One of the top challenges of an average Nigerian student is money. How did I spend it? Where did it all go? More importantly, how can I make money as a student?
It’s never enough.
The first feasible solution is often the pressure to get a job because in some farfetched mathematical equation, the solution to money is paid employment. I laugh in adulthood.
Really the pursuit to make money never gets old.
Next comes the frustration from paid employment and their difficult work hours. That’s if you find one. Most formal job roles require graduate certification and even when you have that, there’s always the NYSC requirement.
Yes, Undergraduates aren’t the only ones finding it hard to make money.
Need I mention the peer pressure to make money through illegal means.
One often falls back to starting their own business. Then they discover the next challenge — capital to start a business. In the end it all boils down to money. The third challenge of a Nigerian student is lack of time.
SEE: Top Small Businesses in Nigeria
Let’s face it, between lectures and assignments and, God forbid, carry-overs, the money problem can be crazy, but the worse problem is a lack of idea on how to make money.
That’s what I’ll be discussing.
Here are some ideas that can fetch you money in school. Some require a bit of skill but don’t be scared, often times we already possess this skill but we are too afraid to even embrace them.
I’ll talk in detail on the different skills required to start each business. I hope you can make something out of any of these ideas.
Also, feel free to leave a comment if you can relate to the money struggle.
Contents
Ideas That Can Help You Make Money as a Nigerian Student
1. Tutor
Your colleagues are hardly going to pay you to teach them, neither will your juniors. Matter of fact, as a senior, you are obligated by the department to tutor students in lower levels. So that’s not what this is about. When I say tutor, I’m referring to lesson teachers.
All businesses are tied to specific environment. So no matter how rural, chances are there is a child in your radius that could use a teacher. All you need to do is convince their parent on the importance of your role. Sell yourself. Don’t Know how? Read my article on Closing Impossible Deals.
Remember you are a student trying to get by, so your charge is relatively lower than regular tutors or who cares if it’s higher. You know where the shoe hurts. Schedule lessons to suit your programme and voila, you have a reliable source of income and of course the company of children.
My elder sister was forced to open a Primary School when her small private lesson grew from two kids with zero knowledge in English or Maths to over twenty kids in three months. What she said to the parents was: “Your children are smart, they just need someone with patience to attend to them plus, the quality of primary education you can afford can’t give your children the attention they need to boost their confidence”. Not in those exact words.
Not long after my house became a congregation of all age grades. Toddlers whose mothers needed a break, spent their day on my bed or following my mum around the house. Everyone was duly employed – even my dad, and he hardly smiled! Yet children loved his company.
Keep your eyes on your grades while you are at it. You aren’t trying to start another primary school. Remember you have a degree to earn. Keep it small; except you can afford to pay your friends to assist.
2. Caregiver
Children can be needy. Avoid those age range. Have you considered being a caregiver to an senior citizen? Even if your school is located in the most remote rainforest in Nigeria. Chances are there’s an old fellow who could use your help with small chores and a meal. Every elderly person’s need differs. Except in severe cases were the client is bedridden, your role consist of cleaning and cooking and keeping tabs on their drugs and other safety issues.
Sort out breakfast and other house chores, go over for lectures, stop briefly for lunch and return in the evening for dinner and any other thing. You might be lucky to find a client that only needs your service a few times a week and some might include accommodation.
The role of a care giver can get complex depending on the needs of the client. WATCH THIS
3. Hairstylist/Barber
If all you can do is a simple cut, trust me you’d always find clients who need a cheap cut because just like you, it’s that time of the semester and they are too broke to get a standard fade on their punk. Same with a hair stylist. Go on YouTube, learn trending hairstyles. Chances are the girls in the hostel want to look expensive for half the price.
4. Makeup/Nail Technician
The demand for beauty standards keeps growing. As a makeup artist you might be limited to your school environment if it’s far from town because jobs can come at a time that clashes with your school work, but let’s focus on positives.
