With mobile and internet penetration in Nigeria reaching as much as 150 million Nigerians and online video viewing surging to its historical levels, Abiola Olaniran founder of Gamsole believes the time is ripe for serious local investments in mobile game industry.
According to Olaniran whose company has been creating local games for three years, “Gaming in West Africa is still at the baby stage, people haven’t scratched (the potential) yet.”
A new report on global video game industry released by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that although investment in digital console games was increasing rapidly, mobile game did not receive much of these investments and this is not for lack of demand. The report projects that mobile games will contribute 83 percent of revenues in video games industry in Nigeria come 2020.
At the moment the industry in Nigeria is dominated by foreign players “who see potential in making mobile games for the Nigerian market,” Olaniran said.
The potential is mainly because of the large demography of young people in Nigeria and Africa, he explained, “When you look at the market penetration and the age demography in the country and in Africa; Africa has more people under the age of 20 than any continent in the world. If things like this can be explored you will see it do really well in Africa.”
The potential for investment in mobile games is significant. It is an opportunity, said Olaniran, for companies to capture the young demography who are the major consumers of mobile games in the country.
New investments can drive the market incentives which ultimately impact returns. Companies in the telecommunication sector are the most affected by a boon in game industry because more data consumed translate to more money made.
Gamsole has created several local games that have caught the attention of young people not just in Nigeria but in the globe. As at the month of May, all of the games on the company’s platform have been downloaded 15 million times.
“The potential for gaming is not just for Africa. The content that we are developing can be consumed by different people around the world. As a company, most of the ways we have been able to generate our revenues in the past three years is because we create content but we do not just look at local audience.
“The local audience in Nigeria is still very small and that’s how we are able to get Microsoft feature us on their platform which covers millions of people. We get downloads from different regions of the world, China, Brazil and so on. I see that as a great potential – that we can create local content and people can enjoy them from every part of the world,” said Olaniran.
FRANK ELEANYA
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