MTN Ghana has held its maiden “Gaming Conference” to share ideas and knowledge on how to use the gaming industry to boost economic development on the continent. The conference provided a platform for stakeholders in the industry including programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals and business decision-makers to exchange ideas in the development of interactive games and experiences to shape the future of the industry in Ghana. Mr Noel Kojo Ganson, the Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Ghana, in an introductory remark, said gaming was one of the fastest growing segments in the global media and entertainment industry. However, he said, video gaming possibilities were not limited to recreational aspects but also employs a significant number of people. According to the latest report by Newzoo, gaming generated more than €100 billion worldwide in 2018. He said promoting electronic games would help people to achieve a work life balance and good health. Mr Ganson said it was the hope of MTN that the conference would help to champion profitable ideas on the arts and science of video games and as well bring out valuable insights to make a significant improvement on the gaming industry. Mr Eric Elder, the Chief Executive Officer of Empire Arcadia Esports Team, explaining the process of developing a game as the keynote speaker, said there was the pre-production stage where brainstorming is done to generate an idea and game designed. The other stage, ‘production’ was when the processes of developing a game starts while the ‘post production’ stage is when there was a re-design of a game as well as the development of a manual strategy for the game, he explained. He called on Africa to make a tremendous focus on the gaming market as it could help it to generate huge sums of revenue to boost socio-economic development. Mr Elder said Brazil had formed the Brazilian Association for Games (Abragames), big festivals to bring together innovation and communities and local game developers to develop the industry, which was a good effort. The current trend in the gaming industry, he said, included free-to-play, multiplayer, user generated content Minecraft and roblox, battle royale and e-sports. He mentioned mobile device maturity and cost, internet access and cost, fragmented market, and building brand trust and loyalty as some of the challenges game developers faced and called on the continent to work to overcome that. He disclosed that mobile internet users would massively increase and mobile phone users would double in the next five years. Mr Elder advised game developers to work together as a team if they wanted to progress and achieve their vision. Mr Triforce Johnson, the Chief Executive Officer of Empire Arcadia Esports Team, said technology was Africa’s future, therefore, all stakeholders of the video gaming industry should join forces to help to take the continent to the next level. “Africa is the land of opportunities and the future of the world, therefore it doesn’t need the world to progress if it takes advantage of technology,” he said.