West Africa’s leading provider of Connectivity and Data Center solutions, MainOne, an Equinix Company, has been announced as the host of the 12th edition of ‘The African Peering & Interconnection Forum (AfPIF)’ taking place in Accra, Ghana, in 2023.

The choice of the host followed a successful competitive bidding process.

Speaking at this year’s event in Kigali, Emmanuel Kwarteng, Country Manager, MainOne Ghana, applauded Ghana’s selection to host AfPiF 2023.

“Ghana’s strategic location, ease of access, and budding telecommunications industry makes it the best location to host Africa’s technical community of Infrastructure providers, Internet service providers (ISPs), Internet exchange points (IXPs), mobile network operators (MNOs), content providers, large enterprise networks, policymakers, and regulators.”
Emmanuel Kwarteng

Mr. Kwarteng spoke on MainOne’s drive to increase peering and interconnection within the West African sub-region with its certified data centers in Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire. He also highlighted how the peering event in Accra will enhance this effort and push towards the region’s target of keeping 80% of local content local.

Kwarteng also indicated that in addition to serving as an avenue to broaden the interconnection landscape in Ghana, the event will also drive investment opportunities and employment in the country while enabling the digital infrastructure that will support the Government of Ghana’s digitalization agenda.

AfPIF 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda

MainOne has 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, provided an update on the internet landscape in Africa and the current state of broadband connectivity on the Continent.

“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.’’
Oluwasayo Oshadami

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 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.

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 to network interconnection within the region in order to expand and develop the African Internet.

MainOne, an Equinix Company, is a leading West African data center and connectivity solutions provider with presence in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire.

MainOne provides highly reliable services to major telecom operators, ISPs, Government agencies, small to large enterprises, and educational institutions. MDXi, a subsidiary of MainOne, builds and operates data centers across West Africa.