👇🏾👉👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👈☝️☝️☝️🙏✌️
TikTok Has Turned Nigerian Creators into Digital Beggars, And It’s Time Our Government Acts Now!
By Ibrahim Umar | Streaming Naija Editorial
💔 The Sad Reality Behind Nigeria’s TikTok Fame
Nigeria is one of TikTok’s biggest markets in the world. Our skits, dance trends, and viral comedy challenges rule the African digital scene.
Yet, behind the laughter, there’s a painful truth. TikTok does not officially monetize Nigerian creators.
While creators in countries like the U.S., UK, and Canada earn directly from TikTok’s Creativity Program Beta and ad revenue share, Nigerian creators are shut out completely. We give TikTok content, traffic, data, and fame, yet get nothing back except humiliation and heartbreak.
🧠 The Begging Culture TikTok Forced on Nigerians
In the U.S., creators post content and earn from views and engagement. But in Nigeria, you must go Live and beg, literally beg just to earn anything.
Every day, you see respected creators, comedians, influencers, even celebrities reduced to saying:
“Please 🙏 send me a lion 🦁.”
“Please tap the screen to help me reach the goal.”
“Please send me a heart 💜 so I can win this challenge.”
That’s not creativity. That’s humiliation disguised as entertainment. TikTok has practically turned Nigerian content creators of the 21st century into digital beggars.
The likes of Peller, Jadrolita also known as Jarvis amongst others are all famous for being exceptionally creative beggars out of the Nigerian pool of creators.
The algorithm rewards begging, not talent.
It pushes creators to dance, plead, and compete for virtual gifts, most of which TikTok takes nearly half the money from before the creator even touches a dime.
💸 Exploitation in Broad Daylight
Here’s the real insult:
A TikTok “Lion” gift might be worth over ₦600,000, but the creator gets barely half after TikTok’s cut.
The rest goes straight into ByteDance’s international pockets, made from Nigerian sweat.
And when Nigerian creators try to bypass this injustice using VPNs or fake UK addresses just to join the monetized program, TikTok flags their accounts and seizes their earnings.
Now Back to zero. That's why you see all the popular accounts with large following run and managed by Nigerians often creating backup accounts just in case.
Imagine working hard, going viral, and losing all your funds simply because your country is on TikTok’s “non-monetized” list.
That’s not business, that’s digital colonialism.
⚖️ The Double Standard
TikTok’s bias is clear!
Nigeria gives them massive traffic, one of their top five active user bases globally, yet, they treat us like third-class users.
Meanwhile:
- YouTube pays Nigerian creators through AdSense for every view.
- Facebook (now Meta) allows monetization, though limited.
- X (formerly Twitter) pays creators through impressions, and Nigerians are already cashing out.
But TikTok?
Nothing for Nigerians!
Only a few shiny competitions that lead to more begging, and more coins lost to the Nigeria system.
🇳🇬 Why the Nigerian Government Must Step In
This is where leadership must matter.
The Federal Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and even the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) should not sit silent while a global company exploits millions of Nigerian youths.
Here’s what must be done:
-
Demand Monetization Parity:
TikTok must open its monetization programs to Nigerian creators the same way it does in the U.S., UK, and other countries. -
Policy and Tax Accountability:
Any platform making billions from Nigerian traffic should be required to either pay creators locally or pay fair taxes to the Nigerian government. -
Protect Nigerian Data:
Every second, TikTok mines our data, location, habits, and preferences, but gives us nothing in return. That’s digital exploitation. -
Support Local Platforms:
Nigeria has enough talent and user base to build its own short-video app ecosystem. With proper government support, homegrown apps could compete and pay creators fairly.
📢 Time to Raise a Voice
This isn’t just about money.
It’s about respect, respect for Nigerian creativity, audience power, and cultural influence.
If we can make their app trend every day, we deserve to earn from it.
If TikTok can run ads in Nigeria and profit from Nigerian traffic, then Nigerian creators deserve a share of that income, the same way every other country enjoys it.
So yes, it’s time for a digital movement.
Let the hashtags trend:
#MonetizeTikTokNigeria
#PayNigerianCreators
#NoSeeFinish
Because we are not slaves to any app.
We are the soul of the content they sell.
Nigeria is not short of talent.
We are short of fair platforms, and I believe this is solely because of the government actions and inactions that we voted into places of authority.
TikTok can’t keep exploiting our creativity while locking us out of the rewards. If they can’t give Nigerian creators the same privileges they give others, then they shouldn’t be allowed to operate or profit even a dime in Nigeria.
Enough of this see finish.
Enough of this silence.
We are not beggars, we are Nigerian creators.
Written by: Ibrahim Umar
Publisher: Streaming Naija Editorial
0 Comments