African creators have the expertise and the viewers. What holds them again is the infrastructure that turns consideration into earnings. That was the thread by means of “Can African players build the infrastructure creators need?”, a panel at Moonshot by TechCabal on Thursday.
The session featured Richard Oyome, co-founder and COO of Raenest; Kene Okwuosa, founder and group CEO of Filmhouse Group; Darey Art Alade, co-founder and chief artistic officer of Livespot360; and Kopano Cowen, CEO of Connect Channel. Kehinde Odusote-Fagbule of TechCabal Insights moderated.
The Nigerian Creator Economy Report 2025, discovered that 56.45% of Nigerian creators earn lower than $100 a month from their work, whereas 3.23% earn greater than $5,000. Money does attain some creators: Nigerian artists acquired greater than ₦58 billion from Spotify in 2024, up 146% on 2023, in line with the identical report.
Platform payouts are a part of the issue, as model offers have been usually creators’ solely path to earnings, as a result of main platforms didn’t pay Nigerian creators straight till Meta switched on advertisements on Reels for creators in Nigeria and Ghana in 2024.
“We need to make the market bigger,” Oyome mentioned, including that the repair begins with progress. “We could penetrate foreign markets, especially in film, through collaboration, to produce better quality and attract international audiences.”
Getting paid from overseas is one other barrier. Raenest, which gives greenback, pound and euro accounts to freelancers and creators, raised an $11 million Series A in February 2025 and mentioned it had processed greater than $1 billion in funds for over 700,000 particular person clients.
Okwuosa rejected the concept that Nigeria’s market is small. “I don’t subscribe to the notion that the Nigerian market is small,” he mentioned. “It only feels that way because we haven’t activated its size.” The actual brake, he mentioned, is piracy: “It limits the rewards and reach for creators.”
Estimates of what piracy prices Nollywood range extensively, which itself exhibits how little is measured. MultiChoice has put Nollywood’s annual losses at ₦10 billion to ₦15 billion, based mostly on viewers information, whereas different trade figures run far larger. TechCabal’s 2026 outlook provides that Netflix and Amazon Prime have lower African content material spending, pushing extra Nollywood filmmakers onto YouTube.
“Public-private partnerships can help expand the market,” Alade mentioned. “We need policy and legislation that make it easier for these collaborations to happen.” The authorities has begun to maneuver: its Creative Economy Development Fund is backed by a $200 million seed dedication from Afreximbank, in line with the ministry.
The panellists agreed that the subsequent wave of funding within the creator financial system need not be a brand new standalone product. It could possibly be a partnership or an acquisition that hyperlinks gamers already engaged on funds, manufacturing, distribution and coverage. For African builders, the chance lies in connecting what already exists.
