a lot of businesses ideas and business opportunities abound worldwide, especially in Africa, especially Nigeria.
When starting a business, it is important to look for business ideas that have the possibilities to make your startup successful; you would do well to seek business ideas in industries with high growth potentials and profitability. One that your team and strength as a startup can effectively execute.
Are you looking for new ways of earning money? Check out a list of 100 business ideas, especially in Nigeria. While this list was created with Nigeria in focus, the business ideas are in no way limited to Nigeria.
It is a list of Untapped Business Ideas and small scale business ideas in Nigeria to start with 5k 10k 20k 30k 40k in Nigeria. Overall, please note that it is no child’s play starting a business in Nigeria.
Your first step to starting a business is to register your business, in Nigeria, you would need to register with the CAC. Kindly take your time to at least learn how to register a business name in nigeria; lets jointly make corporate governance a business culture in Nigeria.
Here is Our List of Highly Lucrative Business Ideas for Startups
Contents
Some of the products or services business in Nigeria that you can sell are:
FOOD BUSINESS IDEAS IN NIGERIA
Catering Services
Catering is one business idea in Nigeria that is hinged more on the passion than the skills of the entrepreneur.
How to start the Catering business idea
The best way to start this small business idea in Nigeria is by leveraging social media to create the needed visibility and customer awareness. Focus more on smaller parties, groups, and home gatherings. Register a business name, cook some nice meals, and showcase them using Facebook and Instagram in particular.
You really do not need to have all the categories of cookware, you could hire per need basis. Ensure that you have enough kitchen space (It could also be your backyard) to prepare food and use paid carriers, or Uber /Bolt services to transport your stuff to the client’s preferred venue.
Find, and come to some arrangements with other service companies in the hospitality industry, especially the party planners, wedding planners, Masters of the ceremony, etc.
How to keep the Catering business ideas in Nigeria successful
One of the best ways to start business in Nigeria, is to Start small. Ensure to create a brand and be known for something in particular. Think out of the box and be different. When you have more staff, you could start doing larger parties and functions. Go above and beyond by offering to clean up after the party for great customer service.
If you must, partner with complementary services in this service section, like decorators, events planners, etc. Such partnerships would definitely yield mutual gain.
Financial Capital Needed To Start The Catering business ideas in Nigeria
There has always been arguments as to if were possible to start business in nigeria with Little or no capital. Your customers most time pays for the service ahead, just ensure to get above 50% of your charges, usually, you’d be paid about 100%, and that should be enough to take care of your expenses including your hired hands such as cooks, and dishwashers (If you must).
Starting Cost Outlay:
| ITEM | AMOUNT |
| Burners, chaffing dishes | N150,000 |
| Stoves, Gas cylinders, etc | N50,000 |
| Pots, Serving Plates, spoons, etc | N45,000 – N300,000 |
| Food Trolley | N60,000 |
| One-page website | N15,000 |
| Food labels | N2, 000 |
| Menu cards | N5,000 |
| Complimentary cards | N10,000 |
Other essential Tips:
You need to partner with a service provider to give you well-trained ushers, servers, even photographers to make your service stand out. Practicable minimum startup cost = N157,000.
Know however that the catering business in Nigeria is particularly for the aristocratic clients and as such, it must not be treated as you would any other business in Nigeria.
However, you could choose to rent the chaffing dishes, stoves, etc and start as low as N60,000
Food Delivery Services
Most people love good food, but only a few know how to make very tasty meals. If you’re good at cooking food, you may wish to consider cooking it in bulk. There are a lot of 9 to 5 workers that would gladly have your meal at their launch time or some that may even ask for enough quantity to last them for a while.
How to start the Food Delivery Services business idea
You could offer your services to working professionals, especially those in the corporate setups. All that is needed is to attract the right customers. Leverage social media, especially Facebook, and Instagram to attract your customers. Make some good looking homemade meals, take very good photos of the meal.
Try to dish your food to look very appealing, serve it on a white plate if you have one, and then set the dish in such a way that you could take photos using your phone’s camera at the least. Ensure that you have some rays of sunlight to make the photos pop.
How to keep this business idea successful
Get yourself a website if you can, it should not cost you much to establish a good website to showcase your food and also collect and process orders. Once you’re established, offer your customers a menu they can order from.
