FEATURE strengthening domestic routing resilience. Keeping African traffic in Africa is not a luxury, it’ s an economic necessity.
Most African Internet Exchanges operate within national borders. That may have worked when digital markets were domestic, but they are not anymore. African trade is regional, financial systems are cross-border, yet our data routes still default northward before returning south.
The strategic expansion of regional IXPs in 2025 reflects recognition of this gap. New exchange points such as LINX Accra and LINX Mombasa, launched in 2025 to strengthen West and East African peering, aim to improve regional interconnection and reduce reliance on European routing hubs.
Such developments are important. But they must evolve into interconnected
In many African countries, an email sent across town still travels thousands of kilometres offshore before returning.
corridors between African exchanges themselves, creating direct Nairobi to Lagos, Johannesburg to Kigali, Accra to Addis Ababa traffic paths. This is not theoretical, it’ s resilience planning.
In 2025, the Internet Society reported measurable improvements in Africa’ s overall Internet resilience, linking progress to stronger interconnection ecosystems and infrastructure development. The lesson is clear: countries with stronger exchange environments withstand disruptions better.
The majority of Africa’ s Internet traffic is driven by global platforms in social media, streaming and cloud services. When this content is hosted abroad, local exchanges struggle to attract meaningful traffic volumes.
The fact that NAPAfrica surpassed 5 Tbps in 2025 is not accidental, it reflects growing localisation of
Matone Ditlhake, CEO, Corridor Africa Technologies www. intelligentcio. com
INTELLIGENT CIO AFRICA
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