The web design and internet at large is an emerging industry in Nigeria and Nairaland should be commended for being at the forefront of projecting it. The last design contest in which 23 winners emerged is a welcome development but beyond that I believe its high time those in the field define minimum standards that should guide practice. Its obvious that the Internet will dominate business issues in the near future so why not brainstorm on the way forward. If you go to CAC for instance to register some professional based fields they will ask you 4 certain criteria but every Tom and harry can go there and apply for web designing and no one gives a hoot with wether he can do it before issuing him CAC certificate. They arre the ones that fill Lagos streets with posters that design websites for 5k

My question is what can we do to make the industry a respectable reputable one

Nice one, bro.

One of the problems we are currently facing is that the Nigerian community is still yet to appreciate the beauty/importance of owning a website. Seeing some government websites pisses me off at times due to the mannerism of approach they give to it [Poor design, lack of constant update, e.t.c.].

A lot really needs to be done, my brother!