"The NAPAfrica members, including global content and cloud providers, over 250 telecommunication providers, managed service providers and a growing enterprise base, are the driving force behind achieving this momentous goal," said Andrew Owens (pictured), manager of interconnection and peering at Teraco.
Launched in 2012, NAPAfrica first recorded traffic of 532Mbps now eight years later and recording speeds of 1Tbps, this represents growth of 1884x. In addition, the exchange started with five members but now has in excess of 440 global Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs), including 26 African countries.
"In a relatively short space of time, NAPAfrica has become a significant contributor to the internet ecosystem within Africa. This was one of our ultimate goals, to be of value to our members and to sustainably develop the African Internet ecosystem," added Owens.
This sharp uptick has been driven by the growth of networks and enterprises accessing key content and cloud. Additionally, the general use of the internet across Africa to visit such content sites as Netflix, Facebook and YouTube, to name a few, has also continued to increase.
"Telcos in countries as far afield as Angola, Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo have joined the exchange. NAPAfrica has become the internet hub for sub-Saharan Africa," continued Owens.
"More recently, the exchange has also seen a growing trend of enterprises and banks joining NAPAfrica to leverage its efficient and cost-effective access to content and cloud operators."
The news follows on from a memorandum of understanding (MoU) NAPAfrica entered into with Asteroid.
At the time, the two companies agreed to promote peering and local interconnection, with a particular focus on Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) as a key part of the internet ecosystem.
