By Conrad ONYANGO

Women entrepreneurs, who dominate Africa’s Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector and creator economy, are poised to benefit significantly as digital entertainment platforms and social networks expand to include powerful tools for entrepreneurship and e-commerce.

In the last week of January, TikTok, known for its short-form entertainment videos, launched its ‘For Business’ services in Kenya, its third market in Africa, following South Africa and Nigeria.

Previously, YouTube and X were the only platforms sharing advertising revenues with creators in Africa for a long time.

However, by the end of 2024, Meta had rolled out features that allow creators in 12 African countries — including Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Egypt — to earn revenue from short-form videos through advertisements on its platforms, Facebook and Instagram.

TikTok, along with its new strategic partners and content creators, has stated that its ‘For Business’ services will create new opportunities for local content creators to forge stronger connections with brands and advertising agencies, bolstering content monetisation across Africa.

TikTok Head of Sales, Global Business Solutions, Sub-Saharan Africa, Carl Jordan, said TikTok would create a level playing field in terms of access to advertising and content monetisation opportunities for all businesses, including linking women-owned businesses and creators with large corporate entities.

“Like with any other business owner, they could be a small business or a medium-sized business, we will provide them (women) with the opportunity to engage the relevant communities on the platform,” said Jordan in an interview with bird story agency.

African women make up 53.2% of the continent’s creator economy, with a commanding share in sectors from fashion to finance on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, according to TM Global’s 2024 Africa Creators’ Survey that values the creator economy at US$3.08 billion and projected to soar to US$17.84 billion by 2030.

Despite these numbers, turning a profit is an uphill climb for women creators, with over half of all African creators still earning less than US$60 a month – with the report attributing the low figures partly to limited ways to monetise content.

Now, however, things seem to be improving.

TikTok said it would engage with a diverse portfolio of brands, including corporate entities that have business vision statements focused on bridging social inequalities, as it builds out its business across Africa.

“So invariably those bigger corporations, will also run those campaigns on the TikTok platform and we can enable them… We provide a level playing field for all advertisers of all sizes regardless. And therefore, that can help women who may be running a small businesses of their own,” said Jordan.

TikTok tapped Wowzi, a digital marketplace, designed to help brands automate creator marketing workflows and programs, to act as TikTok’s creator management partner in Kenya.

Wowzi will manage content creators by offering equipment and support, enabling them to produce customized content for a variety of brands.

“Wowzi brings a pool of creators that we are able to scale to become TikTok savvy and these are the guys who are then able to be connected with brands to promote products,” said Wowzi Co-founder and President, Mike Otieno.

Top brands already in Wowzi’s stable are CocaCola, Absa, Google, Nestle, Safaricom and Netflix.

Kenya is home to over 10 million TikTok users and ranks among the top markets for the platform, globally.

Otieno explained that the impact of women TikTok creators on the wider economy was already clear.

“Women like ‘shiko wa hii style’ import goods from China and sells to people on TikTok, you go to her stall and its always full because TikTok has made her an audience,” said Otieno.

The ‘Shiko wa hii style’ handle (@shiquo4) has a following of over 958,000 on TikTok.

Similar sentiments were shared by a content creator, Faith Wangari (@Miss Kahiro) who explained the link-up of women creators with brands for advertisements would be a win- win for all.

“It’s time for creators to start earning good money from their creations now that TikTok is joining up with other businesses,” said Wangari.

Another strategic partnership will see Aleph Holdings to run TikTok’s sales operations in Kenya, providing businesses with direct access to insights, hands-on assistance, and streamlined advertising processes.

“By bringing TikTok, we are opening the Kenyan market for brands to reach engaged consumers on digital platforms. We also enable creators and brands learn how to engage in these digital platforms and learn how to monetise,” said Aleph Holdings Client Partner Lead for East Africa, Rachel Karanu.

Aleph has sales partnerships with 59 digital media platforms including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, Spotify, X and TikTok globally.