Media entrepreneur and WithChude host, Chude Jideonwo, has unveiled new data positioning the Nigerian creative economy as one of the most commercially powerful industries on the continent.
While highlighting explosive growth and overlooked business models at the inaugural Digital Creator Africa Summit held in Lagos recently, Jideonwo revealed that Tunde Ednut, the musician turned-Instagram mogul, is estimated to earn over $5,000 a day through his platform — with a business model based on affiliate promotion, Instagram advertising, and music amplification.
According to him, the hit podcast, I Said What I Said (ISWIS) made approximately $200,000 in gross revenue from live events alone in a single month, drawing thousands of fans across the US, the UK and Canada.
“What these numbers show,” Jideonwo said, “is that creators are no longer just influencers — they are media companies, and increasingly, nation-builders.”
Attended by creators, investors and media leaders, the summit was designed to shift the conversation from virality to value — reframing content creation as infrastructure, not just entertainment.
Also in his remarks, Jideonwo announced his $500,000 personal commitment to the FourthMainland Creator Fund — a catalytic investment vehicle to back high-potential African creators with funding, IP support, and platform distribution.
“We’re building the Mavin Records of storytelling,” he stated. “Not just with fame, but with financial tools, ownership, and a full studio system that lets creators scale across the continent and diaspora.”
The Creator Fund is part of the broader FourthMainland ecosystem, a creator commerce platform set to launch in 2026. The platform will offer monetization tools, subscription infrastructure, and joint-IP models built around African content — positioning it as the first at-scale infrastructure for the continent’s growing $100 billion creator economy.
Jideonwo, whose ventures include Joy Inc., #WithChude and YNaija, closed with a call to funders and policymakers. He declared: “If music had Mavin Records and tech had CcHub, then creators now have their studio systems — their Mavins — and they’re building billion-dollar value chains without waiting for permission.”
With the keynote speech titled ‘Overtaking is Allowed’, Jideonwo concluded that Africa’s most important civic and cultural shifts today are being led by independent creators, and that media-tech infrastructure for creators is now one of the biggest opportunities for economic growth across the continent.