NAPAfrica, Africa's premier Internet Exchange Point (IXP) and the world’s seventh-largest, has achieved a major milestone, reaching 4.5 Tbps of traffic as its peering community steadily grows

Recent additions to its roster—including Mimecast, Fortinet, and Tencent—join established members such as Akamai, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), CDN77, Cloudflare, Facebook (Meta), Google, Microsoft, and Netflix, further solidifying NAPAfrica’s status as a vital hub for Africa’s digital infrastructure.

Over the past year, NAPAfrica’s peering community has expanded by more than 40 new members, totaling 652 unique organizations. Headquartered within Teraco’s data centers in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, NAPAfrica provides essential peering support for internet operators across Africa. Crossing the 4 Tbps traffic milestone in November 2023, the exchange continues to support a robust and diverse network of local and global peers.

Peering's role in African digital growth

“This ongoing growth is a testament to Africa’s vibrant internet community, which has embraced peering, data-intensive applications, cloud adoption, and the rising demand for video, content, and gaming services,” stated Andrew Owens, Interconnection and Peering Lead at Teraco.

“Higher traffic levels between cloud providers, enterprises, and end users highlight how essential peering is in accelerating digital transformation across the continent. Our mission is to equip our clients with a seamless, reliable infrastructure to serve their communities effectively across Africa,” added Owens.

Peering has been instrumental in this success, providing a cost-effective, high-performance method for content providers and businesses to deliver content to end users. By directly connecting with other networks, NAPAfrica members enjoy reduced latency, quicker content delivery, and notable cost savings—key benefits as demand for cloud and entertainment services in Africa surges.

400 Gbps interconnection options

In response to growing traffic, NAPAfrica has enhanced its offerings by becoming the first Internet Exchange in Africa to introduce 400 Gbps interconnection options, addressing the demands of large content and cloud service providers.

Enhanced network visibility with kentik

NAPAfrica is further empowering its members through the Kentik Network Observability platform, a cutting-edge tool that offers valuable insights into network performance. Kentik allows peering managers, network engineers, and security teams to better manage traffic, optimise performance, and anticipate capacity needs, ultimately improving content delivery and bolstering network resilience.

Expanding regional caching

To improve local content delivery, NAPAfrica is now hosting regional cache servers, including Netflix Open Connect cache servers in Cape Town and Durban. By minimising the distance data must travel, these servers offer faster load times for local audiences and make the exchange even more appealing to new members.

Driving Africa’s digital transformation

As international cloud providers and enterprises ramp up their presence in Africa, NAPAfrica is supporting these ambitions. Michele McCann, Head of Platforms at Teraco, highlights, “The presence of hundreds of carriers and networks, key content providers and cloud services underscores a vibrant peering community that drives affordable, effective content distribution, enabling businesses to meet rising demands for cloud-based and entertainment services.”

With essential infrastructure in place, NAPAfrica is paving the way for Africa’s digital future, serving as the backbone of internet services and cloud adoption. This partnership-driven model ensures that organizations can advance internet communications, cloud strategies, and connectivity, meeting Africa’s escalating demand for digital services.

This strategically designed route enhances Paratus’ regional infrastructure, providing exceptional reliability and low-latency connectivity across Southern Africa. (Image source: Paratus)

Paratus Group, a leading pan-African telecom company, has finalised its East-West Africa fiber route, delivering a fast and resilient connection from anywhere in southern Africa to anywhere globally

This first-of-its-kind coast-to-coast terrestrial route, developed using Paratus’ fiber infrastructure, provides a vital alternative link. Growing demand for this route has accelerated, driven by frequent and disruptive network outages.

Paratus Group CEO, Schalk Erasmus, explained, “This sea-change in imperatives has arisen due to breakages in certain subsea cable systems. Operators need a more reliable route and, with our new East-West route, by connecting to the Equiano subsea cable, we can assure customers a fast and robust alternative. Our East-West fiber route isn’t just a line on a map — it’s Africa’s digital lifeline.”

Stretching from Maputo on Africa’s east coast, through Johannesburg and across Botswana and Namibia, the advanced terrestrial network reaches the Cable Landing Station in Swakopmund, Namibia, where Paratus is the Equiano Subsea Cable landing partner. This strategically designed route enhances Paratus’ regional infrastructure, providing exceptional reliability and low-latency connectivity across Southern Africa.

