Registration Notes

Individuals and Entities should pick a Registrar to assist in their registration. All registration requests are evaluated and given a Status (Open, Reserved or Blocked).

Requests with a "Reserved" and/or "Blocked" status are only processed by GM-NIC's accredited Supporting Organization (CYPDOM.COM).

The Reserved Whois list is curated but not complete and Status can change from Available/Open to Reserved/Blocked after review.

Policy Definitions

The policy of the ccTLD registry (GM-NIC) is intended to encourage activity that empowers and enhances Internet services in the country.

Terms Used

Registrant: the entity registering the domain, often called domain owner, is identified by name (or role), company/organisation name and email address.

Registrar: the company facilitating registration for the Registrant, responsible for everyday maintenance and often technical issues.

Registry: the .GM ccTLD administration actually running the TLD operation.

Technical contact: if the Registrar is not managing the technical domain management, another person/role must be indicated as responsible for this.

How to Register

The only valid way currently of registering domains under .GM is through a Registrar. For registration support, contact us at admin@nic.gm.

Note: A login Dashboard is available for accredited Registrars.

2nd and 3rd Level Domains in The Gambia

The Gambia NIC registers 2nd level domains under the GM domain. There is no provision for 3rd level domain registration and so most Internet addresses under the GM ccTLD has the format http://server.domain.gm.

Domain owners with their own domain name servers can of course create subdomains under their registered domain(s) using their own name servers.

Note that a number of domains, including but not limited to COM, EDU, GOV, MIL, ORG, CO, AC etc. are reserved for public and goverment services.

Ordinary Registration

An entity (person, organisation, or company) residing in, providing information or services for or about The Gambia, holding registered trademarks or business operations in The Gambia, or otherwise benefiting the local Internet community of The Gambia may register domain names through a registrar.

Name Protection

A multi-national organisation needing to protect their name may register a term only if it is clearly a non-public expression and unambiguously identifying the registrant organisation. The validity of the connection is checked by the .GM ccTLD administration.

When in doubt the given administrative contact / domain owner will be consulted to ascertain the connection between the applicant and the domain name.

Valid Admin Contact Email

The Registrant/Owner (company or individual) of the domain should always be registered as the Admin contact, and must have an email address unrelated to the Registrar company.

Commercial / Open Registrations

An entity (person, organization, or company) worldwide that wants to purchase or register country-unrelated domain(s) may make a ordinary Request that is then fairly evaluated by GM-NIC's Supporting Organisation CYPDOM.COM

Valid Domain Formats

A domain name can contain letters (a to z) and the hyphen (-).

There is support for special language characters but no distinction between upper or lower case.

A second-level domain may be up to 63 characters long.

1, 2-letter and Only Number domains are considered Premium or Reserved.

Domains or terms that are offensive to the local culture in any of the languages used in The Gambia are prohibited.

Common Gambian personal names (first or last) will generally not be accepted.

Abuse Reporting

To report abuse or policy violations, such as spam, phishing, malware distribution, or other malicious activities, email admin@nic.gm. All reports will be handled in accordance with National and International law.