Technology
Nigeria Achieves Peak One Terabit Per Second Internet Traffic
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria has reached a historic peak in internet traffic, recording one terabit per second (Tbps) for the first time ever due to the rise in streaming interest.
According to Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), the 1 Tbps threshold was finally crossed in March 2025, adding that this significant milestone not only highlighted the nation’s accelerating digital transformation but also brings substantial economic benefits through the efficient exchange of local data.
The journey to this 1 Tbps milestone has been a progressive one for Nigeria. Starting from a modest 5 to 10 megabits per second in 2008, internet traffic saw substantial increases, reaching 126 gigabits by 2019, then 250 Gbps in 2020, and climbing to 900 Gbps by late 2024.
This expansion is attributed to the increasing number of local data centers, enhanced interconnection, and the presence of major international content providers such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, and TikTok, all now connected to the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN).
According to Mr Muhammed Rudman, CEO of IXPN, this milestone represents a significant advancement in Nigeria’s internet infrastructure development and highlights the crucial role of local internet infrastructure in fostering economic growth, innovation, and connectivity for millions of Nigerians.
According to Rudman, “This milestone is more than just a number. It is a symbol of Nigeria’s digital maturity and our united strides towards becoming a tech-driven nation. By keeping local internet traffic within Nigeria, we reduce costs, improve speeds, and ensure our digital economy thrives with homegrown infrastructure.
Achieving 1 Tbps is a significant victory for Nigeria’s ICT ecosystem, a breakthrough for domestic internet traffic. It serves as a catalyst, enabling millions of Nigerians to enjoy faster, more affordable, and resilient internet connectivity.”
The 1 Terabit per second capacity signifies a transformative leap for Africa’s most populous nation. To illustrate its impact, a speed of 1 Tbps can concurrently support over 1 million Zoom meetings, empowering students, entrepreneurs, and professionals to connect and drive Nigeria’s digital revolution.
Furthermore, this speed allows over 200,000 individuals to simultaneously stream high-definition Nollywood or Netflix movies without any buffering or interruptions. It also enables the transfer of the entire contents of 50,000 smartphones—including photos, applications, and videos—in a mere second.
“For Nigeria, hitting this milestone means reducing reliance on international bandwidth, decreasing latency for local services, and strengthening its position as Africa’s digital heartbeat. This milestone is a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation, and the relentless pursuit of a faster, more connected Nigeria. This accomplishment goes beyond technical advancements; it has significant economic implications,” Mr Rudman explained.
“By encouraging local traffic exchange, IXPN reduces dependency on international bandwidth, leading to significant cost savings. By utilizing local data exchange, Nigerian businesses can save millions of dollars annually on international bandwidth fees.”
“It also helps to enhanced speed and connectivity, in that with reduced latency, users experience smoother streaming, gaming, and real-time services, enhancing their overall online experience. It strengthens Nigeria’s internet infrastructure protects against global disruptions, ensuring consistent access to vital services such as healthcare and education and optimizes digital services like fintech, edtech, e-commerce, and e-health, propelling innovation and growth in these sectors.”
The importance of this progress extends beyond mere speed. The Internet Society (ISOC) has revealed that Nigeria is now saving at least $40 million annually by keeping internet traffic within its borders, a cost avoidance achieved by routing data locally instead of relying on expensive international bandwidth.
Despite this achievement, Rudman also drew attention to Nigeria’s underdeveloped internet infrastructure, noting, “With a population comparable to Brazil, Nigeria has only 257 autonomous system numbers (ASNs), far fewer than Brazil’s 10,000 and South Africa’s 770. This is a major indicator of how few networks we have offering services.”
He highlighted the dominance of mobile internet access, stating that 99 percent of internet access in Nigeria is mobile-based, with many regions still limited to 2G or 3G networks.
“Some states with populations in the millions lack a single network with an ASN. That is a crisis. Even institutions with technical capacity remain unconnected. Out of 22 financial institutions, only the Central Bank of Nigeria is connected to IXPN,” he stated, also criticizing the insufficient interconnectivity among Nigerian universities.
