• AB Con returns to Abuja on 27 and 28 November for its 10th anniversary. The African Boardgames Convention says the two-day programme will include tournaments, game demonstrations, prototype playtesting, workshops and a marketplace.
• Its live Kickstarter has a US$14,000 base goal and a 10 September deadline. The campaign is all-or-nothing, meaning it must meet the base target by the deadline to be funded.
• A Designers Grant is proposed at the US$20,000 stretch goal. It would offer financial support and mentorship to promising African tabletop designers, but it does not yet exist.
AB Con’s new crowdfunding campaign is not only asking people to help pay for a convention. It is asking whether Nigeria’s small but stubborn board-game scene can afford a route from a designer’s first prototype to a wider audience.
A tabletop game begins in an unglamorous place: a table, a rough deck of cards, a rule that does not work yet and friends willing to try it again. That is the part AB Con wants to put money behind as it prepares for its 10th anniversary in Abuja.
The African Boardgames Convention is scheduled for 27 and 28 November. Its live Kickstarter campaign is seeking US$14,000 to deliver the event, and is due to end on 10 September. The campaign is all-or-nothing: it must hit its base target before the deadline for the project to be funded.
The $20,000 line
The headline figure is not the base goal. It is the line after it.
AB Con’s campaign says US$20,000 would unlock an AB Con Designers Grant, designed to give promising African tabletop game designers financial support and mentorship. The convention’s own 2026 announcement lists the grant among the stretch goals, alongside a kids’ gaming competition, an impact award and the prospect of expanding the event to three days.
That distinction matters. The grant is a proposal, not a pot of money designers can apply to today. But it points at the part of the industry that is usually hardest to see from the outside: turning a playable idea into something another person can discover, understand and buy.
A game needs more than a good idea
Nigerian board-game designers are not short of stories to use. What they often need is room to test them, people who can give useful feedback, production money and access to publishers or customers outside their immediate circle.
That is why AB Con has built its programme around more than casual play. Organisers say this year’s edition will include prototype playtesting, industry discussions, workshops, networking and a marketplace, beside the demonstrations and tournaments that make the event feel like a weekend out.
BoardGameWire’s recent reporting puts the problem plainly: visibility, access, finance and market access remain barriers for African designers trying to carry a game beyond a local table. Its report says a US$20,000 total would trigger the proposed grant, with support intended to help designers develop prototypes and show their games at future editions.
Abuja is the meeting point
AB Con started in 2016 through NIBCARD Games, the Nigerian studio behind the convention. The studio says it has designed more than 70 original tabletop games since its founding in 2013; that is the company’s own account, but it captures the scale of work one local gaming business can build when it keeps putting games in front of people.
In November, the convention plans to gather designers, publishers, educators, manufacturers, retailers, students and families in Abuja. For a player, that can mean a new game and a good afternoon. For a designer, it can mean a first serious test of whether the rules make sense outside their own friend group.
That local, physical meeting is what makes AB Con different from the high-profile global showcase in Nigeria’s Gamescom conversation. Cologne is about visibility abroad. Abuja is about whether a domestic ecosystem can keep making games worth taking abroad.
Gaming is not only a screen
It is easy to discuss Nigerian gaming through mobile downloads, esports and global publishers. Board games make the industry feel more immediate: a deck, a board, a room, a creator explaining the rules and people deciding whether they want another round.
That is also why the proposed grant is worth watching. It is not a rescue plan for every game designer. It is a test of whether a convention can become a small piece of infrastructure for the people who are still building the category.
By November, AB Con will either be a two-day anniversary event with a funded base programme, or the campaign will have reached far enough to make a different promise to African designers. The gap between those two outcomes is US$6,000—and the kind of support a prototype rarely gets by itself.
Also read: Nigeria is going to Gamescom. What should success in Cologne look like?
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Would you back a Nigerian board-game designer, or would you rather see the games first? Tell us what would make you pull up a chair.
