West Africa’s leading provider of Connectivity and Data Center solutions, MainOne, an Equinix Company made new strides towards interconnecting and transforming Sub-Sahara Africa at the just concluded African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF 2022), in Kigali, Rwanda.
Speaking at the event, Oluwasayo Oshadami, GM Technical Solutions at MainOne, examined the internet landscape in Africa and the current state of broadband connectivity on the Continent. Oshadami noted that “Africa needs to retain more of its local traffic within the continent by leveraging Data Centers to directly interconnect operators and exchange traffic at lower bandwidth costs, lower latency and improved efficiency.’’
Highlight of the event was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between AMS-IX, one of the largest Internet Exchange operators in the world, and MDXi, MainOne’s Data Center subsidiary and an Equinix Company, to grow Internet Exchange services in Africa. This strategic partnership between AMS-IX and MDXi, an Equinix company will deliver improved interconnection capabilities for existing and new customers, further facilitating the distribution of content across the West African region.
The event ended with the announcement of MainOne as host of the 12th edition of AfPIF to take place in Accra, Ghana in 2023 following a successful bid process.
The African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) is an annual event organized by the African IXP Association (AFIX) in partnership with the Internet Society. AfPIF is a multi-stakeholder forum that aims to address key opportunities and challenges related network interconnection within the region in order to expand and develop the African Internet.
