21 Sep 2026

 Botswana has endorsed Nigeria’s proposal to elevate the Gaming Regulators Africa Forum (GRAF) into a formal Pan-African Council of Gaming Regulators (PACoGR), as a major push toward continental regulatory unity.

The announcement coincided with the 17th Annual GRAF Conference, held last week from September 14 to 17 under the theme: Regulating For Transformation, where Gambling Authority chief executive officer, Mr Moruntshi Kemorwale outlined a bold vision for the regulator of the future.

In an interview following the high-level gathering at the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Centre, Mr Kemorwale underscored Botswana’s growing leadership role in cross-border cooperation. 

He emphasised that effective oversight must prioritise player protection, advanced technological capability and a united front against illegal operators.

He said Botswana, a founding-era member of GRAF and host of its 14th conference in Gaborone in 2023, supported transforming the voluntary forum, established in 2003, into a statutory body. 

He added that the Nigerian-led initiative, driven by the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority under CEO Mr Bashir Are and the Federation of State Gaming Regulators of Nigeria, aimed to establish harmonised standards on licensing, consumer protection, anti-money laundering and responsible gaming.

Mr Kemorwale also noted that the shift was vital amid the rapid growth of mobile and online gambling across Africa. 

He indicated that a formal PACoGR would give the continent a single and authoritative voice against offshore and illegal operators, building on milestones such as Africa Safer Gambling Week. 

The proposal is expected to be tabled for formal adoption at GRAF’s next annual general meeting in December.

Addressing delegates in Maputo, Mr Kemorwale was of the view that the traditional compliance-only model was obsolete. 

He said with more than 90 per cent of gambling activity now online, a mobile-first youthful demographic and an explosion of digital products, regulators must redefine success.

“The regulator of the future should be customer-focused. Our primary mandate is no longer just to regulate the industry, but to regulate for the people who use the industry. If we lose sight of the customer, we lose the legitimacy of regulation itself,” he said.

His vision rests on three interconnected pillars. First, he said regulators must pursue protection by design and embed player safeguards into licensing conditions, product approval and advertising standards from the outset rather than reacting after harm occurs. 

Second, he said they must deliver frictionless interaction by adopting the service standards of the digital industries they regulated through digital licensing portals, real-time operator dashboards and accessible self-help tools. 

Finally, he said they needed a shared language of trust, communicating rules on odds, payout times, self-exclusion and dispute resolution in plain language to build public confidence and draw players away from the unregulated market.

Mr Kemorwale also called for a decisive shift from anecdote-based to data-led regulation, arguing that technology was the sector’s most powerful ally.

“Every bet, every deposit, every session leaves a digital footprint. As regulators, we must have the capability to see patterns of vulnerability long before the player themselves realises they have a problem,” he added.

He proposed a continent-wide move towards centralised monitoring systems, modelled on frameworks like Uganda’s National Central Electronic Monitoring System, to give authorities anonymised and real-time visibility into player behaviour. 

Under the RegTech approach, he said AI-driven risk flags could identify markers of harm such as chasing losses or prolonged sessions, automatically triggering affordability checks or referrals to national responsible gambling programmes.

“The question is not whether technology will disrupt gambling regulation. It already has. The question is whether we will use that same technology to protect the most vulnerable,” he said.

As African regulators wrapped up discussions on cross-border enforcement and consumer standards, the emerging consensus pointed towards a unified and player-centred guardianship capable of matching the speed and scale of the digital market. 

The GRAF conference ended last Friday, with the formal PACoGR proposal now on the continental agenda for this year. ENDS