Telecom
Africa’s Internet Exchange Points See Growth – Internet Society
The number of internet exchange points (IXPs) established on the African continent has grown from 19 in 2012, to 46 in 2020.
This indicates a 58% increase over the past few years, according to the Internet Society’s latest report, titled “Moving Toward an Interconnected Africa: The 80/20 Initiative”.
While IXPs were founded in 1996, global non-profit organisation the Internet Society notes the burst of activity started in 2011, continuing over the last few years.
The organisation emphasises that IXPs enable the local exchange of internet traffic instead of using expensive international transit routes. This not only makes internet access much more affordable, it also improves the quality of access by providing more direct network connections, it notes.
The latest report, which examines Africa’s internet ecosystem and current status of IXPs, shows the significant gains made in advancing IXPs on the continent between 2012 and 2020.
It states there is a boom in this type of internet infrastructure development on the continent, with more than half of African countries with an IXP. Six countries – Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania – have more than one IXP.
Similarly, the presence of international content delivery networks has significantly increased, along with locally-developed content, it states.
Dawit Bekele, Africa regional vice-president for the Internet Society, explains: “Thanks to the continued work with partners over the years, we have many more sustainable IXPs that exchange a considerable amount of internet traffic in Africa. But there’s still work to do to ensure more internet traffic is exchanged on the continent.
“A key success factor for IXPs is that governments understand the value that internet infrastructure provides, which encourages the adoption of policies and regulations that enable internet ecosystems to thrive,” adds Bekele.
The report notes that in 2012, in Kenya and Nigeria, approximately 30% of each country’s traffic was localised. However, this had significantly shifted by 2020.
“Between 2012 and 2020, both Kenya and Nigeria moved from the cusp of stage two, with 30% localised traffic, to the cusp of stage three, with 70% localised traffic. South Africa is the only country in Africa currently in stage three.
“Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa also have the only IXPs in the region comprising 50 or more connected networks. The number of members at an IXP is a strong indicator of the health of a country’s Internet ecosystem – both that there are so many networks and that they are all connected to the IXP.”
South Africa is the nation with the most developed internet ecosystem in Africa, based on the Internet Society’s review of all the countries in Africa with IXPs.
The report shows SA has achieved the goal of at least 80% localised traffic, followed by Kenya and Nigeria. “These countries have the most interconnected networks and have succeeded in exchanging 70-80% of their traffic locally.”
For its report, the organisation says it identified three stages of development, depending on the level of localised traffic, and driven by connections between and among internet service providers and content providers.
Based on the internet ecosystem stages of development, stage one refers to when the IXP is mainly used to exchange local traffic between local access providers; it localises up to approximately 30% of total traffic.
In terms of stage two, international content is made available locally, attracted by the IXP and its member networks. This stage localises approximately 30% to 70% of total traffic.
In stage three, the Internet Society notes that local content is hosted locally, rather than in data centres located abroad. This particular stage localises 70% or more of total traffic.
MTN Nigeria’s commitment to digital innovation took center stage at MarkHack 4.0, the annual marketing and technology conference held at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Friday, May 23, 2025, with the theme ‘Experience Ignited: Fueling the Customer’s Journey’.
L-R: Akinbulejo Onabolu, Head, Enterprise Segment, MTN Nigeria; Eneyi Obi, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Rise; Tobi Olanisimi, Marketing Manager, AB InBev; Martha Kayode, Marketing Head, PZ Cussonz; Sulaiman Shaibu, CEO, BFT Consulting Service and Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor, Condia Business at the MarkHack 4.0 Conference held at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday, May 23, 2025.
In a celebration of innovation, technology, and storytelling, the company also took home the award for Best Use of Data in a Marketing Campaign at the Nigeria MarTech (MarkHack 4.0) Awards Night. This award recognizes brands that have successfully transformed data into compelling narratives and actionable insights to meaningfully engage their audiences.
Akinbulejo Onabolu, Senior Manager, Segment Management, Enterprise Business at MTN, joined a panel to discuss the power of immersive technologies on consumer behaviour. Drawing from MTN’s launch of its 5G Digital Experience Centre in Abuja last year, Onabolu highlighted the rapid evolution of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) stating “Our 5G centre is a sandbox for our customers to come and see how technology can shape things. At the launch event, we unveiled a smart city to customers, clients and dignitaries in attendance, with gaming and other tech experiences.”
On the intersection of data, AR and VR, he added: “Co-creating with MTN takes our minds to a platform where different partners, companies and creators can bring their buildings, products and businesses for people to see via augmented reality and connectivity, just swiping through and following through that journey.
