Gaming growth has hit a slump, but not in Africa.

From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty Carino. Africa is one of the world's fastest growing video game markets.

It's bucking a global slowdown in sales and usage

that has led to layoffs across the industry.

The number of gamers in sub-Saharan Africa has more than doubled in recent years, largely on

mobile, but the lack of access to credit cards could be a limiting factor. Now, as the BBC's Mo Alley reports some FinTech

companies are jumping in to bridge the gap.

The Dutch research company New Zoo predicts Africa's gaming industry will generate more than a billion dollars for the first time ever this year.

Much of the growth, which is being led by Nigeria and South Africa

is down to the continent's young population,

increased internet access and cheaper smartphones.

But paying for subscriptions and making in-game purchases remain a challenge.

Lucy Hoffman is co-founder and chief operating officer of Carrie First,

a Cape Town-based video games publisher.

Credit card penetration in Africa is only 2.7%.

And so a lot of the traditional platforms,

like Google Play or Apple, on credit cards and therefore a lot of our players just can't buy the content they want.

Big focus for us has been sort of bridging the gap.

Hoffman says her company has already made inroads into finding payment solutions for gamers across Africa, like Pay First.

Essentially we integrate with payment methods that are available in Nigeria.

That may be O pay, which is a wallet, it may be bank transfer,

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