Nurani Nimpuno, global engagement manager, LINX.

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has announced that its Kenya interconnection hub, located in Nairobi, is now operational and ready for business.

LINX Nairobi is the new East African Internet Exchange Point (IXP), with three data centre facilities spread around Kenya's capital.

The hub is a multi-site, networked platform that can be accessed via IXAfrica, as well as Africa Data Centres NBO1 and iColo NBO1 facilities.

Networks in any of these facilities can connect to the LINX Nairobi hub and peer their traffic, according to the company, creating a safe and redundant digital environment for them to manage their network more effectively.

"Peering enables networks to better control their network traffic and the path it takes," reads a company statement.

"It is frequently less expensive than other methods of traffic management and improves network latency,” it added.

According to LINX, Kenya is one of Africa's top technological powerhouses, having undergone a digital revolution since the early 2000s. The country has registered an average of 10.8% growth every year since 2016.

"The country is uniquely positioned to serve all of East Africa with fast-growing fibre connectivity throughout the whole region, with a well-connected submarine cable network providing pathways to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia," reads the statement.

Nurani Nimpuno, global engagement manager, LINX, said: "We can learn a lot from the country's technological advancements, such as their adoption of M-PESA with Safaricom, which has put Kenya miles ahead of other countries, in terms of digital finance innovation. I am confident that LINX Nairobi will only complement and grow Kenya's ecosystem."