Instagram is the world’s fifth most popular social network, with over a billion monthly users. Most of those users are from Indian and the United States, with African countries starting to catch up in recent times.
Egypt is leading the way with over 15 million Instagram users, followed by Nigeria with 9 million users and South Africa with nearly 5 million. The rise of Instagram users on the continent is coinciding with the increase of African celebrities with profiles on this platform.
So, which African celebs have the highest followership on Instagram? That’s exactly what we’re going to answer now, starting from Africa’s most-followed person, Mohamed Salah.
#1 Mohamed Salah (@mosalah)
With 43 million followers, Mohamed Salah is the most followed person born in an African country. The Egyptian player has been one of the world’s best forwards, helping his team Liverpool FC win the Premier League for the first time in history. Salah was also instrumental in Liverpool’s success in the Champions League.
At the age of 29, Mo still has plenty of years in his legs, meaning that we might see him picking up a few other trophies in the upcoming years. In fact, online sportsbooks think of Salah’s Liverpool as one of the main favourites for winning the English Premier League next season.
#2 Davido (@davido)
From the world of sports and online soccer betting, we move to the music universe – Africa’s second most followed Instagram celebrity is Davido.
The singer, who’s recently released a song featuring Chris Brown and Young Thug, currently has 20.6 million followers on Instagram.
Although he was born in the United States, Davido did move in his teenage years to Nigeria, the native country of his parents.
#3 Yemi Alade (@yemialade)
Another Nigerian singer who’s on the list of Africa’s most-followed celebs on Instagram is Yemi Alade. At the moment of writing, she currently has just short of 15 million followers.
However, that number is probably going to get higher in the near future as she’s going on a tour in the United States in September, which is bound to put her on the radar of music fans overseas.
#4 Diamond Platnumz (@diamondplatnumz)
Also known as Simba, Diamond Platnumz is a Tanzanian singer, actor, and producer, who became the first African artist to hit 900 million combined views on YouTube in 2020.
On Instagram, Simba’s profile has 12.7m followers.
#5 Tiwa Savage (@tiwasavage)
Although she’s been living in London since the age of 11, Tiwa Savage has Nigerian roots. Born in Isale Eko, she started her music career in the UK, providing backup vocals for pop stars like Mary J. Blige and George Michael.
From there, she went on becoming a music star on her own, with several of her songs going past the 50 million view mark on YouTube. When it comes to Instagram, Tiwa currently has 12.6 million followers.
#6 Big Wiz (@wizkidayo)
Big Wiz a.k.a. Wizkid is another Nigerian artist with huge followership on Instagram. The singer currently has 12.4 million followers.
He’s even more successful when other platforms are concerned. For instance, his songs have more than 3.4 billion streams on Spotify, which makes him the most-streamed Nigerian singer in history.
#7 Didier Drogba (@didierdrogba)
Although he retired from professional soccer three years ago, Didier Drogba remains one of Africa’s most popular footballers of all time. He currently has just short of 11 million followers on Instagram.
#8 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (@auba)
The third athlete in the top 10 most followed Africans on Instagram is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Gabon’s all-time top scorer is the captain of Arsenal, the team he’s been playing for since 2018.
Aubameyang’s Instagram tally as of summer 2021 is 10 million followers.
#9 Lupita Nyong’o (@lupitanyongo)
Born in Mexico, Lupita Nyong’o grew up in Kenya before going to America to pursue an acting career. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say she’s one of Africa’s greatest actresses of all times, having appeared in such blockbusters as Black Panther, The Jungle Book, and 12 Years a Slave, for which she won an Oscar.
With 9 million followers, she’s currently the ninth-most followed African celebrity on Instagram.
#10 Zari Hassan (@zarithebosslady)
Born and raised in Uganda, Zari Hassan now resides in South Africa where she runs her business and spends her spare time living the life of a socialite. The number of Instagram users who are following her profile is about 9 million.
It’s very likely that her Instagram toll is going to increase soon. The reason is that she’s set to appear in a Netflix-produced reality show called Young, Famous and African, together with her partner, Diamond Platnumz.
In other news – Big blow as Babes Wodumo, Cassper Nyovest, Master KG & these other artists’ music to be taken off-air
Mzansi stars; Babes Wodumo, Cassper Nyovest, Black Coffee, Kelly Khumalo, MasterKG, DJ Maphorisa, and Kaba de Small are some of the artists whose music will be removed from the SABC radio and television stations playlist.
The South African Music Performance Rights Association (Sampra) is going the litigation route after the SABC ignored several letters from the organization to pay royalties to them. Learn More
