President William Ruto has lifted a lid on talks he held with global technology companies, including X (formerly known as Twitter), whose owner, Elon Musk, agreed to boost the Kenyan content economy.
The Head of State was speaking on Wednesday, August 23, in Nakuru County during the National Music Festival, where he highlighted existing opportunities for Kenyan content creators.
In the deal, according to Ruto, X agreed to open content monetization for Kenyan creators, including students whose creative works, like dancing and plays, would be published and paid for by the viewers.
"Over the last year, I have held a number of discussions with owners of social media platforms, including Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube.
"I'm happy to report that Twitter (now known as X) has agreed that Kenya is among the first countries where creators can monetize their content," Ruto revealed.
Ruto noted that X offers a variety of ways for creators to monetize their content, including super follows, which allows creators to charge their followers a monthly subscription fee for exclusive content and perks, such as early access to tweets, exclusive content, or the ability to send direct messages.
Ruto's Promise to Creators:
President Ruto explained that these monetization opportunities offer a chance for creators to make money after meeting certain criteria, such as having a required number of followers and a certain level of engagement.
Ruto revealed that Kenyan creators make between Ksh300 million and Ksh500 million from platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and X every month.
He also stated that he had been working with global organisations such as Facebook, TikTok and YouTube to enhance the country's Internet Economy through creatives.
"I'm happy to say that two of them have finally agreed to monetize content in Kenya. On YouTube, Kenya is at around 80 per cent in monetization.
"I also spoke to the CEO of Facebook last year, and agreed to test with 25 of our creators so that they may monetize content," Ruto stated.
The Head of State also addressed parents' concerns over content produced by their underage children on platforms like Facebook and TikTok.
"Tomorrow morning, I will be speaking to the Global Chief Executive Officer of Tiktok so that we can agree on a mechanism to moderate negative content on their space. We need to leverage of the monetization that will benefit majority of the people," Ruto noted.
President William Ruto also announced that the government will set up music studios in every county in Kenya to support local artists. The studios will be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and will be accessible to all artists, regardless of their financial means.
"In fact, Kenya is one of the four countries on the African continent allowed to monetize on YouTube. As such, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) should have a YouTube channel so that we should be able to sell the content of our children," Ruto assured.
The move has been welcomed by the music industry, which has been struggling to get a foothold in Kenya. The lack of affordable recording studios has been a major barrier to many artists, who have had to travel to other countries to record their music.
Fact-check:
Elon Musk unveiled monetization of the platform in April 2023, limited to X premium users. Kenyan content creators, however, were added to the plan in August 2023.
While Kenyans.co.ke could not independently verify that X's (formerly known as Twitter) monetization was a result of talks between Ruto and Elon Musk, it is true that the social media giant recently expanded the scope of their monetization.
The expansion incorporated independent content creators who must reside in a country in which X's monetization programs are available.
X pays publishers sixty (60) days after the last day of the calendar month in which earnings occur. For example, June earnings will be paid at the end of August.
"Payments are sent automatically, and an email notification is sent to the contact name in the payment details," X's statement read in part.
X also allows followers to give creators a one-time tip through a payment service like PayPal, Venmo or Bitcoin.
At the same time, the ads' revenue sharing on X gives creators a chance to share a portion of the revenue generated from ads that are displayed on their posts.
