MTN Ghana Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Blewett, has described gaming as a major future opportunity for Africa, urging greater investment in local game development, digital skills and connectivity to enable young people to create jobs and generate income from the industry.
Speaking during an interview session at the MTN DigiFest 2026 Gaming Conference in Accra, Mr Blewett said the conference was aimed at bringing together gamers from Ghana, Africa and beyond to explore how the continent could develop and own its gaming industry.
He said MTN Ghana wanted gaming to become more contextual to African environments while creating opportunities for local developers to build games that could generate employment and income.
“Gaming is the big future for Africa,” Mr Blewett said, emphasising that the continent was still at the early stages of what could become a significant industry.
He said one of the key challenges facing local game developers was access to markets after developing their products.
According to him, MTN’s strength was its customer base, which could provide developers with access to millions of potential users.
“People develop, they have great games, but where do you sell it? How do you get it? And that’s what MTN provides,” he said.
Mr Blewett said MTN Ghana had about 31 million customers and could help developers reach users with their games.
5G investment
He said MTN Ghana’s investment in its network would also support the growth of gaming, particularly as gamers require mobile connectivity with low latency.
He disclosed that the company had concluded the process for its 5G licence through the regulator, with the licence costing more than US$200 million.
He added that MTN Ghana was also rolling out 500 additional sites as part of its continued investment in network infrastructure and access.
Mr Blewett said the company’s investment in gaming was therefore closely linked to providing the connectivity and platforms needed for developers and users to participate in the industry.
Gaming as education and entertainment
The CEO also highlighted the potential of gaming beyond entertainment, saying it could be used as a tool for education and interactive learning.
He noted that younger people increasingly learnt through experience and that games could make learning more interactive.
“If I say to a young person today, read this on what is happening with the environment, they’re like, I’m not reading that book. You give them a game, by the end of it, they would have learned more about what’s happening in the environment through gamification,” he said.
He also pointed to the growth of e-sports and multiplayer games, noting that gaming had developed into a serious sporting and income-generating activity.
According to him, multiplayer gaming could also encourage communication among young people, while gamification could support learning and engagement.
Gaming identified as MTN’s biggest digital growth area
Mr Blewett said gaming had already become MTN’s biggest growth area from its digital strategy perspective.
“Already, gaming is our biggest growth area. Year on year, gaming is the biggest for MTN from a digital strategy,” he said.
He said the company’s long-term strategy was to develop gaming into a key component of its digital offerings.
He further noted that artificial intelligence could create additional opportunities for game developers by assisting with game development and enabling more games to be produced.
He said there was still significant potential in the application of AI to gaming, describing the industry as being at an early stage of that development.
