By Valerie Fatuma
Valerie Fatuma is a Research Assistant at the Refugee-Led Research Hub. She is a DAFI alumna who pursued a BA in Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Nairobi. Valerie is interested in television production and understanding how refugees interact with social media. For her fourth-year project, she produced a TV documentary about the legal challenges faced by Congolese refugees in Kenya. She has also worked as an Assistant Producer at Look Up TV, a Kenyan TV station.
Kenya has East Africa’s largest economy, but the country has struggled to create enough formal jobs for its young and growing population. Refugees and asylum-seekers face additional challenges finding formal work, including the difficulty of securing work permits and opening bank accounts.
In recent years, a thriving digital economy has begun offering an alternative for those shut out of formal employment. Refugees are using social media platforms to create and advertise their businesses and skills, to communicate with potential customers, and to earn an income as digital content creators and influencers. Conversations with Nairobi-based refugees who are already earning an income in the digital economy reveal how each platform comes with its own opportunities and limitations.
Connecting with customers through WhatsApp
Millions of refugees rely on WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family, but the platform also offers a free business account called WhatsApp Business. Refugees running small retail and hairdressing businesses use it to share their business profile, stay in touch with their customers and list their products and services.
Mayombo* is a young refugee living in Nairobi who earns a living selling men’s and women’s clothing online and in a shop. Starting the business was not easy without capital, but a friend loaned him enough money to buy a smartphone which he uses to post pictures of his products on social media platforms. He said ‘Being in the social media space is not easy, especially TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, as you need to have more followers and reviews so that people can trust your business. To gain more followers on those platforms, there is an option of advertising your business with accounts that have larger followings, but you have to pay a fee, which I’m not able to.’
Mayombo prefers using WhatsApp Business. ‘It is better because the people who are there are your contacts, so getting customers is much easier, and they also refer me to their friends so I am able to make some money.’
At times, when business is slow, he struggles to post online because he lacks money to buy internet bundles. Despite the challenges, the platform has helped him find more customers and grow his business both online and offline.
Showcasing skills through Instagram
In addition to generating an income through online businesses, refugees are using social media platforms, such as Instagram, to showcase and monetise their talents and skills. Instagram allows creators to share photos and videos with their followers. One of the ways refugees earn money through Instagram is by collaborating with brands to create sponsored content, although this usually depends on having a large number of followers, ‘engagements’ (likes, comments and shares), and regularly posting content. Refugees can also use Instagram to build their online presence and earn money from their followers through subscriptions and ‘gifts’ although they face difficulties accessing that money, as I will explain below.
In Nairobi, many young refugees gain photography and videography skills through training offered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Others, like Kasanga*, who has been interested in photography and videography since he was a young kid, are self-taught. By consistently posting his work on Instagram, Kasanga has built an online presence, attracting clients for photography work, as well as brands and influencers. ‘Instagram has been one of the best ways to share my work,’ he said. ‘People are aware of my services. They even refer me to their friends, and I get to take photos and videos at events such as birthdays, graduations and weddings.’
Recently, Kasanga was offered a major gig shooting a video for a brand event through a referral from an influencer he had been working with. ‘This was a significant opportunity for me because other brands started approaching me and asking for my rate card.’
It hasn’t always been a smooth journey for Kasanga. To hire him on a contract basis, some brands ask him for a Class M work permit (a type of work permit issued to recognised refugees in Kenya), which he does not have. According to the Kenyan Citizenship and Immigration Act, employers who wish to hire refugees must ensure they hold a work permit. But obtaining this document involves a tedious and challenging bureaucratic process that can take months, as outlined in this RLRH blog post.
A recent review of digital employment pipelines for refugees by an alliance of NGOs found that while refugee creators may have the necessary skills, their ‘precarious legal status’, lack of documents and access to financial services, can limit their ability to earn an income on platforms like Instagram.
Seeing what his skills have done for him, however, has kept Kasanga hopeful that one day he will get a chance to work with other brands.
Growing a business with TikTok
Another social media platform refugees are using their skills to monetize is TikTok, where users share short videos with their followers. On TikTok you can gain more followers by posting content consistently. According to the above mentioned study, some Kenyan refugee content creators earn money by streaming real-time broadcasts called TikTok Live videos. Viewers send them virtual gifts that can be converted into money providing the refugee creators have bank or mobile money accounts.
Sangela* uses TikTok to share videos of the cakes she bakes and to post baking tutorials. She started the business after finishing her secondary school education. Unable to afford college, she had to find a way to survive. She started by posting short videos of her baking, which gained some traction. After a while, she gained a lot of followers and people started reaching out to her to order cakes. This helped her to build a clientele and she started offering offline baking classes for a small fee. ‘TikTok has enabled my business to grow both online and offline,’ she said. ‘So many people have reached out to me, requesting my services. Nowadays, I get gigs baking wedding cakes, which is a big deal for me.’
While TikTok has helped Sangela launch and grow her baking business, she faces significant barriers earning a digital income. While she sometimes does live videos on TikTok and earns virtual gifts sent by her audience, she is not able to withdraw the money. ‘The platform is not favourable towards people like me who only have refugee ID cards,’ she said.
In the absence of a work permit, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) PIN (tax registration number), or a Kenya ID card, refugees like Sangela struggle to open local bank or M-Pesa (mobile money) accounts that would allow them to access their online earnings. While recent legislative changes officially allow refugees to register SIM cards and open M-Pesa accounts with refugee ID cards, in practice not every refugee is able to do so. Refugee ID cards expire after five years, and renewing them can be a long process. As a result, refugee content creators like Sangela and Kasanga have limited opportunities to monetise platforms like TikTok and Instagram other than as a way to attract and retain clients for their offline businesses.
Conclusion
Refugees in Kenya are using social media platforms to support their businesses, showcase their skills and generate an income. These platforms have created pathways for them to become self-reliant, reshaping the narrative of refugees as passive recipients of aid and increasing their visibility both online and offline. However, refugees continue to confront challenges with monetising their skills using these platforms without the necessary documents to open bank or M-Pesa accounts.
Recommendations
Social media has the potential to become a powerful tool for refugee autonomy and self-reliance if steps are taken to ensure refugees’ digital inclusion. I recommend the following:
- The Government of Kenya should ensure that refugee documents are recognised by government institutions and companies that want to employ refugees on social media platforms. This would help refugees to register for SIM cards, open M-Pesa and bank accounts, get a KRA PIN, and also get Class M work permits in a timely manner. They could then access the money they earn on social media platforms more easily, and collaborate with brands.
- The Government should also develop a framework that allows refugees with expired ID cards to continue accessing mobile money services and other financial services, such as bank accounts, while they wait for their IDs to be renewed.
- NGOs that support refugees should provide them with digital training. This would help them learn how to use social media platforms to earn an income or become digital content creators. NGOs should also establish accessible hubs with electronic devices, camera equipment and WiFi access so refugees can create and upload quality content.
* Names have been changed to protect identities.
