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Africa is currently experiencing a rather large digital boom that continues to grow throughout the continent as more and more of the population continues to have access to technology such as games consoles and smartphones, especially within countries such as Ghana.

Indeed, the fact that the trend of people becoming more tech-savvy continues to increase and grow, it seems to have had a significant impact on the gaming industry as a whole, with the multi-million dollar sector having seen an adoption of digital currencies and blockchain technology, too.

2022 has seen smartphones become the primary platform in which gamers are now accessing their favorite games rather than using more traditional platforms such as game consoles or personal computers that many would have only been able to access whilst at a cafe.

With the accessibility that these handheld and portable gadgets provide users, it has seen the number of gamers based in Africa increased by more than double over the last five years, whilst the industry has experienced a huge amount of growth overall.

Developers begin to look at blockchain-based games

Developers within Africa have decided to start to look to implement new innovations to the games that they provide, which includes allowing players to use cryptocurrency and blockchain technology when they play. Indeed, this has come about due to the continued rise in the number of tech-savvy people within the continent and will potentially allow players to profit from the boom financially.

Despite the fact that many in Ghana are already playing at a crypto gambling websites where they are able to play various casino games with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are available due to the passion that they have for gambling, the model that has been created by developers will allow players to earn money, although they will not be able to cash-out the earnings in the same way.

Any earnings made from playing the blockchain games will be directed towards long-term saving investments including pension funds, health, and education insurance, thus looking to try and highlight how important it is for Ghanaians to save and build financial resilience.

Ghana boasts a big gaming community

When taking a look at the 2021 study that was commissioned by games analytics company Newzoo and Carry 1st - a South African gaming platform - it is clear that Ghana is a country where gaming is incredibly popular.

According to the research, the West African nation has 27% of its country’s population playing games, thus ranking it second in the list behind just South Africa, which has 40% of its population playing. Ghana is slightly ahead of countries such as Nigeria (23%), Kenya (22%), and Ethiopia (13%), respectively.

The study also found that the majority of the playing population were mobile gamers, with 95% found to be using smartphones as an increase in digitalization having been highlighted as one of the main drivers.

Crypto gaming is on the rise

With the adoption of cryptocurrency within Africa already extremely high, it is clear many are already using virtual currency to enhance their gaming experiences, with it having been extremely popular with millennials (aged between 21-38 years old).

According to research by Newswagg, 38% of 41.9 million gamers own crypto around the world whilst Africa - along with the Middle East - accounts for 5.9 million of those gamers.

Ghana certainly look as though they could look to implement regulations for digital currency in the future, with the African nation still conducting research on the possibility, alongside Tunisia and Morocco, as well as a few other countries whilst Nigeria has already launched the e-Naira as Africa’s first Central Bank-backed digital currency whilst South Africa is in the piloting stage of its Dunbar project that will support cross border payments with Mauritius.