African creators push for recognition of digital work as full-time careers

Category: (Self-Study) Business

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Digital content makers from across Africa gathered at the African Creators Summit, calling for content creation to be recognized as full-time work rather than a side hustle. Under the 2026 theme, “Building a Sustainable Ecosystem: Where Africa Trades Its SWAG,” more than 2,500 digital creators from 15 countries came together to examine how Africa can turn its cultural capital into income.

Participants focused on monetizing what they described as “SWAG,” an acronym for Sound, Walk, Attire, and Grubs, which they said form the cultural pillars behind the continent’s growing global influence. Speakers said the fast-growing creator economy now functions like a full business ecosystem, employing production crews and helping many creators pay bills and build long-term careers.

“I feel like it’s not something that you can just say, let me be doing this and also be doing content creation also. It’s not possible” said Ibikunle ‘Frosh’ Akorede, a content creator. “You have to put your whole mind, effort, you have to put everything into content creating. And if you look at it, anything that pays can be called a job.”

Participants noted that while managing content across multiple platforms requires full commitment, some argue that the workload makes it difficult to combine creation with traditional 9-to-5 jobs.

David Adeleke, a media and intelligence executive, believes that the ecosystem is changing very fast. “I believe within the next few years, you’re going to see more people who are doing this thing full-time as their main job. They will quit their 9 to 5s and focus on this because, again, this is like building a small business,” he said.

Discussions at the summit also focused on sustainability within the industry, with speakers highlighting different levels of creators and the challenges of moving into top-earning brackets. The African creator economy has grown rapidly in recent years, driven by social media, video streaming, and increased mobile phone use across the continent.

This article and video were provided by The Associated Press.

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[Performers at the African Creators Summit]

[Creators creating content at the summit]

[Creator with filming equipment]

Ibikunle ‘Frosh’ Akorede (interview): “Content creation should be made a full-time job because it’s not even easy. If you look at, as a content creator, having to work with, like, multiple platforms, like four or five platforms joined together, having to post on different platforms, create videos for different platforms, I feel like it’s not something that you can just say, let me be doing this and also be doing content creation also. It’s not possible. You have to put your whole mind, effort, you have to put everything into content creating. And if you look at it, anything that pays, can be called a job.”

[Creator inside summit hall]

[Content creator executive speaking on stage]

[Summit venue with guests]

Tracy ‘Chief Suo’ Chapelle (interview): “Being a content creator myself, I’ll tell you that there are two types. In fact, there are different tiers. The top tier is where everybody is trying to get to, right? They say you want to be that person that your content feeds you. But if you do your life right, your life is the content. The work you do is part of the content. For me, I’m into sports, right? At my core, I’m a sports journalist, but most of the content I get to reproduce comes from a sports, entertainment, and educative space. So, if I am not doing these things already, where would the content come from?”

[Chapelle vlogging at the African Creators Summit]

[Performer at the summit]

Joshua King (interview): “Content creation has helped me to pay a lot of bills, and it also helped me to see it in the light of as a career, as a long-time journey, because there are a lot of things about content creation—some people just see it as getting in front of the camera, acting, and all that. There are script writers, videographers, editors, sound guys, and producers.”

[Creators at the summit]

David Adeleke (interview): “About 40% of creators still think of it as a side hustle, and that is one of the reasons why the industry is not as mature as it is. So, the industry has to get to a point where creators believe that this is something that they can do full-time. And so, I believe within the next few years, you’re going to see more people who are doing this thing full-time as their main job. They will quit their 9 to 5s and focus on this because, again, this is like building a small business.”

[Creators at the summit]

[Performers at the summit]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.