
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has launched a new Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Lubumbashi, the second largest city in DRC, bringing faster and more reliable Internet access to the region.
Currently, Internet traffic in Lumbumbashi, is exchanged outside the region and in many cases, outside the country, resulting in slow Internet speeds and higher access costs. With the new IXP’s, bandwidth costs will become cheaper and Internet speeds will become faster.
The IXP was made possible through a collaboration between the Internet Society and Facebook, following a partnership announced in September 2018 to promote IXP infrastructure development throughout Africa.
Since then, IXP workshops have been held in Morocco, Nigeria, Burkina Faso Zimbabwe, Togo, Lesotho, Burundi and Mauritius, Guinea, Benin and Chad resulting in over 300 people trained, and upgraded infrastructure unlocking potential growth of IXPs across the continent.
“We want to help shift Africa from being Internet consumers to Internet creators and innovators. This will be realised through deliberate actions to have 80% of the Internet traffic being consumed in Africa accessible locally and only 20% sourced from outside the continent,” explained Michuki Mwangi, Senior Development Manager for Africa, Internet Society, in a statement.
Currently, 45 active IXPs are located in 33 countries across Africa, many of which were established within the last decade and have grown significantly with over 1,000 networks now connected.

