The Nigerian creator economy has grown as quickly as the tech companies that have sprung up to support the continuous development of the industry. While some of these companies have been ahead of their time championing this movement, others have only tapped in recently after witnessing the increasing success of the industry. With creators heavily dependent on technology to do what they do, and some creators even launching tech companies themselves, founders have recognised and leveraged the opportunities the creator economy presents to build products used by creators around the country.
In this article, we spotlight Nigerian tech companies powering the country’s creator economy, and validating how lucrative the industry can be and will become in coming years.
Selar
Selar is an ecommerce store builder that allows creators to sell digital products and services like e-books, music, courses, event tickets, coaching, art, and more across borders.
It’s founder, Douglas Kendyson is a former Paystack and Flutterwave employee. Founded in 2016 by the Covenant University graduate, the company had gone from a $10,000 Tony Elumelu Fund grant to paying out over ₦1,000,000,000 (one billion naira) to African creators in 2021.
Ckrowd
Ckrowd is a content streaming platform and marketplace. The platform is a direct-to-consumer platform where original and exclusive African Content in education, information, and entertainment is distributed directly to local/global consumers in a short video and live stream format.
Founded in 2020 by Adebayo Kayode, Ckrowd bridges the gap between African content suppliers and their global content consumers by providing these content creators with the opportunity to earn income, while giving unique and engaging content experiences to their consumers.
Plaqad
Plaqad describes itself as “a protest against the norm; against the traditional forms of communication that disenfranchise millions of brands and people from effectively making their voices heard due to factors like budget, location or size.”
It was founded in 2017 with the aim of democratising paid content management, influencer engagement, and measurement. Today, it is helping ambitious brands amplify their messages by connecting them with influencers, content creators, and publishers, and providing them with the tools and resources they need to effectively engage audiences.
Kobo Course
Kobocourse helps African content creators easily scale their online coaching business without the “usual hassle.”
Founded by siblings Keno and Eva Alordiah in 2020, the platform allows creators monetise their audience through courses and allows you to create and send emails to your students directly from your dashboard without paying for another email service. Its email scheduling, tracking and optimization features help elevate email marketing campaigns.
Shukran
Shukran provides creators with the means to get the support they need from the audience they have. The platform helps you get earnings from people who enjoy your creative work regardless of your audience size or algorithm.
Launched in 2020, Shukran enables small creators to get ahead and stay consistent with support from their audience. It’s primary users are podcasters, musicians, bloggers, youtubers, writers, poets, digital creators, non-profits, communities, and creators of all kinds.
Disha
Disha is a platform helping creators make a living by offering them simple tools to create a one-page site that enables them to curate and share their favourite links, content, portfolios and receive payments from their audience worldwide.
Disha is powered by Flutterwave, a global payment service provider. By integrating with Flutterwave, creators can securely receive payments instantly from their clients and fanbase. Originally Co-founded by Evans Akanno, Rufus Oyemade and Blessing Abeng Disha was acquired by Flutterwave in 2021.
Curious Page
Curious.page makes it super easy to create a link-in-bio for your links. They’re empowering creators by giving them all the tools they need in one place; for creating portfolio, super simple landing page, wishlist, collecting tips, managing booking and more. It was launched in 2021 by Emmanuel O. Adegbite.
Tix Africa
Tix Africa is a self-service ticketing platform for event creators. It provides the tools they need to build beautiful experiences; it’s products integrate ticketing, admissions, payment technology, virtual venues, and promotion and audience engagement tools to simplify operations and drive sales for event organizers.
Launched by the cofounders of EatDrinkMedia Folayemi Agusto and Nosa Oregun in 2018, Tix Africa was originally a product of Festival Coins.
Nestcoin (Rekere)
Rekere is a creator focused media movement launched by Web3 venture Nestcoin. The project aims to contribute to a more colorful African narrative by empowering creators through crypto. “We’re empowering a new generation of creators who are abandoning the status quo and creating on their own terms.”
Gone are the days when creating content was just a side hustle or something people did just because they liked it. Creators are now high value money making machines and the opportunities available for creators and creator centric business are limitless. As more tech companies build tools to help the creator economy accelerate their efforts and flourish, they not only stand to benefit from the fast rising sector, but get to be part of the story of excellence that is currently being written by African creators and Nigerian creators specifically.