The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) has enlisted the support of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to help Namibia gain access to social media monetisation for local digital creators.
The ministry said the ITU, a United Nations agency, will assist in strengthening Namibia’s case and advocating for regional inclusion in digital monetisation frameworks.
“We have continuously engaged. We have even roped in the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations agency, to try to help us boost that leverage for them to actually say look, okay, yes, we have these limitations that maybe we can consider. But it’s an ongoing process,” MICT Minister Emma Theofelus told The Brief.
She said ongoing discussions with major technology companies have revealed persistent challenges linked to Namibia’s small market size and limited prioritisation by global platforms.
“We have had multiple engagements with people from Google in the Google AdSense department. We have multiple engagements with people from YouTube itself. We had multiple engagements with people from Apple Pay as well as PayPal. Those are the four we have engaged. We have reached out to the executives at TikTok for us to have that engagement. It’s such a struggle,” she said.
Theofelus explained that despite sustained efforts, Namibia’s population of about three million remains a major constraint in attracting monetisation opportunities for local creators.
“I’ve asked other ministers from other countries. I’ve asked my colleagues from some francophone countries and others from small states like Mauritius and Pomeros. There’s always an element of population and market size being too small,” she said.
According to the minister, global companies tend to prioritise larger markets with greater advertising reach and profitability, often leaving smaller nations at a disadvantage.
“It seems these entities are not quite incentivised to reach out to a market of three million people compared to a market of 50 million people. They talk about not having the capacity and the bandwidth and that they’re prioritising some markets versus others. We seem to not be in a priority market,” Theofelus said.
She added that she has personally met with company executives in Johannesburg to advance discussions and reaffirm Namibia’s commitment to ensuring that local digital creators can benefit from online monetisation opportunities.
