Early this year President William Ruto has announced that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, would allow digital creators in Kenya to monetize their content on the platforms from June 2024.
President Ruto who hosted the Facebook Management Team at State House, Nairobi, alongside prominent content creators to discuss monetization strategies said he had gotten a commitment from the officials of the platform.
Nick Clegg, Facebook's President of Global Affairs, confirmed that Kenyan creators will have the opportunity to earn revenue through various channels across Facebook and Instagram, including in-stream ads in their content, Facebook Stories, Instagram subs, and IG gifs.
This move follows a year-long effort by the government, led by President Ruto, to advocate for creators to earn from their online content.
In his remarks, President Ruto commended the relentless efforts of the creators in advocating for their rights. He expressed satisfaction with the progress made in achieving the monetization process.
In a few weeks, many of you will be eligible. Eligibility criteria will now be available for all creators in Kenya. That's a big step to make sure that our content creators have an opportunity to monetize their talent to give themselves additional revenue and I'm truly grateful to Facebook for walking with us on this journey." he said.
The Head of State further revealed that he has received assurances that the monetization process will commence in June, aligning with his administration's bottom-up agenda.
"I've gotten a commitment that by June, all our creators will now have an opportunity to monetize everything they do in that space, put Ads, and it speaks to our Bottom-up Economic Transformation agenda on making sure that we give everybody a chance," he said.
President Ruto also highlighted the importance of leveraging accessible platforms like M-Pesa for the monetization process, recognizing that not everyone has access to credit cards.
"Furthermore, I am delighted that the monetization process will be facilitated through M-Pesa. This is significant as not everyone has access to credit cards, and leveraging a platform as accessible as M-Pesa will benefit a broader range of individuals," he added
Kabuda unapologetically spends about Sh. 210k monthly on food alone