In this interview with Inside Gaming Africa’s Mickaella at the ICE London 2022, the Chief Executive Officer of Lagos State Lotteries, Bashir Are covers the challenges that companies face when they enter African market.
Lagos State Lottery and Gaming Authority is aimed to regulate the lottery and gaming activities by leveraging on modern technological innovation and global best practices, thus, making Lagos State the hub for all gaming activities in Africa.
Mickaella: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Inside Gaming Africa. Here we’re with Mr. Bashir. Can you please tell us about the Nigerian gaming market?
Bashir Are: Nigeria gaming market actually the way it is 2nd largest in Africa and with a population of Nigeria, especially Lagos state, the youth population, the interest in sports that is driving the market.
Mickaella: So, what are the challenges that you’ve been facing with the Nigerian gaming markets?
Bashir Are: One of the challenges is, most of the international operators, they are not conversant with the Nigerian market or the West African market. So, there are some of them that are out there now and they’re doing very, very well. Companies like Betway, one expert, and some other notable one, Betking. So, they’re doing very well, so that we have some that wants to come in to. So, one of the reasons why we’re here is to expose our market to the world, and to also assist in ways to understand the regulations on how to obtain license, the banking and financial issues and stuff like that. So, we’re here to give them those information.
Mickaella: Oh, that’s really good. That’s amazing. How would you encourage more operators to join the Nigerian market?
Bashir Are: Everybody knows Africa is the new frontier, economically. You look at the whole population of Africa and the youth population, even Lagos state now as a technology hub of Africa. If you look at so many companies coming out of Africa in terms of payment cryptocurrency software development, Lagos State is the hub for anyone that want to invest in Lagos, Nigeria, Lagos State is the first time so that’s why we came with this book so that they can have adequate information to make an informed decision.
Mickaella: As you can see, the book is here. So, if you’d like to contact, so please do contact him and thank you for watching.