PlayStation Makes for Good Business in Sierra Leone
Olusegun Abolaji Ogundeji , IDG News Service
For Emmanuel Bangura, owner of a video game center on Kissy Road in the eastern part of Freetown, the PlayStation is a good business because it generates up to 120,000 leones (US$40) or more for him in a day.
"I have even bought a car out of this business," he said.
In Sierra Leone, where workers have an average annual income of about $240, making $40 in a day is lucrative. Bangura started the center last year.
Across Freetown, the nation's capital city of about a million people, it is estimated that there are over 800 PlayStation centers, usually filled with young people who want to play the latest virtual football game or adventure titles like "The Matrix."
Though more than half of Sierra Leone's population is under the age of 30, another owner of a video game center, Abdulai Bah, said the games are not only played by school children but office workers, who visit mostly during weekends.
He said some gamers play for three hours while others pay up to 20,000 ($6.70) to play for the whole day. It costs 1,000 leones ($0.33) to play a round of the game. A video game console can run on 10 liters of fuel in a generator for a day if there is a cut in power supply from the national grid. Bah added that some players even take bets on their gaming prowess.
Ibrahim Kargbo, a student from the Albert Academy School, said his love for the game is extreme and he cannot study well if he skips even a day.
Game players love the animation so much that they consider playing video games to be on par with watching their favorite English Premier League, Seria A and La Liga players.
The PlayStation console is the featured console in the centers. Other game consoles are available, but the PS2 is the most popular in the commercial gaming centers, which focus on easy-to-understand, two player games. Screens project the action for players, who range from eight to 30 years of age.
The handheld version of PlayStation, the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which operates with Universal Media Discs (UMDs), is also creeping into the market. Lamin Bangura, a young player, said the PSP is not as common as the console version and most people who own PSPs in Freetown have received them as gifts from loved ones abroad. A used UMD with a movie on it goes for 30,000 leones on the streets, and is yet to be stocked by games accessory dealers.
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