Paratus Group chief commercial officer, Martin Cox, highlights the network's unique blend of regional expertise and global access: “As a steadfast partner with pan-African expertise, we offer unequalled wholesale capacity solutions for network operators. Because we understand the unique connectivity needs of the various regions, we have tailored our solutions to specific requirements, and we offer carriers and operators not only a diverse East-West route but also onward transmission to Europe.

“Recent undersea cable cuts have shown the importance of robust alternatives and why we’ve built redundancy into every kilometre, ensuring Southern Africa stays connected, no matter what. This isn’t just about backup—it’s about uninterrupted operations and seamless communications. With Paratus, you’re partnering with innovators who are weaving resilience into Africa’s digital landscape.”

look at how Sub-Saharan operators address the mobile’s gaming trend and navigate the specific dynamics of this expanding market. (Image source: Dataxis)

Telecom giants across Africa are broadening their content portfolios, with mobile gaming emerging as a promising focus in the entertainment sector

Currently, an estimated 230 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are active gamers, predominantly from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. Mobile phones lead the gaming scene, being far more accessible than costly consoles or PCs. As mobile devices and data plans become increasingly affordable, mobile gaming access continues to grow across the region.

Globally, mobile gaming generates about half of the gaming industry’s revenue, and in 2023, it accounted for over 55% of revenue for game publishers.

Leading regional players, including Vodacom and Telkom, are already launching products and initiatives to capture this growing market. They recognise the vast revenue and data consumption potential that mobile gaming offers.

From recent initiatives to long-term plans, Sub-Saharan telecom operators are embracing mobile gaming as they adapt to the unique dynamics of this expanding market.

Exploring the growth of Africa’s mobile gaming market

Globally, mobile gaming now accounts for half of the gaming industry’s total revenue. In 2023, game publishers saw over 55% of their earnings coming directly from the mobile segment, highlighting its dominance across the industry.

Google announces US$5.8mn investment to accelerate AI skills in Sub-Saharan Africa, empowering local talent and innovation. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Google has announced a significant commitment of US$5.8mn aimed at accelerating AI skilling initiatives across Sub-Saharan Africa

This investment seeks to empower individuals and organisations to leverage artificial intelligence for economic growth and social impact.

In a recent statement, Matt Brittin, president of business & operations for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, emphasised the transformative potential of AI in driving economic development and addressing pressing challenges such as healthcare and climate change. According to Google's Digital Opportunity of Africa report, AI could contribute up to US$30bn to Sub-Saharan Africa's economy by 2030. However, to unlock this potential, the tech giant stresses the importance of equipping the workforce with essential AI skills and resources.

The announced funding will support a range of initiatives aimed at fostering a comprehensive understanding of AI across various sectors. Key focus areas include:

• Empowering workers: Providing essential AI skills training to individuals across diverse industries.
• Educating youth: Promoting awareness of AI safety and ethics among teenagers to ensure responsible use.
• Supporting non-profits: Equipping leaders of non-profit organisations with foundational AI skills to enhance their impact.
• Assisting the public sector: Enabling governments to develop and implement AI solutions for public services and policymaking.

Google highlighted examples of African innovators already utilising AI to address critical issues. One notable project is Jacaranda Health in Kenya, which uses AI to provide vital maternal and newborn health services in remote areas. Additionally, AirQo, a project led by Makerere University, combines AI and air monitoring technology to combat pollution across major African cities.

How is Google Innovating Africa?

Google's commitment to research and development is evident in its Google Research Africa centers located in Accra, Ghana, and Nairobi, Kenya. These centers focus on creating innovative AI solutions tailored to African challenges while contributing to global advancements. Projects such as Open Buildings, which employs AI to identify and map buildings across the continent, exemplify this focus.

Furthermore, Google is enhancing its presence in Africa with the establishment of a Product Development Center in Nairobi, dedicated to creating products tailored for the African market. This includes innovations in voice search and an HTML5 gaming platform that has already attracted one million daily active users.

Recognizing that collaboration is essential for realising Africa's AI potential, Google is actively partnering with governments, non-profits, educational institutions, and the private sector. In Nigeria, for example, the company is working with the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy to support AI talent development and empower local startups.

With this commitment, Google aims to unlock Africa's extraordinary potential in AI innovation, fostering an environment where technology can empower communities and drive meaningful change across the continent.