Kigali, Rwanda – The 20th edition of the national dialogue (Umushyikirano) that ended on February 6, 2025, has exposed a reality Rwanda can no longer afford to treat as secondary.
It’s clear that our creatives are talented, visible, and hardworking, yet largely excluded from the economic value of the digital space they help animate.
When artists, comedians, musicians, and content creators stood up to speak, they were not asking for favors. They were asking for fairness in an economy that increasingly rewards ideas, visibility, and cultural influence.
Across the world, creative work posted online generates real income. Musicians earn thousands of dollars per million views on YouTube. Streams on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music sustain careers.
Advertising revenue follows attention, and attention follows content. Rwanda, however, remains stuck at the margins of this system, not because of a lack of talent, but because the ecosystem that converts creativity into income is still underdeveloped.
At Umushyikirano, Bruce Melody put it plainly that Rwandan creatives post their work on the same global platforms as their peers abroad, yet the rewards are incomparable.
ICT Minister Paula Ingabire explained why. Monetization depends on three conditions: strong copyright protection, functioning payment systems, and sufficient advertising volume. Rwanda has done well on the first two. The third remains our biggest weakness.
This is where leadership must move from explanation to action. President Kagame repeatedly pushed the discussion further, pressing for answers on how the country can solve this problem, not just understand it.
The conclusion was unavoidable: without local companies advertising online, platforms will continue to treat Rwanda as a low-value market, regardless of how good the content is.
If I were president, the first thing I would do is make online advertising a national economic priority. Just as Rwanda deliberately built a culture of buying Made-in-Rwanda products, it can deliberately build a culture of advertising through digital platforms.
Government institutions, state-linked companies, banks, telecoms, airlines, and large private firms already spend heavily on promotion. Redirecting a meaningful share of that spending online would immediately raise Rwanda’s advertising profile and unlock income for creatives.
Second, I would institutionalize the use of local creatives in national branding campaigns such as Visit Rwanda. Not as an occasional gesture, but as policy.
Creatives are not just entertainers; they are storytellers and brand ambassadors. Their audiences are already global. Using them systematically would create income streams while amplifying Rwanda’s image in authentic ways.
Third, I would treat journalism and digital media as part of the same ecosystem. When Scovia Mutesi of Mama Rwagasabo told Umushyikirano that many journalists have abandoned the profession due to low pay, she was describing the same structural problem.
Content that informs, educates, and shapes public discourse cannot survive on passion alone. Allocating public communication budgets transparently to credible digital media would strengthen democracy while sustaining livelihoods.
It’s clear that Rwanda’s creatives are ready, the policies exist and the payment systems work. What remains is deliberate economic alignment. In the digital era, creativity is not decoration but production. And if Rwanda chooses to treat it that way, the returns will follow.