Consider picking a niche, position yourself to serve a market, either as the healthy meal sector or the local delicacy sector. Be different, ensure to give the best quality ever at as affordable as a rate you could offer. People love quality at a reasonable cost, and would readily refer other customers to you. Serve a range of meals; keep it interesting for them and you.
Financial Capital Needed for Food Delivery Services Business
You could actually start this business without cooking any sample of yours. Go to the Internet or find means of getting nice-looking photos of food in the sector you want to serve. Be persistent, put a photo at least 3 times a week.
Your capital need should be concentrated at creating a very appealing customer experience. Invest in a website, a payment gateway, and partner with a delivery company to deliver your products.
This is one business that can start with less than N20,000 ($80)
Ensure that your customers know that the cost of delivery is passed to them, and clearly state that on all your media channels including your menu. Start small; use the money paid by your customers. You’d, however, need to buy disposable plates and cutlery to get you started.
Starting Cost Outlay:
- Disposable plates, spoons, and bowls = N10,000
- Facebook advertisement = N8,000
Other essential tips:
You could find and take permission from other entrepreneurs in the food business to enable you to use their photographs to start your campaign. Just ensure that you know how to cook. So no excuse here that you do not have the money to start.
Practicable minimum startup cost = N10,000 – 10k
Examples of brands in this sector are:
Dundun Nation
- Dundun Nation
- Small Chops.Ng
Restaurant On Wheels
Do you want to open a restaurant without paying rent and having to buy tons of kitchen equipment? With a decent set of wheels and a small-scale food preparation station, you could launch a food truck business.
How to start this business idea
Starting a food truck business means you would have the availability of some funding source to offset your start-up costs. Owning a food truck is not cheap. The business is very lucrative and the entry barriers could be a bit high.
Decide on specific food especially those in the fast-food sector. Ensure to have mastered your recipes, and the act of clean-cooking (washing the dishes as you cook).
Get the right local permits and position your food truck to take advantage of the movement of your target market. Go for the working class, look for areas near Bus-stops.
How to keep this business idea successful
Focusing on a particular food niche can help your food truck business stand out from any competition and aid in your branding strategy. Master competitive pricing; it would help lower your risk of failure.
Ensure to always get fresh food items and be proactive with your service.
Financial Capital Needed
This is a high-capital business. The entry barrier is relatively high, but the return on investment is steady and high enough to make you break even within few months. You would need a functional truck to enable you pack and change locations as market demands.
If you are a good cook, you would not need to hire any staff.
Starting Cost Outlay:
| ITEM | AMOUNT |
| Food Truck | N2,000,000 – N5,000,000 |
| Cookwares | N150,000 – N300,000 |
| Advertisements | N50,000 |
| Startup Food items | N50,000 |
| Sit out Kit (Optional) | N85,000 |
| Permit (Depends on Location) | N150,000 on the average |
Other essential tips:
Running a food truck involves extremely long hours, no matter how good you or your staff is. The success of your food truck business is directly dependent on the amount of time and effort you put into running it.
You must understand the 4Ps of Marketing. There is no better place to put them to work than this business. Your social media strategy must be top-notch.
Fish Grill
Most people, if not everyone finds it difficult to resist a well-grilled fish. Fish grills are commonplace, especially in Nigeria. In Abuja, owners of fish grills make as much as One million Naira (N1,000,000) as turnover, daily.
You could actually make yours a mobile grill and leverage people’s movement to and fro work.
How to start the Fish Grill business idea in Nigeria
The best way to start this is by leveraging social gardens and parks. You could, in fact, make yours different from the pack by going online – YES, AN ONLINE GRILL DELIVERY SERVICE.
You really do not need a lot of items to get started with a fish grill, and yes, you can also expand to meat, snails, etc.
How to keep this business idea successful
Start with a clear definition of your target market. Having a clear understanding of your market would help you in deciding what strategy to use in entering the market.
Your options are vast – You could go purely online, mixed, and even partner with owners of other social gathering outlets.
Financial Capital Needed Fish Grill business idea in Nigeria
Little or no capital. I love the idea of a mobile grill, and that seems to be the highest on my scale in terms of barriers to entry, so I chose to reference that.
