Chinese social networking service TikTok's logo on a smartphone screen.
Until July 2024, TikTok in Kenya felt like a long, uninterrupted scroll. No sponsored posts. No branded interruptions. Just creators, trends and endless swipes.
That calm ended a month later when TikTok quietly began rolling out adverts in Kenya. By January 2025, the platform made it official, announcing a partnership with Aleph Holdings to manage ad sales and advertiser support in the country.
For Kenyan businesses, the shift was significant. They could now promote their products and services on TikTok just as they do on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, tapping into a local user base estimated at over 10 million.
TikTok also partnered with influencer marketing firm Wowzi to connect Kenyan creators with brands. Wowzi described the deal as a “direct line to opportunity”, promising paid gigs, sponsorships and collaborations.
“We’re bridging the gap between creators and brands, making it easier than ever to connect with businesses looking for authentic voices. That means more sponsorship opportunities, exciting collaborations, and a chance to turn your passion into a profitable career.” Wowzi said.
With ads rolling out and brand partnerships expanding, there was a general feeling among many creators that direct payouts from TikTok were finally around the corner, similar to YouTube and Meta, where creators earn directly from in-stream ads, watch time and other monetisation programmes.
After all, YouTube, TikTok and Meta all make their money largely from advertising and e-commerce features, with creators sitting at the heart of that ecosystem.
Yet for many African creators, the reality has long been different. They are often left to hustle independently for brand deals and influencer gigs to earn a living in a billion-dollar creator economy.
“Yes, we do now have ads running on TikTok in Kenya. But from my understanding, businesses pay TikTok to advertise. TikTok still doesn’t pay us directly as YouTube and Meta do. They have other monetisation options, like Live Gifts, where you earn from followers, but that’s indirect. So yes, we’re seeing more and more ads on TikTok in Kenya, but unfortunately, that hasn’t translated into direct earnings for creators because TikTok hasn’t started paying us directly yet,” says tech content creator and influencer Roy Kanyi.
Roy Kanyi, tech journalist, digital innovation advocate, and creator.
On YouTube, for instance, creators can choose which ads are placed within their content. At the end of the month, YouTube pays creators based on watch time and ad revenue, keeping 45 percent while 55 percent goes to the creator.
Meta, on the other hand, allows creators to earn through in-stream ads on longer Facebook videos and Reels, with payouts based on views and engagement. Creators can also earn through subscriptions, offering exclusive content for a monthly fee. On Meta, creators keep 100 percent of subscription revenue, while YouTube takes a 30 percent cut.
TikTok, by comparison, often takes up to 50 per cent from creator subscriptions, though creators in the US can now earn up to 90 per cent following recent changes.
On TikTok in Kenya, ads now appear not only as you scroll, but also embedded at the end of a creator’s video. Yet for many creators, the growing ad presence feels like it benefits the platform far more than the people generating the content.
“Despite how popular TikTok is, I honestly don’t think you can depend on it for a monthly income, but you can depend on YouTube. Even if you go live daily on TikTok, there’s no guarantee you’ll get gifts. On YouTube, you know there will be a payout at the end of the month.” says comedian Andrew Duncan Oduor, better known as 2Mbili.
No monetisation model
TikTok African executives often argue that the platform is still relatively young and should not be directly compared to older platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Yet TikTok does have monetisation models that pay creators directly, just not in most of Africa.
These include the Creator Rewards Program (formerly Creator Fund), which pays for engaging long-form videos based on qualified views, and the Effect Creator Rewards programme, which pays creators who design popular augmented reality effects and filters through TikTok’s Effect House.
In other words, the Creator Rewards Program is for general content creators, whereas Effect Creator Rewards targets those who design interactive AR experiences for others to use.
While TikTok Africa’s Public Policy and Government Relations Director, Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda, has described South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya as the platform’s ‘golden triangle' in Africa, only the Effect Creator Rewards programme is operational on the continent and only in Morocco, Egypt and South Africa. No African country is eligible for the Creator Rewards Program.
