NAPAfrica, along with the support of its dynamic peering community, has reached a new milestone of five terabits per second (Tbps) of traffic. NAPAfrica remains Africa’s fastest-growing Internet Exchange Point (IXP) and one of the global top ten internet exchanges by total traffic volume, reinforcing its position as the continent’s premier peering and interconnection hub.
With over 655 networks peering at its exchange points, NAPAfrica continues to play a critical role in keeping African internet traffic local, reducing costs, and improving network performance.
Key traffic milestones in NAPAfrica’s growth:
2016: Traffic peaked at 100Gbps.
2018: Traffic peaked at 500Gbps.
2021: Traffic surged to 2Tbps.
2023: Traffic surpassed the 4Tbps mark.
February 2025: Traffic reached 5Tbps.
NAPAfrica statistics:
Physical connected ports: 2 244
Total connected capacity: 41.5Tbits
Ten factors driving NAPAfrica’s growth:
1. Strategic locations in South Africa
NAPAfrica operates in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban, three of Africa’s key internet traffic hubs. In these locations, NAPAfrica serves as a critical interconnection point for regional and international networks.
2. Teraco data centres
NAPAfrica is physically hosted within Teraco data centres, Africa’s largest carrier- and vendor-neutral data centre operator. Teraco facilitates direct interconnections with over 655 networks, including major ISPs, CDNs, cloud providers, and enterprises, offering a seamless and cost-effective peering experience.
3. Presence of major content and cloud providers
The exchange attracts global technology leaders such as Akamai, Amazon, Cloudflare, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Netflix, enabling direct content delivery and cloud access in Africa.
Teraco and NAPAfrica have invested in additional cache servers to cover regional connectivity requirements, including hosting Netflix Open Connect in Cape Town and Durban. By reducing the distance data must travel, this initiative enables faster load times for local audiences, enriching the user experience while making participation even more attractive for new members.
4. Free peering and cost efficiency
Unlike many global IXPs, which charge for port access, NAPAfrica offers free peering. This enables ISPs, content providers, and enterprises to lower transit costs while improving network performance.
5. Expansion of the peering community
Over the past year, NAPAfrica has added more than 40 new peers, including prominent companies like Mimecast, Fortinet, and Tencent, enhancing its peering ecosystem and increasing traffic exchange efficiency.
6. Introduction of 400Gbps interconnection options
In a first for Africa, NAPAfrica now offers 400Gbps interconnects, accommodating the growing bandwidth demands of content and cloud providers.
7. Growth of local and regional networks
Most of Africa’s internet traffic was traditionally routed through Europe, increasing latency and costs. NAPAfrica has helped keep African traffic within the continent, leading to improved performance for ISPs, mobile operators, and enterprises, while fostering a more self-sufficient African internet ecosystem.
8. Subsea cable connectivity boost
South Africa’s strategic position as a landing point for subsea cables like 2Africa, ACE, EASSy, Equiano, METISS, SAT3/SAFE, Seacom, , and WACS has bolstered international connectivity. Networks across Southern, East, and West Africa peer at NAPAfrica to access global content efficiently.
9. Growth in mobile and broadband internet usage
With Africa experiencing exponential growth in mobile internet and fibre broadband penetration, ISPs and mobile operators increasingly rely on NAPAfrica to support demand for video streaming, gaming, and cloud services.
10. Enhanced network visibility and performance optimisation
NAPAfrica’s adoption of the Kentik Network Observability platform provides peering members with critical network insights, allowing them to optimise traffic flows, detect anomalies, and enhance performance.
As Africa’s digital landscape continues to evolve, NAPAfrica remains at the forefront of connectivity, providing the infrastructure necessary to support Africa’s digital transformation. With continued growth and expansion, the exchange is set to play an even more significant role in shaping the future of the African internet economy.
Ends.
About NAPAfrica
NAPAfrica is Africa’s leading interconnection platform, supporting a diverse ecosystem of global carriers, cloud providers, CDNs, ISPs, enterprises and digital services. Operating Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) within Teraco’s Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg data centres, NAPAfrica is dedicated to making internet access more accessible across Africa. The IXP now has over 655 members from over 50 countries and hosts community events and online discussions to foster collaboration. Visit https://www.napafrica.net for more details.
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