Richard Monday, Vice President (Africa), Opera software, has described Nigeria as the company's third largest market in the world and the biggest market for everything in Africa.

In a chat with ITWeb Africa in Nigeria's commercial capital city of Lagos, Monday also revealed the continent's largest economy is also the company's most important market on the continent.

"Nigeria is our biggest market for everything. It's the most important market in Africa; it's the third largest Opera market in the whole world," he said.

According to him, the penetration of the browser in the country is higher than the penetration of Android operating system in Nigeria.

"In Nigeria, 25% of the 21 million active users of mobile internet are using Opera browser. This is bigger than the average penetration of Android phones in Nigeria. The average Android penetration in Nigeria is 20%, on Opera Mini it is 25%. We are ahead of the curve compared to Android," he said.

He revealed that Opera is able to achieve these feats in Nigeria through the faster internet experience it offers its users.

"It is the faster experience. People value speed. If I'm on a 2G network, I want a quick internet speed – not the page loading per byte, I just want the page to come. It is quicker on Opera because of the compression," he added.

A recent report by Ericsson ConsumerLab has revealed that approximately 82% of people in Nigeria currently use mobile phones to access the internet.

Additionally, 45% of the population use laptops/desktops, while tablets provide internet access for 44% of Nigerians.