Mr Rudman proposed the development of regional hubs, suggesting that a city like Kano could host Hausa language content and attract neighboring countries to connect through Nigeria, similar to South Africa’s role in Southern Africa.
To realize this vision, he advocated for investments in community networks, regulatory incentives, and support for local Internet Service Providers (ISPs). “The number of ISPs in Nigeria is shrinking. That’s a red flag. We need to reverse that trend to truly become a digital leader,” he advised.
He called for greater collaboration among regulators, stakeholders, and the media to identify and address the gaps within Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
“We are all Nigerians. We want Nigeria to be a better place. Let’s work together to solve this,” he urged.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The reach of the Meta Business Agent is being expanded to Instagram and other platforms of the social media giant.
Meta Business Agent is an artificial intelligence (AI) that allows business owners to attend to customers’ needs with ease.
Customers expect instant responses, but no team can be everywhere at once. This innovation handles such without hassles.
It helps businesses to answer questions specific to the business, makes product recommendations from the catalogue, books appointments, qualifies incoming leads, and closes sales.
More than one million businesses are already using a Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp and Messenger to respond to customers around the clock.
“We’re now expanding our Business Agent to businesses big and small globally, so within minutes you can have yours up and running, responding in your customer’s local language using your tone,” Meta said in a statement.
“We’re also expanding these agents to Instagram since businesses connect with their customers there, too. Businesses can activate their Business Agent here. Getting started with the Business Agent is free. In the coming months, businesses will access the agent through our paid subscription offerings, with options for businesses of every size,” it added.
Meta also stated that it is making it simpler for people to discover businesses powered by a Meta Business Agent directly on WhatsApp. It noted that starting soon, people will be able to find businesses by typing their name in the Search bar, or by sharing their phone number or contact card in chats with friends and family. This way, when more customers reach out, they get a quick, helpful response.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Lagos State government plans to expand the city’s data centre capacity to over 250 megawatts (MW) by 2030 as part of efforts to strengthen its digital infrastructure ecosystem.
This was disclosed by the state’s Commissioner for Innovation, Science, and Technology, Mr Olatubosun Alake, at the launch of the Kasi Cloud LOS1 data centre facility in Lekki. Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) invested in Kasi Cloud through an $8 million convertible loan note in 2021.
Mr Alake said Lagos already hosts nearly three-quarters of Nigeria’s commercial data centre capacity, adding that the government intends to expand its infrastructure footprint significantly over the next five years.
“There are about 146 additional megawatt data centres planned in the pipeline,” he said. “We envisage that by 2030, we would have over 250 megawatts of data centre capacity in Lagos, three times the current capacity growth.”
The expansion comes as demand for cloud services, AI computing power, and local data storage continues to grow across Nigeria’s digital economy, with Lagos at the forefront, housing thousands of businesses and startups.
Mr Alake said the Kasi Cloud facility represents Lagos’ entry into “large-scale hyperscale AI infrastructure,” signalling the state’s ambition to evolve beyond being known primarily as a startup hub into a major centre for digital infrastructure and AI computing.
“Lagos is no longer simply a startup city,” he said. “It is an infrastructure city.”
The Kasi LOS1 facility is designed as a 40MW hyperscale data centre campus, beginning operations with an initial 7.2MW IT load.
According to Mr Alake, the facility includes advanced GPU computing infrastructure powered by Nvidia H100 and H200 chips, alongside liquid cooling systems and cloud infrastructure services designed to support AI workloads.
The Lagos State government believes such infrastructure will become critical as AI adoption accelerates globally.
Mr Alake said the state is investing in fibre optic networks, smart city technologies, university innovation programmes, and digital government systems to prepare for the transition.
“The AI economy is going to require hundreds of megawatts,” he said. “The market has already made its decision about where digital infrastructure belongs.”
On his part, Mr Johnson Agbogun, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kasi Cloud, said the project was built to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure and give African businesses more control over how their data and AI systems are developed.
