Groundbreaking 10Gbps Direct Link Was Established Between Lagos And Cape Town

A Wireless Network Image
Image Credit: From This Wikipedia Creative Commons 

A Groundbreaking 10Gbps Direct Link Was Established Between Lagos And Cape Town

In October 2025, a groundbreaking 10Gbps direct connection was created between Lagos and Cape Town as part of the AfricaConnect3 (AC3) project. This high-capacity link establishes a connection between the West and Central African Research, and Education Network (WACREN) and both the South African National Research, and Education Network (SANReN) and the Tertiary Education, and Research Network of South Africa (TENET). 

Meanwhile, AfricaConnect3 (AC3) is the third phase of a pan-African project, established by the European Union and African partners, to support and develop high-speed internet networks for Africa's research and learning communities. The project builds upon the success of its predecessors, AfricaConnect and AfricaConnect2. 

 While the WACREN made the project possible through pioneering the Lagos GXP and ZAOXI connection, the project is undoubtedly one of the best in Africa. According to AfricaConnect3, Dr. Eyouleki T.G. Palanga, CEO of WACREN said that “The ZAOXI connection represents more than just infrastructure; it embodies Africa asserting its place in the global digital research arena. By enhancing interconnections across the continent, we equip our research centers, universities, and innovators to create solutions for Africa’s key challenges in health, agriculture, climate, and education—ensuring that data generated in Africa follows African routes.” Before, the research and education data traffic in Africa used to pass through Europe, creating extra cost to access intercontinental network infrastructure.

 However, there's no doubt that this project will serve the academic communities on the continent of Africa. As stated by AfricaConnect3, quoting the director of SANReN, Sabelo Dhlamini “The SA’s countrywide research and education system has historically invested in advanced computing and connectivity to support our scientific community. By connecting SANReN’s high-capacity backbone and HPC resources with West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) through the ZAOXI exchange, we are promoting large-scale collaboration among African researchers—ranging from climate modeling to early warning systems. This connection lays the groundwork for science led by Africans that tackles our most urgent issues.”

Similarly, WACREN, the West and Central African Research and Education Network is a non governmental organization focused on building and operating world-class, high-speed internet networks for the education communities and research of West and Central Africa. Founded in 2010, its aim is to assist and streamline collaboration among national research and education networks ( NRENs) within the Africa continent and beyond. The key partners in the projects are SANReN/TENET and WACREN, a Nigerian company with an upgraded Layer3 network.

You can also read:MTN Launches Integrated Home-Mobile Plans

Meanwhile, the AfricaConnect3 project is co-launched by African partners and the European Union. This project has significance and impact because, in the past, Southern and West African research institutions used European network connections. The new direct connection eradicates the need for data traffic to connect through Europe. This reduces costs and enables a high-speed connection for research and education, allowing more affordable and faster collaboration among educationists and researchers in Africa.

The project will contribute not only to the technological development in Nigeria and South Africa but also in other African countries. The advanced connectivity will support various big projects and allow researchers to operate worldwide. Furthermore, by keeping the network connection in Africa, the continent will not rely on European infrastructure and thus increase technological sovereignty. The project aims to develop Africa's knowledge economy by sustaining education, innovation, and research.

However, the main objectives of WACREN are as follows:

Infrastructure Development: Catering for a reliable, high-capacity, and advanced network infrastructure for tertiary institutions, research institutes, and students.

Provision of Service: Providing a wide range of advanced services intentionally created for the academic community, such as identity and access management (eduroam, eduGAIN),video conferencing and cloud hosting platforms.

Capacity Building: Improving the technical and human resources of the region's NRENs and their constituent institutions to increase the use of advanced technology.

Collaboration: Promoting cooperation among West and Central African educators and researchers, as well as with their international peers. Meanwhile, WACREN's network creates a critical technology backbone for the region, associating NRENs in multiple countries. The organization has been quickly expanding its capacity and reach, including:

Interconnections: Associating its network with other regional networks like the South African National Research and Education Network (SANReN) and the pan-European GÉANT network, encouraging global collaboration.