OOPS! Another downer. Makeup can be pretty expensive and demand may not be daily. Check out your environment as usual. If you can make a few thousands over the weekend, you can focus on your school work. Same goes for the nails. Girls will hunt you down a rabbit hole if word gets out that you make a mean nail art. You can learn from watching YouTube. Stop chasing IG stories. Burn data on contents that can help you learn how to make money.
5. Event Planner
I met a girl in NYSC and she told me how she started as an event planner in school. You need passion for this job. You also need to learn to convince your client that you know what you are doing. Mind you the top skill here is management. As an Event planner, your major role is to see to the success of the event. You source the right professionals that can deliver on projects. That’s your super power.
6. Writer
Writing is one of the most lucrative skills in this age. The sweet benefit of writing is that you can easily find jobs that enable you work remotely. You can be anything: a content writer, a copy writer, a script writer or even an editor. It helps to have a laptop but don’t let that stop you when you have a smart phone. Borrow a laptop if you need to, do anything possible to get the job done, save up, then buy a laptop. Like I said, every business has its fair share of challenges.
Your hands will burn but when people casually tweet “where ona dey see this money,” you’ll force a smile because you know how to make money as a student.
I’m just going to say this once. Novels are fun to read and can help you grow your audience, but you won’t make a million selling your self-published poetry collection on Amazon. I Know! However, you can improve on your skills by writing nonfictions like articles and stuff for websites.
7. Graphics Designer/ Illustrator
As with writing jobs, graphic designers are always in demand. Take advantage of your network. Chill on posting memes for a while, inform your contacts that you design graphics for a fair price and watch the power of recommendations. Never forget to add that you charge for your services. E get why.
8. Music Producer
Do me a favour. Tell your younger ones to turn their hobbies into skills. Advise that kid that likes camera’s to follow professional cinematographers on YouTube. Tell that child that likes to drum on everything to learn how to make music now! One of your favourite music producers studied architecture but taught himself to make beats while in school. That up-coming artist in your school sampled his beat and he improved on his work until top artists were willing to pay much more for his work. Need I say more?
9. Transportation
I got talking with an old friend that schooled in some University in Ghana and he was willing to share his story with me on how he made money as a student. His school was quite the distance from the bus park and he offered a solution that brought the drivers into campus to pick up students and he got the deal at a fair price. in his words, he was making so much money he stopped calling home nor did he go on holidays.
10. Tailoring
For some reasons, all the tailors I know never used their skill while in school. I don’t know why! Probably they never needed money. I know dressmaking can get really demanding, so if you are good at it, you could offer to work in a standard workshop that’s within your vicinity. One thing is certain, tailors will always be relevant.
Bonus Tip: Catering
While in school, my younger sister started cooking for her friends over the weekend. Then she grew it into a brand. She made pots of soup or any special meal in large quantities for people who wanted to stock up on food for the week. She also sold per plate to people based on request. At the time she was studying something in agriculture and was somehow able to manage both, howbeit she had a partner. My sister with the idea lived in a school standard hostel but her partner had a house off campus. Somehow they were able to work together to make sales. This is key in business. Every business would have its challenges and its risk. You have to be willing to persevere.
HANG ON! Before you hop on any of these, Read this article on Business Strategy
Final Note
For a Nigerian student, there are countless possibilities to make money if only you’d be willing to embrace opportunities. I once saw a cheap Ad offering to make one-minute videos for small businesses. It was way too cheap and as expected the quality wasn’t great but this guy had found a way to make cheap Ads with his smart phone using mobile video making apps. I can’t blame him for embracing an opportunity.
I have deliberately excluded sales from this conversation for a reason. It’s way too rampant. Every student on my contact is posting cheap clothes from Ali Express and frankly, it’s exhausting. Plus I wonder if they really make money. I won’t advise you to go in that line. If you want to sell clothes you better have something better than a cheap gown from China. Too many “what I ordered versus what I got”.
I may sound tough but trust me, it’s all from a place of love. I want you to make money rather than noise.
You can learn about drop shipping HERE.
Suggested Readings:
