Eniola Edun created Gamr to support Nigeria’s gaming community with better tools, training, and spaces for esports.
Eniola Edun is a visionary business leader and technology advocate with a decade of success. She is renowned for identifying opportunities and championing the advancement of robotics and AI to unlock Africa’s next generation of tech innovators.
Her passion for gaming and technology was cultivated as General Manager at TechPlus Nigeria, where she led one of Africa’s most significant tech events. This experience exposed her to the tech-savvy youth population and the untapped potential within the African gaming ecosystem.
Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting lockdowns in 2020 accelerated the shift toward online gaming, highlighting a gap in software solutions to manage tournaments suited to the local market. This gap prompted the creation of Gamr, a platform designed to streamline the organisation and tracking of esports competitions.
Eniola Edun co-founded Gamr in 2021 to address Africa’s lack of professional infrastructure for esports and gaming communities, particularly in Nigeria. Alongside co-founders Seyi Fakoya and Kunmi Adenipebi, Edun had previously organised esports tournaments for five years under a tech conference platform called Techplus.
Gamr was built to serve gamers, creatives, and communities by offering a more accessible and structured approach to competitive gaming. One of its notable initiatives is GamrLab, a video game development and esports training facility launched in partnership with the University of Lagos (UNILAG), the French Embassy, and various technology companies.
Located at UNILAG, GamrLab aims to train thousands of young Nigerians in game development, design, and esports-related skills, equipping participants for careers in the digital entertainment industry.
Gamr Africa has rapidly grown into the continent’s leading esports platform. It has organised over 130 tournaments across multiple African countries and built a community of over 65,000 gamers. One of its flagship events, GamrX, is a Pan-African programming tournament featuring competitors from ten countries, attracting thousands of attendees and viewers across 62 countries via live broadcasts.
Eniola Edun has identified several persistent challenges within Nigeria’s gaming ecosystem, including public misconceptions that conflate gaming with betting, limited government support, and a general lack of awareness regarding the sector’s economic potential. She has called for greater federal funding, infrastructure, and education involvement.
According to industry data, Nigeria possesses the third-largest gaming market share in Africa, with an estimated £180 million raised in recent years through partnerships and community-led efforts.
Beyond gaming, Edun also co-founded Awarri, an AI and robotics startup with Silas Adekunle. Awarri focuses on democratising access to artificial intelligence and robotics education in Africa.
It develops innovative tools like MekaMon, a gaming robot that combines robotics with augmented reality to teach coding and computer science in Nigerian schools. Awarri is also pioneering Nigeria’s first multilingual Large Language Model (LLM), incorporating five indigenous Nigerian languages alongside accented English.
Through initiatives focused on education, infrastructure, and community engagement, Eniola Edun and her team are contributing to developing Nigeria’s presence in the global gaming ecosystem.
