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If you’ve been reading #NairaLife long enough, then you probably know I’m currently on the #JollofRoad, our West Africa road trip. Along the way, I’ve found all kinds of people. And what good is it if I don’t run into people and ask them about their finances?
The guy in this #NairaLife #DalasiLife is 26. He lives in Gambia, one of West Africa’s top tourist destinations. He also happened to be our host in Gambia – he rented out his apartment to us for the weekend.
First thing you did for money?
It was nine years ago when I was like 17. I sold my bicycle for 1,500 dalasis.
Must have been a big deal for you.
Ah yes. My father told me then, “What are you doing with 1,500 dalasi? I pay your school fees, I do everything for you, I give you lunch money, what do you need money for?”
Before we get back to your bicycle, what’s your favourite thing about the Gambia?
Everyone is chilled out. No trouble.
Okay, back to your bicycle. What did you need money for?
Nothing at the time, I just wanted to have my own money.
Interesting. Did you make any more money at the time?
That time, my lunch money was about 25 dalasis, but I saved most of it. I’d spend 5 and save 20.
What can 25 dalasis buy you?
Back then, two bottles of water, but today, only one bottle. A coke was 8 dalasi, now it’s 18 dalasis.
When my mum noticed how much I was saving, she said, “Hmmm, this boy wants to do something.” When I’d saved enough, I opened a small shop opposite the house. I started frying omelettes and making coffee, and it was going good. From the shop, I was saving between 2000 and 3000 dalasis every week, depending on how much the business was moving.
But, when I entered Grade 12 and was about to start preparing for my certificate exams, I gave the shop to my mum.
To run for you?
Yes, but she took the shop and ate all my money, hahaha. When I was running the shop, I could save up to 6,000 dalasis. I wrote my WAEC certificate exam in 2014, grade 12. I was about 20.
That was also the year I travelled – the end of that year.
Ah, interesting. So after your exams – which I believe you wrote in the middle of the year – what were you doing till you travelled?
I got a job working at a hotel as a masseur. My aunt was a masseuse, so when I finished school, she told me to come work for her at the hotel and trained me.
How much did people pay for massages back then?
It depends, back massages could go for 500 dalasis. Full body massages: 1500. Reflexology could be 600 to 700 dalasis. I have no idea what they’re paying now, but I’m sure it has increased. My pay was by commission. So every three weeks, she’d give me 25%. My best pay was about 20,000 dalasis.
That’s a lot of massages.
Sometimes, I used to give up to three or four massages in a day. A full body massage takes one hour, fifteen minutes. Reflexology takes 45 minutes. Head massage takes 30 minutes. The best thing about that job was that I got to meet a lot of people from all kinds of countries.
Was that where the hunger to travel came from?
Nah. I have family in Europe. My grandma is in the US. My mum, brothers, and everyone has travelled. My brother that I live with for example – cousin actually – he’s Norwegian. He wasn’t born there, but he lived there as a kid.
Interesting.
But now, he’s back in the Gambia earning good money here. He’s into transportation, and he has a lot of big trucks. He even has a small boat at the beach now to carry people. I have plans to build my own things here.
We’ll get to that. So, you travelled at the end of 2014?
Yeah, I went to Russia. I was taking part-time jobs in Russia while schooling, most of it was working as a security guard. You know, I’m big. But I wasn’t paying my school fees. My grandma paid for that. Russian universities are cheaper than American universities. My grandma was paying about $2500. I’m studying computer engineering.
I’m currently in my final year.
Nice nice. How long have you been back for?
Beginning of the year – February. I took a few months out of school. Also, I missed my family. From February till May, I was just enjoying, going to the beach, hanging out with some of my friends here.
But in May, I had to stop.
Hahaha, your flexing money finished.
Haha, you knowww.
How much did you bring back?
A lot.
Tell me.
A lot.
Okay, how much did you spend?
A lot.
Hahaha, Okay.
I started thinking of how to finish my own projects – house building projects. I live in my aunty’s house, the one she built. Whenever she comes to the Gambia, she just goes straight to her compound. She has her own business, drives her own car, has a heavy bank account.
A lot of people abroad are building houses back home. That’s where I saw my opportunity. Sometimes, my friends in Europe will tell me to help them inspect their building projects. I help them inspect, but for a fee. No time.
I feel you.
Meanwhile, I have time. But I tell them I have no time, hahaha. I get up to 1,000 dalasis from them on some days. One of my friends is coming soon, and he bought his land for 1.5 million dalasis. He’s building something really massive.
Land is expensive here?
Yes, because of the tourists.
I bought a piece of land too. I sent the money to my friend here when I was in Russia. I even started building. But right now, I’ve paused, because I have to go back to get more money. I have just enough money for my flight ticket now.
I totally get that. I’m curious. How much is enough for you to live a very very good life in the Gambia per month?
Probably 100,000 dalasis. Food is cheap here. If you like partying, just go out with 200 dalasis, and you’re good. Rent a small two-bedroom here for like 4500 to 5000 dalasis per month.
You pay rent here per month?
Yeah. Most people pay per month, but some people pay per year.
In Nigeria, it’s the other way round.
Only per year? Per year is a lot of money. Many people don’t have that much here.
Many people don’t have that much in Nigeria too.
Crazy. The only thing some landlords ask for here is a six-month advance when you first move in.
How much do you think you’d be earning after school in the Gambia?
For computer engineers, it’s a lot of money. I really don’t know how much, but once they work for three months, you start seeing them building houses and buying cars. Where is the money coming from?
Hahaha, what are the next few years looking like for you?
Well, I know that being in the Gambia is not going to be easy for me. So I need to work hard and make good money in Russia. There, as long as you have all your documents, you can get work easily. I already speak Russian – you have to study the language for one year when you get there. I make good money working part-time as a student. Imagine how much better it will be when I work full time with a degree.
So, I’ll work, finish my building project. Maybe get married, and come to the Gambia for holidays.
When I’m away, I can even rent it to tourists.
The Gambia seems to be getting a lot of tourists every year.
Yes. Many of them are from Scandinavian countries. The tourism started in Bakau, that crocodile place. That’s why in many places here, apartments are rented out to tourists on a short-let. Lots of them even marry Gambians.
A quick segue, but do you have any recent financial regrets?
Ah yes. I sent my uncle money from Russia to invest in a small business here, about $2000 in total. He said he had some business he felt I should invest in. But now, my money is gone, no business too.
Now, I just need him to pay me my money, because I worked hard for it. I really want to go and scatter his house – he’s not even around. He travelled.
So, imagine him lying to me over the phone, and me thinking sending money back home was going to help my family and even my country.
My mum said, “Oh leave him, he’s your uncle.”
Nonsense. I want my money. If I’m trying to build my future and you’re stealing from it, you’re not a good person.
Let’s talk about financial happiness, on a scale of 1-10.
I don’t know about here in the Gambia, because when I’m here, I worry too much about money. My life is easier when I’m in Russia. So, here, my happiness is lower. But sometimes, I realise how lucky I am.
By early 2020, I’ll return to school, and I can get back to planning for my future, so I can get money, live better, develop my country.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
What’s the first experience in your life that made you realise ah, money sweet o?
That would be JSS1 in 2004. I went to a boarding school and it was my first time away from the safety of home. My pocket money for the term was ₦200, and I had classmates who had ₦1,000 for a week. That was when I realised, you don’t have money. Your father doesn’t have money anymore.
Anymore?
Yeah. My dad used to be work for the government, at some of the highest levels. There was some contract thing that involved bribes and all that. Super straight man, he didn’t want to be a part of it.
What did that mean for him?
He quit. He quit his job, and we had to move to a new town. He started a small business. Started building a house, but he never got around to finishing it, so we had to move to a house near my dad’s. Then two years later, there were issues with the landlord, and we had to move into the uncompleted house.
In primary school, my school fees never got paid early, but neither did my friends’ school fees. So we just hung out during school hours, outside school, and played, hahaha. I knew what we were going through at the time wasn’t normal.
I feel like knowing the money situation forces you to ask another question — where will this money come from?
Yes. There was the part where my dad paid us stipends to work at his factory for him. But my first lone experience has to be leaving home after secondary school and going to Lagos – this was 2011.
How did your folks react?
Oh, my dad was already dead. He died when I was 12 going on 13. He was the breadwinner and the controller – he was the one who sent you on an errand and knew exactly when you were supposed to be back.
He also didn’t let my mum work. He was the kind to go, “What do you want that I can’t provide?” even when he couldn’t provide. Also, he always felt like there weren’t enough opportunities for my mum where we were.
So, this was your mum that had never worked, and suddenly, she had how many mouths to feed?
Four. He was sick for a while, so his business was dying as he was dying in the hospital. When he finally died, his family wanted a burial they couldn’t fund.
In the end, my mum had four mouths to feed and a lot of debt.
It’s a tragedy that this happened, and I’m sorry that you all had to go through that. Another great tragedy is that this happens to a lot of women every year – I don’t have stats to back this up.
Yeah. My dad was pretty confident that we were going to be fine. He was polygamous, so somehow he believed his other, much older kids would look after us the children.
How did that go?
Well, the first one tried to kill my mum, because my mum refused to release my dad’s paperwork to him – death certificates, documents, etc.
But, he didn’t get it right?
He did. He was my father’s next of kin, and all my dad’s benefits went to him. Now, imagine my mum showing up from her shop one day and finding out that they’d put a notice at our house, ‘Caveat Emptor’ – he sold my father’s house while we still lived in it. Welcome to life.
What?
Yep. I said that too many times. You know, my mum always told my dad to write a will, and he’d respond that she wanted to kill him. The day he decided to write a will was the day he died. Even worse, they were never legally married.
Shit. Leaving home at 15 suddenly makes a whole lot of sense.
I had a friend in Lagos, and I lived on and off with her for three years. The first job was short – I was an assistant. In the first month, I got my salary. By the second month, he told me to come to pick up my salary at his house on a Sunday morning. No, thank you. That’s how that ended.
I don’t remember that first salary from the first job, but my first proper cheque was ₦60k – 2012. I worked in client services. I also gained admission into uni that year.
How did you juggle that?
The bulk of my work was phone calls and emails. So I was doing that from school. Also, I worked from the office when school was on break.
I’m assuming your boss was reasonable – letting you work remotely and –
– Nope. He tried to grope me or kiss me every other morning I was at work. I worked for him for a few years sha.
Did he ever stop?
Nope. I didn’t quit because I had school fees to pay. This ₦60k was gold in my house at the time, so there was no quitting. In 2015, I did my Industrial Attachment at this place that paid ₦40-50k.
At this point, I’d squatted in a few places, and made a few friends, and I didn’t exactly need that ₦60k salary. So even when I finished my attachment, I didn’t have to go back to the abuser’s job. I lived with someone I worked for, who is the kind of older friend that you call aunty. So she mostly paid in bits here and there, no lump sums. But the accommodation and the network was priceless.
How did 2016 go?
When was 2016 again?
The year Nigeria went into a recession.
It’s a blur, but I finished uni in 2017 and went to work at a firm that was supposed to pay ₦100k but paid ₦40k in the first month. There’s also the part that my boss tried to sleep with me again – they always do.
Argh.
I spent three months at the job. He never paid that ₦100k. The time he paid ₦100k was when he wanted me to go buy clothes so we could travel for a ‘work trip’ to Ghana. Then when I was arranging, and doing bookings, he told me to book one room, instead of two. Because how would he ‘apologise properly if we were sleeping in different rooms.’
What?
That’s not the worst thing that’s happened.
I dunno if I want to ask you about the worst.
Oh, you’ll hear it. It happened recently too. We’ll get to it. Anyway, I clocked 21 and quit shortly after that. That was when my life went to shit. You know how I had older friends that doubled as older siblings? They just started to disappear. Two had to relocate out of Nigeria, a third one died. And somehow, I managed to get blamed by her mother-in-law for killing her so I could marry her husband.
Wonderful.
She pulled her wrapper and swore that I was going to die before the end of the year. This was Christmas Day. She kicked me out by midnight – I was staying there too because the couple were like family to me.
That is sick.
I travelled home to my mum, and I even followed her to church on New Year’s Eve. I held her hand all through because I was sure I was going to die. I didn’t die, obviously, but then I just started to fall sick a lot. The first half of 2018 was spent treating one thing after the other. Typhoid and whatnot. So I shuttled between my friend’s house and my mum’s outside Lagos. I wondered a lot, why did everything have to happen to me? And then came the depression. And a boy still managed to break my heart in the midst of all of this. That 2017 ended in tears.
I imagine your money problems didn’t go away.
Yeah, I had a job managing someone’s blog and social media pages. I had to write 20 news articles and one original article, Monday to Sunday. Then there was also social and Nairaland.
Ehn, how much?
₦40k. I still got owed for five months. Three months have already been paid though, but that job ended in November 2018. All I got was how I wasn’t ‘good enough’.
Anyway, I so I started working more actively on social media. Running small gigs on the side.
I joined a new company in December – I already arranged my posting to a company that was going to pay good money. ₦250k. But I got paid that amount once. This one also tried to sleep with me. Anyway, that was how that one ended, no pay.
In the time being, I started selling clothes, but I honestly wasn’t taking it as seriously as I should have. If I buy ₦50k worth of stuff and I sell, I can make up to ₦150 to ₦200k on Instagram.
I got another gig in July where I was supposed to lead creative direction on a project. The manager was pretty straightforward.
Straightforward about what?
Sex. He literally said, “Don’t fight it” – this one was a job in the entertainment industry. Anyway, by the time I quit that, I just grew completely tired and took a break. I’m completely tired of office work. I need these assurances:
Really good money
Not being owed
Not being sexually harassed at the office.
Every man you’ve worked with has tried to sleep with you.
Yep. The women just focus on owing me my salary. People work so they can get paid, so it sucks when you work and not get paid.
Now, I just work freelance managing people’s pages, buying and selling stuff, promoting stuff on my social media pages, and just trying to get by. So I go from up to 400k on a good month to making nothing on a bad month.
Let’s talk about your best money month this year.
My biggest problem is that I don’t track all my expenses and incoming. My life is scattered. But there was this month I worked for someone running supplies. I stopped calculating after 300k, out of excitement, but it might have been up to 600k.
Let’s try to put the excitement in one corner, and track what your month looks like in expenses.
I only buy ice cream when I’m sad.
How frequently do you eat ice cream?
A lot. I don’t eat a lot, but I can’t do without my ice cream. When I’m super hungry, I drink garri.
What’s something you really want but can’t afford?
A car.
Let’s paint a picture of what life would look like in 5 years.
Please, don’t ask me that question, it’s too serious. I dunno.
Okay. What’s something you honestly wish you were better at?
That would be reducing my ice cream. But then I work, and I deserve ice cream. It keeps me sane.
How do you even think about this money thing, generally?
Money is a visitor. It’s the same thing our parents said – it comes and goes. But there’s this documentary that I watched – it’s the Billionaires episode on Netflix’s Explained. Changed my perspective on money. I have a lot of rethinking to do.
Financial happiness, 1-10.
Omo, it’s 2 o. I’m just getting by. I can’t even afford to be creative with disposable income. Invest-what?
I bet you didn’t see this coming.
No, I didn’t. Inside Life.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people. But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’, subscribe below. It only takes a minute.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
The subject of this story has a compulsive need, not to spend, but to save. Amongst other interesting takes. Read up.
What was the first thing you did for money?
Industrial Training while I was in school. I was earning ₦1k per day. He, the owner of the company, asked, “how much do you want to get?” And ₦1k was what I said.
I think I should have asked for more. I was hoping for ₦20-25k, you know some months have more days than weekends.
What kind of company was it?
A construction firm. Towards the end of my I.T., I got another placement for the last two months, so I was juggling the two gigs. I would stay for one week, then I would call in sick to go to the other one. Those people were paying me ₦7k, but the experience was worth it. The other place was paying me more, but I wasn’t gaining so much; it was like free money. This was in 2012.
What did you do after that?
I had a few free months before NYSC, so I felt the need to do something. There was this family friend, he was rich and into construction. I told my dad to talk to him, but nothing came out of that, so I was home for three months.
But one month before NYSC, he called me to come work for him. There was no agreement or anything.
Two days after I started, he was travelling and gave me ₦10k – It was such a big deal to me at the time. I was like “can you travel everyday so I can get 10k? Thank you very much.”
Somehow, I always got money everyday I went to work. I was getting free transport to work, and sometimes free lunch.
What were you using your money for at the time?
Nothing, so I was saving it under my pillow. After a week, I’d find maybe ₦10k there. I did that for like a month or so, then NYSC came.
When?
November 2014. So I took all my savings to camp. My boss bought a ticket for my flight. I think my dad gave me ₦10k, which was like chicken money. My first savings was what I spent in camp.
That was when I realised that I have to be conscious about my finances. I didn’t spend everything when I was at home, and that made me feel good. Also, I think I was the only Corps member earning ₦40k every month.
How o?
I got a job working in a construction company somewhere in the Southwest. ₦20k from my PPA, and ₦19,800 from NYSC. allawee. Cost of living was cheap, so I had so much money, with nothing to spend it on.
I saved some money with my friend, and the person chop am. I still haven’t gotten it till today. I was saving additional 20k every month I could. What’s important to me is that I had ₦200k at the end of NYSC.
You had to 200k in cash right after NYSC. That is lit.
Yes, the best part is that I continued at the firm where I was serving. But there was a small setback.
Ah, what happened?
My boss said he would start paying me ₦30k in a month. I was devastated. How do you go from ₦40k to ₦30k? So, I had to mostly depend on side money.
Side money? From where?
People come to the construction site to buy our ‘waste’ – empty sacks, wood, and even leftover sand. Also, I could make some money on the side from small projects, a drainage construction here, another one there.
Fair enough. So you were on ₦30k a month by the end of 2016
Yeah, but at the end of 2016, I had ₦500k.
Slow down, please. How?
I was still saving. I didn’t really have anything I was using the money for. That first 200k I had, I think I removed only ₦50k out of it. Most of my money goes into just buying basic necessities. That December, I withdrew another ₦50k, just to detty December small.
That is insanely frugal. How much did you make from side gigs on a good month?
It varies. Some months were very dry when there’s no site running. In those dry times, my boss didn’t pay for as much as 5-8 months.
Wild. How did you cope?
Some months, we can see ₦200k in a week.
That escalated.
In those days, my running cost was like ₦10k per week. Now I’m like, how did I survive on that?
I feel you. Back to the end of the year and the 500k that you didn’t know what to spend on.
Ah yes. I bought a car. That cost ₦2.7 million.
That’s interesting math. Let’s break it down; how do you buy a ₦2.7million car with a 40k salary and 500k savings?
Hahaha, I didn’t buy it immediately. I made more money in the early months of the year, so I saved more aggressively. My boyfriend added like ₦150k. I sold the previous car I was using – my parents bought it for me when I was in school for ₦400k. They also gave me a loan. Of course, my boss was not paying salary. From whatever I got from the site, I would save. At this stage, they had increased my salary to ₦45k. So when he paid like that, I would pay my backlog if I was owing.
