Kenyan government to engage TikTok on introducing direct monetisation for content creators soon

The Kenyan government is engaging short-form video content platform, TikTok to ensure that content creators from the country have access to its monetisation offerings. According to Ms Mary Kerema, Secretary of ICT, e-Government and Digital Economy at the Kenyan Ministry of Information, this is part of the government’s drive to ensure gainful employment for its youthful citizens.

“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 monetization to creators in our country. We believe that this will also direct the energies of the young people in the right direction”, she explained.

Kenya has experienced a recent streak of protests by youths calling on President Ruto to reverse some economic policies and effect cabinet changes. From indications, the government is doubling down on empowering its younger citizens economically.

For the government’s ICT secretary, empowering young Kenyans to earn significantly more online is imperative: “It is in the interest of the government to make sure that people can earn where they spend most of their time, and young people are spending a lot of time online”, she added.

Ms Kerema made this known while speaking at TikTok‘s launch of its inaugural Safety Advisory Council for Sub-Saharan Africa in Nairobi. The council is the first-of-its-kind safety consultative group by any social media platform in the region.

Speaking at the event, the secretary lauded TikTok’s approach to community safety and content regulation. According to her, TikTok has done more than issue guidelines and enforce disciplinary measures when users violate them. She also applauded the video content platform for engaging stakeholders to ensure that the community rules are fair and understood:

In a chat with Technext after the event, Ms Kerema indicated that engagement will begin within the next week and that the government hopes for an early closure: “We are going to have a meeting sometime next week to have this conversation. And, the sooner, the better. If we can announce the monetisation update in the next two or three months, that will be good“, she said.

This follows a recent agreement signing ceremony between the President of the country, William Ruto, and Meta in March to allow Kenyan content creators to earn from Facebook and Instagram beginning in June 2024.

President Ruto hailed the move noting that it will open up new income streams for Kenya’s young population while calling upon Meta to make the monetisation available on M-Pesa.

Recall that at that time, the State House official statement indicated that the development was a culmination of a year-long push by the government to have creators earn from their online content, as it happens on other platforms such as YouTube and X.

This follows an announcement in February 2022 by Meta that content creators can now create and earn money from Facebook Reels across 20 sub-Saharan African countries. The countries listed for participation at that time included South Africa, Seychelles, Senegal, Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya, Guinea, Ghana, Cape Verde, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso.

Kenyan TikTok creators may have to wait a little more

Recall that at its largest US creator summit in Los Angeles in March, TikTok unveiled new programs to provide creators with a variety of options to express themselves, share their stories and get rewarded. The company also introduced additional LIVE Subscription features to generate higher revenue potential.

The direct monetisation feature is available in select countries across the globe and to content creators on an invitation basis only.

Despite claims by local news platforms that TikTok, in December 2023, announced plans to launch a subscription model for content in Kenya in June 2024, a spokesperson for the platform claimed that the team cannot guarantee when the monetization feature will be introduced to African countries.

In a separate session, TikTok’s community lead for Sub-Saharan Africa, Felistus Mwangi noted that direct monetisation is not yet available in the country. Hence, Kenyan creators will have to depend on other monetisation options for now.

According to her, in the meantime, African content creators can take advantage of three available ways to monetise on the platform. “For now, Tiktok has three options for monetising: live gifting, video gifts and brand partnerships“, she said.

TikTok Live allows viewers to show appreciation to creators with gifts during live sessions by gifting them coins and other items. The video gifting option allows viewers to show their appreciation to creators by gifting purchased coins from TikTok to creators when they watch a video they think is amazing. And, the brand partnership option involves when corporate organisations engage content creators to produce promotional content.

Asked about a possible timeline for a rollout of the monetisation service in Africa, the TikTok representative noted that the platform will continue to update its policies and update its creator communities as when due: “We are going to keep working on this. And, in due course, we are going to make announcements on that,” she added.

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