What can I do to Make Money in Nigeria? Top 20 Ways

There are multiple ways of making legit money in Nigeria. The internet has made things very flexible so that earning can be done without leaving your home. All you need is to pick a product or service you wish to deal with and get things going.

Let’s say you are good at talking and persuading people to buy products; that’s a skill you could use to make money online but honing it a little more would give you an advantage over your competitors.

Although making money will always require some kind of startup capital, most ways to make money in Nigeria won’t necessarily need you to get an office, especially during the early stages.

Flexible work hours and remote jobs give you time for other work and yourself. There are some lucrative businesses that you could venture into and start generating sales right away. Without wasting much time, let’s check out the options.

Top Lucrative Business to Venture Into

1. Start blogging

Find a niche that fits into what you do or love doing. A niche can be on different topics, but it is advisable to choose one and focus on it. Here are some niches that might give you an idea of what you want to do;

Education
Entertainments
Agriculture
News
Technology
Health

These are just some of the niches; each niche focuses on a specific type of audience, which means different types of content – more reasons why you should choose and stick to one. In this case, you will need some content writing skills to thrive on this path of making money. If you love writing, this should come easy to you.

While that’s the case, creating a blog doesn’t mean it’ll go ahead to earn itself. It’s also your job to find ways to monetize the blog and generate a steady cash flow. Here are some of the best ways to monetize a blog;

Ad Networks: Signing up to ad networks like Adsense or Ezoic is the most popular way bloggers in Nigeria monetize their websites. Although most ad networks require a preview of your blog before approval of monetization, their requirements for approval are usually minimal – you’ll be approved if you follow standard practices on your blog.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing involves selling products and services to people with your commission included once the purchase is made. You can sign up with affiliate platforms like Amazon Associates, Rakuten, or ClickBank, then post links to products on your sites. Make sure you’re posting these links on relevant pages talking about the product or something similar.

2. Run Ads for Businesses

You can choose to become an ads manager and make running ads for other businesses your business. This is quite different from running through your blog because you control all your client’s audiences and can even configure the ads to be tailored to specific clients. There are different types of mediums you can work with to serve your clients;

Social media Ads: These are the kinds you often see on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok. While most digital marketers often feel linking up with influencers is the best way to go on social media advertising, there are a lot of successful advertisers that still choose to deal directly with the social media company. You may have to do some extra research to know the best method to implement when you get a gig.
Ad Networks: In this case, you create a publisher account with these platforms and configure the way you need your client’s ad to be displayed. Compared to social media ads, this is a little complex and would require you to study the space before venturing into it.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Making money from affiliate marketing is quite simple, especially if you understand persuasive copywriting and can implement it in your texts when marketing your products. You can either choose the model of having a large audience with a lower conversion rate, or a small select audience with a far better conversion rate. Whichever way, your aim is to make money from marketing the products and services of other companies.

4. Start Freelance Writing

You can also become a freelance writer. Decide the type of writer you are, then look for ways to offer your services. Although you may primarily require freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr to bid for gigs, you can also try out cold pitches to look for clients. Whichever method you choose to search for clients, you’ll first need to determine the type of writing you want to practice.

Content Writing: one of the best-selling skills that allows you to work remotely. Not everybody can write content for every headline; companies are looking for skilled content writers to write articles that would be used on their social media handles or meetings. Eye-catching content that could improve the company’s visibility to individuals showing what the company is currently doing or things they have been doing so far.
Copywriting: If you’ve got the skill of persuasive writing, this type of writing should be among your top choices. Just like content writing, you can get gigs from freelance sites and also from making cold pitches. More so, if you get really good at it, you may just launch a digital marketing agency.

5. Learn Graphic Designing

Can you design quality flyers, and banners, and edit photos? Your service would be needed in almost all organizations. Tools you could use to get started;

Canva – Phone and PC
Adobe Photoshop – PC
Corel draw – PC

Play around with those and start using the free templates to try designing some flyers for your friends, family, and neighborhood. Start within the space around you and utilize it.

6. Social Media Manager

A combination of graphics designing and content writing can give you an edge in becoming a social media manager for businesses, companies, celebrities, and organizations. Social media managers are currently on the rise and are also highly profitable.

