Liquid Telecom Steps in to drive the rise of E-Sport in Kenya and Africa

Liquid Telecom Kenya is delivering free ‘gamer-quality’ internet connection for the Pro Series Gaming tournament in Nairobi on April 7th, which is offering East Africa’s largest gaming prizes yet of $10,000.

The move forms part of Liquid Telecom’s five-year initiative to boost Africa’s gaming industry, under which the group is running and supporting launch pads, forums and training sessions continent-wide for game developers.

Last week, Liquid Telecom Kenya also provided free 250Mbps internet to support gaming and streaming from the East Africa Gaming Convention (EAGC), where a host of new African games were launched.

“Gaming is emerging as an industry in Kenya and East Africa, now delivering growth of 25% a year or more, with African games and gamers moving into the global arena and the industry delivering globally over $100 billion of sales a year,” said Ben Roberts, Chairman of Liquid Telecom Kenya and Group Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for Liquid Telecom.

In Kenya, last year, gaming sales amounted to Sh2.7bn ($27m), placing the country among the top new gaming nations in Africa, behind the Sh19.3bn ($193m) Egyptian games industry, Sh17.3bn ($173m) Nigerian games industry, and Sh11.8bn ($183m) South African industry. Sudan has, likewise, made it into the region’s fastest growing gaming markets, with gaming sales in 2017 of Sh1.8bn ($18m), according to global research company Statista.

“Liquid Telecom’s journey in gaming began in Uganda, nearly five years ago, when we partnered with local gaming community games nights to provided data center-hosted servers sophisticated enough to support regional gaming across international borders,” said Ben. “But now, the industry is reaching a take-off point in delivering a new generation of talent and games to the global gaming community, which we are working to support.”

Liquid Telecom Kenya’s initiative to support the East Africa Gaming Convention over Easter provided a launch platform for several new PC and mobile games created by Kenyan developers including ‘Recce Squad’ by Scrin Arts, and the role-playing PC game ‘The Orchard’ by Broken Helmet developers.

“Players at the convention were surprised they were playing a game developed in Kenya for the reason that it contained such beautiful graphics and played seamlessly,” said David Kamunyu, The Orchard’s game developer.

Liquid Telecom’s support for the rising E-sports industry is helping to stimulate new jobs in game development. The Africa Game Developers Community was formed earlier this year and has now grown to approximately 30 members in Kenya and more than 80 across Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Zambia, and Ghana.

This developer community, with Liquid Telecom Kenya’s support, accesses free co-working space and internet at Nairobi Garage for their monthly meetups, and also receives sponsorship for workshops and events where they learn and showcase their game applications.

“We are making strides to see how we can build up the talent and make the industry sustainable. We host monthly meetups and help game developers to get access to workshops and experienced global game developers to get onto a revenue earning curve,” said Douglas Ogeto, chairman of the gaming community and Managing Partner at Fuse Catalysts, a Business Advisory firm for early stage technology companies.