By July, I had made my first million and I felt fulfilled.
That is incredible.
2017 was a really good year. I bought the car. I was earning ₦45k but I was saving about ₦100k every month.
Tell me about that day your car arrived.
I wasn’t totally excited. It was a good feeling, but I think when you save too much, inconveniencing yourself in the process, it doesn’t make it feel rewarding. I was just like “this is what I get for all these years of starving.”
Anyway, I was still earning ₦45k till September 2018 – it became ₦80k by October. I didn’t save so much in 2018, but I had about ₦500k in savings. Around this time, I started pressing for two contracts, but I managed to get one, but I can’t exactly track how much I saved from that.
Wait a minute, you pitched for an actual government contract?
Yes, but with someone else’s company. I’ll explain how it works; Government gives the contract to who knows who, but they really can’t execute it. They just have the connections. So there sell the contract to someone else, a person who can execute.
This contract in question didn’t even belong to the person who sold it to me. I was the third contact. So the contract was originally ₦13 million, but what got to me was ₦4.5 million.
Wonderful. What were you supposed to do exactly?
Construction work for a government building.
I got a ₦2 million loan from one of my parents to kick start this thing – I needed to make a ₦1.7 million commitment to the project at the beginning. The project started before the end of the year, and I quit my main job. I told them I felt I was underpaid and undervalued. I think there were still owing me ₦20k sef.
My final act for the year was a job interview in Lagos.
How did that go?
I got the job, they offered ₦250k, the highest anyone ever offered me at a day job. I still went on to execute the project. My net was ₦217k though. I resumed in February, so I had time to execute the project properly.
What did that look like at the end?
By the time we finished proper, ₦4.5 million was left. I sent a message to my sister and said, “Is it weird that I’m 4.5 million richer, and I’m still just like duh?” She thinks I’m weird.
I think, over time, I don’t really see money as a big deal anymore. It doesn’t give me so much joy. Besides, I know I’m not going to be spending this money, not using it to flex or anything.
Wait, so 4.5 million out of 13 million. What happened to the remaining ₦8.5 million?
The rest went to actual execution and commission to the people in the chain that sold the contract to me.
All of this was while still having a day job.
Yeah, I was working on the Operations team. So on weekdays, I’d do my 9-5, then weekends will be spent supervising. This meant I had to travel out of Lagos every weekend – it was somewhere else in the Southwest. I had to make my money. You know, I haven’t even spent that money. I just gave it to one of my parents to hold. I still have a savings target to meet.
What’s your saving target this year?
₦10 million. I’m currently on ₦6 million.
That’s wild. What was the target last year?
I didn’t have one. I think I lost focus last year. By the way, within the first 6 months of my new day job, I got a raise from ₦217k to ₦293k to ₦297k to ₦320k.
2017 was an interesting year for you, but 2019 is on steroids
Like! But then, I have so many things that have taken my money since I moved to Lagos. For example, I have this friend that likes to eat at fancy restaurants. They will bring our bill, and it’s 40-something thousand naira. I’ve decided to stop sha. That savings part of me is coming back. Also, I live with family, so I don’t have to pay rent.
Currently, what’s your running cost every month?
I spend like ₦15k on fuel every week. At least ₦3k on data and airtime. But most of my expenses are on food. My expenses just never cross ₦200k. I try to be useful as a family person. If my sister says she needs something, I want to be able to do it.
I just save the rest. From May till August for example, I was able to save like ₦2 million.
How? Where did it come from?
So, towards the end of the project I was executing outside Lagos, another one came through. That whole contract was valued at over ₦150 million.
Woah. Did it have to be that much?
The government contracts I’ve executed actually cost 40-50% of the total sum to execute. This is what happens to the rest of the money; they go to politicians and the original awardees of the contract. If you buy a contract at 15% of the value, for example, you use 5% for PR.
What’s PR?
It’s for the PAs, the secretaries and co. “You heard about this job, oya you sef collect.”
So for example, some politician will come and say, “Oya o, I have ₦1 billion I want to spend next year. How we fit do am?”
“Oya, let’s build a hostel here. Let’s build classrooms there. Build one football pitch in that state.” The politician aka facilitator gets a cut, the contractor gets a cut. Me? I don’t like a lot about how these things work, but I also have a job to do, and I do it well every time. And then I get paid.
All these years since that IT money, what’s your money hot take these days?
I think you should just have money. Having money gives me peace of mind. I want to wake up and say I have money somewhere. Also, I believe that if you can’t save up to 60% of your income, you are either at a shitty job or you live a shitty life.
I’m trying to understand where this obsession with saving comes from.
I just don’t want to not have money. I start to think there is a problem if I’m not saving. The first few months I didn’t save when I got to Lagos were tough. I felt like I was cursed.
Have you considered investments?
With my parents, mostly. I gave my dad 500k in 2016, I was getting like 10% every two months. My dad is into the supply of produce for all these FMCGs. In my house, everything is business. If you owe me 1 naira, you have to pay it back. We don’t play.
When I have enough capital, I want to buy trailer-loads and supply too.
What do you mean by ‘enough capital’?
30-50 million naira. That would give some financial stability. Say I do business with that, I should get 5-8% in returns monthly on that.
I want to ask how much you’ll be earning in 5 years, but I feel the need to ask about how much you’d be saving instead.
Yes please, let’s say saving. If I do 10m this year, maybe I will do another 10m next year. But in the next 5 years, I hope to have 50-65m. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I think I’m working on it. We die here!
Do you ever worry about things like inflation that makes money lose value?
Yes, I used to worry about that. But right now, my parents use it for business, and put it work, and I never have to worry much about it. So I’m good.
What’s something you want but can’t afford?
A vacation.
But you can afford it
I can’t afford to take anything out of what I have saved. It’s sad, I know.
Incredible. Do you have a pension, insurance and all those stuff?
I had one in my former company. I think I had ₦70k in it. I never bother about it really.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?
I think I’m just there. There’s still room to improve. So maybe 6.
What’s the weirdest feedback you’ve gotten about your lifestyle?
It’s not weird, it’s the way it is. My family tells me that I’m stingy to myself, and I’ve come to realise how true that is.
I can’t help it; it’s just the way I am.
P.S: This conversation was had a few months ago. I checked in on her ₦10 million savings target. It will be achieved by December.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
She’s 28, currently living in Canada with the love of her life but this wasn’t always the plan. This is a story about how it unfolded.
Let’s start from the moment you knew it was time for Canada.
That would be 2017, precisely. I’d applied to yet another Masters’ program and gotten accepted. The tuition became an issue as I couldn’t afford it at the time.
My brother suggested I take the immigration route, saying it was cheaper than paying so much for school and then getting a job later. I wasn’t really interested because I felt immigration was going to be tedious. But I’d been on the Masters’ waka for five years at the time, and I just wanted to reach my goal.
Then one day –
Ah, the one day.
One day, I heard people shout “UP NEPA” after being without light for almost a week.
I just lost it.
Hahaha. It just had to be NEPA.
I realised I’d known this phrase since I was a kid and was wondering if I’d like my kids to see it as a norm.
Then I logged on to Twitter and all the frustrating things about Naija just rushed at me. I messaged my brother and we started researching how I could move. Right now, my entire family is on the track to moving out hahaha. I have a sibling in the U.K. also looking at a permanent move to Canada too.
Ha. Japa Clan.
Hahaha. Just my siblings actually.
Tell me about the first money Canada collected from you.
IELTS, in 2018. ₦65,000. The first time I wrote it, I didn’t get the score I wanted. By the time I was ready to write it the second time, it was already ₦75,000.
Wait, what do you mean you didn’t get the score you wanted?
IELTS is made up of four parts: speaking, reading, writing, listening.
Each part carries a total score of nine. They’ll also have a cumulative grade for you. Since the express entry was a point-based system, it works very well for you to score at least 8-7-7-7 (8 in speaking, 7 in the rest). These scores carry weight when you’re trying to see what cumulative score you might get on the Canadian immigration ranking tool. The ranking tool is to calculate points ranging from education to work experience to marital status, to age, to English language proficiency.
So whatever your cumulative points sum up to here determines if you’re qualified to enter the pool of people that will be eligible to apply for the Canadian express entry.
I scored 6.5 in writing, which messed up my entire result.
You were working while writing these exams, right?
Yeah, at an advertising agency as a client services executive. ₦80k a month. So I saved some of my income for a couple of months, while my brother sent me the balance.
Okay, what else did you pay for on this highway to Canada?
I had to pay ₦15,000 to have my transcripts sent to an evaluating body in Canada. That took a while, because of ASUU strike.
Oh, look at Nigeria fighting back to keep you.
Hahahaha. If I hear.
Anyway, I paid for that, got a reference number, and that reference number is what I used to create a profile. The evaluation money cost ₦88k when you change it to naira. It was actually paid for by my brother because the money was too much for me at the time. Also, you get a police certificate to confirm that you have no criminal record in Nigeria. That one cost me ₦3,500.
Ah, clean slates only.
Yep. Also, my husband and I were already dating at this point, and our plans aligned perfectly.
Hmm. Holy Canada. Holy Matrimony. Hearing husband for the first time in this conversation.
Hahaha. Remember that second IELTS that I wrote? I got 6.5 again. So my husband suggested that we merge our applications together and be on the journey as a unit.
Wait, did you just say unit, like a Voltron? Please explain how this works.
Hahaha. Yes, they let you do this. Apart from individuals applying, you can actually apply as a unit. Whether with child or not. For unit applications, there has to be a primary and secondary applicant. So if I’m applying with my husband who has better qualifications and IELTS scores, he’ll be the primary applicant, while I’ll be the dependant.
There are a few benefits to being the primary applicant. Like, the application profile, and correspondence. If you get permanent residency too, the secondary applicant can’t go without the primary applicant. So if the primary applicant dies, everything done burst.
Two seconds.
If you’re married, it increases your score. If you have a Masters’ Degree, it increases your score, if you have a PhD, even higher score. Then there’s the proof of funds part. For a single person, you need to have $12,000 CAD. Basically, they want you to be able to fend for yourself for at least 6 months, in case you don’t get a job immediately. As a couple, we had to keep $15,772 CAD. Applications for right of permanent residency cost us $550 CAD per head.
More payments.
My husband had money saved for years from work; God bless him. He was pretty frugal even though he earned a lot, so he covered most of the expenses.
There’s the medicals part. Basically, you need paperwork to show that you’re medically fit and you won’t be showing up in Canada with diseases that will require quarantine and stuff. That cost ₦28,000 per head.
The thing about the process is, the money can be overwhelming. But as each one came, we knocked it off. I had help from family, and of course from my husband.
Then one day, you just get a response and everything changes.
Slow down. How long did it take you to finally get a response?
The entire processing time took five months and eight days. The entire journey from that UP NEPA, took one year and 4 months.
On the 8th day after the five months, we got a request asking us to submit our passport. Then we had to wait two weeks for the passport to be returned to us.
The waiting.
Ah, it was hell. Anxiety. Anticipation. Prayer. Everything. Doubt, because what if we didn’t submit all the documents? Constantly calling to check the status of our application. And the theoriesss.
Theories?
Yes. We started formulating theories based on how long it’d take to get a response time, based on everyone else we’ve heard about. Some people waited three months, some three weeks. Others, a month. Some people even waited for a year. We heard people were refused for the tiniest reasons. When you’re not in control of a situation, it makes you over-analyse. You put in so much thoroughness into this process, and you just want a positive response.
Must have been crazy.
When the email finally came, it was at 5 am telling us to go and submit our passports. My husband worked out of Lagos and had to travel back to Lagos. We tracked that passport every day because people could still get rejected after sending their passport.
When we went to pick up the passports, it was there, stamped. Our visas to Canada. I cried, ah, that moment.
Ahhhhh.
We hid it in weird places. I first hid mine inside Garri then –
You what?
Yes now, hahaha. Then I started panicking that the Garri might erase the visa. Then I hid it in one tiny part of my box.
Tell me about the first day at work after collecting that passport.
Hahahaha. I didn’t even feel like working. Our salary was actually late, and my boss was cranky. I wanted to tell them ‘bye bitches’ but I had to calm down and resign properly, so I don’t burn bridges. At this time, I was earning ₦150,000.
Did you get a raise?
Nah. New job. Here, I was working comms proper.
At this point, how many jobs had you worked in Nigeria?
Chai. Four.
I’m wondering how you must have felt at your first job, and how you felt when you knew it was time to leave.
I got my first job two months after NYSC, I was so excited. I saw myself breaking boundaries. But you see, by the time I resumed at my last job in January, I was already done with working in Nigeria. I was already imagining carving a wonderful career for myself outside Nigeria.
In fact, I resumed at my new job with the singular goal of saving as much as I could for the japa goal.
What will you say was your true final act here?
A wedding.
Married in Nigeria, happily ever after in Canada. I’m assuming that this wedding money didn’t come out of the $15k CAD.
Nah. Family chipped in. Friends too – they covered most of the costs in a sense. But we made sure everything was on a low budget. It ended up costing a total of about ₦2.5 million.
I’m adding this wedding costs as part of your road-to-Canada money. Filed under send-forth party. What were the other last-mile costs on this road to Canada?
First of all, the money we spent between the wedding and when we travelled, came from what people sprayed us mostly. They sprayed about ₦370k. Mostly just running costs for living, going to see friends, buying stuff, etc.
Exactly one month after the wedding, we travelled.
And your flight tickets?
₦996k.
Muritala Muhammad Airport scenes must have been lit.
The usual – overweight bags. The final bye-byes. The tears.
Bye-bye, bye-bye to mummy. Bye-bye, bye-bye to daddy.
We got on our flight. 10-hour layover at Frankfurt. Another 12 hours to Canada.
Is there like a housing block when you enter Canada, where they’re like, “Ah welcome o. While you’re trying to get your life together, take this bunk space and pillow.”
Hahaha. We booked an Airbnb before we left. $30 CAD per night for two weeks. That money came from that $15,772 CAD that Canada wanted us to have.
Also, people stay with relatives while they try to get a place. Others find kind Nigerians that offer to house them till they get a place. Some even get their accommodation before leaving Nigeria.
There are Whatsapp Groups for this thing yo.
Mad o. How long does it take to burn through $15k CAD in a new, strange country?
Depends on who’s spending. We haven’t burned through ours.
It’s incredible, all of it, and now I’m wondering; what does this future look like?
My husband is taking a licencing exam so he’ll be able practice in Canada – he works in healthcare. I’m currently enrolled in an IT program that will expose me to amazing employers. It’ll also let me get a prestigious certificate for free. Something that would have cost $600 CAD. You know, I used to be scared of life in IT. But look at me. I’ve mostly found it fascinating.
What about healthcare, covered?
All the privileges of a Canadian citizen, except voting and joining the army.
Amazing. Wait, one more thing, I did the math about how much this journey cost.
Okay.
This is including your wedding cost because that was your send forth party as far as I’m concerned. And including the proof of funds, which is still getting to you.
Yeah.
All of this, the money that made this possible was about 8.8 million.
Ehn? Hahahahaha. Wait.
I just told my husband, but he doesn’t believe. I think he’s in denial. He said his brain isn’t calculating it properly.
Remember, you still get to keep almost half of it – the proof of funds. Have you ever thought about how much all of it cost?
Nope. We made sure not to. Because it’ll drive us crazy.
Oopsy, sorry to ruin it for you.
Hahaha, it’s okay.
In truth, it looks like the actual fees and processing costs a little less than 2 million when you take out your proof of funds.
Yes. That’s true. Not bad at all. You calm down better when you take everything step by step and keep your eye on the price. You never know where help could spring up from.
This is a formality, but on a scale of 1-10, what’s your happiness –
– 12. I can basically dream without fear of my dreams not coming to fruition because the system/environment is against me.
I can literally change my career and there’s already help in place to help me take the new leap. No fear. No hassles.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
The subject of today’s story lived in Nigeria for a while, but he currently lives in his home country, Liberia.
Tell me about that first cash that you felt was yours.
Let me start by saying I’m the laziest person I know. When I was a kid, my dad wanted to imbibe reading as a habit into my siblings and I. So what did he do? He’d give us a reading challenge – a book – and then he’d give money to whoever finished first. I always finished first and got the money. This is where the laziness came in. Because I hated doing my laundry, I’d bribe my sisters with the money I got so that they could do my chores. Everyone was happy.
But my first real gig was teaching on holidays at a secondary school while I was in Uni. I was getting paid like ₦15-20k per month, in 2012.
Okay, post school?
Some quick context before we continue, I haven’t lived in Liberia all my life. I actually moved back here after University in 2015.
You lived in Nigeria.
Yeah. I wanted to go to Law School here in Liberia – it’s three years – but what happened was, people that were supposed to enter Law School in 2014 didn’t start till the next session in 2015.
Why?
Ebola. Everything stopped, including school. So that means that I couldn’t go to Law School immediately. I gained admission for a Masters Degree in the UK, but I couldn’t afford it. My parents couldn’t too.
So, still in Nigeria and feeling a little trapped, I applied to volunteer at an NGO. I showed up at the interview, and somehow left with a fulltime job. The gig paid ₦60k a month, and this was 2016. I worked with some of the most amazing people there. But then I left after a few months.
Something else clicked?
My Masters. My parents raised that money, somehow. After my Masters, I made up my mind to move back to Liberia. So in January of 2018, I moved back here. You want to hear something funny?
Hit me.
I celebrated one year of unemployment in January this year.
That escalated quickly. What were you doing for one year?
I’d come back to Liberia with the hopes of making a difference in my country. I was coming back as a 22-year old with two degrees. I know in Nigeria where you’re coming from, that’s pretty normal. In Liberia, it’s not. Because if you grew up in Liberia, you’re not finishing your first degree till you’re in your late twenties at best. That’s what happens when you factor in a cumulative 14 years of war.
For example, I worked as a lecturer briefly – I’ll get to that part – but most of my students were older than me.
So, it wasn’t completely rare, but you don’t just run into a 22-year-old like me everywhere you turn.
I had big prospects coming back to Liberia and making at least $600 a month, working in the government. I’ll give you context to understand this number.
I’m listening.
I almost got a job to work with the EU delegation in Liberia for a media role. I was shortlisted, but I didn’t get it. That job would have paid me $2000.
In Ellen’s government, I was more confident about getting a job. But when I came, the government had changed, and this government was employing based on party alliances. There’s a song people sing now, it’s called “In The Photo”.
What’s that?
“When they took the photo, I was there. But when the photo came out, I was not there.” Basically, people are saying ah, when you were campaigning, I was there. Now that it’s time to reap the rewards, I’m not there. People loyal to the ruling party still can’t get jobs, and they’re the priority.
Inside life.
I remember going to one Bureau, and the man looked at me and shook his head. He said, “If you had come under the last government, you would have had a job by tomorrow. But look,” then he brought out a list. 40 people. “These are the people I’m supposed to assimilate into my jurisdiction, and I don’t even have the need for 10 people.”
I said, oya let me work for free. He said, “I don’t even have space for you to sit down.”
Case closed. What did you do for the one year?
