What Digital Realty's IXPN Move Means for Lagos Data Centres

Digital Realty is activating a new internet exchange point of presence for the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) at its Ibeju-Lekki data centre in Lagos, extending peering capacity and access for telco services within a key infrastructure hub.

The move builds on IXPN’s existing presence at the company’s Victoria Island campus and places the exchange across 12 data centres nationwide, with full coverage of major facilities in Lagos.

It positions Digital Realty’s sites as central locations for interconnection, where networks exchange traffic directly to improve performance.

Internet exchange points are facilities that allow networks to connect and exchange data locally rather than routing traffic through international links.

This reduces latency and lowers the cost of carrying traffic across external networks. Activating a point of presence (PoP) in Lekki means that Digital Realty is increasing the number of interconnection options available within its data centre environment.

Extending interconnection across campuses

The activation in Lekki establishes a dual-campus model for Digital Realty in Lagos, linking its Victoria Island and Ibeju-Lekki sites.

Both facilities operate as carrier-neutral data centres, meaning multiple telco networks, cloud providers and service operators can colocate and interconnect without restriction.

This allows customers to deploy infrastructure across two separate locations for redundancy. 

With IXPN in both campuses, operators gain additional paths for public peering, which is the exchange of traffic over shared infrastructure rather than private, one-to-one connections. This improves routing efficiency and supports lower latency for local internet traffic.

The Lekki data centre also serves as a landing point for the 2Africa subsea cable system, a high-capacity fibre network connecting more than 46 locations across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. 

By linking this international capacity directly with IXPN at Lekki, incoming traffic can move into local exchange points more efficiently. This reduces the need for data to travel outside the region before returning to local users, which is usually a process that adds delay and cost.

Building a hub for data centre connectivity

The Lekki facility is a key node within Nigeria’s data centre landscape, combining subsea cable access with local interconnection capabilities.

Ike Nnamani, Managing Director at Digital Realty in Nigeria, says: “This activation at our Lekki campus represents a deepening of Digital Realty commitment to connecting the local and regional digital economy to global networks.

"By integrating IXPN’s exchange point, we are delivering resilient peering that enables lower latency and can increase operational efficiency for our customers."

The expansion also supports IXPN’s growing membership base, which includes more than 130 organisations spanning internet service providers, global content platforms and cloud operators.

A larger community within an exchange increases the number of networks available for direct interconnection, which in turn strengthens the data centre ecosystem.

Supporting traffic growth and efficiency

IXPN’s role in localising internet traffic continues to expand as demand for digital services increases. 

"Expanding IXPN to Digital Realty’s Lekki campus is a significant step in our journey to enhance connectivity across Nigeria," says Muhammed Rudman, CEO of IXPN.

"Our members are expected to benefit from faster, low-latency pathways, allowing broader digital inclusion and fuelling Nigeria’s digital economy."

Traffic data reflects this growth. Peak domestic internet traffic at IXPN exceeded one terabit per second in April 2025 and rose to more than two terabits per second by March 2026. 

This increase highlights the need for scalable infrastructure that can support rising volumes of content delivery, cloud computing and digital applications for data centre operators.

Expanding IXPN’s presence within Digital Realty’s Lagos campuses provides additional capacity and interconnection options, enabling operators to manage demand while maintaining performance and resilience.