For years, Nigerians have been agitated as a result of Meta, owners of Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, not considering the country eligible for monetisation. However, after a recent meeting with President Bola Tinubu, Meta said Nigeria would be ready for monetisation in June, this year. PAUL OKAH takes a look at the implications on the economy.
Nigerians have for long expressed concerns as a result of Meta, owners of Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, not considering the country eligible for monetisation, leading to content creators not being motivated to express their creativity in the ICT world.
However, after a recent meeting with President Bola Tinubu, Meta said Nigeria will be ready for monetisation in June, this year, leading to speculations that Nigeria would witness a turnaround in the economy.
The cheers
On March 21, President Bola Tinubu said his administration was sustaining investments in digital technology to enhance the sustainability of small businesses, expand opportunities across sectors, and propel Nigeria to become the lodestar of information and communications technology in Africa.
Speaking when he received a delegation from Meta Platforms Incorporated, led by Sir Nick Clegg, former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Meta’s President of Global Affairs, at the State House in Abuja on March 21, the President said Nigeria could not afford to be left behind in this age of technological advancements; hence, his administration is opening up channels of opportunities in information and communications technology, deepening capacity, and fostering partnerships.
In view of his administration’s 3MTT programme, which is training three million Nigerian youths in digital technology and essential skills before deploying them to innovation hubs across the nation, the president emphasised that Nigerian youths are the most critical asset in Nigeria’s arsenal as it moves to achieve digital economic expansion.
Emphasising the importance of technology in driving small businesses, the president said he was committed to ensuring that technology is deployed, adapted, enhanced, and used to catalyse growth across a vast majority of micro businesses, spurring mass prosperity down the line.
He said, “For us in Nigeria, we have a vibrant, gifted and resourceful youth population. Recognising that the future is most likely to be AI-enabled, we have to prepare our youths and make them ready to compete and participate in the global economy. I can assure you that Nigeria is open for business. We want to lead the African continent in digital technology. Data is valuable to our development. We are ready to cooperate on technological advancements. It is the only way to go. We need a collaboration that will be a win-win for all.
“What interests me is the use of technology in the development of small businesses. We need to make the business environment more conducive for you and more profitable for us as well. I hope we can collaborate and continue to promote our mutual interests.”
Earlier, in his remarks, Sir Clegg thanked the president for an executive order he issued, which enabled the landing of the Meta-backed deep-sea cable in Nigeria, revealing Meta will introduce, in June 2024, a feature on its Instagram app that will allow Nigerian creators to monetise their content to enable them to earn a living using the app.
He said, “It is an extraordinary infrastructure project. When it comes on stream in the first quarter of 2025, it will be twice as much as the capacity of all subsea cables that exist. We buried the cable 50 per cent deeper than any other subsea cables under the seabed. It is more powerful and more extensive in terms of its geographical connectivity. It could yield up to 37 billion dollars worth of increase in economic activity in the next two or three years across the African continent. We have a lot to do with Nigeria to deepen partnerships.”
On his part, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, said Meta platforms were critical platforms in Nigeria, and as such opportunities for partnerships and engagement were essential to promoting development in the digital economy sector.
Implications
Speaking with Blueprint Weekend, an ICT consultant, Engr. Adebayo Tunji, said the impending monetisation would help Nigerians to be gainfully employed as ICT was a prospective future away from oil and gas.
“This is the best news Nigerians can ever hear in this period of economic hardship. We have been looking forward to this kind of news and glad that it is going to happen in our lifetime because we have really been lagging behind in the area of ICT. In case you don’t understand, I will break it down for you.
“ICT is now the future of the economy, not oil or gas. So. Many content creators have ventured into the ICT world, dishing out entertainment and information to their audience through different platforms, including websites, Youtube, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitter, TiktTok, among others. However, many have not been committed as a result of the bias by Meta not to monetise the country,” he said.
He added that , “Monetisation simply means content creators being paid for using Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook to reach out to their audience. For instance, if a comedian, actor, musician or any other celebrity uses his or her page to post videos and news and thousands of fans comment on the post or videos, the celebrity will earn dollars from the number of comments or views.
“Many media houses, including Blueprint, have social media platforms through which they pass information to their followers outside print and website, so imagine a situation whereby Meta starts paying Blueprint thousands and dollars because of engagements on their Facebook and Instagram pages. So, it is encouraging news and many of us cannot wait for June to start earning money from our creativity like those in other countries.”
On her part, a gospel music singer and budding actress, Mrs. Favour Okafor, said she had not been committed to posting on his Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram as a result of the monetisation, hence the news of the impending monetisation will lead to her renewed interest in posting contents.
She said, “The news of Meta’s impending monetization of the country is a welcomed one as we have been making a case for Nigeria not to be sidelined. As you know, Nigeria leads in everything. Nigeria has the largest number of users of Meta platforms, so you can imagine the concerns when other countries with small users were monetized and Nigeria overlooked.
“It is discouraging because the same Facebook is charging Nigerians N4, 500 on a monthly basis for Bluetik for them to get badges, after their pages must have been verified. So, you can imagine the irony of paying Facebook, while Facebook is using the money you paid them to pay other countries. This was a case the 2023/2024 Facebook Influencer of the Year, Maria Ude Nwachi, has been protesting against because it doesn’t make sense for Meta to ignore the largest users of its platform in Africa.
“Therefore, the cheering news that Nigeria will be monetised is welcomed by all Nigerians, especially those in the ICT world and content creators. I have more than 15 thousand followers across my social media handles, whereas Facebook requires only five thousand followers for one to be monetized. So, anyhow you look at it, it is a win-win situation for Nigerians. For me, I have already resumed posting and growing my followers so that I can be ready for the monetisation come June.”
Bye, bye to poverty
In an interview with this reporter, an accountant and economic analyst, Abdullahi Bello, said the monetisation of Nigeria would lead to a turnaround in the economy as many people would be lifted out of poverty through the actions of content creators and philanthropists making use of social media to impact on lives.
“First of all, let me congratulate Nigeria on the amazing feat. I particularly commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for attracting such a huge gesture from Meta. It means a lot to Nigerians because we have embraced ICT and have been trying to make a living from it, even without Facebook monetisation.
“Countless times, I have come across content creators and celebrities lamenting that they are overwhelmed as a result of many people besieging their inboxes or DMs to beg for alms, whereas they are not earning from M eta or their pages are not monetised. Those whose pages are monetised are those living outside Nigeria or operating their pages outside the country and the disparity or should I call it discrimination has been a big discouragement to content creators,” he said.
“If a content creator makes something like 1,000 dollars or 5,000 dollars per month from Meta, depending on his or her followership and level of engagements, that will give the person about N1,400,000.00 or N7,000,000.00 at the present dollar rate. If someone makes N7, 000,000.00 monthly from Meta, why won’t he contribute to poverty alleviation programmes of the government by empowering people?
He said further that, “So, invariably, the impending monetisation is of a huge economic benefit to Nigeria because we will use the platform to empower as many people as possible so that they can be liberated from the shackles of poverty. Though some will be tempted to say it will also contribute to inflation, but I doubt it as many monetised countries have strong economies. So, it remains to be seen.”
