Following Facebook’s parent company Meta’s announcement that instream adverts would be rolled out, Kenyan content creators may expect to start making money from their creations in the next three months.
The company said that it will be releasing other income channels across Facebook and Instagram in addition to the roll-out of the Instream adverts at State House in the presence of President William Ruto. Facebook Stories, Instagram subscriptions, and Instagram gifts will all be included.
“We are very happy to announce that we’re gonna have instream ads available on Facebook starting early summer maximum. What instream ads mean is they are image and video ads that will be served, before, during or after any of your videos and it is a way for you guys to monetise and generate revenue through Facebook,” said Moon Baz who heads global partnerships for Africa, Middle East and Turkey.
Nick Clegg, a former deputy prime minister of Britain and current president of global affairs at Meta, announced that Kenyan content creators will receive payment for uploading their videos to the platform and that the company will monetize both English and Kiswahili content.
“I want to pay tribute to your remorseless representation on behalf of the creators of Kenya. You and I have met on a number of occasions and every single time you have said on behalf of the ingenious, humorous creative online creators here, you have been pressing me and Meta that all that creativity that they should also use online tools to turn that into material benefit,” he said as he thanked President Ruto for pushing the social media giant to act.
Speaking highly of the local creative community, Sir Clegg declared that it was time for them to make a solid living from their lively content, which appeals to people due to its humor, use of the English language, diversity, inventiveness, and inspiration. Meta, he added, wants “to make sure that you can make a good living out of it both pre and post tax.”
In order to qualify for revenue, creators need to meet certain requirements: they must have a minimum of 5,000 followers, be above the age of 18, have five or more active videos on their Facebook accounts, and have received 60,000 minutes of video views, including live views, during the last sixty days.
As a step toward advancing his bottom-up economic reform program, President Ruto commended Meta for leading his call declaring that “monetisation is now a reality” for Kenyan content creators.
In addition, President Ruto urged Meta to think about starting the monetisation program sooner than the previously scheduled June deadline, stating that it would be a pleasant surprise.
In order to provide accessibility for a larger spectrum of creators, the president moreover affirmed that Meta will incorporate M-Pesa as a payment option.