7. Become a Programmer

This consists of different areas of specialization and requires dedication, and consistent practicing on it almost every day. Also, one of the most sought-after skills and very profitable from the others. Let’s look at some of the areas you would like;

Web developer and web designer
Full-stack developer
Front-end developer
Back-end developer
UI/UX

8. Become a Tutor

Most parents in Nigeria value education and are ready to pay teachers if they can teach their children excellently. Pay depends on how many days in a week or hourly you would want to teach the child. Still in your court to decide which will be better for you.

You can also organize tutorial classes for jambites and secondary school students. What you have to do is to find a venue, or choose completely remote lessons via Zoom or Google Classroom.

9. Become a Photographer

A good phone camera can help you start immediately; you don’t need to be a pro before making money either. If you love taking photos for fun, you may want to think of using them to generate some income for yourself. Find a spot where you can be accessible for your services. It can also be mobile; if you’ve got time, visit events during the weekend to show your photography skills

Be active online on social media, most importantly on social photo platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. Upload your pictures and tag the individuals; also, use the relevant hashtags to improve the visibility of your work.

10. Dropshipping

Dropshipping involves having a catalog of products and selling them on your online store. A supplier is needed here that will be sending in the products once they make a purchase. No capital is required here, but you must have a supplier on standby. Things you need to get started; phone, WhatsApp, or other platforms like a website and a supplier.

11. Trade The Financial Markets Online

There are numerous ways through which you can trade the financial markets. You will need to learn the skillset before venturing in; it eventually pays off when you do. Here are some of the most popular options used by Nigerians.

Cryptocurrency: Proper knowledge of crypto will give you an edge in having some income for yourself. You’ll need to link up with some reputable retail exchanges or mentors to learn the skill and eventually venture into the business.
Learn and Trade Forex: On forex, you trade currencies in the form of pairs through CFDs. Like crypto, you will also need some time to learn and master the skill before going in with real funds.

12. Fashion Designing (Tailoring)

If you fancy designing clothes and putting in different styles for clothes, then tailoring may be for you. There are highly-rated tailors in the country that earn close to 2 Million Naira monthly. Just because it sounds local doesn’t mean it is not lucrative; tailoring has been rebranded.

13. Apps and website testing

Companies would always want to know how individuals respond to their products. Apps and websites require testing to know the user experience and any hindrance to the efficient running of the program. You can get paid for testing these products and providing feedback on platforms like Usertesting.

14. Become a Real Estate Agent

If you know vacant houses and buildings with good water supply, electricity, and access to good roads, you may want to consider possibilities in real estate. You could check out these properties with permission from the original owners; know the prices with pictures taken so you can show them to your clients. Get some knowledge of the rules guiding houses in your area, and you’re ready to start functioning as an intermediary to leasing landed properties.

15. Event Planner

If you’ve got some good management skills, then this is one business you should consider. Take note you don’t necessarily need a team of individuals to execute some events.

You can plan events for weddings, birthday parties, and many more and cash out big time for your effort. There is crazy money out there and all you need is the exposure and talent for this craft.

16. Offer Laundry Services

People love to look clean and neat in Nigeria. Most people rarely have time to wash and make their clothes look good. You can decide to make money with this; your laundry services will be highly needed.

One good thing about starting a laundry service is that you do not have to start big. However, you will be influencing clients’ decisions if you can set up nicely which will be enough to tempt them into patronizing you.

17. Hardware Repairs

Good with repairing laptops and phones; look for a shop and use a small space to start rendering services to people. Store location mustn’t be around sales of phones and laptops, even though strategic positioning is required to improve your customer base.

18. Open a Saloon

Both for ladies and men, barbing hair and plaiting of hair requires some skill, and some individuals know how to get it done perfectly. You can also include a manicure for the hair services you want to render. Find a good spot in an area nearby and start rendering services.

19. Painting and Cleaning Services

Painting takes some art skills to give your client a nice design; it is more than just painting but also giving the building some design that will be eye-catching to your clients.

Cleaning services are also profitable, but you would want to stand out from the crowd by giving them the impression that you are professional and good at properly handling their properties.

20. Catering services

Food is health and life; if you know and love to cook, using it to make some cash would be much of a problem. Most catering companies are usually overwhelmed during the weekend, contract work would be flexible here, and you still get to continue your cooking business during the week.

These business ventures listed above would give you an insight into which to go. Diligence, hard work, and patience would be highly needed in any business you choose consciously. Carefully sort out which will be flexible and good for you to start generating some cash.

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