Who’s Listening? The Data Deficit Stalling African Podcasting

Who’s Listening? The Data Deficit Stalling African Podcasting

It starts with a sound.

Not the bang of a drum or a catchy jingle. Something quieter. The static hum when you switch off the generator just before dawn. Lagos is still stretching, groggy and unbothered. Somewhere in a mini-flat in Yaba, a young voice hits record on a phone mic. She’s talking about grief. Her mother died three years ago, and today, she’s finally found the words.

That’s a podcast.

It’s not on a billboard. There’s no sponsor. It won’t trend. But it matters. It’s real. And it’s happening more than most people think.

I’ve been close to audio for over two decades. First, behind a mic in a radio booth, then inside the guts of editing software, and now, in conference rooms explaining to brands why podcasting isn’t a phase. It’s hard to sell what people can’t count. That’s where the trouble begins.

The Numbers Don't Add Up

Ask any African podcaster what their biggest frustration is, and they’ll likely tell you some version of this: “I don’t know who’s listening.”
Ask a brand why they won’t invest in a show with 5,000 downloads, and they’ll reply, “There’s no way to verify that.”
Ask a data agency about podcasting in Africa, and they’ll probably pivot to radio stats.

It’s a circle. A slow one. And we’ve been stuck in it for years.

The podcast ecosystem on the continent is alive, vibrant even, but you wouldn’t know unless you’re in the WhatsApp groups, lurking in Telegram channels, or following a handful of creators still holding the line. There’s no map. No central archive. No real-time tracking system that speaks to the complexities of how Africans consume content, especially audio.

And until we solve that, we’ll keep getting overlooked.

We're Not Starting from Scratch, We're Starting from Silence

We don’t need to copy and paste what’s working in the West. Our listening culture is different. Here, data is expensive. People download episodes over WiFi, then listen offline. They pass phones around. Some shows circulate through community WhatsApp broadcasts like village newsletters.

There’s nuance here. But nuance doesn’t show up on charts.

The way out isn’t another global report telling us we’re “emerging.” The way out is us, building, tracking, documenting.

Who Can Move the Needle?

Let’s start with the independents. Those small research units scattered across the continent. The ones digging through listenership trends in Accra, or running survey panels in Nairobi. These folks have skin in the game. If they can collaborate, even loosely, we can begin to sketch a fuller picture.

Then, the podcast networks. Not just distributors, but community builders. The kind pulling together creators from Kampala to Kinshasa. They’re sitting on data already: Completion rates, feedback loops, content trends. If they turn those insights into reports, even modest ones, it starts to shift the balance.

Agencies? They need to stop lumping podcasting under “digital experiments.” Audio has always been powerful in Africa. What’s new is that we can own and measure it. Imagine a world where Nigerian agencies offer local brands audio ad formats tailored to regional accents, local slang, and relatable banter. But first, they need to know who’s listening, when, and why. That’s where investment in tracking tools comes in.

And the tech bros? Someone needs to build a dashboard for African podcasters. Not another clone of Apple Podcasts analytics. We need tools that track download patterns in low-bandwidth environments, tools that show the value of a loyal 300-listener audience who converts, who shares, who shows up.

This Is Bigger Than Monetisation

Sure, money matters. But what’s at stake here is visibility. When you can’t prove your worth, you become invisible. That’s what’s been happening to African podcasters on the global stage. Our stories aren’t less relevant; they’re just underrepresented in data sets.

We need to break free from this idea that the only way to win is to get noticed out there. Let’s turn inward and start measuring success based on how deeply we resonate within our communities, not just how wide we reach.

Sustainability doesn’t start with scale. It starts with systems.

Final Word: Build What They Can’t Ignore

Years ago, I learned that the most important stories don’t always come with applause. Sometimes they arrive quietly, like that girl in Yaba, sharing grief into a phone mic.

If we don’t create the tools to measure those stories, we risk losing them. We risk losing us.

So let’s build. For sustainability. For self-definition. For the next generation of African storytellers who won’t need to explain why their voice matters, they’ll have the data to prove it.