Internet

NAPAfrica reaches 5Tbps, reinforcing its role as Africa’s leading IXP, improving local traffic, reducing costs, and boosting performance. (

NAPAfrica, backed by its robust peering community, has achieved a significant milestone—hitting five terabits per second (Tbps) of traffic

As Africa’s fastest-growing Internet Exchange Point (IXP) and one of the top ten globally in terms of total traffic volume, NAPAfrica continues to solidify its position as the leading hub for peering and interconnection on the continent.

With more than 655 networks peering at its exchange points, NAPAfrica plays a vital role in keeping African internet traffic local, reducing operational costs, and improving overall network performance.

NAPAfrica’s Key Traffic Milestones

• 2016: Traffic reached 100Gbps
• 2018: Traffic hit 500Gbps
• 2021: Traffic surged to 2Tbps
• 2023: Traffic surpassed 4Tbps
• February 2025: Traffic climbed to 5Tbps

Current NAPAfrica Statistics

• Physical connected ports: 2,244
• Total connected capacity: 41.5Tbits

Top ten factors driving NAPAfrica’s growth

1. Strategic locations in South Africa

NAPAfrica operates in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban—three key hubs for internet traffic in Africa. These locations serve as essential interconnection points for regional and global networks.

2. Teraco Data Centres

NAPAfrica is hosted within Teraco data centres, the largest carrier- and vendor-neutral data centre operator in Africa. This setup provides direct interconnection with over 655 networks, including ISPs, CDNs, cloud providers, and enterprises, ensuring a seamless and cost-effective peering experience.

3. Presence of leading content and cloud providers

The exchange attracts major global tech companies such as Akamai, Amazon, Cloudflare, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Netflix, enabling direct content delivery and cloud access within Africa.

To further enhance connectivity, Teraco and NAPAfrica have invested in additional cache servers, addressing regional content needs. For instance, Netflix Open Connect is now hosted in Cape Town and Durban, reducing data travel distances, improving load times, and making the platform even more appealing to new peers.

4. Free peering and cost efficiency

Unlike many international IXPs that charge for port access, NAPAfrica offers free peering. This allows ISPs, content providers, and enterprises to reduce transit costs while enhancing network performance.

5. Expansion of the peering community

Over the past year, NAPAfrica has welcomed more than 40 new peers, including leading companies like Mimecast, Fortinet, and Tencent. This growth has strengthened the peering ecosystem, increasing the efficiency of traffic exchange.

6. Introduction of 400Gbps interconnection options

In a first for Africa, NAPAfrica now offers 400Gbps interconnects to accommodate the increasing bandwidth needs of content and cloud service providers.

7. Growth of local and regional networks

Traditionally, much of Africa’s internet traffic was routed through Europe, leading to higher latency and costs. NAPAfrica has helped keep this traffic within Africa, enhancing performance for ISPs, mobile operators, and businesses while contributing to a more self-sustaining internet ecosystem on the continent.

8. Strengthened subsea cable connectivity

South Africa’s status as a key landing point for subsea cables—including 2Africa, ACE, EASSy, Equiano, METISS, SAT3/SAFE, Seacom, and WACS—has significantly boosted international connectivity. Many networks across Southern, East, and West Africa peer at NAPAfrica to efficiently access global content.

9. Surge in mobile and broadband internet usage

With rapid growth in mobile internet and fibre broadband adoption across Africa, ISPs and mobile operators increasingly depend on NAPAfrica to support rising demand for video streaming, gaming, and cloud-based services.

10. Enhanced Network Visibility and Performance Optimization

NAPAfrica’s integration of the Kentik Network Observability platform gives peering members valuable insights into network performance. This allows them to optimise traffic flows, detect potential issues, and enhance overall efficiency.

Driving Africa’s digital future

As Africa’s digital ecosystem continues to expand, NAPAfrica remains at the forefront of connectivity, providing critical infrastructure to power the continent’s digital transformation. With ongoing growth and development, the exchange is set to play an even greater role in shaping Africa’s internet economy.

Also read: Powering up esports with new alliancePowering up esports with new alliance

This collaboration will allow Bayobab to optimise SMS connectivity while significantly reducing administrative costs. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Infobip has entered a strategic five-year partnership with Bayobab, a leading African digital connectivity provider

Under this agreement, Bayobab will leverage Infobip’s Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) Customer Modules and Routing Management to streamline campaign management, APIs, analytics, and SMS delivery across Africa and beyond. Additionally, Bayobab will utilise Infobip’s advanced security solutions, including a best-in-class firewall, ensuring enhanced protection for mobile subscribers. This collaboration will allow Bayobab to optimise SMS connectivity while significantly reducing administrative costs.

As a leading connectivity and infrastructure provider in Africa, Bayobab operates extensively across the continent, managing over 115,000 km of fiber cable. The company provides access to and manages, either directly or indirectly, 24 subsea cables and over 70 Points of Presence (PoPs) spanning Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Revolutionising SMS connectivity

Traditionally, brands had to establish individual connections with each Mobile Network Operator (MNO) within the MTN Group to facilitate SMS termination. However, with Infobip’s CPaaS enablement platform modules, Bayobab is revolutionising this process. The new solution allows brands and aggregators to securely connect once and efficiently terminate traffic to MTN and other operators. This advancement enhances control, security, reporting, and efficiency, benefiting brands, mobile operators, and end users alike.

