Nigeria is Eighth in Global Ranking Of Internet Users, Lagos is First In Nigeria

Statistics from Internetworldstats has shown that Nigeria ranks 8^th among the top 20 global internet users, while data from the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) showed that Lagos State leads in terms of internet usage in Nigeria.

Data from the international survey placed Nigeria at the 8^th position among the top 20 users and placed Germany and the United Kingdom at 9^th and 12^th position respectively while the local survey placed Lagos state as the leading internet-using state at 12.82%. Bayelsa, Yobe and Ebonyi lead the ranking from the behind with 0.74%, 0.78%, and 0.82% respectively. Terrorism plagued Borno has 1.47% of users still. The Federal Capital Territory comes 5^th with 4.65% after Ogun (6.01%), Oyo (5.28%), and Kano (4.75%) states.

From the data provided by the internet world stats, the sum total number of internet users from the top 20 countries with the most internet is 2,738,949,556, while the sum of the rest countries were 993,023,867. The figures represent a significant difference between both ends. Nigeria has a total of 93,591,174 internet users.

Although the ranking seems impressive, there are a number of implications that are worthy of consideration. At the 8^th position,  Nigeria has more internet users than some first world countries like Germany and the United Kingdom, This can only be attributed to our large population. It does not truly represent spread and efficiency. As the earlier stats show, the majority of internet users are in the cities of Lagos, Abuja and Portharcourt. That indicates how far we still are from the broadband ubiquity project. This also tells much about literacy rates, economic development, political emancipation and many other indices.

This also further restate the economic status of Lagos and why rural-urban migration is not an issue that will soon go away. With such slope between the percentages of internet users in Nigeria, there is bound to be the difference in attainment and exposure as they are not armed with the same quality and quantity of information. For equity sake, efforts should be made by the bodies in charge to equip these states, as it is paramount to their development and productivity. It may also be the answer to some of the challenges faced by the said states.

With Nigerians at such elevated position in terms internet usage, the question of why we are a developing country is not far-fetched. With time, Nigerians can use the resources they have to dominate the world.