Chief Executive Officer of Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Mr. Muhammed Rudman, speaks about the need to domesticate local internet traffic in Nigeria, and how such domestication grew from 0.01 per cent in 2007 to 70 per cent in 2025. He also stressed the need for increased autonomous system numbers that will enhance the expansion of internet exchange points across Nigeria. Emma Okonji presents the excerpts: 

Nigeria has a total of 257 Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs), which is a fraction of what most counties of the world currently have. What is the importance of ASN and how can Nigeria grow its number?

Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) are very significant for internet growth. Every network that is part of the global internet, and it’s identifiable, must have a number and that number is called Autonomous System Number, which is assigned by African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. AFRINIC in itself is a body under the global body called Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). So the maturity of industry in terms of ICT growth in every country is measured by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and the volume of Autonomous System Numbers that each ISP has. In Nigeria, even though we are among the top ten in the world and number one in Africa when it comes to internet usage, because of our population, the internet penetration and access come largely from mobile data services provided by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), which are the dominant players. There are only four of them in Nigeria (MTN, Airtel, Globacom, 9mobile) and the four of them has just four autonomous system numbers, while the rest of the ISPs in Nigeria that also provide internet services, have few autonomous system numbers.
The statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), showed that 99 per cent of the internet subscribers, access the internet through the mobile network operators, while the rest of the smaller networks that have fixed wired and fixed wireless networks only occupy a very small per cent, around 1 per cent or even less, and it shows that Nigeria is not really matured in the internet ecosystem. So we need more ISPs to enable Nigeria grow its autonomous system numbers.

How is the shortfall in Autonomous System Numbers affecting the growth and expansion of internet exchange points in Nigeria?

Like I said earlier, every network that connects to the internet must have autonomous system numbers, and our limited autonomous system numbers, which is put at 257, is an indication that Nigeria is lagging behind when it comes to internet service providers, and the community networks that provide internet access. So the prerequisite to connect to an internet exchange point, not only in Nigeria but globally is that a network must have an identifiable autonomous system number. But with the limited number of autonomous system numbers that Nigeria has, it means Nigeria is lagging behind, and far behind South Africa that has about three times the autonomous system numbers of Nigeria, even though their population is smaller than that of Nigeria. It shows that internet exchange points cannot expand across Nigeria because the concentration of internet service providers that have autonomous system numbers are mostly in the major cities and they are few in number.
Some states in Nigeria do not even have one single internet service provider that has an autonomous system number. So it means that the internet exchange points will not scale in such states because they are limited in the number of people that are connected to them. So for internet exchange points to expand, it needs networks that have autonomous system numbers to achieve the peering.

What led to the establishment of Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) and to what extent has IXPN domesticated internet traffic in Nigeria since inception?

So in 2005, Nigeria’s President at that time, Olusegun Obasanjo, attended the World Summit on Information Society in Tunisia, where there were discussions around how to improve internet. At that summit, third-world countries were advised to establish an internet exchange point in their countries, to help in domesticating internet traffic. According to the experts at that summit, with internet exchange points, the internet traffic that will be domesticated will not leave the shores of that particular country. So former President Obasanjo returned and gave a mandate to the Ministry of Communications, to establish internet exchange point in Nigeria, and the ministry later discussed with the NCC.

After some months, NCC called a stakeholders meeting to see how the exchange point could be done, bearing in mind that exchange points are usually not-for-profit initiative. The idea was to bring competitors together to interconnect with each other, which necessitated trust between those competing organisations. NCC then later considered the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), at that time to establish internet exchange point in Nigeria and NCC provided the funding for ISPAN. But ISPAN could not give it the necessary push and NCC had to hand-pick individuals from the industry and formed a Board and saddled members of the Board with the responsibility of establishing internet exchange point in Nigeria, and gave them the initial funding. I became the chairman of the Board and we commenced operations in 2006, into 2007, and registered the company as non-profit organisation known as Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN). But at that time, the traffic at the exchange point was extremely minimal, less than one megabit per second, and the customers that were connected then, were all access networks, with no single content networks. So because they were all access networks, the traffic then was very minimal.
But over the years, we have seen the growth in traffic, which is coming from connected content service providers companies such as Google, FaceBook, Microsoft, TikTok, Amazon, all interconnected to IXPN, thereby achieving the domestication of internet traffic.

From when we started operations in 2007, it was 0.01 per cent of the traffic that was domesticated. Right now, some of the service providers connected to us, have achieved between 40 to almost 70 per cent of their traffic that is being domesticated in Nigeria.

What is the cost benefit for generating and domesticating local internet traffic in Nigeria and what is IXPN doing to achieve this?

So before now, almost all internet service providers get internet access through the submarine cable. At first, SAT 3 was the major carrier for internet access, before other submarine cable operators like MainOne (Now Equinix), Glo1, MTN WACS, Equiano, later joined to land submarine cables at the shores of Nigeria, in order to boost internet connectivity.

