Susan Diane Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube has shared her joy in the accomplishments of Ghana Youtuber, Wode Maya, who recently became the first from Ghana to reach 1 million subscribers on YouTube.

Wode Maya shared a photo of his gold creator award on Twitter saying: “My YouTube Gold Button Is Finally Home .Enjoy your stay in Ghana .This is our first but it’s won’t be our last”, to which the CEO of YouTube replied saying: “So exciting, @wode_maya! Can’t wait to see what’s next for your channel”

YouTube Creator Awards, commonly known as YouTube Play Buttons or YouTube Plaques, are a series of awards from YouTube that aim to recognize its most popular channels. They are based on a channel’s subscriber count but are offered at the sole discretion of YouTube. Each channel is reviewed before an award is issued, to ensure that the channel follows the YouTube community guidelines. YouTube reserves the right to refuse to hand out a Creator Award, which it has done for channels featuring horror or extremist political content.

Gold Creator Award is awarded to channels that reach or surpass 1,000,000 subscribers. It is made of gold-plated brass.  In March 2018, the look of the Gold Play Button was updated from a metal button housed within a window box with the channel’s name printed on the front glass pane to a cleaner-looking flat designed metal plaque award featuring the channel’s name embossed on it.

My YouTube Gold Button Is Finally Home Enjoy your stay in Ghana 🇬🇭🇬🇭🇬🇭🇬🇭This is our first but it’s won’t be our last❤️ pic.twitter.com/ACK7Lb3CDB

— Wode Maya (@wode_maya) January 24, 2022

Berthold Kobby Winkler, popularly known as Wode Maya is a Vlogger who is on a mission to change negative narratives about Ghana and Africa. He has traveled widely across Africa, promoting positive stories about people doing amazing things, beautiful destinations, and more.  Maya gained notoriety when, as a Ghanaian student at the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), his video simply titled “Problems Black People Face In China” went viral. It was a recording of one of his bus commutes, on his phone, where the seat beside him remained empty while numerous Chinese passengers decided to stand instead.