Kenya: First iGaming AFRIKA Summit Opens in Nairobi
The inaugural summit brought together operators, regulators, and investors to address the opportunities and governance challenges shaping Africa’s fast-growing gaming sector.
Key points
- The inaugural iGaming AFRIKA Summit opened on 4 May 2026 at the Sarit Expo, Nairobi
- Kenya’s Gambling Regulatory Authority set the tone with a call for regulation as a growth enabler
- Panellists highlighted regulatory fragmentation as both the industry’s biggest challenge and its biggest opportunity
The inaugural iGaming AFRIKA Summit (IGA Summit 2026) opened on 4 May at the Sarit Expo in Nairobi, marking the first major convergence of gaming operators, regulators, technology innovators, and investors focused on East and Central Africa. The three-day event runs through 6 May.
The summit’s opening day combined keynote addresses, panel discussions, and exhibition showcases centred on three themes: sustainable growth, regulatory harmonisation, and the digital transformation of gaming across the continent.
A Market Coming of Age
Jeremiah Maangi, CEO of iGaming AFRIKA, opened proceedings by framing Africa’s gaming sector as a market that has moved well beyond its frontier stage. « The infrastructure is maturing, the talent is here, and the appetite from both operators and players has never been greater, » he said. « The IGA Summit exists to ensure that growth is structured, inclusive, and lasting. »
Maangi pointed to the convergence of mobile penetration, a young population, and rising disposable incomes as a generational window of opportunity for operators and investors willing to commit to the African market.
Regulation as the Foundation
The summit’s keynote address was delivered by Peter Karimi, Director General of Kenya’s Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), who made a forceful case for smart regulation as a driver of industry growth–not a brake.
« Effective regulation is not the enemy of growth. It is the foundation upon which sustainable growth is built, » Karimi said. « Our mandate at the GRA is to create a framework that protects players, attracts legitimate operators, and ensures that the benefits of this industry are felt across Kenya’s economy. »
Karimi highlighted Kenya’s ongoing transition from the Betting Control and Licensing Board to the GRA under the Gambling Control Act as an opportunity to rebuild the country’s regulatory framework from the ground up, with player safety at its centre. He called on regional regulators to work toward harmonised policies that reduce compliance friction for pan-African operators without compromising consumer protection.
The Cost of Fragmentation
Panel discussions on Day 1 surfaced the tensions between national fiscal interests and the competitive need to attract foreign direct investment–a dynamic playing out across markets at different stages of regulatory maturity.
Denis Mudene Ngabirano, CEO of Uganda’s National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board, put it plainly: « Every country that gets its regulatory and tax framework right becomes a magnet for investment. Those that do not will simply watch that investment–and the revenue it generates–go elsewhere. »
The panel also addressed taxation, with Joseph Kirui Limo, Chairperson of the GRA, warning that punitive or unpredictable tax structures risk pushing operators underground. « We must work together–regulators, operators, and governments–to design tax frameworks that are competitive, transparent, and that incentivise compliance over evasion, » he said.
The Kenya Revenue Authority reported collecting KSh 31 billion (approximately $240 million) from the betting and gaming sector in the 2024/25 financial year alone–a figure that underscored both the scale of the opportunity and the stakes of getting policy right.
