Four Nigerian Studios Win Google Play's Africa Games Fund

Nigerian game developers have taken four of the ten places in Google Play's first Indie Games Fund for Africa. Google named the 2026 cohort on 28 October: four studios from Nigeria, four from South Africa, and one each from Ghana and Kenya.

The fund, which Google opened for applications in July, puts $1 million into indie studios across Sub-Saharan Africa. Individual awards range from $50,000 to $200,000, roughly ₦67 million to ₦270 million at the official rate. The money is non-dilutive, so the studios give up no equity.

The Nigerian studios

• Maliyo Games, the Lagos studio founded in 2012, for Safari City, a match-3 puzzle game in which players restore a rundown town.
• Fer Factor, also in Lagos, for Chore Master, a cosy game about cleaning chaotic rooms.
• Deluxe Entertainment Studios for Rasta Santa, a 2D platformer set in Lagos in which an undercover cop dressed as Santa rescues children from traffickers.
• Gazuntype Entertainment, the studio of developer Tade Ajiboye, for Go North, a story-driven maze adventure.

The rest of the cohort is Clockwork Acorn, Disputed People, Studio Bo and Vetkoek Studios from South Africa, Ghana's Leti Games and Kenya's Weza Interactive, according to Google.

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What comes with the money

Besides the cash, Google says each studio gets one-to-one mentorship from Google Play specialists, commercial and growth support, and technical help from Unity, the game engine. In return, selected studios must publish on Google Play and join Google Play Pass, the subscription catalogue, on a non-exclusive basis for two years, Pocket Gamer reports.

Google pitches the fund as a fix for a funding gap: early capital is hard for African game studios to raise, and global distribution is harder. For Nigerian developers it lands at a moment of visible demand at home. The Condia notes that Lagos Run, a browser game about driving a danfo, went viral in September, and Lagos Life, a browser simulation of life in the city, has reportedly passed one million players since early October.