I started writing. I really had nothing else to do.
I’m trying to draw a straight line from this writing to how food entered your mouth. Help me out.
Ah, my father sent me money every month, since he’s the chief supporter of me coming back to Liberia – he’s not in the country, by the way. He helps his boy, as my boss meh. I started helping people research whatever they were working on, for school or work – about six in total. Also, my father has plenty friends, so when I first came back, all those “Ah how are you?” handouts helped a lot.
How did you end your job drought?
My dad came visiting for something else, but it was a good time to have a sitdown. And he went, “You’ve been here for a whole year, and nothing’s happening. Your mother and I have been thinking, and we’ve concluded that we don’t have $100 to be giving you every month.”
I mean, I understood what he was saying. He’s always had lots of mouths to feed. Every Liberian family fortunate enough, definitely has a lot of mouths to feed. Not like he’s a rich a man.
By the end of the conversation, we settled on a February deadline for my last $100.
My uncles said I came at the wrong time. “When Ellen was here,” they’d say, “there were a lot of NGOs and International Organisations.”
Back to your dad’s deadline. How did that go?
I somehow managed to get a teaching job. I wanted to teach at the Government University, that would have paid me like $300-400 per month. The process was taking too long. Another Private University I applied to gave me an offer, and I was hired.
Also, I applied for an internship at an NGO, and got that. My job there was to work with them in documenting stories of change in Liberia, and it felt good to be part of that. Because of this, I actually made up my mind that I was going to teach for only one session, so that I could perhaps, end up working full time for the NGO.
So, I was teaching thrice a week, one hour on each day. I was getting paid $120. Then the NGO is paying $150.
I freelanced on small research projects too, but it hasn’t come consistently, or paid significantly enough for me to really think of it as a proper source of income. It’s fetched only about $300 this year.
Oh wait, another window opened.
What?
Remember when we talked about Law School? I got admitted, so it was extra incentive to leave the teaching job. That’s costing $1500 per semester for tuition, but my parents are covering that.
2019 looks super packed and busy! And you’re juggling this with the NGO?
Yeah. Although, my current contract with the NGO just expired. We’re currently negotiating new terms, and that might pay me between $300-$500, hopefully.
What are your running costs these days?
Tithe: $50
Data: $30
Transport and stuff: $30 x 4
Obligations: $50
I’m curious, what does $500 fetch you in a city like Monrovia
It’s decent. The place I want to get for example is in an estate. It’ll be a two or three-bedroom apartment and I’ll be spending about $150-$200 every month on rent, if they don’t ask for a six-month advance that is. Most people I know pay their rent on a monthly basis.
There are apartments that go for up to $1500 per month, fully furnished. Those ones tend to go to the expatriates, and there are a lot of them in Monrovia.
Also, food is not expensive here. I asked my aunty, and she said $25 is enough to cook Jollof Rice for 5 people. Keep in mind that the portions are larger here, and it’s generally richer that y’all’s Jollof. There’s meat, fish –
– Let’s be civil, please.
Hahaha.
Talking about expatriates, I haven’t heard you mention the Liberian Dollar since we started talking.
Yeah, we juggle the two currencies. If you’re working for the U.N. for example, how often do you have to interact with the Liberian Dollar? You’re not buying Pure Water or food for Lapper-Be-Door –
Lapper be what?
Wrapper. Be. Door. It’s like Bukas in Nigeria. They call it that here because most of them have wrappers as doors.
Ohhhh.
So yes, there are people in Liberia that rarely use the Liberian dollar.
How are salaries paid then?
Some places give you in LD, some pay 50% LD, 50% USD. Government pays roughly between the two currencies. The USD is generally more stable to be paid in.
Talking about stability, how unstable is the LD?
It just became unstable two years ago. Before, it was plugged at 100. At the beginning of 2019, it wasn’t even up to 200. Now it’s 210 to the USD. People live in the country with two currencies.
I actually gathered some of my thoughts about it here. What do you think?
It’s amusing how strange it is to you. This is how it has always been in Liberia. And there’s a long Americo-Liberia history about it that we can’t even digress to right now.
How much do you imagine you’d be earning five years?
Over a $1000 for sure. I’d be working with an international NGO, with a Law Degree. The good thing is, I’m schooling and working. So I’m building my work experience while getting another degree.
You keep talking about NGOs.
Yes, those are some of the most aspirational jobs here. And then the government. During Ellen’s government, salaries and benefits were huge. Now, it’s mostly cost cutting. Even some of the NGOs have left. But I still want to work in government. I feel like there’s only so much impact you can make from the outside.
Another thing is, Liberia doesn’t have that big of a private sector.
How do you use money here?
I just put it in my wallet. I haven’t gotten an ATM, because I don’t need it.
Is that just you or it’s a Liberian thing?
I think it’s a mixture of both. Because most places you’re going to buy things, there’s no POS. The only reason I’d eventually get an ATM is so I don’t have to queue at the bank. Then there’s also mobile money.
About you now, how would you rate your financial happiness? Over 10?
Three because I could be making more money, but this is the part where I take a small step back, so I can make more money in the future. Because I’m trying to get a law degree full time – it’s three years here – I can’t give work the full time attention it should be getting.
So every time I think about it, I just tell myself, a little patience, man. A little patience.
This conversation was had over lunch at a restaurant in Monrovia in Monrovia a few weeks ago, while on the JollofRoad. The best part? Food was paid for with my Nigerian account; A scan from my app. And pim pim, done. It’s Ecobank Pay.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
Today’s subject is a guy who knows how to be the life of the party and the workhorse too.
What was the first thing you did for money?
I organised parties in university. I started in 200 level, 2007. My first party flopped like hell. Then I realised the clubbing dynamics of Lagos nightlife. Before, we were running after the public school guys. That didn’t work, so we started running after the private school guys with money. The second party cost me zero naira to organise. I made ₦376,000.
That’s interesting. Where did the money come from?
Basically I went to the club and offered them a certain type of percentage. So I said hey, we are willing to let you guys keep all the money from drinks and 10% from the gate (fee). Then we went to meet a new and upcoming club within the school too and said hey, are you willing to do a collaboration party? They agreed.. So most of the costs for running around, printing IVs and stuff like that, I kind of like moved that cost to them, including the transportation and running around costs.
And for me in my own crew, it was myself, two siblings and my girlfriend – family.
Zero costs incurred.
Yep. I continued for a while until I finished uni in 2010. I tried to continue, but I realised that I had lost the connection and the crowd. Most of the people in my set were gone. When you go back to school, it’s like Uncle Agbaya, what are you doing?
Did you have a stash at the time?
₦800k+ in my account. In typical baby boy fashion, that’s when I decided to move out. I moved in with one of my friends, and he was the turn-up lord. It was a lot of money then, but –
–Aha, the but.
Under six months, the ₦800k was remaining ₦100. Initially, you’re partying, buying foodstuffs, girls are constantly coming and eating, and then the babes start reducing when the money is going down. That’s when I went back to the house like a prodigal son, and started looking for work. I haven’t stopped working since.
Your first job. What was that like?
₦55k a month. During NYSC. I got a job while I was serving – it was an administrative role in a consulting firm. In fact, I used part of that money to buy Blackberry Bold 2.
My salary became ₦109k after a year, so what did I do? I joined the office ajo, sold my Blackberry and bought a car.
How much did that cost?
₦300k. After selling by Blackberry, I was using one kpalasa – in fact, it was my mum that gave me the phone. But I was driving a car, hahaha.
I’m trying to make sense of your cashflow at the time. What was it like getting by on ₦109k, fuelling a car?
Here’s the trick, I was doing consulting and most of the time we had to go outside Lagos, I was getting ₦7,500 per day stipend. Another ₦5,000 laundry – this was receiptable though. I remember earning up to ₦252k a month. I was 22 and still serving at the time o.
What type of conversations were you having with your fellow NYSC people?
None. One time, they told me to come and sign register for my ₦9000-something allowance, the woman said ‘you’ll lose it o’. I said ‘take it ma’, hahaha.
Waawu.
I was outside Lagos at the time o, earning more than that in two days.
Mad o. Do you miss those days?
No I don’t, hahaha. It’s been an interesting career. I was promoted thrice in three and a half years, climbed from ₦55k to ₦159k.
What were you doing right? I mean, the obvious thing is “I worked hard, I focused on my job, I did my best” but what do you feel you were doing, that everybody that was working hard wasn’t doing?
To be honest I’m not sure. I knew I was very good at work. I knew I was very good at whatever I was doing. But I think something always stands out – I’m extremely decisive. So if I decide to do something – and this could be bad though – I go for it, whether I break fences or make enemies. In my last job, my strongest point was the ability to achieve business goals. That’s what my manager always said. And everybody likes people like that in their team. Because once you’re able to achieve the target, that’s it. You always get favoured.
Anyway, back to service. I finished in 2011. But by the end of 2014, I was earning ₦372k. I had changed jobs. But the hack is the perks.
Tell me about that.
What I was actually taking home was ₦452k. At this new job, I was working on special projects. That meant that sometimes I was working on partnerships, other times, talent scouting and acquisition. I did that till 2016. I left at ₦490k, and then I took my first pay cut ever, my choice. So basically, I took ₦7.2 million per year instead of waiting for a few months and climbing to 9-point-something.
Interesting.
But I just knew that I was going to be stuck where I was. I knew I was doing the wrong thing. I knew I wasn’t in the career line that I wanted. So I hit the reset button.
There was no story to it. They sent me the offer. I looked at it, and I said yes. There was no whining.
There are certain things that are important to me at different points in my life. Like when I moved after three promotions, I moved for money. Solely for money. Not career. And then when I moved out of money, it was for me being able to build my career.
And when I was getting married, I married someone who was contented as well. That meant no spousal pressure. I got married at 27, by the way.
Interestingly I saved more with that pay cut.
How?
The working environment changed. I wasn’t as invested in depreciating assets. When you work in the bank for example, you spend so much on buying suits, buying shoes, buying watches and all of that. But where I moved to, it was mostly t-shirts –
Ohooo, a startup.
Yeah. I mean, I’ve always been a saver, but I started saving more when I got into tech.
So, were you a consultant?
No. Now I was still actively in a special projects role in management. 2017, 550. Beginning of 2018 I was earning 603.
2019?
5,250. Wait, 4,250 first, then 5,250 after 3 months.
That is clearly not naira, and there’s no outcome where there aren’t a lot of zeros here.
Hahaha, dollars. Net. I went from a ₦9.6 million per year package in January to 22 or so.
How does a person go from – what, ₦55k? – to ₦22 million in less than a decade?
It’s actually interesting, thinking about it hahaha. I’m laughing because I’ve never sat down to reflect. Maybe whenever I feel sad again, I should just…
Think about how far you’ve come.
Yeah. Maybe you should start charging people for this. But after me sha.
Hahaha.
I realise now that at every point, I’ve never really felt like I should have been earning more. Basically, I’ve always been extremely content.
You know, what I was earning in mid 2014 is equivalent to what I’m tithing now.
Wollop. Start again.
It’s a little more that what I earned, but you get it.
Someone bring me a choir!
Hahaha. I’m not sure if this is related, but I always keep my living expenses low. For example, my living expense hasn’t grown significantly since I was on ₦9 million a year. Also, I don’t think of my income as just mine. I think about it as a unit.
Ah, you and your wife?
And kid, the real oga, hahaha. That kid chops the most part of the income. So household income is currently at ₦2.5 million a month.
I’ve been wanting to ask a married person, do you run a joint account?
No we don’t have any joint account. We keep it separate, but we have a system. Take for instance, if we want to buy a car, we put all the funds together and buy that car. Regardless of who earns what. So that’s kind of how we operate. If we want to do investment for Treasury Bills, it’s done for the family.
Not as individuals.
Yeah. I tend to pull in most of the funds, but for the family still. That’s how I see money, because anything can happen any time.
Any time!
At the end of the day, the money belongs to the unit. It’s just that one person has more earning power as a unit.
So let’s break down monthly expenses.
₦450k
As in, all your expenses?
Including rent. I remove rent monthly, lock it in a savings, set a maturity date, then I give the landlord yearly.
So, let’s break down the ₦450k.
We have things we take care of. I pay the rent, she handles feeding. Sometimes it climbs to ₦500k.
So for my last rent, I managed to save up to 1.8, even though rent was ₦1.2 million. That meant that for the next month, I didn’t even touch my salary.
It’s a little over 450, but I have some side investment that pays me ₦100k. That covers extra stuff. But ₦450k is the unshakeable running cost, all things being equal.
Incredible. So, ₦450k out of 1.9. What happens to the rest?
Investments, savings, some of them go into stuff that might come up but mostly investments.
You have ₦1.45 million that you can do anyhow. Your potential lau lau budget.
Yeah thereabouts.
Let’s create a scenario of how you spend the ₦1.45 million.
I leave the rest to stay denominated in dollars. I have a monthly savings budget, a monthly investment budget minus your rent. I juggle a bunch of investments: treasury bills, mutual funds, and dollar investments.
I’m always looking for investment opportunities, but medium risk. I prioritise medium risk and low risk investments. I don’t do the high risk because I’ve probably not had enough time to sit down and understand it.
What’s something you wish you could invest in, in Nigeria, more easily?
I’m not sure. Two things around that; before, I was the kind of person that’ll be like Nigeria will be great. But more and more, it’s chipping away from that confidence. And when you start to have kids, you start to kind of like lose hope and…
And start thinking about their future.
Yes. So by this time now, it’s more or less about how much investments can I do abroad.
Your true country?
Yes my true country. So that the day I decide to… You know, Nigeria is actually my true country, I really love Nigeria. So did many of the people in my circle who have gone. I don’t think I want to just yet. I don’t think I’ve reached that point just yet.
You were saying something about the investments that helps you pay for the ₦30k.
On the side consulting; income can come through those avenues. It used to happen frequently but now, I spend more of my time at my current job. The thing is, if you want to be seen as a performer, you need to be able to block out the noise. And when you start to do side gigs, it can become noise. I feel this needs my focus 100% till I’m able to build something.
I feel you.
And there’s no urgent request to increase income right now.
How much do you feel like you should actually be earning?
Once in a while, I struggle with imposter syndrome. And I’ll say sometimes, I don’t think I should be earning more than 12 million, a year. If I was going to get promoted in my last job, which was what happened in June, I would have been earning 12m. This job is the quantum leap.
What is something that you really want but you can’t afford?
A house. I don’t have plans for it yet, but I have a picture of the kind of house I want. It’s so clear. A terrace house. I can see it, but I don’t have a strong desire to get it now.
You have pension and health insurance, right?
Yeah, plus car and home insurance. I’m flirting with the idea of life insurance, because tax wise, it reduces my tax liabilities.
Ehn?
If you have a life insurance, the amount that they use to calculate your income tax goes down.
Just for bants, when was the last time you felt really broke?
I think it’d have to be when I was earning 550k. But broke for me is not when I run out of money, but when I run out of pocket money.
What is something you honestly wish you could get better at?
Reading. And if I’m able to focus the way I have focused every other part of my life in getting better at reading, I won’t see what happened as a quantum leap.
I have a very poor attention span. Meaning I can be very excited for a while, which makes it difficult for me to pick up a book and read. I read articles and management reviews though,
Because they help you get better at work.
Exactly.
On a scale of 1-10, happiness levels.
I’ll say seven. Money is fickle, and that uncertainty is where the remaining three sits. I’ve been lucky, but I also believe that luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
The subject is a 28 year old Lady with a lot of uncertainties. All your useful ideas are welcome.
What’s the first thing you ever did for money?
I wrote articles for a teenage magazine during holidays when I was in secondary school. I was 12 or 13. It was like ₦5k a week for three days of work and free lunch.
I don’t think I worked again until university. In uni – that was abroad – I came home every Christmas and summer holiday and during those times, I took internships. I was getting like ₦15k or ₦25k a month, for transport basically. I worked in radio, mostly to gain experience in 2010 and 2011. I didn’t want to sit down in my father’s house for months and just be looking.
But you still got allowances then?
Not really, but at school, during the term, I did. I got $500 a month. $500 a month – this is funny – but I actually had nothing to spend money on for a while. I didn’t have anything to buy. But when I moved schools, I just started spending money because people always want to go out and chill.
People are expensive. That’s the only lesson I’ve learned in life. That’s how my allowance started disappearing.
So basically, throughout Uni, you survived on allowances.
No, I got a job, from my third year. Three hours a day, and it was three days a week. So just 9 hours. It was $12 an hour. Then I was working another job that paid – I can’t remember how much I earned. What I do remember is that my dad cut my allowance down to 250. My dad didn’t even waste time. He was like you’re working now na, what do you want money for again? And he cut it into 250, and I was like okay, cool I guess. But then, I was actually spending money. So I still needed that 500, but he was not having it.
Interesting. After Uni?
I moved back to Nigeria and started Nysc in the Southwest, teaching in a school.
When did you finish NYSC?
2013. But I left the state I was before NYSC ended because my landlord’s son was stalking me – terrifying time. I redeployed to Lagos. When I came to Lagos, I started working in the Local government. I was really just sitting down and staring. I didn’t get any of my salary. I just got the usual ₦19,800.
Once NYSC ended, I did a lot of internships. This is when I was looking for jobs. So I was like doing internships hoping that they would kind of transition into full-time jobs.
So how much did each of them pay?
I was a production assistant one time. It was supposed to be like ₦100k a month. I left immediately after my first two projects; I didn’t do up to a month because they were very shady about the pay. Also, every job I worked, there was always one creepy elderly guy trying to enter my phone, or gaining my number somehow and calling me, harassing me.
There is no job I can think of in that period that didn’t have a creep.
Sucks. So, you quit and didn’t get paid?
Yep.
How old were you?
This was 2013, so 22. Then I got an internship at a media company, which I liked. There was a transport allowance of ₦35k. I did that for 3 months – that’s how long the internship was for. Then I sat at home for a bit.
How long was ‘a bit’?
Another three months – and this is when I got desperate. I wanted to do production at this point but I was just hearing there’s no money in radio, these people are poor. So I took the exams for all of the Accounting and Tax Consulting companies.
Ah, you went back to your degree?
Yeah. I studied hard, took the exams in late 2013 and passed, but I sucked during the interview stage. All of this stretched into early 2014. Most of the time, I was just at home. Maybe someone would be like, “Help me on this job, I’ll pay you small money”. But nothing serious. Or my mum would be like, “Do something for my shop and get small money.”
In late 2014, there was this production gig that lasted a few months, but it paid about 150k in total.
So, nothing stable.
You know, all my life I haven’t done what I wanted to do. To be honest, I don’t know what I want to do – like something I really enjoy doing. I think I like managing projects though.
Anyway, early December 2014 I went for an interview at a Digital Marketing company, and this time, it went well.
We agreed that I’d start in January. The CEO was like your salary is ₦100k per month in a “take it or leave it” fashion. Also there was this weird salary structure where I’d take home less than ₦100k monthly, then I’d get a lump sum every quarter. I didn’t even care very much, I just needed a job, let’s sha be going. This was my first full time job since I graduated.
