Africa’s esports scene is accessible but still lacks the structure of its global counterparts, and the people trying to build it are doing so in a landscape shaped by weak infrastructure, patchy monetisation, and institutional gatekeeping. Mshikilwa said growth is mainly driven by the expansion of mobile infrastructure and the availability of mobile devices, while monetisation remains challenging and the only silver lining is content creators who earn from brands.
Who Gets Left to Build It Anyway
The article said the global esports sector and its accompanying career paths have encouraged educational systems worldwide to integrate competitive gaming into their curricula to ensure future-ready skill sets. That framing puts the burden on schools and students to adapt to a market that is still being assembled around them, while the basic conditions for stable participation remain uneven.
In Lagos State, the CEO of the Lagos State Lottery and Gaming Authority (LSLGA), Bashir Are, unveiled a strategic plan to introduce esports to roughly three million students by embedding competitive play into the study of mathematics, specifically algebra, and psychology. The aim, according to the article, is to shift gaming from mere entertainment toward a tool for cognitive development and academic excellence. The scale of the plan shows how quickly institutions move once they see a sector they can organize, regulate, and extract value from.
The People Doing the Work
The piece said the sector still faces unique challenges and that growth on the local scene is gruelling, often fueled by a passion for impact. That is the labor of the bottom layer: people trying to make a scene function without the structure that already exists in global markets.
At the recently concluded All African Gaming Expo (AGE), panellists examined the socio-economic importance of the sector in a session themed ‘Esports as a Driver for Education, Entertainment, and Youth Inclusion,’ analysing the system’s key components and outlining ways to accelerate growth. The session was moderated by the President of the Esports Federation of Nigeria, Yahaya Maikori, and the panellists included the Founder and CEO of Estars, Mags Byrne; the President of the Malta Esports Association, Michele Magro; the founder and CEO of Game Evolution, Kunmi Adenipebi; the founder of Passport.GG, Ignat Bobrovich; and the President of the Esports Federation of Tanzania, Mshikilwa.
Kunmi Adenipebi said, “The limitations that we’ve been having for at least a decade are basically because there is no proper infrastructure, at least from the government.” He added, “We know that in most countries, whatever sector the government is involved with easily thrives. I know that for the past year now, the Esports Federation was formed. It was one of the problems we had. At the time, there was no federation monitoring what we were doing to assist us in growing.”
Those remarks place the problem where it sits: not in a lack of interest, but in the absence of proper infrastructure and the arrival of a federation to monitor and assist. The article presents that as a development milestone, even as it shows how much of the scene depends on official structures to function at all.
What They Call Growth
Adenipebi said creating grassroots awareness of how esports benefits various ecosystems in Nigeria is key to unlocking wealth generation, careers and education beyond traditional means. Michele Magro said, “The concept of people becoming professional esports players is a good idea. Some make a huge amount of money from that, but that’s a small percentage of people hoping to become successful esports players. That’s all well and good, but I think everyone needs to have realistic expectations.”
Magro said esports should instead be viewed as a powerful tool for youth empowerment, encouraging engagement in tasks they might otherwise ignore, and said the impact would be reflected in teamwork, practice, dedication and skill acquisition applied in any area of their chosen career paths. The language of empowerment sits alongside the reality that only a small percentage make huge amounts of money, leaving the rest to chase opportunity in a system still defined by scarcity.
On esports education, Mags Byrne said universities must be active participants in the ecosystem. Byrne said, “Estars has partnered with The Open University (UK) to provide CPD (Continuing Professional Development) courses for lecturers to enable them to teach the skills and teach more about esports.” That partnership shows how institutional knowledge gets packaged and delivered through formal channels, with universities and outside partners shaping what counts as legitimate skill.
The article concluded that the consensus among the AGE panellists points to a future where esports transcends the screen, and that while infrastructure and monetisation remain significant hurdles, the shift toward structured education and government recognition marks a turning point for the continent. It said Nigeria and its African counterparts are positioning themselves to transform a passion for gaming into a robust engine for economic and social mobility.