A new association targeting women working in the iGaming industry has been launched amid calls for collaboration with other similar regional bodies with an aim to mentor, support female leaders and workers in the fast-rising male-dominated sector.
The Women in Gaming Association East Africa (WIG-EA) was launched on the sidelines of the inaugural iGaming Afrika Summit which concluded on Wednesday May 6.
It will bring together women from East Africa who work for sports betting operators, sector regulators, game suppliers and casinos among other related businesses serving the industry.
“Our aim is to support, conduct mentorship programmes, provide networking platforms and create a sisterhood that will support various career goals and aspirations within this industry,” said the association’s chairperson Emily Asava.
The launch event was attended by women across Africa among them Women in Gaming Nigeria founders Olabimpe Akingba and Olafadeke Akenju as well as Women in Gaming Africa’s Lois Bright.
“At WiNG, we are proud to see this movement expanding across Africa,” said Akingba. “When women come together intentionally, industries change, policies improve, businesses grow stronger and futures are transformed,”
The launch was also backed by local chief executives including Association of Gaming Operators’ John Mutua and iGaming Afrika’s Jeremiah Maangi who pledged an initial support of Ksh50,000 towards building a WIGA-EA brand identity.
“We need this. Not as a gesture, not as a diversity footnote in an annual report. We need Women in Gaming East Africa because our industry has a talent problem – and the talent is in this room, underutilised, underpromoted and frankly underestimated for far too long,” noted Mutua.
He added that AGOK’s support for the association was not a charity move but rather a strategy. “Diverse leadership teams make fewer blind-spot errors,” he said.
The new association will be governed by a board which includes Emily Asava from SA Gaming, Cynthia Onyango (Board Secretary AGOK) Lola Okulo (an industry PR consultant), betPawa’s Head of local markets and CSR in Africa Borah Omary, Rwanda’s Aimee Cyuzuzo from ChopLife Gaming, AGOK’s Maureen Onyango and seasoned business development manager Mary Macharia.
