

While we are skeptical about NetAfric achieving this huge feat, it seems they have a definite strategy to achieve their target. NetAfrica has come up with a web hosting package that is uniquely different from other related products in the Nigeria IT market.

Unlimited Plus Hosting Package

NetAfric’s Unlimited Plus hosting service offers subscribers the opportunity to pay just N9, 999 (about $60) as a one-off payment. What that means is that subscribers on NetAfric can pay Ten Thousand Naira only for unlimited web hosting - for life. This one-off offer also includes an unlimited bandwidth space for life with no monthly fees, ever.

The Unlimited features includes WebSpace, Data Transfer & Bandwidth, Mail Boxes, Online Shops, Autoresponders, Mailing Lists, Email Filters, MySQL Databases, PHP, Script Installs, FTP Accounts and Sub-Domains.

More features

NetAfric offers Hosting Control Panel, Site Management Tools, E-commerce services, Programming & Databases, Free Stats & SEO Tools, Web & Email Features, Included Scripts & CGI and Server Information. With NetAfric, you also get:

• 14 Day full money back guarantee
• All packages are less than 1/2 price of other leading hosting company’s
• Easy to use advance hosting system
• 100% Secure and Safe 
• Website builder included with all hosting packages
• Instant hosting set-up
• Free Google submission with all hosting plans
• Over N50,000 free web tools and templates
• Auto Install Joomla 1x & 1.5.x, WordPress, PhpBB, osCommerce and more..
• Hosted on Pro Dell Servers
• Full trial before you buy demo

What’s Unique? 

NetAfric uses Dell servers in their web hosting platform which are located in the UK. This makes sense since servers hosted in Nigeria usually suffer from power problems. My guess is that Dell servers are linux-based which makes the web hosting package cheaper than if it were Windows-based.

NetAfric’s eXtend Control Panel 2.0 makes it very simple and easy for subscribers to manage their web hosting account. NetAfric’s eXtend is a web-based environment that puts you in control of your web hosting account and all the features that are included in it. The control panel has been developed by NetAfric’s Development Team, which means that the control panel is tailored just for NetAfric’s customers.

My Take

I think that NetAfric has brought innovation into the Nigerian web hosting industry. But whether their goal to hit 1 million subscribers in one year is realistic or not, my guess is that it is a marketing strategy to create awareness about their web hosting services in Nigeria.

While the leading foreign-based web hosting companies such as HostGator offers similar features plus more for $7.95 per month, NetAfric seems a whole lot cheaper.

It’s difficult to compare NetAfric with other Nigerian-based web hosting services such as Nairahost and Web4Africa Nigeria. While I still prefer Nairahost since they offer Unlimited GB’s of space, Unmetered bandwidth plus other Unlimited features, Web4Africa Nigeria offers a maximum bandwidth space of 70GB with a mere 7GB disk space.

Although these web hosting companies have been in existence for some years now (doubt if they have 1 million subscribers), I feel that NetAfric could have a strong competitive edge above them with their unique web hosting package and with secure servers, a world-class 24/7 technical support and customer service.