Nigeria’s Internet Traffic Hits Record Level on Video Boom
TLDR
- Nigeria’s internet traffic hit an all-time high of 1 terabit per second (Tbps) in March 2024, according to the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN)
- The milestone makes Nigeria Africa’s second-largest internet exchange hub after South Africa
- Much of Nigeria’s data traffic—especially video—is now kept within national borders
Nigeria’s internet traffic hit an all-time high of 1 terabit per second (Tbps) in March 2024, according to the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), reflecting growing video consumption and a shift toward local content delivery. Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook fuel the surge, with IXPN now routing the bulk of domestic data.
The milestone makes Nigeria Africa’s second-largest internet exchange hub after South Africa. IXPN CEO Muhammed Rudman said the record volume could support “1 million concurrent Zoom calls or 200,000 simultaneous video streams.”
The traffic was nearly nonexistent in 2007 when IXPN began operating. Early peering with Google in 2011 triggered steady growth, which has since accelerated through direct connections with major content platforms and local infrastructure investments. Much of Nigeria’s data traffic—especially video—is now kept within national borders. This improves internet speeds, reduces latency, and significantly cuts costs for internet service providers and users alike.
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Key Takeaways
The surge in Nigerian internet traffic underscores a broader trend toward infrastructure localisation across Africa. Once dependent on expensive international bandwidth via submarine cables or satellite links, countries like Nigeria are increasingly routing traffic domestically through internet exchange points (IXPs) like IXPN. IXPN now supports traffic for global players including Google, Netflix, Meta, TikTok, Amazon, and Microsoft. As more platforms peer locally, ISPs can bypass international routes—reducing transit costs and boosting reliability. For example, if 70% of an ISP’s data is exchanged locally, upstream bandwidth costs drop sharply. This improves margins and enables more competitive broadband pricing. Rising content demand—especially video—is also pressuring platforms to position edge servers and cache content locally. In Nigeria, this shift is bolstered by growing data center investments and regulatory backing. With other countries like Kenya and Egypt following similar paths, Africa’s internet ecosystem is entering a new phase: more self-reliant, more efficient, and more scalable. Nigeria’s 1 Tbps milestone is not just a traffic number—it’s a signal of continental internet maturity.
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