What were you doing?
I started off doing Social Media stuff for their brands. And then learning how to create strategy for them. More tasks were coming, and I was picking up new skills, learning new tools. In the end, throwing all the tasks at me meant I was picking up new skills, and the next thing you know, I had a fairly good sense of digital marketing.
Awesome. How much were you getting monthly?
₦44k. Then about ₦157k. Basically, the quarterly lump sum made my average monthly salary about 90-something, minus tax.
But at ₦44k, I ran out of money every month. Then I’d borrow from my mum or my sibling and when I get paid, refund. It was a terrible cycle of spend, borrow, repay, be broke again. My daily commute was also crazy. It wasn’t just 4 hours a day, it was also costing me a ton of money – I had a car to fuel. So I started squatting close to work and going home on weekends.
After one year, I went to ask for a raise.
How did that go?
I got a promotion, but only with name, because my money didn’t get promoted. By March 2016, I still hadn’t gotten a raise. The whole HR vibe didn’t look like anything was going to change. A few key people even left to go set up shop elsewhere, including my line manager. So I started looking for new opportunities elsewhere.
Then I got a message from my old line manager, one of the people who left:
“We need you.”
By the end of April, I was already there, for ₦166k/month, net.
I was hyped because this was more than I was getting for my quarterly lump sum, and now I was going to get monthly.
A proper jump.
Yesss. Anyway, I worked there for a while, and in 2018, I was just really tired. I wanted to give something else a shot, so I quit.
What did you want to do?
I wanted to work on a kind of service – it involved domestic staff and placements, and I realised how difficult it was to make things like that work. In the end, every step, from registration, finding and verifying people, and quality control was hectic.
Meanwhile, I got a freelance Project Management gig in Q4 of 2018. I was getting paid ₦250k at the beginning and another ₦250k at the end a few months later. This project was mostly a relief, because since I quit, I’d been getting constant cornering from family members with the “What are you doing with your life now?” questions.
I’m just like, a girl wants peace – don’t talk to me because I’m trying to figure it out.
About figuring this whole life thing out, how do you see money’s place in it for you?
Mental health over financial health. I can’t feel like I’m in bondage because of money, but then if I didn’t have my privilege, I know I’d be saying something different.
Ok so let’s talk about what you’re up to these days.
I have a friend who runs a food business. She’s hired me to get things in order, like managing her orders and all her processes. She’d been dealing with problems like orders getting mixed up, customers not being followed up on. That pays ₦75k – also, it’s a new gig. Another business hired me to do their marketing. That pays ₦100k. And I’m going to work remotely.
So that’s ₦175k, for now.
Looks like you found your gig.
My whole thing has been; let me just find like 3 gigs until I sort out my life, which I’m not ready to do yet.
How much do you honestly feel like you should be earning?
Probably ₦400k, but also, realistically I’m in Nigeria. I also think if I get another job, it would start at ₦300k. People use this “I have been out of the game too long” thing to pay less, which is why I’m settling for a ₦300k job. I mean my last 2018 salary was ₦216k, so it’s only natural the next is ₦300k.
Also I’m over this life of living on your own, paying rent and service charges. I want to go back to my parents’ house.
About that; what did your expenses look like last month?
I have a flatmate, so we kind of split money most times. I pay 30k for cleaning, and all the house work, my flatmate pays our 30k for service charge.
Phone Credit: 10k
Hair care: 5k
Catching coo fun: 25k
Phone fix: 20k
Transportation, even though I hardly go out: 15k
Do you save?
I was saving when I was in constant money. I just realised house hold stuff continues to take money and so does my car, it just makes all kinds of sounds.
So saving is not a lot. I think it used to be like 5k a week which would be like 20k but it is not a significant amount. Lagos just takes the rest of it from me.
I know you are trying not to think about it too much but five years from now, what does it look like you’ll be earning?
I just feel the world will end before then, but I guess I should be set or hoping that I can save enough and then be set eventually.
Do you have any plans to get there?
No. I’m like in autopilot. There is no plan. When I get really tired, I will now start thinking about my life.
But for this, five years should be over a million for sure. But if it’s my own business, I’m probably not going to pay myself a million until we have made serious money, so I will just be managing ₦500k.
So what is something you really want but you cant afford?
I always want to eat out; I have cravings everyday, but I can’t afford that.
I wanted to ask you about the last time you felt truly broke, but it looks like that is like every time…
You know, I just look at my account balance on my phone, and I’m really sad.
On a scale of 1 to 10 happiness
More like a 5. It has always been a 5. My last few weeks or months at work, it was like 2 or 3 but life is just a consistent middle ground of… I don’t know.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
The subject of this story is a 42 year old driver I ran into at the Benin-Togo border during #JollofRoad. We had this conversation as we sorted out papers.
Tell me about your first job ever.
I drove a taxi in Ilorin in 1992. Back then, a trip cost anything from ₦1 to ₦5. Buses used to charge 50 kobo. I was so small, I used to sit on a pillow to drive. I was only 15 years old.
What made you start driving?
I actually ran away from home. I’d already learned how to drive because my dad had trucks. But I ran away from home because I felt I could be independent – wrong decision. They found me and brought me back that year, and it was hard adjusting.
Why?
I’d already touched money, and now I suddenly wasn’t having it. I just wanted something that’d give me money, so I started working as a bricklayer. I got paid ₦40 a day.
What about school?
I was in and out of school, so I didn’t even finish primary school until 1994 when I was 17. It was also in that year I had my first child.
Ehn?
We were in love, it was December 1993, a holiday o. Next thing in January like this, bele done set. I was scared.
So, what did you do?
I first ran away – fear. Of course I came back shortly after. My mum took the responsibility of me and their mummy, so she raised our child.
What about your lover?
Ah, my first Love. She didn’t want to continue the relationship at that time because I was an Omo Ita.
Anyway, that whole period made me start having small sense. I came back and did secondary school. My first WAEC, I did it in 2000. Then they took me to Ibadan and re-registered me for WAEC again. I remember how much my mum paid for that school – ₦21k. I started in SS3, at age 23 o.
How did it go?
I passed some of my papers – I failed literature – but I managed to get into a Polytechnic. It felt good. So in 2002, I resumed as a part-time student in a Polytechnic, Business Administration. Since it was part-time, I was able to go back to driving a taxi – my lectures were in the evening. The person who gave me the car to drive asked me to pay ₦800 per day. I was making like ₦2000. My route then was about ₦20 naira per passenger, and a full load was ₦5.
I was about to enter my second year when new wahala started.
What happened?
Cultists. They wanted to blend me. It got so bad that one night, I just went, returned the car, and left town. I moved to Abuja and never looked back.
Wait, just like that?
Actually, someone informed a man in Abuja that I knew how to drive. My first test was to drive to Abuja. Then I got transferred to someone, and that’s how that new life started as a personal driver in Abuja. I drove his wife and my first salary was ₦8,000. But the good thing is that I didn’t even have to spend anything out of that money. My boss was giving me everything I needed. The money just got deposited in my account, and I enjoyed all my other free benefits.
In fact, she’d give me food, pocket money, and even clothes. I worked with her until 2004.
Did you leave the job?
Wait, let me tell you the story. Remember the 8th All Africa Games? She was one of the people contracted to do some work there. We were working non-stop, getting very little sleep.
One day, I was there waiting for the next errand to run, when one of the caterers came and offered me food. I collected it straight, I was hungry.
As I started eating, my boss saw me and was like, “Nuisance! Who told you to be eating?” she kept going on and on. So I responded with one statement.
What?
I told her I wasn’t working anymore. She thought it was a joke. I headed back to the house to go get my things, but before I got there, she’d already called the house, telling them to not let me in. I just vexed and left my things too.
Ah ahn, where was this confidence coming from?
Money. All that money that I’d be saving, and one tiny phone. I was 26 years old at the time. I’d already touched a part of the money because I was sending money home for my parents and my kids. Still, I think I had over 100k.
After her husband asked me for the last time, I told him I was quitting. Then he gave me three months salary. And said, “I wish you the best of luck.” That moment was the first time since the drama started, that I wish I didn’t quit.
Then I started working for some Indians as a driver, helping them with other things.
What other things?
The first time I went to their workplace, they were looking for someone to help them clear a small bush. Since I already had experience doing that type of work, it was easy for me, and I just cleared it sharp-sharp. They liked me, and wanted me to be the one driving them.
Then one of the co-drivers blocked me one time.
Blocked you as in?
He told me that I was trying to take his job. He said he was going to kill me if I collected his “Oga’s driver” position. The Benz was mostly reserved for the senior driver, and that’s what these Indians wanted me to start driving.
Ah, so what did you do?
Whenever they asked me to come drive the Benz, I’d say, “Ah, I don’t really understand this Benz o. Let my senior drive it.”
I avoided the car like that. I also had new kinds of problems there.
What kind?
My salary was still 8k. But the difference between my last 8k and this 8k was that this one was my lifeline. No free food. No free anything. So I started trekking. I used to trek like 5km every day. Once in a while, I’d get free rides from one of my neighbours who worked close by.
Ah, it was hard o, because the moment they realised I could also do hard work, they turned me to Jackie – Jackie with no money. There was this place we used to sit down when we weren’t working, just outside the factory. I used to see a lot of these Inter-state commercial buses passing every time, and I used to ask myself, “Ah ahn, shebi you can drive?”
So one day, I walked up to one of the offices of one of the bus companies and told them I’d like to be one of their drivers. Next thing you know, they were sending me on errands, telling me to go drop this person, and that person.
What about your old job?
I left that place. I just focused squarely on how to become a full-time driver in this transport company. There was one man – the Oga of the place – that I was always getting assigned to. One day, he gave me a letter and told me to take it to Lagos. This was 2004 – I think I was 27.
That letter was him recommending me for training at their main office in Lagos.
Progress progress!
Yes o! But the day I entered Lagos, police arrested me.
Ah. How did that happen?
I crossed the express. They put me inside their bus and I met more people there. I was so confused. Next thing, people started stepping out of the bus one by one – they way bailing themselves.
The officers told me to bail myself, but one kobo, I no get. I told them that I’m a driver that came for training in Lagos. They didn’t listen. They drove around for like another one hour, picking people, and collecting money from them.
It was later that they realised that true-true, I didn’t have money. By the time they released me, I already missed the training, the next one was happening a week later.
I just sat down at the bus stop and cried sad tears and hunger tears. By chance, someone I knew from my Ibadan days was now a driver in Lagos, and he saw me. Staying with him was how I survived for the next one week.
One week later, I got selected as a driver. My first salary was 20k, and they added 2k every year.
Wait, I haven’t even told you about how I got married.
Interesting. Oya.
I met this woman, she used to come visit from outside Lagos. Anytime she came, we stayed in a hotel because I was squatting with someone. Then one time, she told me she wasn’t going to come and visit me if I didn’t get a place.
Sharp sharp, I rented a single room, 24k per year, I bought a bed and some other things. This was early 2007 o. When I told her, she didn’t believe. To show her I was serious, I called my mother to tell her I had someone I wanted to marry. Next thing, they started talking. Next thing, they invited my family.
While we were there, my mummy was telling everyone congrats.
Congrats for?
My wife, she was pregnant.
Wonderment.
Ah, next thing, her family said that they don’t marry with baby in their house. All these times, I was still confused. And what did my brother who followed me to see our in-laws do?
What?
He stood up from his seat, walked up to the calendar, and picked a date – just about 3 months from that day. Everything was confusing that day.
I wasn’t there, but even I am confused.
I asked my brother, abeg did you keep any money somewhere that we’re going to use to do this wedding?
I was about to ask you about the money part.
Ah, I spent money o. I spent over a million naira on that wedding.
I imagine your salary hadn’t reached 30k per month at this time. How did you raise 1 million naira of your own money?
Hahaha, I was actually making a lot of money. Drivers have different ways of making money. For example, everybody gets a fuel budget. If I don’t spend everything, I keep the rest. People also give me things to help them deliver. Sometimes, I could make up to 50k to and fro. The first lump sum of money I’d ever saved in my life, I used it for wedding. Can you imagine?
Anyway, that’s how that marriage thing went.
What came next?
I lost my job, one year later in 2008. One of the worst things that can happen to you as a bus driver is an accident. Good thing was, my bus was empty, so nobody died, but the bus was seriously damaged.
They sacked me. But then again, I got lucky.
You got another job?
Yes. Someone hired me to be his driver not too long after. That was the first time I ever drove a G-Wagon. I was paid 35k per month, at first. Then another 55k was added in some form of allowances.
Ah, that’s interesting.
Yes oh. We had a near-death experience and I handled it smoothly. Since then, he instructed that I get that allowance.
So how did that job go?
I spent a little over a year with him, before I quit again. This was in 2009. I was –
What happened again?
Some of his international clients came into the country for a while, so he assigned me to drive them. That meant that I had to find another driver to drive him around. When that driver resumed, I briefed him, telling him how important it is to be coded with whatever he sees working with Oga.
Coded as in?
He clubbed a lot, and drank a lot, so someone has to constantly watch so they don’t steal his things. Can you believe this boy went to go and tell Oga?
Ah.
My Oga now said that I was leaking his secrets, and then his attitude just changed. First of all, they cut all my allowances. Next thing, they brought out fuel receipts and said I was stealing money. When I approached my Oga about it, he said if I can’t pay, I should quit. I dropped the car keys right there. This was late 2009.
So what did you do next?
A lot. I drove the Lagos Red Cab for a while. Bought a small car and did public transport. Drove a delivery truck. Drove an Uber. Drove a delivery truck several times to Ghana, Benin and Togo. Bought a Sienna on hire-purchase for 1.4 million naira. The owner of the money brought SARS and collected the car back. I delayed that payment only once. I cried that day.
Man. What are you doing these days?
Driving still. Na here you see me so. I’m currently drivng cargo, across West Africa. Earning 90k a month.
What does 90k cover for you?
So, some years back, during that period that I was getting money, I actually bought land for 90k. Then I started developing it. Then moved my family there like two years ago. So, no more rent wahala.
Ah, your family.
Yes yes. My wife, my 5 children –
Ahhhhhhh.
Hahaha. The last two, mistakes. The fourth one, carelessness. The fifth one, birth control injection failed.
Plus the first child from your first relationship.
Yes o. Six. I’m still in touch with her, we talk. We’re in good terms.
What’s on your mind right now?
Right now, I just want to be able to save up and buy a small bus, so I can ply a route that will let me go home to my family everyday. I miss them a lot. My focus in this life is to make sure the kids always go to school. I can’t sleep well if their school fees or feeding money is not intact. Their mum doesn’t really earn much, so it’s me that has to take care of the financial part of the family. And that means not going home. I can sell my house to make sure they go to school.
One day, I came home and met the little one sleeping in my shirt and holding my picture. I cried.
How much money is sufficient for you right now?
Ah, 200k and I dey alright.
Expense breakdown
What do you think is the most important lesson life has taught you since 1992?
Most of the mistakes in my life have happened because I didn’t calm down before making decisions. Right now, I just want to focus on personal discipline and patience.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people. But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’, subscribe below. It only takes a minute.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
On this episode, we have a 25-year-old who started off winging it, and even though he’s still winging it, he’s doing it at three times the amount he was earning a year before.
What was the first impression you had about money while growing up?
It was back in school, my second year.
Not that I didn’t have any interest in money before this time, but it was my strongest realisation.
It was the first time I made money for myself. Some people in my class wanted to buy and sell stuff for Hall Week – food. I don’t know why they assumed that I had money, but I gave them my pocket money and savings; I invested about ₦30k. I made my capital back and 30% extra.
About a year after in 2013, I got a publisher who was going to help the department sort out some of our printing issues. It was a big gig for him, and this guy paid me about ₦100k. I was in 300-level o.
Ah, mad. What did you spend the money on?
Omo, I just dey chop. But something else happened – I felt a strong need to leave home. I was eager to grow up and see what it was like to work for your own money. I stayed in school or in friends’ houses during the holiday.
Were you still getting pocket money from home after you left?
₦20k a month from my parents, but it was barely enough, for all kinds of reasons. In final year, I started helping people with assignments, and papers and data analysis. I made about ₦100k during that period. That’s how I got money for graduation and all the final year things that come with it. I bought clothes, even bought a laptop.
Lit. NYSC?
I was working part-time for a startup – doing comms. They paid ₦20k per month, plus my NYSC allowance. That brought my total income to ₦39k.
This was the first time I was consistently earning more than what my parents were giving me. Pocket money already stopped at this point, but my dad still sent the occasional ₦5 or ₦10k.
Towards the end of service, I got an internship at a consulting firm. They were paying ₦10k weekly, so I was juggling it with my original PPA, the startup.
That must have been a lot.
Yep. Then the accounting startup realised that my attention was divided. They let me go, but it was on good terms sha.
This was May and I was back with my NYSC allowance and the 10k per week from the consulting firm.
Then after six weeks with the consulting firm, my internship ended and they said they were not going to retain me. Around the same time, I almost got into one of the Big Four accounting firms to work comms. I lost some important documents when I was supposed to be heading for the interview.
Ouch. That must have sucked.
Yes it did. Meanwhile, my parents were already asking me about Masters. My father kept sending links to Masters programmes and scholarships. And I was like, this man, calm down, I don’t want to go back to school now.
There’s only one way to pacify Masters ginger.
Yep. I got a job that was paying ₦60k in August 2015, after NYSC ended. It was a Digital Communications role, my second one at this point. But it involved a lot of social media work, and I realised I was not very good at it. I quit that job and got another job at a startup.
How much?
I went from ₦60k to ₦40k because I actually believed in the vision. The owner convinced me. He told me that he saw himself in me. When I didn’t live up to his expectations, he now became disappointed in me. His behaviour towards me changed. He started showing me pepper. I felt like a fool.
Wow.
After six months, I left – this was in 2016. After that, I started freelancing. I was writing everything from documents to articles for whoever was willing to pay. One magazine wanted me to write about luxury, I finessed that thing.
Then I got a full time job in another startup in July 2016. They were paying me 90k. That was when I started Digital Marketing. I was there for two months. After two months, I realised again that I just wasn’t a good fit for a social media role.
The next company I joined was a Digital Agency that paid ₦100k. That was my first real structured job – I was even given an offer letter.
So you went from ‘first salary’ to ‘first structured job’
They were paying me ₦100k for the first six months. Then ₦120k eventually. At that time it was plenty money to me. But the thing with money ehn… what’s that saying –
– As your money grows,
Your expenses grow. I was constantly getting broke. My parents were no longer sending money.
My dad’s salary wasn’t up to ₦100k. In fact, it was my mother’s small food business that got the family further. I remember that we’d wake up at 4am on Sundays to go sell food in church. Even at the NYSC camp in the state where we lived.
So you felt on your own at this point.
Pretty much. I was there for a year and a half – my longest job ever. I left January 2018 to the next gig. But something interesting happened while I was there. My boss got a slot for someone at the company to attend a course abroad. All expenses paid. He chose me.
That’s a big deal.
