Africa’s Creative Economy Grew, But Who Actually Got Paid?
For most of the last decade, Africa’s creative economy has been described with the same language.
Growth.
Momentum.
Global attention.
By 2024 and into 2025, those words were no longer speculative. The data caught up. Digital infrastructure expanded. Mobile usage deepened. Entertainment and media revenues climbed across key African markets, especially Nigeria.
But growth is not the same thing as income.
And visibility is not the same thing as sustainability.
As Africa’s creative economy expanded, a harder question became unavoidable: who actually benefited financially from this growth, and who didn’t?
This is not a celebration.
It is an accounting.
Growth Is Real, and It Is Measurable
There is no serious dispute about whether Africa’s creative economy grew.
The mobile sector alone contributed $220 billion to Africa’s economy in 2024, representing 7.7% of continental GDP, according to GSMA data. By 2030, that figure is projected to reach $270 billion, supported by deeper digital adoption, enterprise digitisation, and expanding connectivity.
Nigeria’s entertainment and media sector offers a sharper lens.
According to PwC’s Africa Entertainment and Media Outlook (2025–2029), Nigeria’s entertainment and media revenue rose from $3.7 billion in 2023 to $4.1 billion in 2024, an 11.2% year-on-year increase. This marks a structural shift for an industry that, barely a decade ago, was constrained by piracy, limited digital infrastructure, and weak monetisation pathways.
Digital entertainment now dominates that growth.
Mobile and fixed internet services generated $3.3 billion in 2024, up from $2 billion in 2020, with projections pointing toward $4.7 billion by 2029.
From the outside, the system looks healthy.
From the inside, income tells a more uneven story.
Platforms Scaled Faster Than Payouts
Streaming platforms, social networks, and creator tools became the backbone of Africa’s creative expansion. They widened access, lowered barriers to entry, and normalised global distribution.
But monetisation did not scale at the same pace.
Music, radio, and podcast revenues in Nigeria grew from $24 million in 2020 to $59 million in 2024, with PwC projecting $85 million by 2029. Consumption rose sharply, but income remained concentrated among a small percentage of artists with touring power, licensing deals, or strong brand partnerships.
Streaming democratised reach.
It did not democratise earnings.
Even as Spotify Wrapped data showed local streaming growth of 146% in 2024, the pace slowed to 82% in 2025. Afrobeats listenership still grew by 22%, and daily streams rose 23%, but the deceleration signalled a maturing market where attention alone no longer guarantees income.
Creators became more visible.
Their financial resilience did not automatically follow.
Brand Money Grew, But It Clustered
Advertising tells a similar story.
Internet advertising revenue in Nigeria climbed from $79 million in 2020 to $246 million in 2024, driven by influencer marketing, short-form video, and platform-native storytelling. PwC forecasts this could reach $438 million by 2029.
Brand investment expanded.
Distribution did not.
Budgets clustered around a narrow group of high-performing creators. Campaigns prioritised reach and short-term engagement. Long-term retainers, equity participation, or IP ownership remained rare.
For mid-tier and emerging creators, income stayed irregular. Payment timelines were inconsistent. Usage rights were often unclear.
The economy grew, but stability remained selective.
Gaming and Digital Culture Showed What’s Possible
One of the clearest signs of structural change came from gaming.
Nigeria’s video games and e-sports sector grew from $55 million in 2020 to $180 million in 2024, with projections reaching $260 million by 2029. Telecom partnerships, live streaming, and tournament ecosystems turned gaming into a viable profession for a growing number of young Nigerians.
This growth wasn’t accidental.
It was infrastructure-led.
Where payment rails, sponsorship models, and audience monetisation aligned, income followed.
The lesson is simple: when systems are designed for payment, creators earn.
Traditional Media Shrunk, Reinvention Became Mandatory
Print media tells the opposite story.
Newspapers, magazines, and books grew marginally from $46 million in 2020 to $50 million in 2024, with projections reaching just $53 million by 2029. Audiences migrated online faster than revenue models could adapt.
Journalism did not disappear.
Its economics fractured.
Newsrooms pivoted toward subscriptions, podcasts, and multimedia storytelling, often without the capital or time required to stabilise new income streams.
Growth shifted channels.
Payment lagged behind.
Infrastructure Still Determines Who Gets Paid
Despite digital narratives, access remains uneven.
Nigeria’s internet penetration stood at 45.4% in 2024, representing roughly 107 million users, but leaving more than half the population offline. Data consumption is projected to grow at a 25.4% compound annual rate, reaching 58.2k petabytes by 2029, yet fixed broadband remains scarce and expensive outside major cities.
Creative opportunity remains geographically uneven.
Urban proximity still dictates access to brands, collaborators, and decision-makers. Digital tools reduce friction, but they do not erase inequality.
Infrastructure shapes outcomes.
Africa’s Growth Is Real, Its Distribution Is Not
Nigeria’s creator economy alone is valued at $31.2 million as of 2025, while Africa’s broader digital creator economy stood at $3.08 billion in 2023, projected to reach $17.84 billion by 2030, growing at 28.5% annually.
These are not small numbers.
But scale does not equal fairness.
A minority of creators capture long-term value. Many operate in cycles of visibility without security.
As the Honourable Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism & Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, noted, Africa’s creative future will be “sung, filmed, painted, designed, coded, performed, and shared by our creators.”
The unresolved question is whether those creators will also be paid sustainably.
Why This Question Can’t Be Deferred
In 2025, an estimated 831 million people globally were living in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $3 per day. In that context, creative work cannot survive on exposure alone.
Africa’s creative economy has moved past emergence.
It is entering an accountability phase.
Growth without income is not progress.
Visibility without ownership is not empowerment.
Cultural influence without economic capture is extraction.
What the Next Phase Demands
The challenge is no longer talent.
It is structure.
Clearer monetisation pathways.
Better contracts.
Stronger IP protections.
Affordable internet access.
Payment systems designed for creators, not just platforms.
Most importantly, success must be measured differently.
Who gets paid.
Who owns value.
Who builds lasting economic security.
A guest post by
A curious mind exploring the crossroads of creativity and insight.