Kedar Gupte, chief mobility business officer at Bayobab, stated,"We wanted to simplify how brands manage messaging in Africa with a single access point, high-quality service, and necessary controls. Our partnership with Infobip equips us to do this on a large scale and is crucial for tapping into Africa’s growth potential, where consumers demand messaging solutions, chat apps, and internet access."

Matija Ražem, chief commercial telecom officer at Infobip, added, "Our partnership optimizes Bayobab’s SMS connectivity and routing across Africa, supporting its expansion plans. We invested heavily in our CPaaS enablement capabilities, which now serve MNOs worldwide with top-tier security and efficiency. Infobip has been managing global SMS traffic since 2006. We excel in the messaging ecosystem with the latest technology, secure processes, and best practices. Extending this to large entities is a logical next step. The timing is right for more mobile operator groups to adopt a hub approach and maximize their messaging opportunities."

These modules form a crucial part of Infobip’s comprehensive CPaaS enablement solution. The platform integrates core telco network capabilities with RCS MaaP building blocks and Camara-compliant network APIs. By offering this CPaaS enablement solution and Developer Experience network, Infobip empowers telecoms to efficiently monetize CPaaS opportunities. This initiative represents a major step in democratizing the messaging ecosystem globally, in collaboration with telecom providers.

Teraco partners with NOA to integrate wind power into its data centres, advancing its 100% renewable energy goal in South Africa. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Teraco, a Digital Realty company and a leading provider of interconnection platforms and vendor-neutral colocation data centres, has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with South African energy aggregator NOA to supply wind-generated renewable energy to its facilities

Reinforcing its sustainability commitment, Teraco previously announced the construction of a 120MW solar PV plant in the Free State. This latest PPA expands its renewable energy portfolio by incorporating wind power, ensuring a balanced energy mix. The agreement allows both Teraco and NOA to scale renewable energy procurement in response to growing demand.

Wind energy is essential for powering data centres that operate continuously. In South Africa, wind power generation is highest at night and in the early morning, complementing solar energy, which produces electricity during the day. By integrating both sources, Teraco enhances its renewable energy coverage.

Bryce Allan, head of sustainability at Teraco, stated, “The conclusion of this PPA supports our sustainable growth pathway. We appreciate NOA’s unique and collaborative approach in complementing Teraco’s renewable energy supply and look forward to a long partnership as we journey towards our 100% renewable energy goal.”

Karel Cornelissen, CEO of NOA, added, “NOA is proud to deliver our suite of renewable energy products to support Africa’s largest data centre operator’s ambitious renewable energy goals. Teraco is an industry leader and continues to set the bar high for renewable energy initiatives across South Africa’s data centre industry. By aggregating renewable energy from our fleet of generation facilities and third-party IPPs, we are well positioned to provide tailored and flexible solutions to help companies, like Teraco, reduce their carbon footprint.”

Renewable Energy Wheeling

Under this agreement, NOA will wheel wind-generated renewable energy from various projects to Teraco’s data centres. This energy will work alongside Teraco’s solar programme to maximise renewable energy usage. The projects will scale up gradually, with the first power expected to be delivered in 2026.

Wheeling renewable energy via existing electrical grids enables power generated in high-yield areas to be transmitted to urban users efficiently. This approach optimises renewable energy deployment and maximises generation potential.

Jan Hnizdo, CEO at Teraco, concluded, “This is an exciting time for Teraco as we take another significant step towards meeting our 100% renewable energy ambitions and those of our clients. We’re looking forward to these new wind generation facilities coming online and adding much-needed new renewable energy production to South Africa’s grid.”

Also read: iColo expands data centres with Siemon solutions

MTN Group Fintech selects Network International as its payment processor, expanding card issuance in Africa to enhance digital financial services and inclusion. (Image source: Network International)

Network International, a key facilitator of digital commerce in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), has been selected as the Payment Processor–issuing partner for MTN Group Fintech, Africa’s top mobile financial services provider

This collaboration marks a major expansion of the Network’s issuer processing partnerships across the continent.

Operating in over 50 countries and serving more than 250 financial institutions, Network International will leverage its expertise to strengthen MTN Fintech’s mobile financial services, delivering increased value to customers and stakeholders across Africa.

The partnership aims to launch card issuance products in major MTN Fintech markets, beginning with Rwanda, which is already active. Uganda, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria will soon follow. Network International will provide a full suite of services, including transaction processing, card management, and online fraud prevention, ensuring a seamless experience for MTN Fintech users who can access both traditional mobile services and digital payment solutions.

Dr Reda Helal, group managing director – Processing, Africa and Co-Head of Group Processing at Network International, highlighted the importance of the collaboration, stating: “Our collaboration with MTN Group Fintech marks a major milestone for our outsourced payments services in Africa. It demonstrates our ability to successfully serve Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) via our fully-fledged processing solutions and our continued dedication and commitment to the African region. We are excited to support MTN Group Fintech’s growth strategy, and its business development plans across the continent.”

Cedric N'guessan, an executive for payment and E-commerce at MTN Group Fintech, emphasised the partnership’s role in advancing financial inclusion, and added, "This collaboration with Network International is pivotal in enhancing financial inclusion across Africa and beyond. It enables our customers to actively engage in the global economy, aligning perfectly with our strategic goals alongside Mastercard to broaden access to digital financial services across the continent."