In furtherance to IXPN’s commitment towards improving the internet ecosystem in Nigeria, a stakeholder’s meeting was held on the 13^th and 14^th of October 2021 in Kano state, to discuss the benefits and impact of connecting to the exchange point, and train network engineers in the state on Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

 At a two-day workshop attended by various Internet Service Providers in Kano state, representatives from the Nigerian Communications Commission, Vice-Chancellors, Provosts, Permanent Secretary of the Kano State Ministry of Science and Technology, Executive Secretary from Kano State Library, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of IXPN, Mr. Rudman Muhammed explained that connecting to the exchange point has a huge role to play in the country’s ICT ecosystem and, ultimately, the digital economy agenda.

 According to Rudman, the role of the Internet and easy access to information by students in today’s world cannot be overstated, emphasizing that IXPN is at the forefront of advocating for the localization of educational research contents and other contents in-country, with such contents easily accessible through the increasingly robust IXPN infrastructure across Nigeria. This will significantly reduce capital flight, improve latency, reduce the risk of such traffic being hijacked, and improve resiliency, he stated.

 “We believe that the fast-depleting IPV4 resources at AfriNIC underline the need for Higher Educational Institutions to acquire their IP resources and peer with the eXchange point, thereby providing access to their students to contents currently available through the IXPN,” he said.

 He also assured that the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria is ready to provide the necessary support to any educational institution that wishes to acquire IP resources and connect to the eXchange point.

 The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) training for network engineers in the state immediately followed with live practical lab sessions by the IXPN technical team.