About 42 per cent of countries in Africa current lack Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), which means that most of their domestic Internet traffic is exchanged through points outside their respective country.This is usually through satellite or submarine fiber across multiple international hubs to reach their destinations.
While Nigeria has about five IXPs, spread across the country, countries without the facility lose billions of dollars yearly to foreign exchange points
Besides, this can result in poor end-user experiences and discourages hosting content locally, which are some of the key factors towards the development of the local Internet ecosystem.
An Internet Exchange Point is where multiple local and international networks, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content providers interconnect their networks together to efficiently exchange Internet traffic through an arrangement commonly referred to as Peering.
Peering at IXPs helps keep domestic Internet traffic local by offloading traffic from relatively expensive international links to more affordable local links.
Read full article at: https://guardian.ng/technology/42-of-african-countries-without-ixps-route-internet-traffic-abroad/
