African Gaming League aims to jumpstart esports in Nigeria

Africa hasn’t participated in the global game economy much, but some entrepreneurs in Nigeria want to change that by diving into esports. Amaete Umanah and his cofounders have launched the African Gaming League, which held is first tournament in four cities across Nigeria in August.

Umanah said in an interview that it is a long-held dream of his to create a game company in Africa that takes advantage of the fact that there are lots of players on the continent, which has largely been ignored by the big game companies. But the company hopes to ride the global enthusiasm for esports, which is on pace to generate $493 million in 2016, according to a report from intelligence firm Newzoo. That’s up more than 51.7 percent from 2015, and it is also a 7 percent increase from the projection that Newzoo made to kick off 2016.