Starting Cost Outlay:
| ITEM | AMOUNT |
| Grill (several Options available) | N10,000 – N85,000 |
| Space Rental… You could pay this monthly | N15,000 – N50,000 |
| Take-off stock | N100,000 |
| Advertisements (Very important) | N50,000 |
| Website with payment Gateway | N150,000 |
| Sit out Kit (Optional) | N85,000 |
| Permit (Depends on Location) | N150,000 on the average |
Other essential tips: Your ultimate goal is to aim for online sales and delivery. That can only be achieved if you build an online brand, hence the budget for advertisements.
Seek out any spot at all, some may require that you get a permit. Such spots could beside car wash, market exits, gardens, churches, schools, even in front of your house.
Practicable minimum startup cost = N50,000
Bakery
If you love to bake like I do…. just kidding. I am actually surrounded by bakers and know a thing or two on baking. I know that baking is highly lucrative and you do not spend more than 20% in cost to bake anything.
So, if you are like me and know how to and also love baking, why not get paid to do it by opening a bakery? There are a lot of recipes out there, you could even create yours. Just ensure to find a recipe that you can replicate perfectly every time.
How to start the Bakery Business Idea in Nigeria
You can actually start this small business idea from home, and as part-time at your free periods; evenings and on weekends until you make enough money for you to make it your full-time gig. Once you have earned enough money, you could then expand to a space big enough to enable you to bake professionally. Ensure to incorporate online payments and marketing into your strategy from the onset.
How to keep this business idea successful
- Diversify – Have multiple products/ income streams to sustain your business
- Have a social media strategy
- You definitely need a website.
- Focus on what your customers want, and how they want it
- Hire a skilled and experienced help
- Don’t forget about marketing
Financial Capital Needed
This depends mainly on how big you want to start. You would need some initial investments to get you started, but nothing an average Nigerian would not be able to afford. What takes initial capital mostly is the space and equipment needed to get you started.
If you are lucky enough to have a good-sized oven at home, then you are good to go. The next thing would be marketing. Marketing is very essential to your growth especially when you start from home or make it a side hustle.
Starting Cost Outlay
| ITEM | AMOUNT |
| Oven (several Options available) | N120,000 – N485,000 |
| Mixers | N75,000 – N350,000 |
| Bake-wares (Several of them) | N100,000 |
| Proof Boxes for Bread Items | N50,000 |
| A website with Payment Gateway | N150,000 |
| Salary for one extra hand (Baking staff) | N85,000 |
| Advertisements | N50,000 to start |
Other essential tips:
Start small and gradually grow into a fully commercial bakery. Practical minimum startup cost = N37,000. With N37,000 you could start small from your home, or that of a friend. Most friends would let you use their ovens and other facilities for some freshly baked cakes, bread, etc.
Cooking Classes
If you love cooking, and you do not mind teaching people what you know, then this could be a money-making business for you. Why not get paid to do it by opening a training school – Online or offline.
How to start this business idea
You can start this small business idea part-time, during the evening and on weekends until you become known, your business generates regular inflow and you feel you need a bigger space. You could then go big and hire other hands to help you.
Starting this is easy. All you need is your phone, a good phone stand, some good light source, a neat kitchen, some neat napkins, and some nice looking pots. It is always the best option to start this at home. Get help to hold the camera and make a video of you teaching while you cook.
Do not bother about the quality when you start, you would eventually get better by the day. Just start.
How to keep this business idea successful
Keep learning new recipes and offering various categories, for example, you could teach your clients/audience how to make a particularly special meal per week. Call in other friends to join you once in a while to teach people other things you may not be familiar with, like desserts, or Italian meals, or vegan meals. Your ability to always bring in varieties and new stuff, especially new faces, will bring previous customers back to learn more.
Financial Capital Needed
Little or no capital. Try to cook what you would normally eat and teach people to make what you would eat after the class. That way, you save yourself a lot of money.
| ITEM | AMOUNT |
| Nice camera phone (If you do not have one) | N30,000 – N150,000 |
| Phone stand | N10,000 |
| Starting food items | N4,500 – N10,000 |
| Data credit | N500 |
| Marketing | N10,000 |
Other essentials items:
Start out with Youtube and other social media. Ensure to have your own Youtube channel and with the right marketing and execution, you could grow your brand and start an offline school.
