Across Ethiopia, young people are writing lyrics in dorm rooms, recording in tiny studios, filming with borrowed cameras, and uploading their music to YouTube. They watch creators around the world turn their passion into a profession. But for Ethiopian creators, there is a hidden barrier: no matter how big their channel grows, YouTube will not pay them, because Ethiopia is not on the list of countries eligible for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). (Google Help)

The YPP is the main way creators earn from their videos. Once a channel reaches the required watch‑time and subscribers, creators in eligible countries can link AdSense and receive a share of the ad revenue their content generates. (YouTube) That basic opportunity simply does not exist for people living in Ethiopia today.

For years, we have poured our hearts, time, and savings into Habesha Hood, a platform dedicated to Ethiopian hip‑hop, trap, drill and modern Habesha music. Our mission has been simple: give young artists a real stage when radio and TV will not play them, and show the world that Ethiopian urban music deserves to stand alongside any global sound. Habesha Hood has become an important home for rising Ethiopian hip‑hop and drill artists, giving them visibility in a scene where exposure is hard to find. (ሐበሻ HOOD)

Behind the scenes, this work is expensive. We invest in cameras, studio sessions, engineers, video shoots, editors, promotion, events, websites, and jobs for young creatives. When an artist cannot afford these things, we often help them anyway—paying for production, organizing video shoots, and pushing their music on our platforms because we believe in their talent and we want to keep them motivated and off the streets. Over the years, we have spent a lot of money helping people, usually with little or no financial return.

Because Ethiopia is excluded from YPP, the money that should come back to sustain this work never really arrives. On one of our main channels, we passed more than 10 million views over several years and received around $2,500 in total. That doesn’t even cover the cost of a single year of basic operations—let alone pay artists fairly or grow a real creative industry. Meanwhile, creators in countries like Kenya and Nigeria, which are on the YPP list, can connect their channels directly to AdSense and earn a meaningful income from similar view counts. (Google Help)

The result is heartbreaking and discouraging. Young people see that even big channels with millions of views cannot survive from music in Ethiopia. Parents tell their children not to waste time on music or content creation because “there is no money in it.” Many talented artists are giving up, leaving the country, or never starting at all. A whole generation is being told that creativity is just a hobby, never a profession.

Because the numbers do not add up, we have had to make difficult choices just to stay alive as a platform. Rising operational costs and very modest income from YouTube have forced Habesha Hood to start charging fees for video postings—something we resisted for years. This change is purely about survival, so that we can continue supporting artists at all, but it also means that the poorest and most vulnerable talents are the ones who suffer first. (ሐበሻ HOOD)

This problem is larger than one channel. Major digital platforms today—YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X and others—either exclude Ethiopia entirely from their monetization programs or make it almost impossible for creators here to be paid directly. (Addis Insight) In a country of more than 120 million people, most of them young, this is a huge lost opportunity for jobs, culture, and hope. (World Bank)

Our ask is simple and fair:

We are calling on YouTube to:

Add Ethiopia to the list of countries eligible for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP).
Allow Ethiopian‑based channels that meet all normal YPP requirements to monetize content directly, just like creators in other countries.
Work with local financial partners so that AdSense and fan‑funding tools (Super Chat, channel memberships, etc.) can be paid out safely and transparently to creators in Ethiopia.
We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for equal treatment. Ethiopian creators are already doing the hard work: following YouTube’s policies, investing in quality, building loyal audiences, and representing our culture with pride. All we are asking is that when ads run on our videos, a fair share of that revenue can finally reach the people who made the content—here in Ethiopia, in our own names.

Allowing Ethiopia into the YouTube Partner Program would:

Help creators reinvest in better videos, better sound, and better storytelling.
Create real jobs for camera operators, editors, sound engineers, designers, and managers.
Encourage young people to pursue music and content creation instead of giving up or leaving the country.
Strengthen Ethiopia’s digital economy and ensure that our culture is not only seen, but also sustainably supported.
If you believe that talent should not be punished because of the country on a creator’s ID card, please sign and share this petition. Your signature tells YouTube that Ethiopian creators—and the millions of viewers who love their work—deserve the same chance to earn from their creativity as everyone else.

Let Ethiopia earn. Let Ethiopian creators be part of the global YouTube Partner Program.