“As a part of impacting our customer’s lives, a few years ago, we also played around with the Metaverse and we ended up creating some of our back-office processes with some of our customer journeys on augmented reality and virtual reality such that a customer somewhere can engage with a virtual agent to solve real life problems and integrating that back into our operating systems. As an organization, at a lot of our events, you will find a lot of AR and VR experiences.”
Speaking on how MTN is embedding immersive technology into its day-to-day operations, he explained that the company is prioritizing both internal capability development and external engagement. “85% of our organization has undergone extensive training on AI and that already is a great addition to our daily lives. We’re using it to do things differently, developing user journeys and brainstorming different things. In terms of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, we are working with organizations to develop training programs which we use internally.”
He described the bases for this tech as stable connectivity, high bandwidth, high speed and low latency. “Over the past year, we’ve doubled our 5G capacity across the entire country. Wherever you are, you’ll probably start to pick up 5G. With our FibreX service, we’re going way beyond connectivity to create the systems and platforms to support the ecosystem, AR and VR. In addition to this, we’re also engaging regulatory systems to start to tease this out and build the proper governance.”
The session, moderated by Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor at Condia Business, also featured insights from leaders in FMCG, consulting, and global marketing, all underscoring the transformative potential of immersive technologies for Africa’s future.
MTN Nigeria has announced a massive capital expenditure (CAPEX) drive for 2025, nearly doubling its investment to almost 900 billion Naira, as it seeks to significantly enhance network service quality in major cities like Lagos and Abuja and extend improvements to other areas.
Karl Toriola
This financial commitment, up from a combined total of approximately 440 billion Naira spent in 2023 and 2024, was detailed by MTN Nigeria CEO, Dr. Karl Toriola, during a recent interview on Arise TV.
Toriola highlighted that a key focus of the increased CAPEX will be on “putting additional capacity in a city like Lagos, particularly in Abuja, where you have a lot of buildings coming up, you need additional sites because there are coverage issues.”
Beyond these critical urban centres, the investment aims to bolster network resilience and ensure power stability for its infrastructure nationwide. This includes proactively addressing site outages by ensuring timely payment for operational necessities such as diesel for generators, a persistent challenge in the Nigerian operating environment
The CEO outlined the comprehensive nature of the upgrade process, which involves “placing orders formally, opening letters of credit, and then the equipment gets shipped in and installed.” He added that where necessary, MTN will be “acquiring new sites” and “laying fiber to the base station to create better stability.”
While the immediate CAPEX is geared towards improving existing service quality and capacity, this investment aligns with MTN’s broader goals, which include enhancing financial inclusion in underserved rural areas, suggesting a long-term vision for network expansion and service improvement that extends beyond metropolitan areas.
Customers are expected to begin experiencing the positive impact of these investments with a “significant improvement in quality of service” anticipated by the end of the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2025, according to Toriola.
Airtel Nigeria, telecom service provider, has announced that its AI-powered Spam Alert Service issued over 9.6 million spam alerts between March 13 and May 20, 2025.
As part of its ongoing commitment to protecting customers from unwanted and potentially fraudulent communications, Airtel designed the AI Spam Alert service to analyze traffic patterns and detect anomalies.
In the period since launch the AI pinpointed a total of 9,667,008 SMS as potential spam messages in the two months after its launch.
Of these, the system identified 528,080 on-net (Airtel-to-Airtel) and 9,138,928 off-net (from other networks) numbers as suspected spam messages, demonstrating the scale of the threat and Airtel’s advanced processing capability.
Airtel Nigeria is a subsidiary of Airtel Africa.
Commenting on this development, Dinesh Balsingh, CEO, Airtel Nigeria, restated Airtel`s commitment to protecting its customers.
“This milestone demonstrates the strength of our AI-driven infrastructure in combating the growing menace of spam and scam calls. At Airtel Nigeria, we are focused on connecting Nigerians and ensuring their safety and confidence while using our network.
“We understand that trust is the cornerstone of digital communication. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in intelligent systems that not only detect potential threats but also learn and evolve with data. As threats become more sophisticated, so will our solutions. As a company, we remain focused on leading the industry in innovation and customer satisfaction, ensuring that every Nigerian can enjoy a safer and smarter digital experience,” Mr. Balsingh said.
The Spam Alert Service is part of Airtel Nigeria’s broader strategy to integrate artificial intelligence into its core offerings to deliver smarter and safer experiences for its customers across the country.
Recall that the Spam Alert Service was launched on March 13, 2025. A groundbreaking and free solution from Airtel, it notifies users in real-time of suspected spam SMS messages by analyzing over 250 parameters.
The Airtel AI Spam Alert Service is available to all Airtel subscribers on smartphones and feature phones.
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