Bestman Games Ltd is a leading African games company and is the distributor of customised Hasbro games, including the world famous Monopoly board-game, for 48 African countries.
The City of Lagos Monopoly, the first African city edition of Monopoly, was launched in December 2012. Subsequently, a Nigeria Centenary edition, a Cross River edition, and a Corona School, the first African School edition have been launched. In 2016, a stunning Accra edition was launched. This was the first edition outside Nigeria, and Monopoly editions for other great African cities are planned.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bestman Games, Nimi Akinkugbe. is now focused on rolling out Monopoly and other Hasbro games, such as Trivial Pursuit, Risk, Scattergories etc, across Africa. This is a wonderful opportunity to educate, empower and entertain through games.
During her career in private banking and wealth management, Nimi has witnessed first hand some of the choices people make with their money and their lives, and the way they raise their children, which keeps them dependent. She saw that most money mistakes are made because of a lack of financial knowledge, and began to contribute articles in leading publications to simplify the basic concepts of financial management.
There is no personal finance instruction in the Nigerian school curriculum and without any knowledge of the basic principles of personal finance, young people step out into the world with little understanding for how to manage their money. This often leads to dire consequences in later life with a never-ending cycle of debt.
Under the auspices of the “Money Matters with Nimi” brand and through articles, speaking engagements, television, radio appearances, social media, and the Monopoly Board game, Nimi sought to create a greater awareness of personal financial responsibility in a simple and engaging way.
Nimi was in the United Kingdom when Harrow School unveiled its own customised version of Monopoly, and she immediately embraced the idea of creating an all-encompassing personal finance board game, that presents money matters in a simple, practical and engaging way. If individuals are financially responsible, this leads to economic empowerment of the family, communities and ultimately, countries.
Nimi saw a wonderful opportunity to achieve her objectives by customising the world famous Monopoly game and brand, owned by Hasbro, for Nigeria. She was introduced to “Winning Moves”, licensed by Hasbro to develop customised editions of Monopoly in Europe, The Middle East and Africa, and established a relationship between Bestman Games and Winning Moves. Bestman Games was then granted exclusive distribution rights to create customised editions for Hasbro games for 48 African countries.
Bestman games are now played everywhere in Lagos, improving financial skills of youth. The game has been taken into primary and secondary schools, university campuses and the National Youth Service Orientation Camp.
In 2016, Lagos State Government adopted the Monopoly Board Game as an Official Sport in the state. It joined iconic games including Chess and Scrabble as a Championship sport, and the first U17 Monopoly Championship has been held, in which 1,200 children from 100 Lagos schools competed; winners were presented with Educational Grants.