EAG looks to change preception of esports in Ghana

Esports has been on the rise in the West African nation of Ghana over the years, and with FIFA’s inclusion of the nation at the 2022 FIFAe Nations Series and the country’s participation at the upcoming 2022 Commonwealth Esports Championships (CEC) all but confirmed, things can only go up for the emerging esports nation.

This has been thanks to the hard work and dedication of the esports fraternity in the country who are always pushing themselves to reach the highest level of the sport. However, one thing that seems to be slightly overlooked is the education of the Ghanaian populace as to what esports is all about.

This has led to a weird perception in the country that the emerging sport is nothing more than gambling and “sakawa” (which is a Ghanaian term for fraud). However, this is a perception the Esports Association, Ghana (EAG) is looking to change in the coming months.

President of the EAG, Kwesi Hayford addressed the perception stating that “Gaming as in the competitive play of video games is totally different from gaming as in betting or gambling [and is] totally opposite [to] internet fraud.”

“The end result of any competitive experience can be used for betting or gambling…just like football, golf, tennis, racing, formula 1 or any other sport but that professional sport and skill set plus the value chain in itself is not gambling or betting, so is esports.”

People can bet on the outcome of esports but that doesn’t make the entire ecosystem gambling

EAG President Kwesi Hayford

Hayford also spoke about the EAG’s struggles to get esports recognised as a sport in the nation due to the false perception stating.

“Many years ago, I have forgotten the exact year. Together with my good friend Aaron Boateng, CEO of PlayBox, one of the founders of [the] Esports Association, we went to see one of the directors of the Ghana Sports Council at the time, at their office at the Accra Sports Stadium.”

“We got there early, we were ushered into the reception and waited for about 15 minutes, our names were taken and our mission asked, we told the receptionist and waited for a while, we [then] went into the director’s office and we exchanged pleasantries before starting our presentation.”

“Midway the director stopped us and asked…Isn’t this Sakawa? Are these young boys not fraud boys or internet crime boys? We quickly had to go back to the basics and start educating rather than presenting.”