Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa with over 150 million people. Ethiopia ranks as the third most populous nation with 85 million. Like almost all African countries (except Seychelles, Mauritius and Libya), they ranked in the lower half of the ICT Development Index as reported in Measuring the Information Society 2010 by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

But the ICT Development Index does not speak to the burgeoning ICT markets in these countries. Nigeria’s ICT landscape has changed since the ITU reported that 65 bits per second per user of international bandwidth was available in 2008. A broadband boom for Kenya and East Africa occurred in 2009. The same is getting ready to rev up in Nigeria and West Africa this year. Between 2010 and 2011, Main One, Globalcom-1 (GLO-1), and the West Africa Cable System (WACS) undersea cable systems will add international bandwidth capacity of close to eight terabits to the market.