Recipe Collection
The recipe collection is one business sector a lot of people would normally not pay attention to as a money-making business. However, there are millions of people out there searching for recipes daily. Such searches come from chefs, housewives, and other people with the mindset off their culinary skills to their willing clients.
How to start this business idea
Recipe collection can take different forms, from setting up a recipe blog, to writing your own cookbook, or even showcasing your recipes through videos on YouTube, Instagram, or your personal recipe bog.
- To start, It is best to select a niche you love and are good at, one that you could be proud to build a brand around
- Make a conscious effort to document the preparation of all the meals you love
- Take your time to perfect the recipe by going over them several times to ensure that your recipe is accurate and can be easily replicated following the steps you documented
- Pick out your preferred media for to present the recipe to your customers – viz book, audio, or video
How to keep this business idea successful
- Focus on a market (Cuisine) – African, Calabar, Continental, Italian, etc
- Diversify – Diversify within your market – Give your customers varieties and keep surprising them to enable them to keep coming back for more.
- Have a social media strategy
- You definitely need a website, regardless of the media of delivery.
- Think out of the box, present your recipe in a very easy to replicate manner, do a lot of info-graphics if you must; just ensure to focus your attention on the customer experience.
Financial Capital Needed
Little or no capital. Your capital outlay is a function of how vast you want your recipe to be. You could focus on a single recipe and make it so good in such a way that even a blind man would find it easy to replicate.
Starting Cost Outlay:
| ITEM | AMOUNT (Naira) |
| Starting ingredients | 10,000 |
| Media platform | 30,000 |
| Marketing and Sale – Advertisement | 36,000 |
| Website | 15,000 |
Other essentials items:
Your ability to think out of the box would make the difference between your success or lack of it. Did you know that you could sell your recipes to established restaurants?
Practicable minimum startup cost = N40,000
Nice list, so many options to choose from.
Thanks, Newton, we will keep working on it to make it as extensive as possible.
I really do love this piece. Truly detailed. Your comprehensive list of “small business ideas in Nigeria” speaks a lot especially, it reflect a need to be hard working like u.
Some ideas for startups are developing a new app, selling a product, renting out rooms in your home for short-term housing, driving for Uber on the side, packaging your expertise into ebook and course for sale, or selling products online.
What’s Happening i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve discovered It positively useful and it has helped
me out loads. I’m hoping to give a contribution & assist other users like its helped
me. Great job.
I like what you guys tend to be up too. Such clever work and coverage!
Keep up the terrific works guys I’ve included you guys to
blogroll.
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog.
Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see
a great blog like this one nowadays.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I truly appreciate your efforts and I am waiting for your further post thank you once again.
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your
blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like
this one today.
Have you ever thought about including a little
bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable
and all. But think of if you added some great visuals or videos to give
your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with
pics and video clips, this blog could definitely be one of the best in its field.
Amazing blog!
Wonderful site you have here but I was wondering if you knew of any user discussion forums
that cover the same topics discussed here? I’d really love to be a part of community where I can get feed-back from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks a lot!
It’s an amazing piece of writing in support of all the web people; they
will obtain benefit from it I am sure.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot approximately this,
like you wrote the e-book in it or something. I believe that you just could do with a
few percent to pressure the message house a bit, however other than that, that is fantastic
blog. A fantastic read. I’ll definitely be back.
I simply couldn’t leave your website before suggesting
that I actually loved the standard info a person supply to your visitors?
Is gonna be back often in order to check out new posts
Thanks for another informative blog. Where else may just I am getting
that kind of information written in such an ideal approach?
I have a mission that I am just now operating on, and I have been on the
look out for such information.
Hi would you mind stating which blog platform you’re working
with? I’m going to start my own blog soon but I’m having a difficult time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique.
P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
Viking is a brand of top-of-the-line appliances that live up to their reputation in the Viking Refrigerator Repair Chicago, who focus on providing quality service and support for Viking appliances.
Our goal is to provide you with the best possible refrigerator repair and maintenance service at the lowest possible price
Higher Positions is a premier SEO company in Maryland City, and a Google Partner and SEO-Certified, with over 10 years of search engine marketing experience.