Kucheza Gaming continues to upskill and empower young people in schools through video games.
In the frame of French Connexion, the Lagos program of Digital November, the Embassy of France in Nigeria and the Alliance Française de Lagos curate a series of events dedicated to the creative and cultural industries. This year, Kucheze Gaming, a start-up specialized in education through esports and video games and the Embassy of France in Nigeria partnered to offer Computing curriculum workshops to Primary and Secondary schools.
Kucheza Gaming offers the Computing curriculum programme in partnership with Ukie’s Digital Schoolhouse, together with Nintendo UK, and sponsored by PlayStation®, SEGA, Warwickshire County Council, Ubisoft and Outright Games. The programme uses play-based learning to engage students and teachers with the Computing curriculum and unites the digital sector with its future innovators and industry leaders.
Paul Lompech, cooperation officer for the cultural service of the French embassy, explained why he was keen to support the programme with schools. “As part of our digital culture programming for French Connexion, we decided to support creative initiatives, combining education and play. We find it particularly interesting to be able to encourage young people to think about the big issues of digital through their favourite video games. Kucheza Gaming capitalizes on the interests of youth to help them reinterpret their passion. This new gateway is very popular among students from partner schools and we hope that these practices will become more democratised in the future.”
Speaking during the event in schools, the Education & Government Manager Gbenga Folorunsho commented, “The 2-day event was a huge success, we worked with Avi-Cenna International School and the French International School, Louis Pasteur to deliver game-based workshops to primary and secondary students.
As an example, we use a game like Just Dance to teach algorithms. It’s safe to say that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves but more importantly, kids and teens got valuable and practical knowledge and skills that they can implement! We look forward to offering the training to even more teachers and their students over the coming months.”
“For Africa, it’s not just fun and games. Video Games and Esports offer a pathway to economic empowerment and youth development” says Bukola Akingbade, CEO of Kucheza Gaming.
By taking part in these workshops, schools are actively ensuring that their pupils are building the best understanding of computing so that those with a real interest can go on to thrive in the digital sector.
Kucheza continues to drive innovation through some of its other initiatives like the Mobo Game Jam, a global game-making challenge where young innovators (8–18 years) from across the UK and Nigeria compete to create games that combine creativity, compassion, and computational thinking to solve a worldwide problem or its School Esports League where kids and teens play competitively, understand career pathways in esports and learn soft skills like teamwork, leadership, decision making and more.
Interventions like these accelerate access to quality education and equip Nigerian children and youth with tangible skills and new career pathways.
