Over the past year, four Nigerian startups collectively paid out more than ₦15 billion to creators, a milestone that would have seemed improbable just a few years ago. Ten-year-old Selar remains the industry’s leading light, paying out more than ₦14 billion to creators in 2025 alone and now boasting nearly 400,000 creators on its platform.
But Selar is no longer alone.
Nestuge, founded in 2023, paid out ₦1.7 billion to creators in 2025 and now hosts over 7,000 creators selling a diverse range of digital products. Meanwhile, Youfanly and AllAccessFans paid out ₦450 million and ₦1.9 billion — respectively, further underscoring the growing appetite for creator-led monetisation platforms in the country.
Together, these numbers suggest a sector that is no longer aspirational and is, for the first time, showing signs of durability.
Selar CEO Douglas Kendyson points to two key catalysts behind this growth. The first is COVID-19. Lockdowns forced millions of people indoors and disrupted traditional sources of income, compelling many to experiment with alternative ways of earning money online. Crucially, those habits did not disappear when restrictions were lifted.
The second catalyst, Kendyson argues, is the visibility of earlier digital creators who proved that selling knowledge and digital products could be a viable business. To be clear, digital content creators are not new in Nigeria. For years, the space was dominated by information-selling gurus who relied heavily on affiliate marketing to generate revenue.
But that era was often met with scepticism. For many observers, the business models were opaque and occasionally dubious. In that context, Selar’s decision to be transparent about creator earnings and the quality of its creators (many are professionals) helped change perceptions.
Public payout milestones created both trust and a sense of possibility. That shift is evident in Selar’s trajectory from paying out roughly $1 million (₦435 million at the 2021 exchange rate) in 2021 to over ₦11 billion in 2025.
Creators are not the only ones paying attention. Entrepreneurs are increasingly entering the space with similar ventures, betting that creator monetisation will continue to grow. Kendyson views this influx of competitors as a positive signal rather than a threat, comparing it to the early days of digital payments in Nigeria when Paystack and Flutterwave helped make online transactions mainstream.
“It just means the market will be more sensitised to the concept of digital products,” he told Techpoint Africa. “More importantly, consumers will be more comfortable with the idea of people buying digital products.”
Nestuge’s own experience seems to support this view. December 2025 was the startup’s strongest month yet, recording its highest transaction volumes since launch. According to CEO Nelson Eze, while the company initially set conservative goals for 2025, watching Selar’s growth gave it the confidence to think bigger.
Like Selar, Nestuge has grown without external capital. Eze believes the arrival of more players could help not just with customer education but also with investor validation — proof that the market is real and expanding.
Still, he is clear-eyed about the sector’s true state. In his assessment, Nigeria’s creator economy is still nascent, with enormous room for growth. Nestuge positions itself as a platform for anyone looking to monetise expertise, but the ceiling remains largely untouched. No Nigerian creator monetisation startup, he argues, has yet crossed the $1 million annual revenue mark, highlighting both the immaturity of the market and the scale of the opportunity.
As more platforms emerge, competition for creators’ loyalty is intensifying. Eze points out that creators want to feel heard and will readily switch platforms if they believe they are not getting a fair deal. Kendyson echoes this sentiment, noting that as competitors roll out new features, the bar for serving users continues to rise.
Staying ahead, he says, will come down to Selar’s ability to deeply understand creator needs and respond quickly. The battle is no longer just about payouts; it is about experience, support, and long-term value.
One of the most pressing needs creators continue to express is discovery and audience growth. So far, most platforms have focused on helping creators monetise audiences they already have. But a significant portion of the target market for platforms like Selar and Nestuge consists of professionals with valuable expertise and relatively small followings.
To address this, Nestuge has built a discovery feature that enables users to find creators organically, potentially exposing them to a wider audience. The company is also preparing to launch a new product, Hubs, designed to help creators build communities that can be monetised through memberships.
Eze says the decision to build Hubs came from observing creator behaviour on the platform. A large share of digital products, he notes, revolve around teaching others how to make money. While lucrative in the short term, he believes this model is neither sustainable nor repeatable at scale. Kendyson acknowledges that discovery and audience growth remains key challenges for creators but notes that Selar doesn’t yet have a product that fixes this challenge for creators.
Today, it’s unclear which startups will emerge as the dominant players in Nigeria’s creator economy, but one thing is certain: the ecosystem is deepening. More platforms are emerging, creators are earning meaningful income, and consumers are increasingly embracing digital products and content.
