The small East African country of Djibouti has launched an internet exchange point (IXP).

The country has announced that the exchange point is set to help internet service providers (ISPs) and internet users keep internet traffic local in East Africa.

Local IXPs help reroute internet traffic locally, resulting in lower latency and quicker download speeds.

The Djibouti IXP is planned to be managed by the Djibouti Data Centre (DDC), the first in the region to tap into all major international and local fibre optic networks.

“Today’s announcement is the culmination of rapidly escalating demand and months of consultation with the DDC’s existing customer base and other regional and international service providers,” said Anthony Voscarides, chief executive officer of the Djibouti Data Centre.

“Africa has historically been challenged by high Internet costs. We are leveraging the DDC’s ecosystem to improve local Internet performance, efficiency, resilience, and cost by keeping local traffic local. The results are all around improvements for service providers and end users in the region,” Voscarides added.