He chose me, because I’m hardworking. Look, I can joke with you, but when it comes to sitting down to do the work? We are not friends. I’ll do the work, because I know it’s the person that does the work very well that matters in the end. That’s one thing I learnt from my mother.
When I returned, I stayed for a little more time, and then took another job – the 2018 gig.
How much?
₦350k. My net was about ₦290k. When that money entered my account, I’d never seen that type of money before. It was another Digital Agency, and I was an Account Manager for their special clients. In fact, it’s where I met my current boss.
Oho. Tell me about that.
It took a while, but I joined my current boss’ company.
For how much?
Ehn?
How much?
₦1 million. Net. No forex anything. Actual naira.
That is wild. You tripled in one year.
The day the money entered my account ehn, God. I just went to sit down in one quiet restaurant, and I just dey chop. It was also while I was eating I was doing maths. I made up my mind that I was going to save $1000 every month.
In dollars?
Saving in naira is a scam. If i’m not investing it, then why am I saving in naira? Inflation is going to chop the money eventually. I just removed the money, changed it to dollars, and saved it in my domiciliary account. I think earning more just gives you room. You start to pursue the things you want.
What type of company just slams that kind of raise though?
It’s an Investment Company catering to H.N.I.s.
High Networth Individuals?
Yes. Catering to these people even starts to change your behaviour. When that salary entered, I can’t even remember how I spent the bulk of it. I went out a lot. I was just dashing people money and buying gifts for loved ones.
Talking about loved ones, do your parents know how much you earn?
Yes. It’s not even my mother’s reaction that was amusing. It was my father’s. He switched from Masters mode to marriage mode.
“When will you marry?”
But they cant ginger me too much like that Masters time sha. I’ve started contributing to my younger sibling’s school fees.
Life has changed o, guy.
Let’s talk about what you did with the rest of that first million.
Also, I just Uber everywhere now. Danfo done commot for my life.
Do you still worry about money?
Not anymore. I don’t have any major worries. I’m very content and satisfied. There’s nobody’s life that I look at and envy. And I’m doing well.
What about actual financial security?
I feel safe because of my safety nets, most of the perks of my current job. I have health insurance. My Health is insured by the company, and it’s premium. I’m well taken care of.
So you work in a company where you get to service a lot of high net worth individuals. What does that do to your psyche? Working with High net worth individuals.
First of all, I don’t feel rich, because I’ve seen actual irich people. People that built their money. They’re very cagey with who they let into their inner circle. And the only way they can really take you seriously is if you’re offering something they find valuable. I’m not sentimental about this at all. Quid pro quo.
My boss said I’m making a lot of people happy. That’s why I’m here. That’s how I got here.
What’s one experience that stands out for you?
Somebody spent ₦3 million dollars to pay for property. People have money oh. I also try to bring people along with me as I move up. I’m not saying this to brag, but since I got here, I have gotten people jobs. I’m not going to leave Nigeria. I’m staying here.
Once I have built what I want to build, I can now go. But I’m not leaving Nigeria to become somebody’s bitch. Or so that somebody will be looking at me like I don’t have money. Or somebody will be talking to me anyhow.
With everything you know now. With all the things you’ve been exposed to, how much do you imagine you’ll be earning in five years?
In five years, I should be doing $1,000,000 annually. At least.
₦12 million a year to ₦365 million a year is quite a jump.
Yeah it’s a jump. But then I made the jump from 350k to one million. And I didn’t know how it happened. I don’t know how it’s supposed to happen, but I’m working on it. I’m meeting people everyday. Talking to them, asking questions. Eventually i’m going to crack something. Every month, I have a goal to meet five executives. People in high ranking positions in organisations. Pick their brains. Just to expand and to see the possibilities and improve.
What’s the most fascinating thing you heard in one of your meetings?
I don’t know if it’s what I’ve heard or what I’ve realised. It’s that, young people are only despised if they have nothing to show for it. People judge you based on how they perceive you or what they’ve heard about you.
But for now, I’m not trying to show anybody that I have money. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want them to know. Once people know that you have money, they’ll start begging you. For example, I pay one of my neighbour’s son’s school fees. It’s like ₦9k. So because I offered that, every time he needs money, he’ll be coming to meet me.
Nigerians must not know that you have money oh. My neighbors’ children randomly come to my door and knock and say “we don’t have what to eat.” And it’s because of the kind of area where I live. It’s a price I have to pay for a cheaper rent – ₦400k.
You’re commuting between extreme realities on a daily basis.
In a way, I’m sitting on the fence, I don’t have to think about it. I have lived my life on the fence. While growing up, my parents did not have a lot. We were not poor, but we were not rich. We didn’t have to worry about a lot of things.
So I’ve always been in a way, satisfied with life and insulated from a lot of things. It’s the same way it is now. I’m living in the middle of two worlds. It’s nothing to me because this is basically an extension of my childhood. This is how it has always been.
What’s the best thing you’ve spent money on recently?
I bought birthday presents for both my mum and dad. I got my dad a perfume set. It didn’t thrill him. Nigerian dads. I got my mum some dresses. Really lovely dresses. Like a set and she loved it. She sent pictures. So, yeah I think that’s the best thing I’ve spent money on, recently.
This is a pretty obvious question, but on a scale of 1-10, happiness. Financial happiness
Financial happiness. I think I’ll do a 9.
What’s the remaining one?
The remaining one is not having an asset base already. If I had an asset base giving me re-current revenue without having to work too much here, I’ll be a 10. This is when I’ll be proper relaxed and financially secure.
Right now, if I stop working, there’ll be serious problems.
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Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
What was the first thing you did for money?
Everytime my dad returned from work when I was a kid, he gave us coins. If you had saved, say X amount, he’d add another X. So you could say I saved for money. But the first proper thing that I did was work for my dad during school holidays – he worked abroad at the time, so I’d travel to go meet him. I was in JSS 1, so when it was summer holidays, I worked as his secretary at his law firm. I went in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. All I did was arrange files in the office, doing invoices, etc.
He used to pay me daily at the time.
Interesting.
Yes. I remember giving some of it to my mum because she wasn’t working – she was a housewife. It’s why I never want to not be working. I gave her £100 and I told her it was a gift. And she said no, that I should save it or buy stuff. I felt very bad and told her I was not taking no for an answer. So I kept the money in an envelope and I put it under her pillow when I was getting ready to travel. I left a note. So when I travelled, the following day she called and said she saw it and she couldn’t send it back.
She always says that I was the only person that actually gave her money. Like, I was the only person that came around and gifted her money. She lived Abroad too.
After that?
We used to get money for school, but I used to feel like it wasn’t enough. It actually was, but then, I was in a private secondary school, so compared to my peers, it was small. The latest cars came on visiting days, convoys and all that.
What year was this?
2004. We – my brother and I – thought about how to make money, My brother had school fathers, so he came up with an idea. Because we were day students, boarders were always begging us for food and cold water. So we decided to tell our house helps to help us freeze water so we could sell it. Sachet water was ₦5 then and we’d sell it for ₦20. My brother would distribute everything so quickly. We also started selling food. They used to make us choose between buying food in school and giving us food, but we would insist on taking food to school. So we’d take food to school and charge them about ₦250. I was in JSS2 and my brother was JSS1.
Oh okay. What came next?
I worked in SS3, that was when I knew I never wanted to work in radio. I followed my dad for a meeting, I was on holiday, he went to see somebody at a radio station and the person noticed my foreign accent. So they decided to bring me in for voice-overs, and they offered to pay, but my father never gave me the money.
How much were you paid?
I don’t know, my father never gave me the money. The job was very frustrating, I’d sit in a cold room, repeating the same lines over and over. My father gave me more allowance than usual, but still not my salary.
So basically, they hired you for your accent.
Yes, that was when I realised my accent could help me. Which was surprising to me at the time.
How much was your pocket money then?
₦1k. Sometimes he would give me like ₦3k for 6 weeks. That was when I learnt to budget. Budgeting is key to everything. The next time I worked was Uni.
What year was this?
This was 2011, that was when I graduated secondary. I entered University and saw the world.
What do you mean?
I was 17, and I discovered ushering and ‘thanks for coming.’
What’s that?
When there’s an event, they’d handpick babes to do the ushering. They’d pay like ₦10k per day for 2 days. They paid depending on the girl and the event. If there were stricter rules for selection, there would be more money. And they always picked me, from concerts to events. Guests would say and do inappropriate things and you couldn’t do anything. The rule is that you’re not allowed to complain, except you don’t want money. My father gave me 20k every month, but it was hardly enough
I’d want to treat myself and not want to bother my dad. I never asked for allowance, he just put it in my account at the beginning of the month.
It took a toll on me. I had to wear heels a lot, I had a lot of breakouts because of wearing makeup for long hours. But I’d just see the money and forget it all. And it felt good to have my own money.
My dad didn’t ask until my grades started to drop, and then he told me to stop working. It really was a trying time. I was depressed and it made everything worse, I was depressed and poor.
I started hanging out with a group of friends. There was this girl, she’d finished uni and wasn’t doing anything. She had her own driver, and that was when I started doing drugs. Prescription drugs, alcohol. One time, we were at the backseat of her car, and her driver wasn’t paying attention. She said she had codeine on her. I had tried tramadol on my own.
I got so dependent on tramadol. Like I would wake up in the morning and pop like 3 pills. I felt very ill, ended up in a hospital, and almost died. All my rich friends abandoned me and that was like a wake-up call. I couldn’t even call my dad.
I came home for the holidays and had to stop because I didn’t have access to drugs at home. My dad noticed I was bored. He was doing his PhD at the time, so he asked me to edit and proofread his projects and he’d pay me for it. He said 20 naira per page and I said no. So I said for every mistake I find, he’d pay ₦200 naira.
I made like ₦10k in the first reading. I used it to go out and that was like the last time I made money in a while, so I went back to school and had to focus on my final year.
After I graduated, I stayed home for a year and it was the most depressing time of my life. I was home with a woman that didn’t like me because my dad was away for work.
I went to meet my dad’s friend to see if he had an opening. He offered to pay me 15k, then I said I’d work part-time, only 2 times a week.
What did you choose?
I chose NYSC, and even though I finished school in 2015, NYSC came in November 2016. I decided to go to camp instead of convocation, so I started planning. I only had like 10k. I didn’t have anybody to brief me on what life was like in camp. I really wanted Lagos. I always wanted to move to Lagos, because the Southeast was too quiet where I was and there were limited opportunities.
What a wow.
Anyway, I got redeployed. People posted to the region I was posted actually got redeployed easily – security and all. I got redeployed to the Southwest.
At my first PPA, they said I had to live in the boarding school. I had to beg the Principal to reject me.
Is NYSC the one place that people beg for rejection?
Perhaps. She rejected me o. I eventually found another place, and a house to rent nearby.
How much did the house cost altogether?
The house cost 170k, then I also bought a wardrobe, mattress, and a gas cylinder. I lived off Nysc money and didn’t get any money from my dad. I made extra money writing research papers for undergrads, but it was seasonal.
So, after NYSC?
I got a job at a company where I worked in comms. They paid me ₦50k a month. So I went from ₦19,800 to ₦50k per month.
Where did you live?
I lived with a friend. I wasn’t paying house rent, but I was giving 5k a month to the house, in addition, to paying for laundry. The rest was for transport. I wasn’t eating much. I couldn’t really afford much, so I usually only ate dinner.
Then my mum sent me ₦90k for house rent –
I was going to ask about your mum.
Yeah, she was living abroad, and this was her trying to get back in my life. Anyway, that’s how I came up with ₦200k for house rent.
So, ₦200k for rent. What happened next?
I ended up spending that money and suddenly had nowhere to live. I moved in with another friend. I went from ₦50k to ₦90k on probation for three months. Then I went up to ₦110k. My role here is Customer Relations and Social Media Management.
When did you start earning ₦110k?
July 2018. As I was leaving, they gave us ₦30k in the middle of the month. I got to work and they said they were going to start giving us ₦30k for allowance every month, that month I earned ₦125k. I freelanced for a while, helping people write papers and all kinds of things.
Currently ₦115k, but that’s after my probation ended in January 2019. Before then, it was ₦90k. But for the next three months, I was earning ₦65k.
My income is quite weird.
Why?
My laptop spoilt, and I had to buy a new one and pay in instalments. But let’s use an ideal month here:
You save a huge chunk of your money.
I try to save but I also like food. My favorite thing is to chew.
LMAO! Are you me?
I’d have spent like ₦10k on snacks without knowing by now. But it’s mostly because I don’t have many responsibilities, so I don’t have much to do with money.
Financially, what’s something you wish you could be better at?
I think that would be saving, but sometimes I save money and realize it doesn’t make you richer, you just have more funds, and investments scare me.
We don’t have a lot of honest conversations about money. My dad did investments but never told me what exactly he did. He was always saving, spending, or earning more. Investments scare me, because I don’t know enough about them.
If you were going to live comfortably now, how much would you have to earn?
I’m very easy to maintain, it probably won’t take much, if I was earning ₦350k, but I can live comfortably on ₦250k, my baby brother asks me for money sometimes, but it’s not a burden so I don’t feel guilty.
At ₦350k, I’d put away like ₦200k for savings and some months even spend more without feeling guilty. I feel sad that my partner has to carry a lot of the burden because he earns like double my income and he has more responsibilities.
Yes, it’s kind of a weird balance, I would like to earn more money to help out sometimes, I wouldn’t do his responsibilities but at least support.
Is there anything you feel like I should have asked you, I didn’t ask you?
What I would be doing if I wasn’t doing this.
What would you be doing?
I’d probably be like a therapist or a psychologist.
Financial happiness, 1-10, where are you?
It’s a mixture of money and career, I feel like I could be doing a job where I’m not doing so much and earning ₦200k, I’d feel restless, so I feel like your money and career need to match up at some point, I guess I’m only like 3, I can’t do shit with my money.
What would give you a 10?
Flexibility, both money and career-wise, I want a job that’s flexible. Also, more money. If I was earning ₦200k, it’d go up to like a 6.
I get the sense that you have the opportunity to leave the country and possibly earn more. There’s your mum who lives there, for example.
Where I am right now generally just feels right. I might be leaving to go to school next year, I think here is just home to be honest. I’ll probably still gravitate back again. There’s way too much untapped potential here. It’s crazy to not acknowledge that.
What’s the future looking like from where you’re sitting?
I probably want to do psychology someday and end up doing something with my mum. Like a practice, working with women who have been victims of abuse, etc. I also have an interest in film making.
In the end, I actually don’t want a lot of money, I just want to be comfortable.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
This week, we’re talking to a Freelance consultant who’s helping clients gather insights for their business and writing proposals. She’s also pretty invested in her family. One thing is clear, she’s the hard worker.
What’s the first thing you ever did for money?
I tried to sell company yellow pages directory. I lasted a total of 1 week at that job – 2004 or so. The directories sold for ₦25k and you got a commission for everyone you sold. Actually, I had a job earlier – a year prior. It was a company registration service. I did that for about a week or two too. I can’t remember how much I was paid though.
But, in terms of real work, I think I started working as a kid. My mum had a restaurant, so we used to leave home around 5 am to go to her shop to cook, clean the place etc. Then we’d take our baths and go to school. We went to school late every day, hahaha – notorious things.
My mum used to leave me to run the shop since I was 10.
What were your best and worst days at that shop like?
Well, I hated going to school late, that’s for sure. I remember the headmistress murdering my name every time she wanted to scold me for coming late. But even worse, there were the perverts who only came to the shop when my mummy wasn’t around. We learned to dodge them early.
The best days on the other hand, were the days when I’d bring my friends from school to come eat in the restaurant, before going home. My mum always fed them – they could be up to 5 kids but everyone was fed. You can imagine I garnered lots of friends because of this.
Okay, how old do you remember a plate being when you were 10 years old?
I barely remember – that was about 30 years ago.
I know you didn’t ask me, but 30 years ago I was still an idea.
Hahaha. Let’s go back to a more recent time.
What was the rush hour to the restaurant like?
We were doing well up to 50 people a day. I can’t remember in detail, but there was a time when food was about 50 per meal, then it went up to 100, then later 250. Well, we were in a business district, so a rush hour was usually crazy. As soon we got back from school, we’d get straight to work because customers needed to be served.
Okay, back to the first official job.
I was a volunteer with an N.G.O., and I got paid ₦6k as Program Assistant. But that’s a nice way of saying Program errand girl. This was 2004, and I was 23, already three years post-Uni. 6 months in, and they made me an actual Program Assistant. My pay climbed to ₦15k a month. By the time I left 6 years later, I was Programme Manager.
How much were you earning at this time?
₦75k
Also, why did you leave?
I was bored. I was 29, in no relationship, and I felt like I hadn’t done anything with my life. So I took a break, a gap year of sorts. And I just focused on having more time for myself. It was tough, because I was unemployed. But I did it still.
Then I got into a situationship, and we ended up getting separated after. But guess what?
What?
I got pregnant. In 2010, I went back to that job I quit.
They were like, oh some people need a Freelance Consultant who can travel across some states in Nigeria. Would you be interested? Of course!
Lit!
That was my first million ever. Of course, the money included my cost of travel and everything, but it was still a lot of money. Basically, for a feasibility project, you’d get a budget that is supposed to cover everything from travel costs to accommodation.
I left that job earning ₦75k a month, and now here I was, with a more solid deal.
With that ₦1 million, I covered about half the total number of states in Nigeria. The difference for me was that this time, I was sleeping in good hotels.
I’ve been freelancing since then.
I got another gig in 2011. And since then, it just feels like one big gig just comes like every year. There were also a few side gigs that brought more income, like facilitating workshops and all that.
Let’s not forget that some people owed me too sha. My biggest gig was ₦7 million. Don’t forget that this involves all expenses. This was 2014, and It was also the year I registered my own company. I felt like I’d found the thing I was sure I wanted to do – help people find answers by consulting.
How does one find freelance consulting gigs that make them this kind of money?
For me, most of my work has been by recommendations. I’m recommended then I send in a proposal. Other times I search for Request For Proposals and send in mine. But it has such a limited pool that people always refer other people. Also, there are development projects that advertise all kinds of Requests for Proposals. One thing to keep in mind is that everyone is looking for experienced people. Somehow, my proposals still get rejected. In one month this year, I sent out 4 proposals worth a total of 300k. Dollars.
Aaaaand?
They all got rejected.
Ouch. You don’t seem to have the ‘luxury’ of thinking of your income on a monthly basis.
Actually, I used to think about it in terms of yearly income. Because even when I registered the company, we could still go months without having any gigs. Also, I was doing side projects that were not in my company’s direct purview. There were also clients who would say that they didn’t want to hire a company, but an individual.
And person must wack.
Last year though, I started paying myself a salary from the business, ₦250k a month. The ₦250k is not regular, but when we get gigs, I pay myself in arrears. Still, because of side gigs, I earn up to ₦600k on average.
But there are the extraordinary months. In November of 2018, I earned ₦1.8 million. But somehow, I’m always broke sha.
I have to say though, I always seem to get gigs. Maybe that’s why I’m not prudent. Although my husband always says it’s because we don’t have a lot, that we’d save more if we did.
