Shallipopi, Nigerian Creators Win Big At TikTok Sub-Saharan Africa Awards 2025

On Saturday, December 6th, content creators and media personalities from across Sub-Saharan Africa gathered in Johannesburg for the 2025 TikTok Awards.

The award ceremony hosted by Bontle Modiselle-Moloi recognised the creators whose content, spanning entertainment, sports, cooking, and social impact, has achieved connectivity to a wide audience.

A Naija Affair

Nigeria led the nominations list with fifteen nods, with entries across nine of the ten categories. With its large delegation, the night was shaping up to be a Naija affair, and that is exactly how it turned out, with Nigerians taking home seven awards.

Food content creator, Diary of a Northern Cook from Sokoto State, won the Night’s top prize, fending off competition to emerge as the Creator of the Year.

Three Nigerians were nominated for the Storyteller of the Year category, and Brian Nwana from Abuja emerged as the winner. Belove Olocha from Lagos won the Entertainment Creator of the Year, while Izzi Boye, also from Lagos, took home the award for Educative Creator of the Year.

There was still more joy for the Nigerian contingent as Noosi Tiwantiwa won the Social Impact Award for educating millions on healthy living through the Yoruba language.

Shallipopi's ‘Laho’ Is The TikTok Anthem of the Year

The most anticipated award of the night was for the Artist of the Year. Nigerian hitmaker Shallipopi was nominated alongside Ugandan star Joshua Baraka, Ghanaian singer Moliy, and South African breakout star JAZZWRLD.

The list reflected the songs that defined 2024 on TikTok. Shallipopi’s ‘Laho’ is an Afrobeats anthem, Moliy won a global audience with her hit song ‘Shake It To The Max,’ Joshua Baraka’s ‘Wrong Places’ soundtracked thousands of TikTok videos, while JAZZWRLD’s ‘Bengicele’ brought a global spotlight to 3 Step Afro-House music.

However, Shallipopi’s ‘Laho’ won the prize for being an anthem that captures TikTok’s unrivalled power in propelling a song to global success.

Reflecting on his win, the rapper thanked TikTok for platforming emerging artists. “I want to thank TikTok for supporting the music space and for giving upcoming artists a chance to shine,” he said. “I also want to thank the music,” he added, expressing his gratitude to the art form that has helped him pave the way for other Nigerian street hop stars.

Shallipopi’s acceptance speech reflected the power of TikTok as a platform that has greatly levelled the playing field by giving artists of all cadres a shot at success and stardom.

The Nigerian rapper's thoughts are echoed by TikTok’s Head of Content Operations for Sub-Saharan Africa,  Boniswa Sidwaba who describes the award ceremony as a gathering of trailblazers.

“Tonight’s ceremony was a gathering of the trailblazers who have redefined what it means to be a creator in Africa. From Sokoto to Nairobi, and Accra to Pretoria, we honoured the creators who turned 60-second clips into cultural movements. We are honoured to celebrate them as they amplify their voices and take their stories from Africa to the world.”

This particular desire to support the music industry and platform future stars informed the performances of singer Thabsie, acclaimed performer and disc jockey Thuli P, and an electrifying closer by South Africa’s rising star Ciza, who had everyone dancing to his viral song ‘Isaka.’

The Winners List At The 2025 Sub-Saharan TikTok Awards