Love, pain and inspiration: Here are the topics Africa’s podcast community loved 

[December 2024]: Podcasts are one of Africa’s favourite ways to tell stories. With almost 4 billion minutes of podcast audio played in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024, the continent’s appetite for this content is loud and clear.

South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya listened to the most shows this year, with South Africa contributing over 2 billion minutes. If you started playing podcasts on one device today, it would make for about 30 centuries of listening.

“The numbers don’t lie. Podcasting is here to stay because it lets creators take control of their narratives and tell these stories on their terms while bringing their community along for the journey,” says Ncebakazi Manzi, Spotify’s Sub-Saharan Africa Podcast Manager.

Podcasts are personal, but trends do exist across the continent’s leading markets and beyond.

Faith, spirituality and motivation through audio

Motivational shows around issues like managing finances, relationships, personal goals and health remain popular across the three leading countries. Shows like “The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett“, “Motivation Daily by Motiversity” and “The Success Addicted Podcast” have attracted listeners who want to get their lives in order and learn from the stories of inspirational people. 

Audiences in Nigeria and South Africa embrace shows about spirituality. “Christian Motivation” had one of the most shared episodes in South Africa while “Apostle Joshua Selman” maintained his popularity in Nigeria for another year. As the continent’s second-largest podcast market, Nigeria listened to 700 million minutes in 2024 and it created half of the new shows published in Sub Saharan Africa this year.

Even though spirituality dominated Nigeria’s top charts, the continued popularity of shows like “I Said What I Said” and “The HonestBunch Podcast” tell us that listeners also want conversation-style shows. Listeners in Kenya and South Africa also showed an affinity toward these shows.

A good laugh with friends

The “ShxtsnGigs“ podcast, an opinion show hosted by two best friends James and Fuhad, tapped into audiences’ hunger for conversational shows. The humorous podcast has made its way to the top charts in six of the top 10 podcast-playing African countries. In Kenya, The 97s Podcast has been inspired by this approach where funny and frank chats between hosts Trevor, Frank and Dante have led the podcast to take the number-one spot in the country for the first time.

Kenya’s broader listening data shows that relationships are a meaningful taking point. Seven of the 10 most shared episodes in the country discuss love, sex lives and dating. Julia Gaitho’s “So This Is Love“ holds three out of the top five most shared podcast episodes in the country. Her interviews resonated because she draws lessons from her guest’s stories about lost lovers.

Some listeners just wanted to laugh through the pain. Ensemble shows like “Mic Cheque Podcast” and “The Sandwich Podcast” made Kenyans feel like they were hanging out with a close circle of friends. When difficult topics come up, moments of infectious laughter help lighten the mood.

Women creators like Murugi Munyi, Julia Gaitho, Sharon Machira and Lydia K.M. take this comedic approach to a new level on shows like “The Messy Inbetween” and ‘It’s Related, I Promise‘. This genre contributed heavily to the country’s 400 million podcast minutes streamed in 2024.

Dive deeper into Sub Saharan Africa’s most streamed and shared podcasts below.

Chart for top podcast streaming countries in Africa