That exclusion has drawn sharp criticism.
Ugandan comedian Anne Kansiime has openly questioned TikTok’s presence in African countries where creators cannot earn directly.
“My issue is the compensation that comes with these apps. They access so much authentic African content and then say they have no arrangement with our governments. If you have no arrangement, what are you doing in my country? Why are you okay operating here but not okay paying our creators? People are spending their time and lives on TikTok without being paid. These platforms know us when it’s time to get content, but suddenly do not when it’s time to get paid. That’s unfair.” Kansiime laments.
Ugandan Anne Kansiime. FILE PHOTO |
Even in South Africa, where some monetisation programmes exist, dissatisfaction remains. Dominic Zaca, a South African creator with over 1.2 million TikTok followers, says the platform’s remuneration model is deeply biased.
“Africa has been at the forefront of the content creation trend, and then we see countries which are monetised use our content or mimic our content and get paid for it. Despite the African content creator who originated the sound or the dance move being known to the platform, they get no incentives if they are African inventors. There is no form of compensation directly from the app, like in other countries. Unlike other platforms, we don’t get paid for any views, interactions or likes. So, it’s not even a conversation of us being paid fairly,” claims Zaca.
In April last year, South Africa’s Minister for Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, criticised TikTok for excluding South Africa from the Creator Rewards Program despite having over 17 million users in the country. He described the decision as an “economic injustice that needs to be corrected.”
“South African TikTok creators have had an impact on the app, which has helped enhance TikTok as a platform that continues to generate the amount of revenue it does for itself. That is sufficient grounds to expand the creators' fund to South Africa. For us to have a meaningful contribution towards the digital economy, digital entrepreneurs like content creators must be fairly rewarded and have access to the monetisation opportunities and rewards that exist in other parts of the world,” stated Malatsi in an interview with eNCA TV.
Misunderstanding
Boniswa Sidwaba, TikTok’s Head of Content Operations for Sub-Saharan Africa, says the platform offers a range of monetisation tools tailored to its African market.
“Something we have picked up is that there is a misunderstanding around what monetisation on TikTok looks like. And what that looks like is that we have a suite of monetisation tools, and these tools live across the Sub-Saharan markets. Just to mention a few, we have the Live Gifts, Subscriptions, Work With Artists, where creators partner with musicians in campaigns to boost sounds and are paid based on their video performance,e based on engagement metrics such as views, likes and shares and the Effect Award Program. That's the offering we have for this market (Africa).
According to Sidwaba, the Creator Reward Program has constantly invoked heated debate of its nonexistence in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“What has come up often is the question around The Creator Reward Program, which is currently not available in any market in Sub-Saharan Africa. It's only available in seven markets across the world. Africa hasn’t been deliberately excluded. We don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach on anything we roll out at TikTok.” Sidwaba explains.
She points to initiatives like the 2021 Rising Voices programme, where TikTok selected 100 African creators for a boot camp and awarded 10 of them cash grants.
“That programme was only available in Sub-Saharan Africa and not anywhere in the world. That is to demonstrate that at TikTok, we don't take a one-size-fits-all approach to monetisation.”
Sidwaba also highlights the Safer Together programme, where creators across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa were paid to produce educational content in local languages, working alongside TikTok moderators.
“We collaborated with creators in Nigeria who created content in Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. In Kenya, we worked with content creators who created content in Swahili and in South Africa, we worked with content creators who created content in isiZulu, English and Afrikaans,” she says.
Sidwaba maintains that beyond TikTok-supported monetisation programmes, the platform has opened doors for independent brand partnerships.
“A lot of content creators in Africa have landed endorsement deals with various companies as their brand ambassadors or marketers. TikTok has helped creatives bypass traditional barriers and reach global audiences. Where a user previously had only local reach, we are seeing more and more of them attract visibility in global markets like the US.”
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