Last night, one of Africa’s leading influencers, Ward Maya, visited our home with his wife and baby. Over tea, we spoke candidly about the real obstacles faced by creators like him. It’s about monetizing a platform that already has a huge reach.
Wode Maya is a Ghanaian aeronautical engineer turned YouTuber known for promoting Africa through authentic storytelling. With his millions of followers, he travels the continent and the Caribbean, reshaping global perceptions of these regions through culture, tourism and business.
He has over 3 million Facebook followers, most of them in Africa, but his main income comes from YouTube viewers who are primarily based outside the continent. At first glance, this feels unfair. But it’s not a failure of talent or effort. The explanation is simple. ARPU, average revenue per user.
Creators earn money when companies advertise to their viewers. And companies advertise where they have purchasing power. A marketplace where followers can easily be converted into customers allows ads to flow and creators to earn money.
This is why ARPU is the silent engine of the world’s digital economy. It determines the true value of each follower. In the US and Europe, followers represent real, bankable demand supported by seamless payment systems, integrated digital marketplaces, and consumers with the ability to spend. Every view has economic weight.
In Africa, the passion, commitment and scale are immense. But the system that turns attention into income remains fragmented across borders, currencies, and payment infrastructures. Creators may command millions of followers, but those followers are locked into a small, unconnected market.
This is why African musicians, despite being able to reach tens of millions of listeners across the continent, earn disproportionately less than they receive from much smaller audiences abroad. The problem is not influence, but rather the structure of the market.
Interestingly, Africa has no shortage of demand or purchasing power. The continent’s population of 1.5 billion includes approximately 400 million middle-class consumers, more than the entire population of the United States and approaching Europe’s population of 450 million. Creators like Wode Maya could potentially earn far more for their efforts than they currently do.
The financial backbone of this digital activity is equally attractive. In 2024, global mobile money transactions reached approximately $1.68 trillion, up from $1 trillion in 2021. Africa alone accounts for approximately $1.1 trillion, approximately 65% of global trade value and 74% of global trade volume. This is unusual. Africa already dominates the world’s mobile money.
But there is a contradiction here. Most of that $1.1 trillion flows within our borders. Ghana Wallet is operated in Ghana. Kenyan descent from Kenya, at best part of East Africa. A Nigerian platform located in Nigeria. Not fully connected.
Now imagine if they did that. Ghanaian creators may be able to sell to Kenya instantly. Nigerian fans can pay Rwandan musicians in local currency. Ivorian businesses will be able to advertise online targeting South African consumers, which will incentivize African businesses to advertise online as well. If companies can easily sell across Africa, they will be more likely to promote themselves. And by running ads, creators earn money. This constraint simply has to do with the lack of incentives provided by our small and fragmented economy.
Africa will have 1.1 billion registered mobile money accounts by 2024, representing 53 percent of all accounts worldwide. Our $1.1 trillion mobile money ecosystem and more than 1 billion account holders are spread across 55 countries with multiple currencies, disconnected payment systems, and uneven logistics. Compare this to the United States, the European Union, China and India, which have integrated markets with unified payment systems and digital trade frameworks that turn online viewers into customers.
In these markets, scale drives monetization. In Africa, fragmentation is actually holding back profits. What we therefore need is a functioning continental architecture for a single market that transforms Africa’s demographic and digital potential into real economic value. This is what our influencers must understand and realize: why we need economic integration to scale.
Because a connected Africa will: Seamless payments with mobile money interoperable with PAPSS. Free movement of people, capital, culture and services. Integrated digital trade. And goods can easily be moved across borders.
The GSMA predicts that a fully integrated payments system could rapidly expand Africa’s $1.1 trillion mobile money market to $2-3 trillion, with significant incentives for advertisers. It will expand jobs, a scalable African platform, and globally competitive creators.
The African Union is already building much of the rail for that purpose. Except our political leaders simply refused to connect with many people. The policy framework already exists. The 1991 Abuja Treaty set the goal of establishing a single economic community for Africa by 2028. Since then, we have adopted the AfCFTA, the Free Movement Protocol, the Digital Trade Protocol, the Investment Protocol, and more. Our leaders know what to do. Sadly, they don’t seem to be in a hurry to implement what is needed.
But it takes courage to move forward. Simply put, it’s leadership. We have known what to do for over 30 years, since the Abuja Treaty. We have signed and articulated it, but implementation has been slow. Caution, inertia, and territoriality are holding back momentum. The real gap is not smart ideas or accessible markets, but the political will to act with urgency and align all sectors towards the common goal of a single, digital and borderless Africa.
That’s why creators must demonstrate leadership. African influencers, musicians, developers and digital entrepreneurs are more than just content distributors. They are market makers, culture shapers, and agenda setters. Because their work is inherently transnational, they stand to gain the most from a borderless Africa. The vitality of their brand relies on a seamless and scalable marketplace. Their success reflects the health of the continent’s digital economy.
That’s why this appeal is directed at creators. We need you to help us mobilize millions of Africans, people of African descent, and friends of Africa to demand that our leaders implement the treaties and protocols already adopted that combine to create the single market that Africans need.
For creators, the impact of borderless Africa, as outlined in the 12-point agenda of the African Prosperity Network’s Make Africa Borderless Now! Movement, directly matters to creators who create content, music, software, and services.
Cross-border payments will turn followers into paying customers in real time. The free movement of people allows us to tour, collaborate, and scale. The integration of digital trade will open the door to the sale of content and services across borders. Streamlined logistics and unified standards eliminate product friction and enable scale. These are the practical fundamentals of monetization and this is why “Make Africa Borderless Now!” Migration must be owned and driven by the creators of the continent.
China and India, with similar population sizes to Africa, did not emerge as digital giants because they were inherently innovative. They have risen because they invest with confidence in a unified, connected, borderless economic environment and scale.
In other words, Africa could also build its own huge and prosperous market, an ecosystem where ARPU rises not because Africans become rich overnight, but because the market enables large-scale transactions. When systems are integrated, everything changes. Payments will become more reliable, commerce will grow, and logistics will catch up. Continental advertising by African companies has become the norm, digital markets are deepening, and global platforms are beginning to reprice Africa more equitably. That’s when creators can earn money directly from their largest audience: African consumers. That’s why, as creators, we need to be at the forefront of demanding action from leaders.
This is the logic behind “Make Africa Borderless Now!” This movement was launched in February 2026. Our goal is simple. The goal is to secure 10 million signatures by February 2027 and present them to African leaders at the next AU summit. Let me emphasize that the requirements are equally simple. That means doing what has already been agreed upon. It’s not about politics. It’s about maximizing the value of African creators by removing the barriers that keep followers as numbers rather than customers.
So please be an advocate for this movement. sign. Share. Mobilize. The day Africa becomes a single market of 1.5 billion people is the day every follower becomes a customer. This is the day African creators start gaining real value.
By acting with urgency, you, as a creator, can become a leading advocate in redefining growth and prosperity in Africa. Your followers are more than just fans. They will be customers, partners and participants in Africa’s agenda for a continent of shared prosperity.
We invite all creators across Africa and the diaspora to become ambassadors for Make Africa Borderless Now. campaign.
The author is the founder and executive chair of Africa Prosperity Network and organizer of “Make Africa Borderless Now!” movement. He can be reached at gabby@africaprosperity.network. Click here for more information: www.makeafricaborderlessnow.com
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Disclaimer: The views, comments, opinions, contributions and statements made by readers and contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policies of Multimedia Group Limited.
