Digital Realty, IXPN Launch New Internet Exchange PoP in Nigeria

Why It Matters

By providing more local peering capacity, the PoP reduces reliance on trans‑Atlantic routes, cutting latency and operating costs for ISPs, cloud providers and enterprises, thereby accelerating Nigeria’s digital transformation.

Key Takeaways

• New IXPN PoP launched at Digital Realty’s Lekki data centre.
• Extends IXPN access to 12 Nigerian data centres, boosting local peering.
• Lekki site serves as landing point for 2Africa subsea cable.
• IXPN traffic grew from 1 Tbps (2025) to over 2 Tbps (2026).
• Enhances low‑latency connectivity for ISPs, CDNs, and enterprises.

Pulse Analysis

The African internet ecosystem has long grappled with fragmented connectivity, where traffic often traverses costly overseas links before reaching domestic endpoints. Internet exchange points (IXPs) such as IXPN play a pivotal role in localising traffic, improving performance and fostering a competitive market for bandwidth. Digital Realty’s entry into the Nigerian market, highlighted by its state‑of‑the‑art Lekki data centre, reflects a strategic shift among global data‑centre operators toward building neutral, carrier‑agnostic hubs that can host multiple IXPs. This trend mirrors similar investments across Kenya and South Africa, where carrier‑neutral facilities have become catalysts for regional cloud growth.

The newly activated IXPN PoP at Lekki adds a critical peering node that connects directly to the 2Africa subsea cable, a 37,000‑kilometre system linking 46 landing points across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. By bringing IXPN’s exchange point into the same facility as the cable’s landing station, latency for intra‑African traffic can drop by tens of milliseconds, while transit costs fall as ISPs no longer need to route domestic traffic through Europe. The surge in IXPN’s peak traffic—from 1 Tbps in 2025 to over 2 Tbps in early 2026—demonstrates the growing appetite for local cloud and content delivery services.

For Nigeria’s burgeoning digital economy, the expanded peering infrastructure translates into faster e‑commerce platforms, more responsive mobile applications, and a stronger foundation for emerging technologies such as edge computing and AI. Enterprises can now access global cloud providers with reduced jitter, enhancing productivity and enabling new business models. Moreover, the collaboration between a publicly listed data‑centre REIT and a not‑for‑profit IXP signals a maturing market where private capital and community‑driven initiatives align. As traffic volumes continue to climb, further PoP deployments and additional cable landings are likely, cementing West Africa’s role as a digital hub.