Africa's creative industry bridge enlargement by ambitious platform Selar within burgeoning creator economy
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African content creators have been contributing significantly to the global culture and content landscape, yet they often miss out on the economic benefits enjoyed by their Western counterparts. Structural issues, such as unequal platform payouts, limited access to global payment systems, and platform designs that don't consider African financial realities, have created a broken creator economy for regions like Africa and Latin America.
These structural challenges include limited technical capacity and infrastructure for effective digital content monetization, a lack of strategic media alliances to boost visibility and revenue, inconsistent and unfair content quality standards and compensation policies on global platforms, and exclusion from global monetization programs that disproportionately favor creators in wealthier markets.
However, a new player in the digital commerce landscape, Selar, is addressing these issues by building a platform specifically designed for African creators. Selar aims to bridge the digital divide in Africa’s creator economy and provide tools and infrastructure that enable African creators to monetize their content directly and fairly, circumventing unfair global gatekeeping.
Selar offers localized payment solutions and monetization models that accommodate African creators’ contexts, empowering them to capture value from their cultural contributions. The platform facilitates direct transactions and content sales between creators and their fans, reducing dependency on global intermediaries with exclusionary practices.
Launched in Nigeria, Selar has grown to become one of the continent's leading platforms for digital creators. Creators on Selar can sell various digital products, including e-books, online courses, and event tickets, in multiple currencies and payment methods tailored to the African market. In 2025, Selar expanded its presence into East Africa and francophone Africa, building strategic partnerships with fintech players like Kikiapay to strengthen cross-border payments.
Douglas Kendyson, the CEO of Selar, states that the platform was built to ensure African creators have a straightforward, dignified way to monetize their knowledge and skills without needing hacks to do global business. Selar's mission is to ensure African creators have a fair stake in the global knowledge and creator economy.
As a result of Selar's efforts, thousands of creators in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda are using the platform to bypass restrictive global platforms and earn directly from their audiences. Selar has paid out over $5 million to creators across Africa, growing as a significant player in the continent's digital economy.
Despite the progress made by Selar, challenges such as platform visibility, algorithmic bias, and limited investor support for creative tech startups continue to stunt growth across the African creator ecosystem. However, the success of Selar and other local platforms fosters cautious optimism for the future of the African creator economy.
- The surge of Selar, a digital commerce platform, is rectifying structural challenges in Africa's creator economy by offering localized payment solutions and monetization models, thereby enabling African creators to earn directly from their content, bypassing global intermediaries with exclusionary practices.
- Selar's mission aligns with the need for education-and-self-development, as it provides African creators with tools and infrastructure for effective digital content monetization, bridging the digital divide and ensuring a fair stake in the global knowledge and creator economy, thus fostering business growth and technology advancement.
