Juwah supports IXPN to keep traffic local

THE Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah has drummed support for the Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), to keep internet traffic local.

Speaking during a courtesy visit last week to present the status report by the board of IXPN led by the Chairman, Chief Chima Onyekwere, in his office at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Dr. Juwah said, his administration would increase the support given to the eXchange Point in recent past.

He also said that key roles being played by this private public partnership is critical to Nigeria’s emancipation in the global Internet arena.

The Commission, he said, would improve on its funding of the organization to ensure that the objectives of keeping the local Internet traffic localized within the country is fully realized.

He advised the board and management of the company limited by guarantee to ensure it entrenches an attractive business proposition and good corporate that would attract the participation of all the key operators in the industry so as to deliver on its mandate.

IXPN chairman, Chief Onyekwere informed NCC management that 22 Internet Service Providers (ISPs), including the two of the big GSM operators, MTN and Zain, have connected to the Internet Exchange location in Lagos.

Onyekwere also said that IXPN has received support from National Information Development Agency (NITDA), to set up additional exchange points in Abuja and Kano, while efforts have reached advanced stage for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to fund several exchange points that would interconnect financial institutions across the country.

In his remark, the chief executive of IXPN, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, listed some of the current initiatives of the company to include the successful launch of the Lagos Higher Education Connectivity Project (Eko Konnect) initiated by the University of Lagos in partnership with IXPN and Datasphere Solutions.

The aim of this project, he said, is to facilitate and support connectivity between all higher institutions in Lagos including the universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and research institutions.

“Our strategy is to position us as the center of gravity to all the HEIs in Nigeria and thereby giving us the opportunity to be the hub for West and Central African Research Educational Network in the near future,” he said.

Mr. Rudman also said that IXPN has activated CommunityDNS, the first in West Africa. CommunityDNS hosts 353 top and second tier level domains for Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) operators which are about 12.8 Million names which mean the localization of critical Internet resource within the country.

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