Over 10 million Nigerians use the Internet in Nigeria.

This is good news.

Internet penetration and usage among Nigerians home and in diaspora is still relatively low but improving.

tunde:
I seriously doubt the latter ("diaspora" part of your statement above.

Latest verifiable data says 8 million. Your number is not too far off.

You can see it for yourself here:

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm#africa

@mindspring,

that is true, the latest figure was released last month September, and it showed that 3 million new internet users joined the 5milion as at last year, making 8million users now.

Na wah oo. 3 additional million users in 12 months! I can't wait for the explosion. it is a shame that PHCN is not availble for majority of the users, it would have accelerated the growth.

Internet Connections Growing Fastest in Africa
Survey predicts bandwith to Africa will grow dramatically

Washington — Africa is gaining Internet connectivity faster than any other region and as such, service is spreading to smaller cities and rural areas via innovative technologies and that only can help the expansion of free press, democracy and development all across the continent, says the co-founder and chief executive officer of allAfrica.com, Reed Kramer.
In an interview with the Washington File to mark May 3 World Press Freedom Day, Kramer cited a recent survey by the London-based newsletter Balancing Act, which projects that international bandwidth to Africa will grow by 81 percent between 2005 and 2008, making the Internet accessible to more users across the continent.



Kramer said Internet users in Africa now exceed 22 million, according to an estimate produced by Internet World Stats, a marketing and research Web site. Although only 2.5 percent of Africa's 900 million people are online, compared with nearly 16 percent worldwide, the number has grown by 400 percent since 2000, the World Stats figures show.
Continentwide, Kramer said, the largest populations of Internet users are in South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Kenya.
With an estimated 3.6 million users, Kramer said, South Africa remains the country with the largest number of users but no longer makes up the majority of users as in years past. Additionally, Kramer cited World Stats figures that show actual usage throughout Africa might be six times to eight times larger than the number of Internet accounts, due to the growth of cybercafes and other multiperson access points.

[img]http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/23550/116531105251859_smilingman-computer_365.jpg/1859+smilingman-computer_365.jpg[/img]

Kramer said the Internet and its growing evolution across Africa have revolutionized news-gathering in Africa and the operations of allAfrica.com as well.
Kramer's comments came in an interview marking World Press Freedom Day which this year celebrates the theme "Media as Good Governance."
A free press, Kramer said, is a "key building block" of any democratic society and especially in those societies that have less democratic tradition and judicial independence than in the United States. The press can play a "multitude of roles" in any society, he said, from watchdog, to advocate  providing a platform for competing and conflicting viewpoints. All of that is key to democracy."
Media, Kramer stressed, also have a big role to play in development. "It is very important that as countries debate and determine direction and make choices about resources that the media is there is to help peoples' viewpoints be heard and sponsor debates on these very vital topics … and serve as a forum" for all opinions.
Kramer believes that the Internet has created openings and opportunities for the free press in Africa and that the trend for increased free press is moving in the right direction. He was joined by two of his colleagues to discuss that point: Gaddiel Baah, an English news editor from Ghana and Aminata Sall, a French language editor from Senegal. Most of allAfrica.com's employees are African.
Kramer and his two colleagues agreed that trends are moving in the right direction on expanding press freedoms, but warned that results have been mixed and serious problems persist.
"I am hopeful," that the free press can expand in Africa, Baah said. "Naturally, with the expansion of democratic space … all of the institutions and organizations that thrive on democracy will inevitably grow so respect for the rights of journalists, respect for laws that regulate the media and having the right laws these things tend to improve as the general democratic atmosphere improves in the country, the region and the continent."

Source: http://pretoria.usembassy.gov/wwwhpress060428.html

Its good news internet penetration is improving in Nigeria but the quality of the service must also improve too. The internet cafes connectin are extremelly slow mostly because they are sharing bandwith that is not even enough for one computer among 10 or more systems. One major problem in Nigeria is that there is no quality standard, even when government set standards they cant enforce it, that is why you can offer any mediocare service and get away with it, what is not possible in other countries. During my last visit to africa i found out that internet cafes in lowly Ghana are much better than those in Nigeria so also are the ones in Gambia.

Solokay is right. We are notorious about breaking rules, even if any standard is put in place to ensure quality service I trust my brothers for one thing they will device a way of beating such.
I think it is our population that is the problem,
But then we can get better