That’s interesting. How about we attempt to break down your monthly expenses on an ideal month?
Easy. I use a tracking app, so I kind of know where everything is going. ATM cash is “I can’t kill myself” money. Let’s just work with the screenshots. Let’s use my expenses from a few months ago, before my income jumped.
Let’s do a quick married people trivia. What are some interesting things about the places your finances intersect with your relationship?
Whoever has more money just does what needs to be done. I generally earn more so I do more.
I buy groceries more because I’m always thinking about food, and having food in the house. It comes with having kids. They are always hungry.
I also pay the Help, probably because we’ve been working together even before I got married.
Do you ever think about that first job you had, the 6k? Like what does this trajectory of yours to a person’s perspective?
I guess this is where I’m supposed to say something motivational, hahaha. To be honest, if I had stayed in a non-profit, perhaps I could be earning more.
My colleagues in the same position are 10 years younger. But then again, there are people who have been in the NGO sector, with my level of experience who are happy and lucky to see 400k a month.
So I’m aware of my privilege, but I also know I’ve worked very hard with every opportunity I’ve gotten. Still, I have leaned on friends, family and even professional associates for opportunities. Even my new job, I was headhunted because someone recommended me as a good fit.
So if you ask about what I think about my trajectory, maybe that’s how it should be.
New job?
I just got a new job with an International NGO, it means I would have to stop actively running my business, but at least I’m certain of ₦1 million monthly. Asides from perks.
That’s awesome! What’s something you really want but can’t afford at the moment?
I think a vacation. Honestly, I’m not even liquid enough to afford anything right now, haha. But I’m positive that whatever I want I can pay for in only a matter of months.
Okay, maybe a house. I can’t afford that right now. Send me something bros na, enu gbe.
Hahaha.
Be laughing o. Rent is due soon.
Ah, what’s the plan to raise it?
Well, salary will enter just before it’s due, so I’m good. Rent is ₦800k.
Be laughing o. Rent is due next week.
What’s something you honestly wish you could be a better level.
Easy – not procrastinating and managing money properly. Sometime last year, when I earned ₦1.8 million in one month. One month later, I was down to my last ₦10k, and chasing a client for an advance. Besides the ₦800k rent, I can’t say what I used to rest of the money for. I don’t shop so much. But it’s those many small things that the money just disappears. There’s a family member who needs money. There’s that toy to buy for the kids. They all add up. I’ve taken the first step to fixing it, which is tracking my expenses. Then the other one is to get a job where one can plan. So if I earn the equivalent of 1m monthly, I can live in ₦600k and save the rest.
Sometimes you have ₦20k and then you have ₦200k but the thing is that when you had ₦20k you incurred debts against your future earnings. Because life doesn’t stop, kids must eat, gen must run, the internet must be paid for, staff salary must be paid. My next salary has already finished, and it hasn’t entered. My next salary should get things stable and I get a buffer. Fingers crossed.
The thing with working for yourself is money ebbs and flows.
Tell me something random.
I use loan apps, shit gets mad addictive. I wouldn’t advise anyone to do so. You pay it off and then get another one. If you are not disciplined, it could get out of hand.
Happiness, on a scale of 1-10?
I think my years of being a freelancer have taught me never to despair too much about money. One day you have ₦200 in your account and the next day you have ₦200k. So I try never to stress about money. It will come.
Give me an 8 over 10.
Is it okay to say you’re winging this whole money thing?
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
The subject of this week’s story is a Financial Consultant whose journey starts on Wall Street and currently sits in Lagos. He’s in his mid-30s, and would rather stay home and read a book than go to a party.
I’ve never met a Nigerian who’s more travelled than you, for starters. When did this all start for you?
I took the first step in 2010; a deliberate international trip to the Dominican Republic. It was the year I left university and realised there’s a whole world out there that I needed to see.
But the hunger for the road had always been there. I’ve always been curious. I remember when I discovered maps in my dad’s library as a child. It was super exciting.
People get excited about comic books but with me, it’s maps. They capture my attention even now. I remember being in an interview and there was a map behind the interviewer, and I had to angle myself because I was quite distracted.
It became clear that I was going to be somebody who was not afraid to explore when I wandered off with a sibling and cousin and then got lost.
Back to that first trip, what was that like?
The experience of stepping into a culture I didn’t know was overpowering. It kicked off from there. So from that point on average since 2010, I’ve entered a new country every 33 days.
Woah. How many countries have you been to?
110.
That’s a lot of countries and a lot of money. Let’s start with the money part. How about a brief summary of your income history.
The first time I really made money was 2004. I was in my freshman year in university in the United States. I was financing myself for the most past. But because I didn’t have a work-study authorisation – what lets international students work in the US – I was not able to work on or off-campus.
Then a professor pitied me and said, “You’re coming to work as a lab monitor, let’s get it sorted right away.” And so I started off earning. I can’t forget the amount – $5.05 per hour for 12 hours a week. A lifesaver for $60 – 70 a week.
I’d done internships and so after my university, I worked at some of the biggest investment banks in the world, starting at $70,000 a year and then going up about $5000 every year.
Then I left for my MBA in 2010. Finished that in 2012.
Interesting. And after your MBA?
Another financial services firm. I was getting paid $130,000 a year. Then I took time off work and travelled. I travelled from January 2017 till July of that year. I started working in consulting in July, and I’ve been in consulting for about two years now.
Wait, wait, let’s not speed past six months of constant travel.
That was mostly funded by savings from previous years of work. I was also paid a relocation allowance by the consulting gig I was getting, so I didn’t have to draw too deeply on savings. Travelling at a non-rushed pace enabled me to book competitively priced flights and there were a number of destinations I stayed in for free.
And most of these – probably 80% – were self-catering so I could prepare my own meals.
How many countries did you go in those months?
…
…
21. Man, I never counted before. That’s a lot.
You still have the numbers. That is wild. How much did all of this cost?
If you looked at something every day for weeks, you would probably have the numbers too. It cost about $11,000 – no I think that’s a lot. Let’s say 10. Flights took about $5,000. And the key is to book with flexibility. To embrace the idea of booking flights in the middle of the week, for example. It was a question of checking my routes daily and waiting till something sensible popped up.
How do you travel so frugally?
First of all, I stopped travelling on a credit card – I realised it’s just not a responsible thing to do. So I only finance travel from my current income – I put away 8% of my income. Also, I’m very deliberate. I always have a cap on how much a flight should cost, based on distance and how long I’m going to be spending there. For example, I’m planning a trip, and I don’t want to spend more than $40 on a room – that’s about 14,000.
I also break my travel expenses into buckets; transport (flights, rail, road), accommodation, essential and non-essential services.
On accommodation, for example, I won’t go more than $40 for a rough-it holiday. For anything else, I won’t go more than $70 a night.
Essential services are things like a guide for a particular outing. You definitely need a guide. Non-essential services – you don’t want to get too crazy. So you just set yourself a budget for mostly food.
Wikipedia. Wikihow. Wikieverything.
What?
You, hahaha.
Oh, I just need to make sure I know what I’m seeing, by planning. I also want to know what latitude I’m at, the time zone, and in what direction I’m travelling. Where’s the river? To go to a place without having that pre-orientation, to me is almost illegal. I always want to look at a map, then get the context of it and all of that.
Okay, let’s get off the road a little. July 2017, settling back after 6 months on the road.
Well, I was resuming to the job in Nigeria – we get paid in naira – so we started off at about ₦29,000,000, which has now gone up to the mid-thirties.
Let’s break down what your expenses generally look like?
I’m actually not a big leisure spender even when I’m not travelling. I go to three places. Two nice restaurants. And maybe somebody is having a house party and I go. But typically, I don’t accept most invitations. I mean, I don’t tell them no. I’ll just say, “Oh, how thoughtful of you.” But if there’s a close relationship, then, of course, I’ll go. But for the most part, I’ll just stay home and read a book or watch a documentary.
I don’t eat out a lot, I don’t go out a lot, I don’t drink alcohol, I haven’t been to a club in years, so what I tend to spend my money on, gosh –
What?
I’ll tell you, a large expenditure – which is a bit sad actually – especially in the last two years is on medical because I’ve been having a sort of escalating medical challenge. I spend ₦9,000 on Uber every week.
I find it interesting that you think about money in percentiles, and in terms of annual income.
When you work in financial consulting, it forces you to be this person.
What’s the most annoying miscellaneous you’ve had to pay for?
Well, it wouldn’t be a recurring one, because I’d have cut it out. Sometimes, something unexpected happens, but it’s unavoidable. Like “oh there’s a leak in one of your pipes, so we need you to sort it out.”
That’s inconvenient. That’s annoying.
To be honest, my miscellaneous expenses aren’t many. And the reason is that I’m quite deliberate in the way I plan out my life, and obviously that has cost implications.
For example, because I don’t drink or drive, I’m not going to get into that accident that will cost me x amount of money to fix. Or to pay the person whose car I crashed.
That’s an interesting way to look at it.
Oh, I didn’t mention, I got kidnapped by terrorists once.
Wait a minute.
In 2017. Lebanon.
Woah. Because you’ve said Lebanon, in my head I’m thinking Hezbollah?
Before I answer, let me rephrase it. When I say, “I got kidnapped by terrorists,” I’m being lazy with the choice of words. I got abducted by a group whose military arm certain states have designated as a terrorist group – Hezbollah.
Fair enough.
I got kidnapped, but I wasn’t held overnight – only about 7 hours. They thought I was spying in a Hezbollah stronghold. They don’t get a lot of travellers there. They were holding me in a compound, so I tried to fake an asthma attack to get released. And then apparently, I did good acting, or maybe they were just humouring me.
They asked me to write my medication. I was hoping they wouldn’t find it because of the part of Lebanon I was in. That way, they’d let me go.
Did they find it?
Yes, they did, and they were really happy, hugging me. The area was Haret Hreik. I never really learned how to pronounce it.
So, I’d say that wasn’t a picnic – they did give me tea though.
Now that we’re talking about being a stranger, what are the most common reactions when people in other countries find out you’re Nigerian?
60% surprise. 20% disbelief (extreme surprise). The other 20% have no reaction.
What are some of the weirdest things you’ve heard anyone say?
Hahaha. But seriously though, travelling with money is one thing, passports are a completely different sport.
By an interesting strike of fortune, I have three passports: British, American, and Nigerian. And that makes things a lot easier. I can say that because before I got either my US or UK passport, I was travelling with my Nigerian passport. And I’ve travelled about 59 countries on that passport.
But the ease I had with the Nigerian passport is nowhere close to the ease I have today.
So passports aren’t a hack, it’s just a matter of circumstances.
So what about travel in Nigeria?
All these nice frugal hacks don’t work in Nigeria for a few reasons. You don’t have reliable connections to the airport. Also, there’s not enough flexible work schedule for that to work.
Also, Nigerian bosses generally aren’t big with the idea of letting you break up your annual leave – two days here, three days there.
For people that want to incorporate it into a busy work schedule, it’s expensive. A trip from Lagos to Abuja, for example, can cost up ₦40,000 return.
When you look at Western Europe for example, you’re travelling for a fraction of that. Then take away the financial aspect, those places are not really as accessible. If you’re not going to a major city, getting a flight to another part of the country is harder.
Accommodation is reasonable, you can get good places for ₦10,000 if you know where to look.
I’m curious about something. How do people everywhere think about money, compared to Nigeria?
It’s different things. For example, religion plays a significant role in how Nigerians think about money and what they want to invest in.
In the West, not so much. Religion plays a far less part than ethical considerations – it’s just a different set of considerations. For example, people would choose not to buy from a place because they don’t support gay rights. It just shows how advanced these societies have climbed in Maslow’s Pyramid.
Obviously, when you’re still worried about where your next meal is coming from, you’re not concerned that your meal is coming from putting money in the pockets of tobacco producers that cause lung cancer blah blah.
Also, people in developed countries generally have an extremely goal-oriented attitude towards money.
Okay, let’s get off the road again and come back to you. What are your finances looking like in, say 5 years?
I have no idea. It could be slightly more, or slightly less than what I’m earning. In five years, I could say aspirationally, I would want to be at about 140% of where I am today.
One of the things about me – which I don’t see as a plus even though some people disagree – is that it’s not in my nature to assess them from a monetary perspective. As long as I’m scaling a minimum hurdle, I’ll always go with the one that is convenient for me. I do like money – I value it a lot – but I’m not excessively motivated by it.
What about investments?
Low risk. It’s the first thing I look at. I’m not going to do something crazy, like buying Facebook stock.
So what do I do? I buy index funds from developed countries. And then Treasury bills in Nigeria.
Random, but what’s something you want but can’t afford?
A global on-demand personal and domestic assistant. No matter where I am in the world, I just want like a genie in the bottle. Somebody who’s travelling with me and just making my life super easy.
I would say that perhaps, my aspirations are too unrealistic, but it might probably cost $150,000 a year, all things taken into consideration.
Let’s talk about financial satisfaction. 0-10.
Between 6 and 7. The gap is that I’m spending too much money on health. And that’s preventing me from saving. If it weren’t for that, I would probably say 9.
Last question: between your first trip and now, what has changed?
I suppose it’s no longer as magical as it used to be. Every country is still magical. Sometimes the magic is just not as pronounced. But it’s still magical. I remember how I felt back in 2010. And it could be because of the pressures of work, more responsibilities, more things on your mind you can’t actually let yourself go as completely as before.
Well, the magic is still strong with us at Zikoko. We’re about to hit the road, and we’ll be travelling across West Africa, looking for amazing stories about food, culture, language and of course people. We’re calling it #JollofRoad
We’ll be sharing those stories every day, and if you show up at 12 pm every day from the 22nd of September, you’ll find a new story.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
This week, it’s the first couple ever – they’ve been dating for about a year, and they’ll be letting us peek into their lives. They’re both 28 and currently earn ₦400k – cute coincidences.
Both of you are my first couple ever.
Them: Litttt!
Her: Let’s go!
Him: Oya oya.
When did you first clock that money is important?
Her: I think I was about 10. My father was the richest in the family. He was put on a kind of pedestal because of this. He wasn’t the firstborn or anything, but because he had money –
– He was the senior.
Her: Exactly.
Him: Mine didn’t start at home. I think mine was in noticing the differences between our family’s lifestyle and my friends in school. On holidays spent with my cousins, it seemed like they had everything! Why would a parent just take their kids to Mr Bigg’s randomly? Mr Bigg’s was an event in my own family. Is it your birthday?
Hahaha.
Him: My cousins were staying in duplexes, while we were living in a block of flats. They had their own bicycles and actual balls, instead of the usual roll-on balls that I played with.
Ahh, that.
Him: That’s when I started looking at it like hmmm, something is not balancing here.
Have both of you ever had this conversation?
Them: Nope.
Her: I’m just finding this out.
Him: I mean, I knew your father was rich, but I dunno how you turned out this way.
Them: Hahaha.
Her: We thought the money was going to be there forever.
About that forever part, what changed?
Her: My dad retired. When you retire from the civil service as a senior, you get a huge sum of money. I can’t say how much he got, but you start to get a sense when you think of the things he spent it on.
How old was he at retirement?
Her: 60. He decided to start a business, so he opened a cold room, bought himself a car, bought another one for my mum. An extended family member got ₦5 million, another got like ₦3 million – he was just distributing the money. He thought that money would come in from the cold room business.
Her: Meanwhile, I still had like 2 younger siblings in school. He didn’t think about that – this was 2015.
When did you know things weren’t great anymore?
Her: It was when my sister needed to go back to school, and there was no money to pay her fees. Things were already bad because he used to borrow money to restock. But this was when I knew “there’s no money in this house o. Everybody figure your shit out.” Then one day, he closed the cold room.
From cold cash to cold room, to… cold turkey?
Them: Hahaha. Wow.
Him: Next time your dad vexes you, say, “That’s how you went from cold cash, to cold room, to cold turkey!”
Her: Hahaha. You’re so rude.
I have a sense that you reached this realisation earlier.
Him: What happened in my case was a little different. I was still able to go to school. In fact, there was a time I used to go on the school bus. At this point, I didn’t know my mum was the one giving my dad rent. Unfortunately, my dad chopped the rent this particular year, hahaha.
Her: Hahaha. Chisos.
Him: The landlord evicted us. My mum didn’t have the money to get another place, obviously. We had to split up. She and my younger sibling had to go live with a pastor. Then I was living with her relatives, hopping from family to family.
Him: I went from “mummy I want to buy sweet” to an aunty saying, “oya stay in that shop and sell.” You learn very quickly after all this, that money is the key.
Where was your dad?
Him: He was all over the place o. My dad used to be much more stable. He reached a senior role in a financial institution – a good paying job for a man his age at the time. A true high flyer. But he was also really ambitious. So he resigned. He believed that there were even bigger opportunities for him in other places.
Him: The mistake he made was that he didn’t secure a job before leaving his current job. All of that was made worse by the instability of the early 90s, so getting a job was so difficult. By the time the job openings started popping up again, he started to get the “you’re too old for this role” feedback.
How old was he when he quit?
Him: He was 34 in 1992, and it was at that point my mum took over family responsibilities. She paid the rent, put food on the table, etc. He sold his car. My mum says that his jaiye-jaiye lifestyle made everything worse. There was no stability in all those years, and he was mostly absent. So by the time we were evicted in 1998, he was nowhere to be found.
I feel like you must have realised that she was running this race of responsibility and that the baton was eventually going to be passed to you.
Him: Yeah. That baton first touched my hand in university, when she couldn’t pay fees. My mum actually paid the first semester fees. But the second semester was a struggle. So we split it.
What does she do for a living?
Him: She’s a civil servant. The money wasn’t a lot, but civil servants always tend to have cooperatives or colleagues they can borrow from. It got to a point that she started getting bank loans, loans she’s still paying back till this day. These loans were supposed to help pay our school fees and deal with other responsibilities.
She opened a shop, even opened a second. But she’s not exactly great at business, so those didn’t work out.
But what changed the game for her was getting a degree – she entered the civil service with a secondary school certificate. But that degree changed a lot for her and for us because she got promoted.
Awesome.
Him: Back to the second semester, before the promotion. I started selling stuff in school and helping people sell stuff, anything to make some money. It got to a point where we had to start splitting my school fees.
Where was your dad at this time?
Him: Nowhere. It’s like all the men in that their generation were just missing.
Her: Oh, my dad was different!
Him: Was he there?
Her: Yes, he was. The nature of his job saw him get transferred from place to place, but he was always committed to family.
Have you ever had a conversation with your dad about a possibly different 2015?
Her: No. That’d be like talking to a wall. He made so many bad calls. In fact, he literally just showed up without telling anyone previously, “I’ve bought land and built this cold room”. Anyway, I’m not the oldest sibling, but I started working first. My first salary was ₦45k in 2015, so when my salary entered, my mum would ask that I chip in. After about three months, I just chipped in without her asking. It just felt like the right thing to do.
Let’s talk about both of you. Where were you financially when both of you started dating?
Her: Oh, I was Gucci, hahaha. This was about a year ago. I was earning 150k
Him: Omo, I wasn’t Gucci o, but I was earning 200k.
