IXPN Holds Engagement Forum, Harps on Domestication of Internet Traffic

Emma Okonji

Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), the body that promotes seamless connectivity and innovation with peering community, at the weekend in Lagos, held its annual members’ engagement forum, where it further highlighted the importance domesticating internet traffic generated in Nigeria in order to grow local traffic and keep Nigeria’s internet traffic within the country.

Giving an overview of internet traffic in Nigeria, the CEO of IXPN, Muhammed Rudman said the forum provided a valuable platform for collaboration and sharing of milestones with its members, adding that IXPN is dedicated to building a stronger internet exchange ecosystem and advancing Nigeria’s digital landscape through efficient interconnectivity.

According to him, the intention of setting up Nigeria’s internet exchange point is to keep Nigerian internet traffic within the country, domesticate local traffic, and reduce costs associated with accessing local internet content, thereby enhancing local connectivity and improving overall internet experience for the end users, while promoting and encouraging the creation of local internet content and serving as an efficient centralised launch point for services.

“In 2008, the internet traffic generated in Nigeria was between seven and eight megabits per second and some of the traffic that were domesticated at that time were from Zenith Registries and from some few organisations that had content.
Although the traffic as at then was very minimal, but it kept increasing, until Google peered with IXPN, and the internet traffic jumped from less than 20 megabits per second to 120 megabits per second, and by 2012, the traffic has increased to 600 megabits per second. In 2019, internet traffic further increased to 125 gigabits per second. In 2021, it reached 250 gigabits per second, and by December 2024, internet traffic in Nigeria reached 900 gigabits per second. Based on our current survey 75 per cent of our members said that they were exchanging above 25 per cent of their traffic locally, while about 4 per cent said they were exchanging above 75 per cent of their traffic locally. So the objective is to ensure that we domesticate our internet and make it really cheaper,” Rudman said.  

Speaking about the economic impact domesticating local traffic, Rudman said: “In terms of economic impact, apart from the internet banking and other things that we take advantage of, we don’t really benefit much because the traffic is more of download than upload. So with what we are doing, the objective is to ensure that 80 per cent of our traffic at least is domesticated.”