When Bruce Melodie spoke at the 20th National Dialogue Council and asked President Paul Kagame to help Rwandan creators earn money on YouTube, he spoke for thousands. ALSO READ: What are the resolutions adopted at Umushyikirano 2026? President Kagame turned to Paula Ingabire, the Minister of ICT and Innovation, who explained that platforms like YouTube and Facebook require a large advertising market, a big user base, and reliable payment infrastructure before enabling monetisation in a country. Rwanda ticks some of those boxes, but not all yet. A painful reality for Rwandan content creators is that the country is currently not on YouTube’s list of eligible countries for ad revenue. If your audience is 100% in Rwanda, your YouTube earnings are zero. Facebook and Instagram’s full monetisation tools are mainly available in countries like Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program covers only about eight countries worldwide, none in Africa. If you are sitting in Kigali waiting for these platforms to start paying you, you could be waiting a long time. With that said, the creators earning the most money worldwide are not earning it primarily from platform ad revenue. They earn through brand deals, digital products, services, and by using social media as a marketing tool for real businesses. Every one of these strategies works in Rwanda today. No eligibility list required. The first and most accessible way is brand sponsorships. A company pays you to feature their product in your content. The money comes from the brand, not the platform, so it works on any app. What brands care about is not necessarily your follower count but your engagement and relevance. ALSO READ: Using AI to empower teachers, protect every child If you have 3,000 followers who are all young mothers in Kigali, a baby product company would pay to reach them. Find your niche, post consistently, then approach local businesses directly. Start with realistic pricing, even Rwf50,000 to Rwf100,000 per post, and grow from there. Second is selling digital products. If you have knowledge people want to learn, package it into an e-book, online course, or coaching programme. Maybe you understand how to navigate Irembo services, or you cook incredible Rwandan food. Your social media becomes the storefront and Mobile Money becomes your payment system. A well-promoted e-book at Rwf5,000 could sell hundreds of copies. An online course at Rwf20,000 to Rwf50,000, delivered through WhatsApp or Google Classroom, could become a real income stream. Third, you could offer social media management services. Not everyone wants to be on camera, and that is fine because businesses desperately need help with their online presence. Look around Kigali: restaurants with inactive pages, shops with no Instagram, hotels with outdated Facebook accounts. Offer to manage their accounts and create their content. Charge Rwf100,000 to Rwf300,000 per client per month locally, or find international clients through Fiverr and Upwork for even more. If you have 5 monthly clients each at Rwf200,000 you’d earn a cool Rwf1 million francs monthly. Fourth, create content for international audiences. Even though YouTube does not pay for Rwandan views, it does pay for views from eligible countries. If you create content in English or French that appeals to audiences in Kenya, Nigeria, the UK, or the US, those views generate revenue. Videos about life in Kigali, Rwanda’s natural beauty, and Rwandan music and food all travel well internationally. Fifth, use social media as a shop window for your real business. If you are a photographer, post your best work on Instagram and let it bring clients to you. If you sell clothes, showcase your wardrobe on TikTok and let orders come through your DMs. You collect payment through Mobile Money and depend on no platform’s monetisation programme. Some of the most financially successful creators in Rwanda do not earn a single franc from YouTube. They use social media to fill their restaurants, book their photography sessions, and grow their consulting practices. The conversation Bruce Melodie started at Umushyikirano matters, and the government is right to negotiate with Google, Meta, and TikTok. But while those negotiations happen, you do not have to wait. Pick a topic you care about, choose a platform, post consistently, and monetize the trust you build. The digital economy is already here. Stop watching. Start creating. Carl Mabuka is an MIT-certified AI professional and the Head of Business & AI at Global Kwik Koders.
