At the recent NECLive 2025 conference, a striking critique of Nigeria’s digital economy strategy emerged from A’isha Umar Mumuni, the Chief Digital Officer at MTN Nigeria.
She stated clearly that while “YouTube is an advertising platform… we are not using it properly in Nigeria,” emphasizing a significant missed opportunity for creators and businesses across the country.
The Untapped Potential
Mumuni’s remarks were made during a panel session on “Accessing the Global Creative Innovation in a Digital Economy.”
Her core argument is that Nigerian content creators and businesses are failing to fully leverage YouTube’s robust ecosystem, particularly its potential for strategic monetization and audience engagement beyond just uploading videos.
• Monetization Gap: The focus often remains on direct ad revenue from views, overlooking the platform’s advanced targeting tools for advertisers.
• Strategic Digital Engagement: Mumuni stressed the need for Nigerian creatives and brands to understand how to use digital platforms not just as content libraries but as essential engines for monetizing content, driving growth, and maximizing opportunities in the fast-evolving digital economy.
• Global Reach: YouTube provides an unparalleled global stage, and businesses that fail to use it strategically are limiting their growth to local markets when their content is capable of reaching a global audience.
The Challenges Facing YouTube Advertisers in Nigeria
The CDO’s call to action highlights the need to overcome several persistent challenges that plague digital advertising in Nigeria, preventing the effective utilization of platforms like YouTube:
Low Conversion Rates: Many businesses face frustration when high ad spend and clicks don’t translate into commensurate sales, often due to unoptimized landing pages or poorly targeted campaigns.
Lack of Skilled Personnel: There is a significant shortage of in-house teams skilled in running sophisticated YouTube ad campaigns, leading to guesswork and wasted budgets.
Ad Skipping and Retention: Viewers, particularly millennials, have a short attention span.
A major challenge is creating compelling ads that overcome the option to skip TrueView ads or ads that are forgotten within minutes of being viewed.
Security and Trust: Issues like low trust in online transactions and security risks can undermine the effectiveness of digital campaigns that require a consumer to make an online purchase.
The Way Forward for Nigerian Businesses
A’isha Umar Mumuni’s message suggests that tapping into YouTube’s true value requires a shift in mindset—from simply uploading videos to engaging in data-driven, strategic advertising.
Businesses must focus on:
• Audience Targeting: Utilizing YouTube’s demographic, interest, and behavior targeting features to ensure ads reach the most relevant users.
• Content Quality: Producing high-quality video ads that offer value and are professionally presented to make a lasting impact.
• Optimization: Continuously monitoring key metrics like average view duration, conversion rate, and traffic source to adjust and optimize campaigns for better return on investment (ROI).
The sentiment from the MTN CDO serves as a clear indictment and a powerful reminder: the potential for growth through platforms like YouTube is immense, but it will only be unlocked by moving beyond rudimentary use and embracing strategic digital literacy.
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