YouTube Announces New Initiatives to Support Growth of Local Creators in Nigeria

 YouTube today unveiled two new initiatives to support the growth of YouTube Creators in Nigeria. 

The first is a YouTube-driven promotional campaign that features upcoming content from top local YouTube channels and Creators. The second is a partnership with MTN, which will see Creators provided with free data for three months’, and MTN launching new packages to enable Nigerians to watch more of their favourite YouTube content. 

Launched in Lagos, at an event attended by top Nigerian YouTube creators, entertainers, movie industry experts, influencers as well as media, the YouTube campaign showcases a vast array of
verticals and local content from genres like entertainment, food, beauty, comedy and sports.

At the event, Creators were presented with MiFi devices and free internet access for the next three months’ to help them share more content, more conveniently. MTN also introduced new offerings for consumers to take up so they can watch more of their favourite YouTube channels.

This announcement builds on the first YouTube Week, hosted in Lagos in June, and the support for 10 Creators through Mr Eazi’s emPawa Africa initiative, announced at Google for Nigeria in July 2019.

Speaking at the event, Olumide Balogun, Google’s Country Marketing Manager in Nigeria, said, “YouTube is doing this to help more people discover content that they will love on the platform. 

“Helping more Creators to get discovered and succeed, and making it easier for more people to be able to access YouTube through affordable data plans is important to us,” Olumide added. 

“YouTube is committed to supporting YouTube Creators to develop locally relevant content,” said Olumide “in addition to YouTube Week in June and the Mr Eazi emPawa Africa partnership announced in July, we have also awarded Play Buttons to Creators as they hit subscriber milestones this year. Into 2020 and beyond, we will continue to  showcase local artists like we did with Burna Boy’s Spotlight Story documentary, and continue hosting training and skill acquisition programs. 

“Over 5000 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. YouTube attracts a global generation that has grown up watching what they want, whenever they want, on whatever device is closest. What happens on YouTube is a reflection of what is important and relevant to the world. YouTube has a large and passionate community of people who express themselves, share experiences, and reflect on what they care about from moment to moment. We are very excited to be able to extend our support of this community in Nigeria,” Olumide concluded.