PwC’s Africa Entertainment and Media Outlook for 2026 to 2030 landed this week, and the headline belongs to Kenya.
Kenya’s internet advertising revenue is forecast to grow from $313 million in 2025 to $603 million in 2030. That’s 14% a year. Video advertising is growing faster still, at 18.2% a year, pushed by social platforms and connected TVs. South Africa stays the biggest market by value, but Kenya is where the growth is.
Nigeria has its own story. Streaming revenue is growing at 20.4% a year, ahead of Kenya at 15.9% and well ahead of South Africa at 7.6%, where traditional TV is shrinking. Retail paid search in Nigeria, meaning ads on shopping platforms like Jumia, is growing at 17.2% a year and should overtake regular search advertising by 2028.
That last number deserves more attention than it’s getting. Nigerian shoppers increasingly start their search on the store, not on Google. If your brand sells online and you’re not budgeting for retail media, you’re missing the moment people decide what to buy.
PwC also has a view on AI. It expects better targeting and ad performance, but it flags data privacy, transparency, intellectual property and governance as problems that get bigger as more of the industry adopts these tools. Read: regulators are coming, and brands that treat customer data carelessly now will pay for it later.
For Kenyan marketers, the takeaway is simple. Video is where your budget should be growing. For Nigerians, look at streaming audiences and retail media before you renew another billboard contract.
Sources: PwC, TechTrends Kenya, IT Online
