Be Afrika Media Ltd

I have worked as a creative supplier and consumer for years and I know the challenges this industry is facing in Kenya. Creative professionals are taken advantage of when it comes to not being paid for their work and IP rights. What's worse is that this underdeveloped industry has become our only avenue to address the growing youth unemployment in the country. Though recognized as such, the government is very lax in the urgency in which the broken and nonexistent structures need to be fixed and built to create an enabling environment for sustainability.

We would like to contribute to the growth of the creative industry in Kenya and ultimately Africa, so that African creatives can lead fulfilling lives through their skills and passion.

We would like to do this by developing an online marketplace to help creatives and their customers connect with each other with ease known as CreativeList. The platform will provide guarantee of valid employment, fair pay and also access to paying jobs. We will have services in platform effects that will support creatives not just in job matching but also skills development to increase hiring by merit and not 'who you know'.

My name is Rinah Lidonde and as a creative, I wear several hats-- content writer, published author of over 10 years, Creative Director, Fashion Designer, Creative Content Creator and once upon a time, Fashion Model.

I have a passion for Creative Entrepreneurship and the development of this sector. The creative industry in Africa has been described as a ‘Sleeping Giant’ and will remain as such unless we as individuals, as influential private organizations then hopefully soon, government institutions work to making this underappreciated informal sector into a money making and employment generating industry.

In my bid to becoming one of these change makers, I have worked with several companies that train and represent Creative Entrepreneurs and Start-ups. Soon after I started my own company that supports Creative Entrepreneurs through content creation on a digital platform.

I am a start-up owner of a creative digital content creation company in the name of BE Afrika Media Ltd. The company also publishes a digital creative magazine called BE Afrika Discovered soon to relaunch as URBANE.  

Working in Be Afrika Media, and watching the Co-Founder source for talents and skills on behalf of our clients inspired the idea for CreativeList.

It is true that we the lack infrastructure, regulatory frameworks and capacity to commercialise its creative sectors, but what' truly at stake is youth employment with more than 11 million young Africans entering the workforce every year. The reality is that the current key growth sectors are unable to create the necessary jobs at the pace required.

Worldwide, the creative industry generates a revenue of $2,250 billion and provides 30 million job but only 547,500 jobs in Africa with a revenue of $4.2 billion. This is a sector that employs largely women and youth, the two most vulnerable demographic. With the onset of COVID 19, creative freelancers have declined with this demography suffering job losses at greater rates than their older and male colleagues.

As CreativeList, the problem we are solving is the lack of guarantee in creative hiring in Kenya. For creatives, it is the guarantee of valid employment and pay once the job is done according to the job description provided by the client.

Our solutions are designed to provide this guarantee and access to paying jobs in content creation through a two sided, curated marketplace that connects freelance creatives to jobs posted by individuals and businesses.

We would be the first creative skills specific job marketplace in Africa that would assist creatives with client networking and management, access to paying jobs and making connections. We would focus not only on the established creative professionals but also and with more resources on the unestablished creative professionals.

With platforms such as Behance and Fiverr as competitions, we would focus on building creative skills communities. A made in Africa or born in Africa innovation would inspire that community that come together to personally take on the challenges faced by the creative sector on the continent and inspire change and growth of the industry.

Our impact is to contribute to the growth of the creative industry in Kenya and ultimately Africa so that African creatives can lead fulfilling lives through their skills and passions.