Nigeria’s domestic internet ecosystem has reached a new milestone, with local internet traffic surpassing 2 Terabits per second (Tbps), marking a 100 percent increase in less than one year and underscoring the rapid growth of the country’s digital infrastructure.
The achievement was recorded by the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), the nation’s premier internet exchange hub, which disclosed that peak local internet traffic crossed the 2Tbps threshold in March 2026 and has continued to rise, currently tracking above 2.3Tbps.
The latest figure, according to Mr. Muhammed Rudman, the chief executive officer of IXPN, who spoke at Tech Convergence 3.0 organised by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), represents a significant leap from the historic 1Tbps milestone achieved in April 2025.
The growth, he said, highlights the accelerating adoption of local content hosting, cloud services, digital platforms, and data localization initiatives across Nigeria.
Industry analysts say the growth reflects increasing confidence in Nigeria’s internet infrastructure and the success of efforts to keep internet traffic within the country rather than routing it through overseas networks.
According to IXPN data, more than 135 networks, including Internet Service Providers (ISPs), mobile network operators, fintech companies, educational institutions, cloud providers, and content delivery networks, are now interconnected through the exchange point.
For years, a substantial portion of internet traffic generated within Nigeria was routed through data centres in Europe and North America before returning to local users.
This arrangement increased costs, introduced latency, and created dependency on international bandwidth.
By enabling local networks to exchange traffic directly within Nigeria, IXPN has helped reduce operational costs, improve internet speed, enhance network resilience, and strengthen the country’s digital sovereignty.
The milestone is expected to have far-reaching implications for sectors such as digital banking, e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, education technology, and online entertainment, all of which rely heavily on fast and reliable internet connectivity.
Industry experts also note that higher levels of traffic localization reduce pressure on foreign exchange requirements for international bandwidth purchases while encouraging greater investment in local data centres and content infrastructure.
The latest achievement continues a remarkable growth trajectory for IXPN.
In 2022, peak local internet traffic exceeded 300Gbps. By 2023, the figure had risen to 500Gbps, before reaching the landmark 1Tbps milestone in 2025.
The 2Tbps achievement effectively doubles that capacity within a year, making it one of the fastest growth periods in the history of Nigeria’s internet infrastructure development.
As demand for AI applications, video streaming, cloud services, 5G networks, and digital financial services continues to rise, industry stakeholders believe Nigeria’s internet traffic volumes will keep growing, further cementing the country’s position as one of Africa’s most important digital economies.
For Nigeria, the 2Tbps milestone is more than a technical achievement, it is a reflection of the country’s increasing digital maturity and a strong indicator that investments in local internet infrastructure are beginning to yield measurable economic and technological benefits.
This version is structured as a Techeconomy news feature with context, significance, and historical progression rather than a straightforward rewrite.