How are you earning more and struggling? Make it make mathematical sense.
Him: I’d taken a loan to rent an apartment- the apartment cost ₦450k. Then I took another loan to buy a computer. That set me back ₦90k every month. Both loans almost totalled ₦800k.
Him: Then there was the black tax part – ₦25k was the non-negotiable black tax, but a lot of the time, it was more. The only reason it wasn’t more than 25k was that I simply couldn’t afford it because of the loan.
Her: My own black tax was ₦45k a year ago. I’m giving the entire family money – dad, mum and two younger siblings. Currently, that tax has climbed to ₦60k. It climbed as my income as climbed.
What’s the highest you’ve ever spent on black tax in a month?
Her: ₦100k.
Him: ₦140k. I was earning ₦80k, and my mum had fallen sick. So I poured all my savings into that.
It’s interesting, but despite all of this chaos, you people still had time to fall in love. How far na?
Her: Abeg na hahaha.
Him: For me, I got to a point in my life where I just wanted to take things seriously. It started in the DMs then went to Whatsapp, then next thing you know, we’re going on a first date. On that first date, my account wept. At the time, I’d just paid for my house, and here I was, paying for a date. It was mad. A leap of faith.
Hahaha. How much was it?
Him: ₦11k – I still have the receipt. Thank God it worked out because that’s the riskiest ₦11k I’ve ever spent. I’m going to laminate that bloody receipt. Interestingly, most of our dates after tended to be cheaper. Did we even go to a restaurant after that period? Not for a while, at least till we started the new budget thing. So concerts, drinks and all that.
Budget thing?
Him: Yes o. No relationship without money. I was asking her yesterday about what she’d change about our relationship, and she said more money.
Her: Hahaha.
Him: Now we keep ₦20k aside every month for date night – ₦10k from each of us.
Her: That’s just date night because there’s other stuff like Friday wine or food.
Him: Date night is its own thing – a restaurant, phones turned off, just the two of us. The thing with money is, a lot of the time, you can do anything with the money you have. You just have to want it enough. We realised that we weren’t keeping that money aside, we weren’t doing it. But keeping it aside meant we had to do it.
What other money ties you together?
Her: A lot now, household stuff. I mean, I still have my house, I’m just at his a lot more.
Him: It could have been her house, but she stays with people.
What do you currently earn?
Them: We’re both currently at ₦400k.
Do you see your money as a unit, or separately?
Him: Both.
Her: Separately when there are personal obligations, like family. And together with most of the rest of our money.
It looks like both of you are in this for the long-term. Where do you see this in 5 years?
Her: Outside of this country for starters hahaha. We’re probably working remotely, earning more, living in a two-bedroom apartment, raising one kid –
Him: If you mean active as in, putting the money aside for that, nope.
Her: There’s a framework though.
Him: What just needs to align is the finances to make that happen. We’ve only just reached a place of stability, income-wise, that we can begin to think beyond our family obligations.
How do you manage bad financial periods? It looks like he does most of the running in your direction.
Her: Oh yes!
Him: She’s my glucose guardian. Most of the time, we can already tell at the beginning of the month, we can almost always tell who’ll be broke first. So subconsciously know who’s going to be supporting who before the end of the month.
What’s something you want but can’t afford?
Him: A phone, I swear. It’s not like I can’t afford it, but –
Her: He wants a Pixel 3a and the iPhone X.
Him: I’ll probably just buy the Pixel 3a, because it’s cheaper.
Her: I just want a holiday, a vacation. Like to Dubai.
What do you wish you could get better at?
Her: I think I could get better at not living my life like the weight of the entire family has to rest on my shoulders. I wish I could be a little more selfish.
Him: Erm, for me –
Her: Better say saving! Because you can’t save for shit.
Him: I think it’s saving, and then investing the savings. I’m just glad that the loan is now about to be over.
To be honest, she’s the financial manager of this relationship.
Any financial regrets?
Her: I bought a bottle of water for ₦1k.
Him: Hahaha, you actually bought two. I still can’t believe you did that shit. Something I think I really regret is that all my salary negotiations earlier used to be nonsense. For two years, I earned 80k, despite the fact that people employed after me were earning more.
Do you ever worry about ending up with your parents’ outcomes?
Him: I constantly worry about this, but I also think that my dad’s outcome is motivation for me – it’s a lot of what I shouldn’t be. I’m constantly thinking of how to make sure, at every point, that we’re financially secure.
My mum’s experience with loans is why I spent so much time researching options when I took my loan. My mum’s own experience was different because those banks will just come to the offices, make promises, and they end up brutal.
Her: I just generally think that their generation was different. So if my partner retires and gets a lump sum, we’re going to sit down and plan that money. But my dad was ‘the man’, so he could do whatever he wanted.
Him: My mum has this belief: “if you have money, spend it” and I used to hold that view before. But that’s changed. I now try to curb my spending urges.
Let’s talk about happiness, over 10.
Him: I always wonder how people think about their happiness levels. I feel like people have different exposures to the Nigerian element. So in the broader context of Nigeria today, I feel like a solid 7. I’m doing okay.
Her: Not bad at all. I feel the same way too.
Do you think about your pension?
Them: Yes oh.
Him: when I saw how much money was in my mum’s pension account, I started taking mine seriously. Last year, it was about 14-point-something million naira, and she’s done 20-something years in service.
Her: Senior civil servants actually get serious money when they retire.
What’s something you think I should have asked that I didn’t?
Her: Perhaps, what I want to do with my life? I worry about the next point in my career. I just know I want to retire when I’m 45, and by retire I mean become a lecturer.
Him: I think you should have asked about how I view my economic status in the Nigerian context.
Tell me.
Him: I realised that only a tiny fraction of people actually earn more than 80k. I don’t think you can be financially satisfied if you can’t see the through-line between what you’re responsible for, and what you’re not responsible for.
You can’t control the economy, for example, but you can control your investments and your salary negotiations perhaps. In that context, I’m doing great. Maybe if I change my salary to dollars, I can start weeping.
Don’t.
Him: I think a question everyone should ask themselves – and I’m throwing this to everyone reading this – how do you think of your economic standing in the broader Nigerian context?
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
The subject in this story had his started out in lab coats as a Health Sciences student, but now he seems to have a keen interest in Data Sciences. One thing stays consistent though, his love for enjoyment.
Tell me about the first work you did for money.
JSS 2. Technical drawing class. I used to charge people because they didn’t know how to use compasses. My classmates would go out on break, and I’d make ₦1200 for 6 technical drawings. Then I’d buy ₦100 rice and uncountable meat. Add Tampico.
Hahaha.
Ah, I still sabi book that year o. This was 2006 – I was 11. But the very first hard work I did for money was about a year later. I was on holiday at my uncle’s house, and he wanted to fix his gutters. So he asked my sibling and I if we wanted to make money and we were like yeaah yeah!
Ginger!
That’s how we started carrying cement and mixing. And after all the work, he gave us money, I looked at it and asked, “What is this?”
How much?
₦500. My uncle gave me ₦500 to carry cement for 6 hours in the sun. Inside life. Maybe that’s when I knew I had to stay in school and not become a bricklayer. I didn’t do any work till I entered 200-level. Someone reached out for a job in a startup.
Tell me about that.
They wanted me to write product descriptions for listings on their website. The goal was to write 10 per day, at ₦100 per description. I did 10 on weekdays, which summed up to ₦20k a month.
But I also had school to worry about – tight deadlines, long reading nights, making class attendance so I could write exams.
I started chasing money, and school work suffered. The problem was that I was not even making my ₦20k per month, more like ₦18k, ₦15k,₦10k. It got tiring. Really nice people, but the job was monotonous. I think I was just excited that someone was paying me to write.
I get you.
Then the “500 words for ₦10k” jobs started coming. The company managing the product website upgraded my deal. They starting paying ₦40k per month.
See, my friends thought of me as the rich kid o.
Why?
Because whenever my ₦40k landed, ground dey full. You would see me shopping for provisions. See, I had this idea:
“When you have money, chop it before you die, make next of kin no chop am.” The money also made me confident to borrow. One time, my phone broke, and I needed money, because that was what I was writing with. I asked my sibling for money – and got a ₦60k loan.
“Are you sure you’ll return it?” I was like relaxxxx, I’ll pay back. I did.
How did your sibling have money? Work?
Scholarships. That one faced books squarely. Anyway, I was living fast! I didn’t go home frequently, and my dad was like, if you don’t come back home, I’m not going to give you allowance!
In my head, I was like, who do you think you’re talking to?
Hahaha, what?
At this time sef, he had already cut our allowance to ₦20k per month from ₦42k. At some point, he read me a proper Riot Act, then sent me money. I think he was suspecting that I’d started earning.
When my dad slashed my allowance, I had to double up on looking for money. You know when they say people go to school and lose their way.
Yeah?
Na me them dey talk about bro. To make it harder for me, my sibling was best in class. My dad wasn’t checking our G.P.A and all that. His own was, “Once your 5 years is over, I’ll stop giving you money.”
Anyway, in 400-level, I had to be serious so I could graduate – all books, no work. I had to survive on my allowance. I cut out all my excesses. I used to dry clean my shirts, but I had to start handwashing.
My dry cleaner would be like, “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
Don’t see me please.
When people saw my results, they were like woooow, so you sabi book? Soft.
I knew that my dad would make my life miserable if I had an extra year. I had already collected ₦100k from him for project, and he had told me that was the last money he was giving me. Recession had started to affect his businesses so the guy was austere.
2016?
Yeah. I wanted to buy something on ASOS at $1/150, then I decided to chill small. Had I known.
All of us man. So, what happened after school?
In January 2016, I moved from school back home. My dad came to pick me. I remember that my dad was just smiling as he and my sibling packed everything into the car. Welcome to reality.
In a hostel, we had 24/7 light, water, accessible ATMs etc. On my first night back home, there was no power — no generator? I went to meet my dad. He said, “If you have money for petrol, put it on.”
That’s when I knew.
My money kept reducing. When I hit my last 2k, I knew I had to get a job. I got a job in a lab – Mondays to Saturdays. Guess how much they were paying
How much?
₦40,000. It was a small and new lab, so I had to do everything, from turning on the generator to settling fights between couples arguing over who gave who an STD.
I was counselor, gateman and therapist. I used to get home 10-11pm, because of work.
My running costs – transport and food – was ₦23k. So I had ₦17k left. And because “fresh outta school now” you and your friends want to link up and everything, that’s 5 or 6k. Internet also took money. So I had next to nothing left. It was like I was chasing a cycle, and my spare was in case of emergency. And there was always an emergency.
Standard
I did that job for three months and I realised I couldn’t continue. I didn’t have money and I was working my life out. But my boss was like the most amazing person. We still keep in touch. He too knew that the money was shit. But na condition make crayfish bend.
I get that.
Remember that company website I was working for? My line manager moved to another startup and they were hiring. I went for the interview and got hired. It was an internship role, but I was so excited – so excited I didn’t ask how much.
It will end in –
– Tears. It was ₦55k, but I didn’t even mind. I did get a raise to ₦80k though.
In all this time, I was applying for my professional internship to properly get certified and all that. I really loved working at the startup, but I had to resign towards the end of 2017. Then I became super broke
Did you have any savings?
While I was working at the startup, I took a loan to buy a laptop. I had to repay that over the next few months, so I couldn’t save. Also, I couldn’t ask my dad for money.
Are you still like that?
Yes. I’ll rather die than ask him. He’s the kind of person that if he does something for you, he requires you to do certain favours.
He’ll always bring up how he did this and that for you. So I already promised not to ask him. That month was brutal I used to take ₦150 bike to go see my babe before. Omo, I started walking.
My babe was very supportive. She used to sense that I was cranky. So sometimes she’d randomly send me some change and buy me stuff, like airtime or pizza.
She could smell the brokeness my guy.
Guy, the odour was potent. I knew all the cheap data plans. All the ₦500 for 1GB plans. All I was doing was sleeping or trekking if I had to go somewhere.
Anyway, it all lasted for one month. And then I resumed at my internship. Then there was another problem. I didn’t have clothes – I hadn’t bought those for over a year. So I went back to my one true saviour, my sibling. And I promised him that I was going to be more sensible with money. My clothes got paid for, and we created a repayment plan.
That Red October was good for me, because I entered my Internship with red-eyed discipline. My net salary was ₦127k. I told myself I was going to have ₦1 million in savings by the end of the Internship. I’m saving up for when it’s time to start chasing Permanent Residence in the Abroad.
That’s steep.
My target was to save ₦90k every month for a year. I remember they didn’t pay me for like the first 3 months, because of government. But man was already used to suffering. So when they paid everything all my guys were going to buy phones. I first transferred ₦180k to one account that had no debit card or Internet banking. I bought stuff for my folks.
In the end, I had ₦20k left. I started trying to make money on the side – like the old days. And I could earn enough to help me save my entire salary on some months.
That’s impressive.
But you see the thing with money. When you start to enjoy, you go forget say you don suffer. So after the first four months, I told my self guy you can’t kill yourself. Have you not tried?! So I started to buy expensive wristwatches, expensive perfumes, my babe did birthday too, I spent money!
Hahaha, noooo!
I kept on buying randomly and I ended up spending ₦60k. I look everything wey the babe don do. This babe follow me when I dey trek.
Like she’ll be like is it not enough. I’ll be like you no say money no be problem hahaha.
I didn’t save in that month.
After two more months, I was like guy no spend this thing finish – NYSC was coming and I didn’t want to carry last. In the end, I missed my millon naira target by ₦122k.
But you see, I had money in my account, but I wasn’t happy with my life. Imagine having all that money and your phone is bad.
So, NYSC?
Yeah, I shopped for camp and everything. That was like 40k. Because deep down I don’t like suffering, I took ₦63k for camp I used to eat pancakes with syrup and eggs, sausages, and chicken.
In fact, I had only ₦3k by the time I received my first NYSC allowance. This was 2018.
I left camp in November. I had to change my PPA because I was trying to get an NGO, instead, I landed in a Government Hospital – ₦43k.
One woman there was saying, “Don’t be chasing money. It’s a learning experience.” In my mind I was like, people that learn with money do they have two heads?
Hahaha.
My first month there shocked them. I was always the first person to get to work. The next person always came 1 hour 30 minutes later. So I’m always manning the lab from 8-10:30 am. And it’s a fucking general hospital. I’m always overworked.
It’s interesting, going from a startup to civil service.
It’s like a crash landing. Startups require a level of commitment to work ethic. Startups tend to be understaffed, so when you’re not pulling your own weight, it’ll show. But Civil Service, I’m doing the barest minimum and they think I have a work ethic.
I’ll get to work at 7:50am. I’ll not leave till like 5. I’ll attend to every patient. I’ll go out of my way for patients to go and meet doctors.
At the startup, the fact that I knew there were performance reviews made me step up. Things that would have been difficult for me to know, I learned. And the six months I spent there had actually transformed my life. The kind of people that I’ve met. The way I handle a lot of things. If I had not passed through then I would be thinking of opening a community lab or pharmacy or hospital. I wouldn’t be able to dream big. I learned there that if you’re too comfortable where you are, you won’t gbebody.
I’ve not expended half of the energy from where I’m coming. My bosses at work are always like oh my God. He’s so hard working, he’s so principled. Oops!
My head o.
If I don’t do that barest minimum, I’ll die from boredom. Patients will be saying they’ve not seen anybody like you.
Because it takes nothing. At my other place I used to work like 8 till 5. But it felt like 8 till next year.
Now I’m working 8 till 4. And the work is mostly muscle memory. If I don’t take time to exercise my brain, trouble.
What’s your current running cost?
I get paid about ₦43k. NYSC pays me ₦19,800 so I save ₦35k to my Japa funds. I live on ₦29k. I’m living in my dad’s house. So I’m not paying rent, and I don’t eat out very much. Data is my big expense.. And my girlfriend is considerably understanding. We go for outings like once in 3months.
Same babe?
Same babe my man. We’ll marry.
What’s something you really want right now but you can’t afford?
Permanent residency in the Abroad – okay that’s taking it far. I want to pivot into the data sciences after Nysc. And I can’t keep doing free courses – one course I want to take, for example, costs $200. My funds are limited. Let me tell you why I bought phone too.
Oya
I went to donate blood in January 2019. I had donated blood six times before but on that seventh time, I almost fainted. I’ve never fainted in my life.
Why?
I don’t know. That’s the first time it happened to me. So they had to rush me back, and I had to do something where I’ll put my head down and put my legs up. In that moment, I had an epiphany. I had a fucking epiphany.
Hahaha.
Na so person go just die, next thing, next of kin will collect all my savings. As they released me from that place, I just went to buy an internet modem. The next day I called a phone seller. He told me the price of the phone I wanted and I told him, “Guy, I’m coming. Don’t close your shop.”
How much?
₦250k. I felt light after but, I kept on repeating eyan le ku any fucking time. At this point, I had only ₦500k left in savings.
Also, random, in as much as my babe is understanding, I try to do nice things for her.
Yeah
Also, from time to time, I do stuff for the people around me.
It’s kind of nerve-wracking, the longer I stay in Nigeria, the more I’ll deplete my savings. The more life will happen. Maybe I’ll want to move out, pay for rent.
Then I’ll now be telling my children ah! You guys would have been Canadian citizens.
I see the guys in Civil Service, 15-20 years of service. I see their pay slip. I know it’s emotionally draining for me because of my work ethic.
I’m always the one that goes the extra mile for mothers and their children. I help them chase doctors. Every other person is always like oh he’ll do it. So at the end of the work day, I feel very emotionally drained and still broke.
You know how they say empathy kills. It drains me.
Empathy is draining.
You’re seeing poor people. At the General Hospital, you’ll see things that’ll baffle you. I once saw a woman who was diabetic, and she had neuropathic pain. Pain from her waist down, and it was stinging.
They were supposed to give her an injection that cost ₦50. And this woman could not afford ₦50. She was crying The problem with having a lean budget is that you’re always with your last card till payday. But that day I thought, this woman doesn’t have any money anywhere, I have ₦500k somewhere.
I had like ₦150 because that money takes me home, while she still had to buy other drugs. So we just crowdfunded. I first bought her the injection, and we bought her other stuff.
Man.
The thing is, it’s not a one-off. It’s recurring. I’ve lost count of the times it’s happened. You’ll see people that can’t afford the most basic things. It’s tough, trying to save people when I am not centred enough.
Like trying to save drowning people from a sinking boat.
Argh. I sent someone my last ₦2k. ₦2k will solve the immediate problems of someone who has no money. On the other hand, I’m looking for ₦1 million.
2019 is showing me pepper, but it doesn’t feel as tough as 2017, because I have money, even though I try not to look at it as my money. But knowing it’s there makes me feel better, a safety net.
Let’s talk about Financial Happiness.
I think I’m unhappy because Nigeria is making me unhappy and I’m trying to leave. If I had no plans to leave, I think I’d be happier, even if I earned ₦60-something-k. But all my money and energy is pivoted towards leaving.
