Usiku Games has joined hands with other game development studios across Africa to form Pan Africa Gaming Group (PAGG). This is in an effort to unify the continent’s gaming sector which is currently fragmented. The association is further envisioned to drive the uptake of gaming in the continent and grow developer talent.
The gaming studios in the new lobby are South Africa’s Sea Monster, Senegal’s Kayfo Games, Cameroon’s Kiro’o Games, Ghana’s Leti Arts, Tunisia’s Digital Mania, Ethiopia’s Qene Games, Kenya’s Usiku Games, Tanzania’s Khanga Rue, DopeApps from Rwanda and Messeka Games, with more expected to join soon. Collectively, the current members have developed more than 50 games.
The PAGG will bring together games developed by its members for publishing under Gara, an African game store, and Afrocomix, a content hub for Afrocentric creative work. These channels will enable content distribution and monetization by allowing locally relevant payment options, including mobile money and airtime billing. They also plan to increase the number of Africa’s next-generation game developers through training and incubation, a function that has already taken off in Kenya, at the Nairobi Game Development Center.
The lobby will be governed by a founders’ council to be made up of top gaming entrepreneurs from the continent and joined by Peter Kihara (ex-Goldman Sachs and PWC), who will serve as the group financial officer, and Jake Manion, the BAFTA-nominated director and former game director at Aardman Animation in U.K., as the group creative director.
The gaming industry in Africa is set to grow exponentially due to a soaring interest amongst the youth, and as more people get connected to the internet. According to the 2021 GSMA mobile economy report, 303 million people, about 28% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa, are connected to mobile internet, a number that is set to grow to 474 million by 2025, creating an even bigger market for the gaming industry. In 2021, South Africa generated the most total annual gaming revenue at $290 million, followed by Nigeria ($185 million), Ghana ($42 million), Kenya ($38 million) and Ethiopia ($35 million).