Recent Expansion (2025): Connecting new countries, including The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, and Senegal, to its regional network backbone.

Pan-African Link (2025): Establishing a direct 10Gbps connection between Lagos and Cape Town in partnership with SANReN, initiating the first-ever high-capacity interconnection between West and Southern Africa. Furthermore, WACREN involved in various projects to back the education communities and research:

AfricaConnect3 (AC3): As an important part of implementing partners for West and Central Africa, WACREN plays a crucial role in the AC3 initiative, which is co-financed by the European Union.

LIBSENSE: In partnership with the LIBSENSE initiative, WACREN assists open science by developing capacity for open access publishing among African research institutions.

Digital Education Programme (DEP): This program helps institutions to use advanced technology for teaching and learning through high-capacity connectivity, cloud systems, and video services.

Climate Monitoring: Conducting a small-scale, trial implementation before deployment to prove the viability of IoT-based weather stations. This supports a regional climate monitoring platform and facilitates data-intensive research. 

Basically, the South African National Research Network, SANReN, is a high-capacity connection for South Africa's research and education (R&E) community. It is an important part of the country's government-financed e-Research project, controlled by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). SANReN is managed in close partnership with the Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa (TENET), which supplies the main network operations and services to institutions. Their key objectives and services are as follows:

High-Speed Connectivity: Supplies a high-speed network for institutions such as universities, national research facilities and science councils. The network has been significantly enhanced over the years, with its national infrastructure now boasting of 100Gbps capacity on dark fibre.

Advanced Services: Creates and incubates sophisticated services customized for the academic community. These include large-scale data transmission and the SANReN Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT).

National Collaboration: Helps research and transformation by connecting institutions across South Africa. This creates a national research and education platform that supports internal development goals.

International Linkage: Connects the South African R&E community to universal research networks, allowing researchers to partake in international collaborations. A significant recent example is the new 10Gbps direct link to Lagos, established with WACREN, as part of the AfricaConnect3 project. 

In addition to the above, WACREN also has partnerships with TENET, NREN, and SANReN. However, the South African NREN is established as a joint effort between SANReN and TENET. The details are as follows:

SANReN Group (at CSIR): Responsible for the network's infrastructure design, planning, and expansion, including the development of new services. However, SANReN is being operated by TENET, the details are as follows:

TENET: This operates the SANRen network. It controls the daily operations, providing connectivity and support services to member institutions. Moreover, SANReN is an important part of South Africa's National Integrated Cyberinfrastructure System (NICIS), which aims to create top-tier ICT infrastructure for the country's knowledge economy. Other main components of NICIS include:

Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC): Provides supercomputing resources for researchers.

Data Intensive Research Initiative of South Africa (DIRISA): Focuses on wide-range of data storage and management . 

Meanwhile, the Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa (TENET) is a non-profit company that creates and operates high-capacity internet and IT services for education communities and South Africa's research. 

In addition to the above, TENET is also one of the partners for the South African National Research Network (SANReN), a national government e-Research project. It provides internet and IT services, managing the daily operations of the network to enable high-capacity connections for users within the academic community, including universities, science councils, and other research institutions. 

TENET's specialized services include video conferencing, roaming Wi-Fi access via eduroam, and identity management through the South African Identity Federation (SAFIRE). In its role as a collaborative partner, TENET works closely with the SANReN group, which handles the planning of the network's strategy and expansion. TENET is also a pioneer member of the UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking, which delivers the regional NREN needs of Eastern and Southern Africa. Its involvement in the AfricaConnect3 project enables important pan-African collaborations, such as the groundbreaking Lagos-Cape Town Link. 

Editorial Thought 

The new groundbreaking 10Gbps Direct Link from Lagos to Cape Town is a testament to the commitment of WACREN and AfricaConnect3 to develop the cyberinfrastructure in Africa. While the reliance on European cyberinfrastructure in the past has been a concern for the African academic communities, this project will not only improve research in Africa, but also place the African name on the global map of researchers.