I am thrilled to officially announce the launch of AMAKA Gigs, an extension of our platform that allows you to browse content from creators and creative professionals from across Africa and the diaspora, commission work, and pay them all in one place.

Starting off an editorial platform, we've spent years writing briefs and commissioning creative talent, but we soon realised that the creator ecosystem is incredibly fragmented. You often have to browse a creator’s Instagram or TikTok page, click the link in their bio to find their website and review their portfolio, scour their website for their email, reach out, wait for a reply, go back and forth on deliverables, and get their payment details. When you're an Africa-based creator, working with internal clients can be even more stressful because sometimes the payment bounces back due to remittance issues or you need a USD or GBP account to receive payment. There are so many steps, and we thought, why don’t we simplify this?

We’ve been dedicated to building a network of quality Pan-African writers, journalists, content creators, photographers, and videographers from across the globe. 

Let's say you're a publisher looking for a writer in Nigeria. You can search for them, review their content to see if it aligns with what your project needs, message and pay them directly. It really is all here on AMAKA Gigs, with specialised tools and technology to make it easy for you. You can also publish your brief as a 'gig' on our platform to find the right talent. Creators can apply to your gig, or you can invite specific creators to respond through the AMAKA Gigs platform.

We’ll also be growing the platform over the next few months, so if you’re a creator looking for work and want to expand your earning potential, AMAKA is the place to do it.

You can start commissioning our top creators and pick our platform for your next marketing brief, campaign or project today!

Here are my top 10 favourite ways to use the AMAKA Gigs platform for your business:

1.  Looking for creative talent to respond to a pitch or brief immediately: If you're a brand or publisher looking for writers to respond to an open call or an urgent project, AMAKA provides a platform with a pool of relevant talent. You can see all responses in one place, under the gig, without sifting through a bunch of emails to make a choice. We streamline the commissioning processes, offering you a more consolidated experience.

2.  Post a gig with set parameters and deliverables: When creating a gig, you can set the exact deliverables, required skills, level of experience, duration of the gig, and compensation. We provide simple and easy parameters to get you started.

3.  Creator recommendations leveraging artificial intelligence We use AI to suggest relevant creators for your gigs based on the scope of work. This streamlines the search and discovery process, providing immediate recommendations on who might be the right talent.

4.  In-depth search capabilities: You can search by content, creators, location, and topic. View all their work on their profile and message them to connect. We'll be shipping more advanced search tools to make your life easier. If there's something specific you'd like to see, please comment below.

5.  Invite creators to respond to your brief:  The 'invite a creator' feature allows you to enter a creator's email and invite them to respond to a gig, chat, and get paid on the platform. If you have an email list of potential creators, you can batch send them an email all at once for a project, bypassing administrative work. You can also filter the creators by your criteria.

6.  Payment based on milestones: This feature helps you manage deliverables and pay based on mutually agreed milestones. It's a safer way to handle transactions, with funds held in an AMAKA escrow account and released upon agreement. If payment is overdue by 30 days, it will automatically be disbursed to the creator.

7.  Get responses to briefs directly to your email. If you're a brand and want to manage all responses from creators, you can connect your email to your AMAKA account. This way, you’ll automatically receive notifications directly to your email whenever there's a new applicant or response, helping centralize and manage communications efficiently.

8.  Chat with any creator on the platform: You can directly connect with a diverse array of creators and have in-depth conversations about the brief in a chat room. You can align on deliverables and offer feedback. I’ve always hated the hassle of searching my inbox to manage multiple conversations. It’s a much faster, more coordinated platform streamlining your creative briefs.

9.  Faster browsing to commission pipeline: You can browse creator content and hire them on the spot. Haven't you ever wished you could do that while browsing other platforms? Sometimes you want to get to the point i.e. chat, and send the contract via the chat.

10.  Get commissioned and find new business: You can post your brand’s content and get commissioned by other businesses. If you’re a talent agency, creative agency, or content publisher, show off your work and get discovered by those in need of your services. Our system aligns you with the best matches, relieving you of the manual work and burden of finding work.

We want to make it easier to connect businesses with Black and African creative talent. The AMAKA team is always there to support and resolve any disputes or issues, solidifying us as a trusted third party to bringing your creative projects to life in a safer  and more transparent way.  We’re just getting started and launching a lot of impactful perks and resources over the coming months to help creative businesses grow and thrive. Subscribe to my channel and stay tuned.

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Restaurants I love:

 I'm obsessed with Akara right now, an African-Brazilian restaurant in Borough Market, London. If you’re a fan of fusion cuisines, especially Brazilian and West African flavors, please do yourself a favour and visit this restaurant if you’re in London. You're welcome!