ACCRA, Oct 1 (The African Portal) – TikTok will send a team to Ghana for the first time to train content creators and open local payment channels, a move officials say could boost the country’s fast-growing digital economy.
Communication Minister Sam Nartey George said the Chinese-owned platform had agreed to partner with state-owned GCB Bank to allow creators to receive earnings directly, bypassing long-standing obstacles linked to global payment services such as PayPal.
“I have had meetings with multiple associations of bloggers. We’re getting TikTok to, for the first time on the continent, fly in a team to come and help our content creators do capacity building … to improve their monetisation,” George told JoyNews’ PM Express programme.
He added: “We’ve set up an engagement between TikTok and GCB Bank to be able, in the absence of PayPal in the country, to offer a payment channel for our content creators here.”
The deal is seen as a breakthrough for Ghanaian digital entrepreneurs, who have struggled to collect income from global platforms due to restrictions on cross-border payments. It also highlights TikTok’s growing footprint in Africa, where youth-led creator economies are expanding rapidly.
George said his ministry was also pushing reforms to strengthen the digital space, including a startup bill to attract venture capital and a planned law to curb harmful online and offline content.
“At no point in time have we said we want to regulate social media,” he said. “We simply said that the fact that you use new media for broadcast does not put you above the ethics of the broadcast journalist.”
The government expects to begin stakeholder consultations soon on a new misinformation, disinformation and hate speech bill, he added.
