The last decade has seen an information revolution not just in Nigeria, but around the world. The internet is connecting individuals, groups, organisations, and states like never before. Activists, advocates and sub-cultures have all embraced the communicative power of the world wide web to connect, organise, educate, entertain, and empower. However, despite the countless benefits, there are significant challenges concerning Internet access and use for many people, particularly women. It can even impact university students, such as the female students at the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria.
This paper examines Internet access and use among female undergraduates at the university, through the use of surveys completed by the students. The findings show that the university computer centre is the predominant Internet access point among the respondents. In terms of how it is used, research ranked first, while financial constraints were the major challenge to access and use the Internet. Respondents found women-related websites useful, but most do not post or contribute material or information on the web. Their interaction with the web instead involves mostly downloading.
The study concludes that Internet access and use among female students, and women in general, would be greatly enhanced if women’s organisations concentrated on addressing the challenges identified in this study; namely the financial cost, and women’s confidence and capacity to interact and produce content. Attention should be paid to students in particular, who have the educational capabilities and potential to impact women empowerment efforts online.