I’m not poor, I’m just broke a lot. Because I want to go to Canada.
So, I don’t think I’m sad because of my finances. If all else fails, I know I can go and beg my father. If I ask him for money now, he’ll give me. But you know what? I’d rather die. Maybe, in the end, all my strong head is just because I want to outdo him.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
This week, we follow a 25-year old lady who’s living a good life – great money, holidays, comfort. But she has a better idea – freedom from her dad’s misogyny.
When do you think you first understood the importance of money?
I got my first taste of freedom during university. My parents are the kind of people who say, “This is your budget, anything outside this means you’re on your own.”
That’s when I started wondering how people manage when they don’t have money. People started to tell me things I didn’t notice about myself:
“Your parents are still giving you this amount? Oh wow, you’re some rich kid.”
Before then, I never really saw myself as a rich kid. I thought the rich kids were the ones we saw in newspapers and things like that.
What specific things do you remember?
I picked my accommodation for convenience and comfort. Most of my peers on the other hand, were about cutting costs. I also wanted to be close to school, and the closer you got to school, the more expensive things were.
I wasn’t really thinking about all that, and my friends noticed. Also, there was this specific thing that set me apart from most people – it was the funniest thing – heating.
Ah, the Abroad. Tell me about it.
A lot of my friends never turned on their heaters, because bills. But whenever they came to my place, it was toasty warm. Also, rent was always paid for a year. A lot of people had to pay month by month, but my parents paid for a full year.
What other specific things do you remember? Did you worry about food, budget, etc?
To be honest, I didn’t have to worry about those things on a day to day basis. It was just the sort of thing where, by the end of the month, after buying all of the expensive groceries, you had to manage for the remaining ten days.
I never worried-worried. It was just the sort of thing where I had overspent my allowance.
What was your monthly allowance like?
My parents gave me £1000 a month, and an extra £100 to pay for internet.
When was the first time you felt ‘I worked for it and I got it!’ with money?
I did an internship before I got into school. Some context: because of the way we were raised in my family, our hustling spirit was kind of crippled. We grew up to be very co-dependent on our father. He’s a very – you know one of these patriarchal, everything-must-go-through-me men?
Ahhh yes.
Growing up, we were never allowed to do things like internships or work outside of school. As far as he was concerned, he was working for us. Even my mum wasn’t working, until recently. She had a business but it wasn’t so tangible, so she could easily be home for dinner.
I get that.
So if we said, “Okay dad, my friends are going to New York, they’re going to get internships and get paid and things like that,” he didn’t understand.
He’ll be like, “Why are you working?” That kind of thing. When I got that internship, I had to beg to work. I was afraid I wasn’t going to get into a good university, because these days, they aren’t just looking at grades. They are looking at extracurriculars and I had nothing outside what I was supposed to do in school!
Mad.
At first, he suggested that I come work for him. I said nope!
After my internship, I got paid, and I was like oooooh, this is my money. No one is going to tell me what to spend it on! It was small, but it was mine.
This got ruined quickly, because the moment I entered university, I tried to get a job. He said, “If you do, I’m not going to pay anything for you. I sent you there to go to study. That’s it!”
Funny thing is, we’re all girls. If we were boys, I bet the narrative would have been different. I have heard his conversations with male cousins my age and the conversations are completely different. At first, I thought maybe it’s because we are his children, but as I got older I realised he is actually a full-blown misogynist.
Growing up in such a setting – I’m not going to lie – completely destroyed our hustling spirits. Because anything we want –
– Daddy
That didn’t help any of us.
The funniest thing is that we’re very educated women. All of us have first degrees and it’s either we are getting second degrees or already have second degrees.
2019 is the first year I’m pursuing something for myself. I mean, it hasn’t properly started, but there’s the satisfaction of knowing that I’m doing something on my own, for myself.
Your rules, your consequences.
Brooo, I’m like yooooo, so this is what freedom is all about. Some of the people in my circle went through this phase with their parents when they were 18-19. We, at our age, are still fighting our parents for our own independence – I’m 25.
Tell me about this.
If I tell my dad that I want to pay for something myself, he sees it as completely disrespectful.
“How dare you, when I’m there.”
You’re not protecting your kids, you’re stifling their growth. All the conversations we have at home revolve around money.
So money is a tool?
It is the tool control, because he knows that we’re all so dependent. I’m not trying to paint him as a bad dad – he’s also a great dad, and he provides for us.
A Nigerian dad.
Yeah I just feel like maybe if we were boys or if we were raised in a different setting, he would be a bit different.
I wonder, is it that there are certain men who feel like they have to take care of everyone till they die?
Back to your trail, when did you finish uni?
2015. Then I came home for NYSC and started in November. I was posted to one state and fell sick as soon as I got into camp. A lot of the people in camp didn’t like me because I wasn’t used to that kind of environment. But that’s kind of standard; Nigerians are quite angry. I didn’t really take it to heart.
I redeployed closer to home – daddy intervened. My Place of Assignment was one really really big private company. One of my bosses met me and the first thing he asked was, “Who’s your father, because that’s how you got here.”
That year was my most determined. I wasn’t really a school person like that – I kind of zoned out in my final year. It was even by God’s grace I graduated. But when I got to this company, I wanted to prove that I was just more than daddy’s girl.
Work hours were 9-6, but I was in the office from about 8:30 am until 7:30 pm – they didn’t ask me to. They were even paying me ₦45,000 a month. But I worked like a full staff. I was doing finances, the admin work. I was doing all the vouchers because they had a lot of expenses. They have partners all over the world, so I was handling all our expatriates coming in, booking hotels, doing all the running around. I was doing research for the MD and sending emails for my supervisor. I was working! And the fact that I was just earning ₦45,000 didn’t faze me because I was not working for the money.
I was just trying to ask myself, “Am I capable?”
I’d applied to go for my Masters abroad after my service year, and my boss told me, “Oh we are sad you’re going, we actually wanted to retain you”
That was my victory.
My supervisor thought I did an amazing job. She used to be glued to her desk, but when I joined, she started going out. She even told me to give her a website where she could watch series.
So basically you were earning ₦45k + ₦19,800. Was that enough to sustain your lifestyle?
Since we were young, we’ve been getting this thing called the Director’s Salary – we’re on the board of our dad’s company. I think I was getting paid about ₦200k per month since I was a teenager. I didn’t have access to the account until I crossed 18 – my mum was the signatory. But when I finally had access, it was about ₦5 million in there.
So as a corper, ₦200k + ₦45k + ₦19,800. Which corpers were you rolling with?
Hahaha. I served with some of my family friends; we’ve known each other all our lives. One of them was even a proper rich kid. A lot of people who were in my CDS were actually people who had gone to school abroad.
Anyway, I travelled back for my Masters at the end, and it reverted back to the old program. “We’ll give you your rent money, just stay in school and focus. That’s it!” But we had a deal that after I finished, I could look for a job in the States.
Okay, how did that go?
Trump. I spent 6 months looking. And I couldn’t stay any longer because my visa was about to expire.
I was applying for jobs abroad because I knew that if I lived abroad, I would be able to take care of myself. I knew that if I came back, my only option was –
– Daddy’s schedule.
Anyway, I came back home, in 2018. I got a job with one government-ish establishment, but that just went bad. My supervisor hated me because she felt like my dad had a hand in me getting the job. She just didn’t give me any work to do. I talked to her, I talked to her boss, nothing. I was there for three months doing nothing. I was wasting away.
How much were they paying?
₦100k
Plus your director’s salary.
Yes. So I left and came to work for my dad’s company. Coming back, I felt like I could use my business school education to make the place a bit more structured. But I’ve always felt it’d be difficult to work for my parents because I felt like I’d just be there for decoration.
I just think that all of our relationships with our parents are strained because of this ‘money’ thing. Anyway, I asked myself, “What are the things that I actually want to do?”
I’ve always been interested in Agric.
I want to get into this myself – I literally just registered a company. Triumph number one! I started seeking out people with more experience to help, it took some back and forth, and some people even tried to dupe me.
But I always acted like I was stupid because I feel like the best way to find out about something is to act like you don’t know anything. Be the girl who just came back from Abroad and knows nothing.
Hahaha. What do you want to grow?
Rice. For a start.
Between all of these, I lent some money to my mum from my savings, so she could start a proper-proper business. Because this is the first true one, I was so happy to go all “take my money!” Also, it’s a hospitality business. It was easy to lend her money because my Director’s Salary climbed.
Yeah?
It got increased to ₦1.2 million. Joining the company as a director, they had to pay me more than the managers. Also, when my mum started her business, she put me and my sisters as directors. So we are now earning salaries from there as well. That’s another ₦400k.
That’s a lit ₦1.6 million.
1.5+ is what I tend to get actually. So I started saving more aggressively. See? Growth might be slow, but it’s going to happen.
So, it’s your first time saving out of necessity.
Yes. I never had to. So when I spoke to the Agric guys, they told me how much I needed to invest in the business.
How much?
At the scale I want to get started with, ₦20 million. Funny thing is, my dad found out about it somehow.
Woah.
Some of the people I was trying to work with involved my dad. He was now like wait,
“So you registered a company, you didn’t tell me.”
“You didn’t even add me as one of your directors!”
“You didn’t put me anywhere!”
How did you respond?
“Sorry.”
I told him how much I had to save from my salary to get to the target. He had no idea I’d been saving previously of course – I’m currently at ₦12 million. Weird thing is, I’d always felt the need to save, even while I was in school.
How do you save?
I split my savings into naira and dollars. I can’t save everything in naira only to end up hearing that naira has lost value again. I’m planning to have reached my savings target by March next year. Best time to plant rice is between March and August.
That’s close.
Every month I put myself on a strict budget, but there’s a problem that I have. I’ve always been a shopaholic. And I inherited that from my parents. My father has like 100 shoes per house. And he has houses in three countries. He just loves shopping. So all of us took after him, especially me.
But this year, I was like why am I waiting? I don’t have kids, I’m not married. This is the time I can be a little bold and build something for myself.
I know people that are way younger than me – some earning less – and they are hustling now. So what is my own excuse?
It’s like I’m in a better environment where I’m actually even getting good money each month and I can actually put away a large amount to do something for myself.
I had to give myself that pep talk.
What’s your savings target every month?
Then another 150k goes to God. So at the end of the day, I have about 300k to spend.
Where does the 300k go?
The 300 goes to keeping up appearances – not with people. It’s very funny, my father is a kind of person that if he sees that there’s nothing going on with money like you’re not using his money for anything, he gets very suspicious.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“You’re not going out, you’re not doing anything.”
“I don’t understand, what’s the meaning of this?”
I’ve never seen a man who’s just so determined to make sure that we’re all – I dunno. So even if I’m not spending money, it’s a problem. So I just buy myself like a cute dress from somewhere, once in a while, and go out with my friends to like lunches and dinner.
Right now, I wish I could literally watch you and your dad see Lion Heart.
Genevieve stunting with her daddy in Lionheart (Netflix)
Hahaha. Oops. It feels like you’ve built your entire financial goals around breaking free.
Yes. I plan my savings in two blocks, one for moving out, and one for starting my business. Before I even started saving for rent, I needed to know where I was going to move to. So my savings goal for rent is 2 million. I’ll just chill and move out by the end of 2020, or beginning of 2021. Can’t be unrealistic and start moving out immediately.
By January 2020, I should have saved up for my business.
Are you getting any help from a Financial Advisor?
Hahaha. I went behind my dad and got one of his financial advisors. This one is the person who handles the most important books, loans, banks. He has contacts in Agric too.
I went to him like, epp me sir.
Also, he’s one of my secret supporters of moving out of this shadow.
Random, but what does broke mean to you?
Hmmn. That’s an interesting question. I think it’s when I switch from luxury to necessity. In our household, we always joke that we’re broke. But we’re not actually broke. The last time we actually felt like that in our household was 2017. That was when my parents were going through a rough patch financially. Which a lot of people were also going through.
But it just meant I didn’t get extra money when I ran out. I still got my allowances.
So like till now our broke is not really… Someone told me, “Your broke is my rich.”
Hahahaha.
I was like I don’t know what you’re trying to say but okay, no problem.
How many of your friends does this your pursuit of your business confuse?
I’ll say it goes half way. I have friends that are so proud of me. And there are some who are like, but why?
I’m not trying to sound like a brat; I don’t have to work. But I want to. So I’m not going to let anyone undermine that. It’s never too late to start.
I stan. I solemnly stan
My dad and my uncles treat their daughters the same. I don’t know whether it is genetic. All of them are full-blown misogynists.
None of their daughters have the hustling spirit, but the boys are encouraged to hustle.
I’ve been telling my younger one to start saving and planning. Because one day, my dad will wake up and see all of us have disappeared. Then we’ll be calling him like, “Yo pops –
– How far now? How you see life?”
“Yeahhh I’m in my office. I’m in my own house. So what you gon say now boo?”
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?
Eight.
I’m getting enough financial support that I need to be able to have goals and chase them. No matter what I’ve said, I’ve never said I’m ungrateful for everything that my parents have given me – the money, the privilege. I’m just saying I just wish there was a bit of room for independence for all of us.
People are like, “Oh you’re so lucky, your dad buys you this and that.” So I don’t complain to people so that I don’t look like a rambling ingrate.
That remaining two is just the control that is attached to that financial happiness and just drains the life out of you sometimes. My older sister is paying for her life abroad, there are some times that he still gives her money.
“Let me buy your ticket to come back to Nigeria.”
“It’s summer let me just give you something to hold.”
The kind of relationship I don’t mind having. When you know you’re living your own life, you’re doing your own things, but once in a while, he’s still there.
Okay. So what’s something that you think I could have asked that I didn’t ask?
Hmm, that’s a good one. Maybe another scenario would have been good.
Tell me.
I’ll probably be living on my own with a small car. Working for maybe a bank, or maybe working for one of the Big Four, slumming it out, you know. I’d be a worker. A proper worker. But this is the reality I’m in, so I gotta hustle my own hustle.
I hope the business works out.
It’s on the way. It is on its way.
I need to head out for my meeting now.
Thank you for taking the time.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people. But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’, subscribe below. It only takes a minute.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
This week’s story is about a 22-year-old student who would have been out and alone in the world if his friends didn’t change his life forever.
What is the first thing you ever did for money?
I taught A-levels. I’d just finished A-levels from a school, so I went back the next year to teach for 10k a month.
This was in 2013 – I was 17. I taught in the 2013/2014 session. I was trying to get a scholarship to go abroad, but that didn’t work out.
My dad was just like, go to a uni in Nigeria. And that’s where I went. So I got into University with my A-levels. 2014/2015 session.
What was your first semester away from home like?
Let me give you some context: I’m the firstborn, and something weird used to happen when I was in secondary school; Teachers often chased me out of class and I never knew why. My mum would say, “Don’t worry, we’ll talk about it.”
When I turned 14, she eventually told me.
What did she say?
That’s when I knew my parents didn’t have money – they were struggling to pay my school fees.
I actually got a scholarship to be at the school where I did my A-Levels.
So when I entered uni, things became rougher and I couldn’t… When I started school, my dad used to give me 3k per month. He thought they fed people in school, because back when he was in school, people were fed for free.
I didn’t want to spoil it for him, so I just ‘ohhh’d’ it.
I just managed.
How?
₦200 per meal, once daily. Buy ₦70 bread, ₦50 beans, and one bottle of orobo Pepsi, you’re set for the day. Lucky for me, I made good friends, and that supplemented a lot. I did that for the first semester – about the first half the year.
Then I started thinking about my life, because mehn, I had to make money somehow.
What did you come up with?
My guy was into programming, so I too wanted to become a programmer.
Ah, that.
It’s actually what I wanted to travel abroad to study anyway, but I just settled for one course here, because there were no dedicated software engineering courses.
Next thing was to get a laptop. My dad couldn’t get me one, so I started looking for a means to get a new laptop.
I heard of a scholarship, and that time, luckily for me, my G.P.A. was still kind of high – over 4.0 – so I roughed it somehow, and I got the scholarship. In fact, I applied on the deadline day.
Wild.
Do you know what’s wilder? I wrote the application essay on my phone, while I was at the movies. I got the scholarship. That money came at the end of 2015 – ₦200k. Immediately I got that money, I went to buy a laptop, and I started learning how to write code.
Ah, rough year, that year.
How did you survive that year though, minus the bread and beans?
My friends. I had this girlfriend, very understanding. She used to buy me food all the time. She never asked for anything; she just bought me food endlessly.
Morning, night, afternoon: “Are you hungry?”, “Are you okay?” I didn’t even have to disturb my parents for anything.
They’d occasionally reach out like, “Can I send you this small ₦1k or ₦2k?” But I’d just tell them not to worry, because my younger sibling also got into another university and needed it more than I did.
Also, I didn’t have a place to stay, so I was more of a floater. A floater is different from a squatter – you’re on another level of squatting. Do you understand?
Explain abeg.
I made myself very flexible. I had one small bag in school at that time. I knew that if I went home, there’d be no light or internet.
But in school, I had light and internet. So I floated around my friends’ rooms. If I see that one of my guys was getting a little uncomfortable, I’d just move to another guy’s hostel, stay there for like two weeks or one month, then move to another place.
There was this friend I had, his dad was a member of staff – super chilled man. My friend had access to his dad’s office, so we used to go there. It had fast Internet, so that’s where I spent a lot of nights.
What were you doing?
Learning how to code. I watched tutorial, after tutorial, after tutorial. I remember the first thing I built – a GP calculator. To be honest, I didn’t finish building it, but I did what I could anyway. I couldn’t find that many structured courses that were free, so I just rough am. This was 2017; I now had my laptop at this time.
What else happened that year?
4th year, time for Industrial Attachment. I got accepted at an oil company, great place! The money was like 30k with free food and transport. This was the highest money I’d ever been offered at this point in my life, but I didn’t take the job at the oil company.
Wollop. Why?
I was worried it would distract me from what I really wanted to do – programming. The oil company wasn’t going to get me there fast.
This is random, but do you want to hear something funny?
What?
All this time, I didn’t have a phone. My mum used to call my friend whenever she wanted to reach me. And I kind of liked it that way, because whenever I got a call from home, it was always that something bad had happened. Or maybe when there’s no food, no light, or no DStv subscription. Always those kinds of things.
I feel you.
That was about to change though because, at the beginning of 2017, my scholarship funds came again – it was a yearly thing. And out of the 200k – I dunno what I was thinking – I carried 170k and went to buy a phone.
Ehn?
Let’s just call it one of those stupid decisions, but the phone later worked in my favour. One of my friends had a client who needed to develop an app. So I just showed up with my nice phone and laptop.
Lemme tell you how it went:
Interviewer: So you’re coming for IT right?
Me: Not really. I mean, I’m coming for IT, but not really as an IT student coming to learn, in a sense.
Interviewer (smiles): Okay, we’ll offer you 50k.
Me: Let me explain, I got IT offering in a place for 30k with free food. But I’m not coming as an IT student, I’m coming as a cheap web developer.
Interviewer: So how much do you want?
Me: 125k
Interviewer: Hahaha. You know what? