CHANNELING FAME

Kobina Ackon, popularly known as Wode Maya, is Ghana’s first YouTuber to hit over a million subscribers. His channel creating positive African content has won him followers and a fortune.

- PEACE HYDE

AT JUST 23 YEARS OLD, AMERICAN YOUTUBE megastar Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has reportedly amassed over 10 billion views on his YouTube channel, and taken home a staggering $54 million in 2021 by posting hilarious and philanthropic content.

In 2019, CNBC reported that a survey done by Danish toy-maker Lego found that about a third of children aged between eight and 12 dream of becoming vloggers or YouTubers; the survey polled kids in the United States, China and the United Kingdom.

But that trend has now slowly also made its way into Africa.

And young content creators on the continent are glued to their monitors and screens to catch up on all the social media action and monetize it, just like their global counterparts.

Kobina Ackon, popularly known by the moniker Wode Maya, is one such African sensation – he is Ghana’s first YouTuber to hit over a million subscribers.

But Ackon never aspired to be a digital star. He had wanted to become an aeronautical engineer.

He and his family had humble beginnings in the Western Region of Ghana, where they lived five siblings to one room and used rice bags as school bags. Ackon was taught from an early age the value of humility.

After completing his secondary school education in Ghana, Ackon relocated to China to further his studies as an aeronautical engineer.

But contrary to what most people believe, success on YouTube did not come overnight for him. In fact, it was a slow and steady rise filled with trial and error tracking analytics that would guide him to the right blend of content to identify a niche that would finally give him six-figure success.