Inside Nigeria’s adult content industry boom
With the rise of homegrown platforms like AllAccessFans, Nigeria’s adult content industry is booming – but the threat of piracy and public shaming makes it a complex new workplace for women.
Inside Nigeria’s adult content industry boom
With the rise of homegrown platforms like AllAccessFans, Nigeria’s adult content industry is booming – but the threat of piracy and public shaming makes it a complex new workplace for women.
April 10, 2025
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It’s the start of a new year, and Lagos is still wrapped in the cool, dry grasp of Harmattan – a season when desert winds sweep down from the Sahara, veiling the city in a hazy, ochre tint. The air is crisp but carries a harsh edge, leaving lips chapped and the streets cloaked in a fine, powdery layer of sand. Amid this seasonal stillness stands Sillylostpoet’s tripod, now dusted like everything else – a tool she has come to see as an extension of her craft. It’s not just a piece of equipment; it represents stability, creativity and defiance of societal norms.
Today, the digital creator and author of The Darkness In My Mind immerses herself in the pursuit of content inspiration, carefully selecting lingerie for her next shoot. Each piece is chosen with precision, a reflection of her artistic vision and personal narrative. Though she often collaborates with a fellow creator, today, it’s just her and her tripod, a loyal wingman helping her craft alluring visuals that draw in the admirers who fuel her success.
Her work stands in stark contrast to Nigeria’s more traditionally ‘respectable’ careers: doctor, lawyer, accountant. For Silly and a growing number of young Nigerian women, financial independence now means stepping into a territory beset with societal stigma. Her journey is part of a larger Gen-Z movement characterised by technological adeptness, entrepreneurial spirit and its proclivity to challenge societal conventions. “Last year, I made 30m naira (£15,600) from adult content,” says Silly – who, like most creators I spoke to for this piece, wishes to remain anonymous – her calm voice betraying the pride she feels. She charges subscribers to her account on AllAccessFans (an OnlyFans-style platform aimed at African content creators) £13 a month, with discounts for longer-term plans. Although relatively modest in comparison to the astronomical earnings of adult content creators in Europe or the US, it’s a significant salary in Nigeria, where women make up 70 per cent of the country’s poorest population. Platforms such as OnlyFans, by contrast, have empowered women in the US and UK to amass millions. Take, for instance, 20-year-old Sophie Rain, who earned £35m from OnlyFans in just a year. These successes illustrate the potential of platforms like AllAccessFans to revolutionise lives in Nigeria, where creators like Silly are leading the charge. For women in a nation where their ambitions are often shaped by familial and societal expectations, Silly’s earnings directly challenge this reality.
This sense of empowerment is shared by creators like Bekky OJ, who has been navigating her own creator journey outside of the adult content arena for the past four years. Bekky always had a passion for the entertainment industry, and for her and her sister Maliya, who also creates adult content, the motivation is deeply personal. “A lot of people think creating adult content means you grew up poor, but that’s not true. For me, it’s about creative freedom – posting what I want, when I want – and the empowerment that comes from tapping into my sexual power as a woman,” she says. “The flexibility is great, but what’s even more surprising is how it’s changed my relationship with men. I can’t explain it fully, but there’s this shift in how they see me, and honestly, I love it.”
For many young adult content creators in Nigeria, there are unique dangers to navigate in the profession. Many of Bekky’s male supporters pay for her content in private but publicly shame women like her, for instance. They funnel money into her pockets while condemning her in the public sphere – hypocrisy at its finest. Silly’s foray into adult content creation was hardly smooth. Her earliest work, tentative and fraught with uncertainty, found pace on Snapchat. “A friend suggested I try it, so I made a private Snap[chat] account and earned more than I ever did selling baked goods or publishing my book,” she recalls. Soon it was met with comments of abuse, videos sent to her mother and endless reports that culminated in the suspension of her account.
A lot of people think creating adult content means you grew up poor, but that’s not true. For me, it’s about creative freedom – posting what I want, when I want – and the empowerment that comes from tapping into my sexual power as a woman
Snapchat, with its privacy features, was a lifeline for creators like 26-year-old Silly. But the platform’s reliance on Sim cards and devices meant that account suspensions often led to losses of subscriber bases – a challenge Silly faced repeatedly, she recalls. “I tried OnlyFans,” she explains. “My sister who was in the US created an account which I controlled in Nigeria, but this method was fraught with problems and delays paying, getting paid and withdrawing, so I just got tired.” It wasn’t until she switched to AllAccessFans that Silly found stability in her work. The platform, which encourages a broad church of content from African creators, gave her the tools to build an audience without the constant fear of losing access.
After the pandemic, Ife Omai found herself stuck in Nigeria, having been unable to return to Australia where she had spent much of her adult life. During this time, she took a job as a co-anchor on a Nigerian TV entertainment show. It was through this role that she began to realise the stark contrast between Nigeria and Australia regarding women’s rights and gender equality. Having lived in a country where sexual expression was normalised, Omai was struck by the challenges women face in Nigeria and felt compelled to address these disparities. When Omai met entrepreneur Dapo Giwa, and saw how Africa had been left out of the OnlyFans boom, the potential for a platform like theirs to reach, and help, a wider set of creators became clear. “Recognising its potential, the decision was unequivocal,” says Giwa, who launched the app with Omai in October 2023.
Much like its muse, AllAccessFans takes a percentage of creators’ earnings, while offering a smooth way to earn in both naira and dollars. “We charge 30 per cent when you start, which is disclosed at signup. Once you become a top earner, it drops to 20 per cent,” Omai explains. “It’s designed to motivate creators to make more money.” But the scrutiny the app’s largely Gen-Z creators face goes beyond mere technical challenges. Piracy is taking a significant toll on the adult content industry there. Creator Yahweh’s Rare Masterpiece spoke on her unsavoury experience after a private Snapchat post leaked online. “Content creators are human too,” she wrote on X. “Don’t drag people I love.” More recently, a Nigerian newspaper recently published a sensationalist exposé titled “Desperate Nigerian Girls Turn to Selling Nudes for Cash”, exposing creators’ faces and risking their safety. (In my investigation, I reached out to a known Telegram user who specialises in selling pirated adult content. For £560, I was assured access to a catalogue containing over 500 videos, featuring a range of girls and creators.)
With AllAccessFans still in the process of developing security measures, leaks have become an occupational hazard. Aspiring adult creators like Silly and Yahweh have been forced to navigate an environment where, depending on who you ask, financial rewards outweigh the moral and societal drawbacks. “As much as we [AllAccessFans] are doing a lot for the space, we’re still operating with an MVP [Minimum Viable Product], so those features aren’t currently available on the website,” Omai admits of the site’s limited security capabilities. “That said, because it’s a pay-per-view platform, creators are already somewhat protected, and there are options to lock your content. But the new website will significantly tighten security. For example, DRM [Digital Rights Management], which Netflix also uses, is something we’ve been seriously considering for a while. We just need the right platform to implement it.”
