Winners and runners-up from four regions of Africa: West Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, have been recognized and rewarded at the inaugural TikTok creator awards that took place in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, recently.

TikTok’s head of programming in Sub-Saharan Africa, Boniswa Sidwaba, said, in a recent interview, that the nominees were selected by TikTok to acknowledge the “immense talent and creativity they brought to the platform in the past year”, recognize them as drivers of some of the most exciting trends of 2022, and encourage creators in Sub-Saharan Africa to tell more African stories while spreading joy always.

The ceremony, graced by the media community and fellow creators across Sub-Saharan Africa, followed a highly competitive eight-day-long public voting process on the app.

TikTokers, or creators as they are called on the platform, make short engaging videos showcasing cooking skills, dance moves, beauty tips, and other talents, and for displaying these qualities exceptionally, a select number of Africans have been recompensed.

For Southern Africa, the creator Melissa, identified as @pilot_onthegram, emerged winner, while Motho Wa Ernest, @.lindokuhle_khoza, emerged as the first runner-up. Both are South Africans.

In West Africa, Ifeoma Efiokwu, @e4ma, and Maduakor Chisom Faustina, @berby_picky, both from Nigeria, emerged as the winner and first runner-up respectively.

In East Africa, Natasha Gwal, @natasha_gwal, and Niita Abdiqathar, @beautyby.nita, both from Kenya, clinched the winner and first runner-up spots separately.

In all of Sub-Saharan Africa however, Dennis Ombachi, @theroamingchef, from Kenya, and Charity Ekezie, @charityekezie, from Nigeria, led as the overall winner and first runner-up respectively.

TikTok’s use in Africa has continued to wax strong with Kenya, Egypt, and Nigeria all registering in the top 10 countries with the highest downloads in 2022 on the Apple App store.