“Nigerian enterprises are currently spending $850 million every year on foreign cloud infrastructure,” he said. “Every naira spent abroad on cloud and AI infrastructure helps build capabilities somewhere else.”
He added that the facility runs GPU-powered AI workloads from local enterprises and described the Lekki campus as “the beginning of Nigeria’s AI factory.”
“As artificial intelligence reshapes economies globally, the nations that control their own compute infrastructure and data will be the ones positioned to lead,” added Mr Kolawole Owodunni, NSIA’s Executive Director and Chief Information Officer.
The goal of Google Search has always been simple: to help you ask anything on your mind. Whether it is a quick fact to help with your daily hustle or a complex question about starting a new business, Nigerians rely on Search every single day.
Over the last year, Google has rapidly reimagined what Search can do with AI. The momentum has been incredible—just one year after its debut, AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users globally. As people have realised just how much more Search can do for them, they are searching more than ever before, reaching an all-time high in search queries last quarter. Today at Google I/O, Google shared the next step in its journey to bring together the best of a search engine with the best of AI.
To power this next chapter, Google is officially upgrading Search with Gemini 3.5 Flash as the new default model in AI Mode for everyone worldwide. Delivering sustained frontier performance for agents and coding, Gemini 3.5 Flash is the engine driving the new era of AI-powered Search. Because curiosity doesn’t always fit into standard keywords, this powerful AI model is transforming Search from a tool that simply finds information into an intelligent platform capable of reasoning, monitoring the web, and executing complex tasks on your behalf.
Here is a look at the four biggest AI-powered announcements coming to Google Search:
1. A Completely Reimagined Search Box
Google is introducing the biggest upgrade to its Search box in over 25 years. Now completely reimagined with AI, the new intelligent Search box dynamically expands to give you the space to describe exactly what you need. It goes beyond simple autocomplete by anticipating your intent and helping you phrase your questions. You are no longer limited to typing; you can now search using text, images, files, videos, or even Chrome tabs as inputs. Additionally, Google is making it easier to ask follow-up questions directly from an AI Overview, flowing naturally into a conversational back-and-forth where your context stays with you as you explore.
2. New Search Agents That Work in the Background
We are entering the era of Search agents, where you can create and manage multiple AI agents directly in Search. Google is launching “Information agents” that operate in the background 24/7. These agents intelligently scan the web—alongside fresh data on finance, shopping, and sports—to monitor for changes related to your specific questions. For example, if you are house hunting, your agent will continuously scan the market and notify you the moment a listing matches your exact criteria. Furthermore, Search is expanding its agentic booking capabilities; you can soon share specific criteria (like a late-night private karaoke room) and Search will pull the latest pricing and links to finish booking. For certain categories, Google can even call businesses on your behalf.
3. Custom Mini-Apps and Visuals Built Just for You
Search is no longer just returning links; it is now building the ideal response in the perfect format for your query entirely on the fly. By bringing the power of Google Antigravity and the agentic coding capabilities of Gemini 3.5 Flash into Search, users will get a custom “Generative UI.” This means Search can design custom layouts, interactive visuals, tables, graphs, or simulations in real-time. But it goes a step further: if you have an ongoing task, like establishing a new health routine, Search can actually code a custom fitness tracker or mini-app for you. These custom dashboards tap into real-time sources like live maps and weather, giving you a personalised tracker you can return to again and again.
4. Expanded Personal Intelligence Without a Subscription
For AI to be truly helpful, it shouldn’t just know the world’s information—it should understand your personal context, too. To achieve this, Google is expanding Personal Intelligence in AI Mode to more people in nearly 200 countries and territories across 98 languages. Crucially, this is being rolled out with no subscription required. Users can securely connect apps like Gmail, Google Photos, and soon Google Calendar directly to Search. Designed with transparency and choice at its heart, this allows you to safely ask Search to find information buried in your own personal files, always keeping you in complete control of your connected data.
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