Part of the internet infrastructure, are data centres and hosting companies that host the information on the internet that people browse. By virtue of what IXPN is doing, we have attracted companies to come into Nigeria to set up data centres, and in those data centres, there are content networks coming into Nigeria to host their content. So by the time contents generated from Nigeria are hosted locally, it means people can have access to that content without going international. For example, before now, if you are watching YouTube videos or you are searching the Google engine, all your traffic must go out of Nigeria. And as long as generated traffic travels that long distance covering thousands of kilometers, people must have to pay for that distance covered. But because IXPN is now domesticating that traffic in Nigeria, it’s way cheaper to access the internet in terms of cost of data, just because the distance has been shortened and the latency has really improved.

So when internet traffic is domesticated in Nigeria, people pay 10 per cent less than what that could have paid, if the internet traffic had first traveled to hit hubs abroad before returning to Nigeria. Internet cost keeps dropping because IXPN is domesticating significant part of that traffic in Nigeria.

So currently, we have 130 different networks that are interconnected to IXPN, and those networks are access networks that people use to connect to the internet. Content networks are also connected to IXPN and these are organisations that provide the content that people browse. So we have both Nigerian service providers, content providers and international service providers that are connected to IXPN, which has led to increase in internet traffic from one megabit per second in 2007, to almost one terabits per second in 2025.

Internet connectivity comes with some security challenges. What is IXPN doing to align with Mutually Accepted Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) to address issues around insecurity?

So there are some ethos and norms in the internet that people are supposed to carry out properly to make the internet safer, better and more secure. There is an international organisation, an NGO that is called Mutually Accepted Norms for Routing Security (MANRS), and the body is encouraging Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and internet exchange points, to ensure that they follow those guidelines, and those that follow the guidelines are certified by MANRS. The body sets standards to provide security for organisations.

IXPN is certified by MANRS, which means all networks connected to IXPN are assured of online safety. It also means that all our members will find it more secure to connect to IXPN.

What is IXPN doing to establish more internet exchange points across the country, including additional Point of Presence (PoP) to address the issue of limited access to connectivity?

It is the intention of IXPN to simplify the process of access, especially for small service providers that are in Nigeria to get access to us. For example, in Lagos, IXPN is in eight different locations across different data centres, from the Mainland to the Island, including Lekki and the Atlantic City, just to simplify connectivity to the service providers. The service providers are focused only in Ikeja axis and in Lekki axis, but in order for us to simplify their connections, we’ve extended our networks to those locations to simplify access, and we established exchange points in those locations. So, for example, IXPN is in Kano, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, and recently in Gombe and we have plans to go into Oyo and Delta states to give access to those smaller networks there. .
That’s what we are focused on, but unfortunately, we have some states in Nigeria that do not have one single internet service provider that is offering service in that state. We have seen states where there is not even a single internet service provider, and everybody in the state is getting access to the internet using the mobile network operators. So, our challenge is that in some of the states where we really want to expand, there are no networks that are operating there for us to put our services.

Last year, IXPN signed co-location agreement with some hubs to boost career-neutral data centre across the country. How will Nigeria benefit from this?

Last year, IXPN signed an MOU with a 21st Century subsidiary company that has a data centre in Lekki, and we will keep signing those MOUs. The idea, as I mentioned earlier, is to reach all the areas in Lagos and in Nigeria, including the areas that are un-served or underserved when it comes to internet access, to see how we can boost internet access in those locations. So it’s on that premise that we signed those MOUs so that we can establish a point of presence in that particular data centre in Leki, and the reason is just to boost connectivity.

No educational institution in Nigeria is connected to IXPN for internet access that will drive research and development. What is IXPN doing to address this?

We have the Nigerian Research and Educational Network connected to IXPN.
We also have the West African and Central African Research and Educational Network called WACREN, connected to us, and they are exchanging a very good amount of traffic with us. But in terms of educational institutions, we’ve been having challenges in connecting them because some of them that acquired those autonomous system numbers, do not have a mature network within their institutions.
A lot of universities are facing challenges when it comes to funding and to run a network, requires a high-grid equipment that you have to buy in US dollars.
If the entire university in the country is interconnected, it will provide them the opportunity to connect to the internet. But unfortunately, because of that lack of funding, most of the educational institutions in Nigeria do not have any functional network within the educational institutions, and they are finding it difficult to also have the last mile payment and also to pay for internet service that is connected to IXPN. Based on this challenge, IXPN has not been able to have successful connection with educational institutions, but we have not given up hope. We will continue to pursue this initiative to ensure that universities will be connected to IXPN.

What is the way forward?

To address the issue of lack of funding of educational institutions to have internet connectivity, government must be willing to adequately fund educational institutions. It is the role of government to fund schools and empower them to connect to the internet.

All over the world, it is the duty of government to fund schools, and Nigerian government should do same.

In all of these, how is IXPN contributing to the growth of digital transformation in Nigeria?

Digital transformation comes in different levels of hierarchy. It’s like the pyramid where you have the foundation and then you keep increasing. So IXPN is the cornerstone and foundation that is driving across the internet connectivity ecosystem. Electricity, data centres, and interconnectivity drive digital transformation, and IXPN provides that connectivity.

That is what the internet exchange point does and IXPN provides the hosting layer upon which other connectivity layers can be built upon to drive digital transformation across the country.

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