Despite the global creative industry’s impressive growth and the financial opportunities it has unlocked for creators on digital platforms, African creators remain significantly underrepresented in the financial returns. As of March 2024, the global creative economy is valued at $156.37 billion, yet Africa contributes less than 3%  as opposed to North America, which commands the largest share with 40% of the market.

The creator economy is a large ecosystem of social media influencers, writers, videographers, gamers, podcasters, skit makers, and others, all leveraging digital platforms to grow their audiences and monetise their content. With over 207 million content creators worldwide — 54% of whom are Millennials and Gen Z — Africa, boasting the youngest population globally, should ideally be a significant player in this economy. However, restrictive policies from major platforms like TikTok have skewed the playing field.

A prime example is the TikTok Creator Fund, a monetisation scheme that has been inaccessible to African creators for years, forcing them to rely on less reliable revenue streams. This inequity has persisted for some time, but the Kenyan government is now taking decisive action by engaging in discussions with TikTok to ensure that creators in Kenya can access the feature.

Mary Kerema, Secretary of ICT and Digital Economy at Kenya’s Ministry of Information, highlighted this initiative at the launch of TikTok’s inaugural Safety Advisory Council for Sub-Saharan Africa in Nairobi.

“It is in the government’s interest to ensure that people can earn where they spend most of their time, and young people are spending a lot of time online,” she said.

“Kenya has been very deliberate in creating jobs using digital platforms. We have endeavoured to collaborate with social media platform owners to see how they can introduce monetisation to creators in our country. We believe that this will also direct the energies of the young people in the right direction.’’

Mary informed Technext after the event that the Kenyan government’s engagement with TikTok would commence immediately, with hopes of announcing an inclusive monetisation update within the next two or three months.

“We are going to have a meeting sometime next week to discuss this further. The sooner, the better. If we can announce the monetisation update in the next two or three months, that will be ideal,” she stated.

Kenya’s initiative to level the playing field for its creators is a long-overdue move, one that could inspire other African nations to take similar steps.