Speaking at the event in Lagos, Senior Product Manager for YouTube Tutu Laditan said that the curriculum of the programme gave the participants the fundamental knowledge they needed to progress from creating content to being well-known, globally popular content creators.
With the use of short videos, at least 4,000 content creators in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria will be able to grow the continent’s creative economy.
The makers, who concluded an eight-week intense course called “Made for You,” celebrated their graduation this past weekend. They plan to share their varied tales, including music, cuisine, and cultural insights, with a global audience.
Speaking at the event in Lagos, Senior Product Manager for YouTube Tutu Laditan said that the curriculum of the programme gave the participants the fundamental knowledge they needed to progress from creating content to being well-known, globally popular content creators.
She explained: “They gained essential skills in areas such as content strategy, audience engagement and monetization of their YouTube Shorts thereby contributing significantly to Africa’s creative economy.”
Laditan noted that the empowerment became necessary because YouTube needed to pull in more local content.”
Emphasizing on the necessity of local creators, she said: “You could start watching Nigerian shorts videos and before you know it, you have moved to content in India.
“So, we thought that if people must find value on the platform, we need to support our local creators. And that’s what ‘Made For You’ is doing, bringing in more of these local guys to do things in their local language like recipes, dance, whatever, and then share their talent.
“The successful creators will now be integrated into the official Shorts community under the guidance of Community Partnership Managers, CPMs. They will now consider themselves as part of an official YouTube Shorts Community.
“This milestone is just the beginning of their journey because YouTube is committed to their ongoing support through advanced workshops, networking opportunities, and potential integration into broader YouTube will be available to speak to you on the Made For You initiative and give more insights.”
Laditan, however, expressed optimism on the contribution of the content creators to Nigerian gross domestic product, GDP.
She said: “We are seeing that if we bring in more creatives, as they grow, they will hire people because you can’t be the only person editing your video, doing your behind the screen, writing your script.
“So, you might begin to hire people that do all that thereby creating more employment,” Laditan expressed.
