Hugo Obi: Africa Missing Multi-Billion Dollar Gaming Opportunity
The founder of Malio Games has issued a wake-up call to Africa’s creative sector, highlighting the continent’s near-total absence from the video gaming industry despite games being larger than film and music combined globally.
Speaking at NECLive 2025, Hugo Obi emphasized that African children with smartphone access are already deeply engaged with gaming content, yet Africa produces virtually none of it. “If you imagine every child under the age of 11 whose parent has access to a smartphone, there’s one thing we can all agree they are doing—playing games. When they’re not playing games, they’re watching games on streaming platforms like YouTube,” he stated.
Obi, whose mobile games development studio focuses on telling African stories through interactive entertainment, argued that while African culture dominates airwaves through film, music, fashion, and art, the gaming industry represents a critical blind spot. The industry reaches billions of players worldwide, yet African participation remains minimal.
The gaming entrepreneur positioned mobile gaming as the most accessible channel for African storytelling due to widespread smartphone penetration across the continent. However, he expressed concern that the massive existing audience consuming gaming content is not being served by local producers, resulting in a significant missed economic and cultural opportunity.
Obi’s call represents a challenge to African creators, investors, and policymakers to recognize gaming as a legitimate and lucrative creative channel deserving of the same attention and resources currently directed toward more traditional creative industries.
