Founded in August 2021 and based in Benin City, Nigeria, EKI Technologies is a digital incubator helping African creators connect, learn, and monetize their talents, addressing the key infrastructure gaps that have prevented many of them from accessing the same opportunities available to their global counterparts. 

“We are helping African creators with tools and platforms to turn their creativity into prosperity,” says Uche Eze, EKI Technologies’ co-founder and CEO. The company serves African content creators across all niches and follower levels, with a particular focus on helping micro-creators who brands and platforms have traditionally overlooked.

Rather than developing isolated tools, EKI is building an interconnected ecosystem that guides creators through every stage of their development.

“We had to start from scratch and build the whole infrastructure ourselves,” Uche says. “We are building platforms in four areas: training, growth, discovery, and monetization. We are an ecosystem of the creative economy, and we want to provide platforms that, within three to five years, at least one in ten African creators should be using.”

This four-stage infrastructure functions like a professional development pipeline. Uche compares it to medical training: “It’s like a school. For instance, when you want to study medicine, you typically start with medical school, then complete your internship, and eventually work with a government hospital or start your own practice. So we have, we are helping them with those building blocks, or like guidance, or a guide helping them from training to growth, to discovery, and to monetization, finally.”

The ecosystem begins with training programs for under-trained creators, progresses through growth stages, leads to discovery via their platform, and culminates in monetization opportunities.

Find African Creators: Solving the Discovery Challenge

At the heart of EKI’s ecosystem is Find African Creators, their discovery platform designed to connect brands with appropriate creators. “Find African Creators allows you to look for a particular niche of creator,” Uche explains.

The platform was designed to serve brands struggling to find niche creators. “Let’s say, for instance, you’re looking for a creator who creates gaming content. You can come to our platform, search them by location, search them by niche, and also by followers,” says Uche.

Rather than focusing on high-follower accounts, Find African Creators emphasizes value and relevance. “What makes us different is that we are focused on African creators. Secondly, we are focused on smaller creators,” Uche explains. “Most of the other platforms want creators who have one million followers. With us, as long as you are creating value, we should be able to attach a campaign to you.”

The platform operates as an end-to-end solution, handling everything from creator discovery to payment processing. Their business model is based primarily on transaction fees: “We only take a percentage of every transaction of a successful brand partnership. That’s how we make most of our money.”

Moreover, Find African Creators isn’t limited to connecting creators with African brands. Uche clarifies: “The idea is to connect African creators to global opportunities. It’s not just for African brands. On the creator side, we are giving attention to African creators, but on the brand side, it’s for the worldwide brands.”

The 99% Challenge

EKI’s mission is driven by a clear reality in the African creator market. “The thing about the African creator economy is that about 1% of the creators make above a certain amount while the remaining 99% make much less,” Uche explains.

This disparity has broader implications beyond individual creators’ earnings. “The creator economy is connected to job creation,” Uche points out. “If we only allow the top 1% just to continue making money, what happens to the other 99%?”

Uche believes the current state of Africa’s creator economy is “scattered” due to a lack of infrastructure. “What we actually lack in the African creator economy is the infrastructure. People come on board, they don’t know what to do, they don’t know where to start from,” he says. “What African creators need is guidance. They need someone to hold their hand and tell them, ‘You can start here.’”

Training and Development

EKI’s approach begins with addressing the key skills gap. “We found out that a lot of African creators are under-trained. So once we get in these creators and we can get them on our courses, on our training programs, we can onboard them on Find African Creators,” Uche explains.

The company has developed structured programs, including a Creator Apprenticeship Program and a Creator Entrepreneurship Program. “The Creator Apprenticeship Program is a way we are pairing creators with businesses that need creators. So we train them for a month, then they’ll do an internship for a month with businesses,” says Uche.

For those looking to build their own businesses, the Creator Entrepreneurship Program offers a different path: “We are turning creatives into business owners. So we are helping them, you know, with becoming influencers. They can sell merchandise, for instance, they can sell digital products.”

To illustrate results, Uche shares one success story: “We were able to onboard some creators to show them the profiles of different creators because they’re looking for a particular niche. The person they found was a lady based in Lagos, and we were able to train her in certain skill sets she needed to create content and become a better creator. And she was onboarded as a social media manager for the company.”

Overcoming Misconceptions

African creators face major challenges beyond skill development and discovery, notably persistent misconceptions about the continent. “I wish global brands understood that we are as capable as any other creative in the world,” Uche says. “The media has painted us in such a light that people don’t see us as highly as they are supposed to see us.”

These misconceptions directly impact creators’ earning potential, as global brands with larger budgets can hesitate to enter African markets. “Because of the low purchasing power, a lot of brands find it hard to come to Africa,” Uche explains. “Most of these high-end companies, they are the ones that pay better, you know, in areas of creativity.”

Despite these challenges, Uche identifies areas where African creators are excelling globally. “In areas of fashion, for instance, we are leading,” he notes, citing international recognition of African designs. “Two weeks ago, I saw a video on BBC whereby schools that are doing proms in the U.S. are using African fabrics or they are using African designs, because they love what we are wearing.”

Gaming represents another promising sector for African creators. “A lot of young Africans are finding success in gaming,” says Uche. He mentions Manja, “one of the best gamers in Africa,” as an example of the talent that global brands could partner with instead of relying solely on international gaming creators.

The Digital Access Barrier

When it comes to a single change that would most transform the African creator economy, Uche identifies a key infrastructure issue: access to the internet. “If I had a magic wand, I would try to make internet subscriptions cheaper, affordable, and also make sure that people in the villages or in the rural areas have access to it,” he says.

The digital divide presents significant challenges for the growth of the creator economy. To address this in the short term, EKI is building a physical creative campus. “We want to create a creative campus whereby we meet with creatives physically and also show them our platform,” says Uche. This campus will serve as a hub where “creators can come and create content, learn about new platforms, learn about new skills, and also collaborate with other creators.”

Expansion and Impact

Looking toward the future, Uche shares plans for both Find African Creators and EKI Technologies as a whole. For Find African Creators, “The next stage for the platform is onboarding users and expanding the user base beyond Nigeria.”

The ultimate vision is global in scope: “The future is to be able to work with other platforms that have creator hubs, creative hubs, governments of different African countries, and get them to onboard creators or youths on our platform.”

For EKI, Uche’s broader mission centers on economic impact. “We want to be able to create millions of jobs using our platforms,” he says.

This focus on job creation reflects Uche’s belief that the creator economy could change Africa’s employment picture. “Our role at EKI Technologies is to make sure that the creator economy industry in Africa produces millions of jobs, even greater than agriculture.”

EKI’s work has already gained recognition from major organizations. “Last year, we got a $20,000 grant from the Gates Foundation,” Uche says. “That has helped push us further.”

For Uche, however, the most meaningful impact comes from individual success stories. “The most fulfilling impact is hearing people tell us that, ‘Oh, I loved what you did. I got a job from your platform. I was able to connect to a brand.'”