It has opened new opportunities for content creators in Nigeria and Ghana to monetize their content on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The new development, operationalized this year, is considered a break from the prior policy that exempted creators whose addresses were Nigerian and Ghanaian from the Facebook monetization program except those whose pages were managed from eligible countries.
The announcement comes after Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, said in March 2024 that the feature would be rolled out in June. He extended this monetization ability on Instagram to eligible creators in Nigeria, now able to collect their revenue from Facebook.
By the end of May 2024, Facebook had more than 50 million users from Nigeria and over 10 million from Ghana, according to NapoleonCat. This is an underpotentialized opportunity that creators in these countries can leverage for new streams of income.
The clean feature allows for monetization from in-stream ads and live ads on Facebook. In-stream ads place advertisements before, during, or after new or existing videos, including live content. Meta’s system will automatically analyse videos and insert ads at points of natural breaks, though creators can also specify their preferred placements.
The ad formats that can be implemented are pre-roll, running before the video; mid-roll, which interrupts the content; out-of-stream image ads at the bottom of the video; and after-roll ads running after the main content. Money from such ads comes in through dynamic factors such as demand by advertisers and the volume of video views.
Apart from in-stream and live ads, creators can earn off reels ads, bonuses, and subscriptions—more Meta platform potential sources of income.
This development comes off the back of related changes to Ghana’s tax landscape. Content creators and influencers in the West African nation have, since April 2024, started paying taxes from the money they earn from YouTube, X, and TikTok, among others. This requirement also extends to remote workers on platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork.
With the introduction of monetization on Meta platforms, it’s likely that earnings from Facebook and Instagram might become subject to taxation for creators in Ghana and probably in Nigeria.
The expansion of monetization opportunities doesn’t stop there. In March, Clegg said content creators based in Kenya would also get the opportunity to gain from their content on Facebook and Instagram starting June 2024, provided they meet the eligibility criteria.
This comes on the back of the December 2023 report, which indicated that after a year-long negotiation with the Kenyan government, Facebook and Instagram creators in Kenya are inching closer to monetizing content on Meta platforms. According to the President of Kenya, William Ruto, it is going to kick off with a pilot program with qualifying national creators before expanding into larger-scale monetization options.
As Meta continues to increase the monetization features in different countries on the continent, content creators could stand to gain from new earning opportunities and that would change the digital content landscape of Africa.