African Internet Exchange Point

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Workshops planned: Mali (August), Niger (August), Guinea (August), Gambia (August).

Team members:
In addition to those instructors mentioned in each workshop report, the following were involved in content development:

Mark Tinka (Mbabane),

Amr Hashem (Cairo),

Pam Sykes (Cape Town),

Americo Muchanga (Maputo),

Alan Barrett (Cape Town)
Team leaders:

Alan Levin (Content, Cape Town),

Didier Kasole (Workshops, Kinshasa)
Component leads:

Brian Longwe (Nairobi),

William Stucke (Joburg)

Many countries in Africa now have several different ways of routing Internet data flows (traffic) to and from the international Internet networks. This introduces a unique problem for traffic that needs to get routed between Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks in the same country. In Africa there are predominantly no points of interconnection between ISPs. This means that most of the traffic is exchanged at non-African (foreign) points of interconnection such as the United States.

The African Internet Exchange Point Task Force (AFIX-TF) is an operational team established by the African Internet Service Providers Association (AfrISPA) that seeks to address this issue. The objective of AFIX-TF is to accelerate the uptake of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in Africa through support and facilitation of IXP initiatives in various countries. This project challenges the notion that the United States is the main Internet Exchange point through three core activities, namely, the provision of information resources, consultation and workshop facilitation, and IXP installations.

We have developed a two-day workshop for technical operators and a half-day workshop for decision makers.

The training has been developed using the APC/itrainonline standard (the multi-media training kit).

Botswana - May 2005
Alan Levin, Alan Barrett (report 52kB pdf)

Zambia - July 2005
Didier Kasole, Mark Tinka (report 44kB pdf)

Malawi - July 2005
Didier Kasole, Mark Tinka

Ghana - October 2005
Jean Robert Hountomey, William Stucke & Didier Kasole. (report 168kB pdf)

Benin - October 2005
Olivier Nana Nzepa, Jean Robert Hountomey, William Stucke & Didier Kasole. (report 188kB pdf)

Burundi - March 2006
Didier Kasole. (report 164kB pdf)

Togo - April 2006
Didier Kasole, Berthe Hawa Diakite, Jean Robert Hountomey. (report 156kB pdf)

Ivory Coast - April 2006
Matali Shabazz, Jean Robert Hountomey, Olivier Nana Nzepa, Yaovi Atohoun & Didier Kasole. (report 156kB pdf)

Nigeria - April 2006
Mark Elkins and Didier Kasole. (report 165kB pdf)

Cameroon - July 2006
Didier Kasole and Yaovi Atohoun. (report 148kB pdf)

Senegal - July 2006
Brian Longwe, Mme Fatou Diang Sarr, Mme Berthe Hawa, Alex Corenthin, Diakite & Didier Kasole. (report 160kB pdf)

Congo - August 2006
Mark Elkins, Coko Mirindi and Didier Kasole. (report 144kB pdf)

Gabon - August 2006
Alioune Badra Traore (from Mali), Cyriaque Kouma (from Gabon) & Didier Kasole (from DRC). (report 140kB pdf)

Partners
We collaborate with the SIDA academic IXP support programme. Those interested in joining the SIDA academic programme may apply. A number of African IXPs have been assisted by SIDA, their course documentation includes RwandIX Mosix .

Kind thanks to Cisco, who have sponsored many of the IXPs switches and other required hardware as well as supported our content development, as well as NSRC who have supported the programme of activities.

AFIX-TF is working with the African Network Operators Group (AFNOG) to run a number of country workshops over the next three years.

If you can assist to establish a workshop in your country, please complete the attached text based survey and send an email to

The countries that have IXPs today are listed on the main AfrISPA page. Or on the graphical map at the NSRC.

Please send us an email to or by telephone: +27 21 4097997