Facebook announces Kenyan content creators to start monetising videos by June

Announcing the roll-out of the Instream ads at State House in the presence of President William Ruto, the company said it will also be launching other revenue channels across Facebook and Instagram. They will include Facebook Stories, Instagram subs and IG gifts as well.

"We are very happy to announce that we’re gonna have instream ads available on Facebook starting early summer maximum," said Moon Baz who heads global partnerships for Africa, Middle East and Turkey.

"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."

Former Britain deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is now the President, Global Affairs at Meta said the rollout will see Kenyan content creators get paid for posting their videos on the platform announcing that they will monetise content made in English and Kiswahili.

"I want to pay tribute to your remorseless representation on behalf of the creators of Kenya," he said as he thanked President Ruto for pushing the social media giant to act.

"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."

Sir Clegg hailed the local creator community saying it was time for them to earn a good living off their vibrant content that resonates because of its humour, the English language, diversity, creativity, inspiration saying Meta wants "to make sure that you can make a good living out of it both pre and post tax."

To be eligible for monetization, creators must have at least 5,000 Followers, be over 18 years old, have at least 5 active videos on their Facebook pages, and have accumulated 60,000 minutes of video views in the past 60 days, including live videos.

On his part, President Ruto thanked Meta for heading his call stating that "monetisation is now a reality" for Kenyan content creators saying it was a step towards supporting his bottom-up economic transformation agenda.

President Ruto also encourage Meta to consider launching the monetisation program earlier than the agreed June dead saying it will be a welcome surprise.

"This is a positive step towards supporting Kenya's "bottom-up economic transformation agenda" by empowering creators and entrepreneurs," he said.

The president also confirmed that Meta will integrate M-Pesa as a payment option to ensure accessibility for a wider range of creators.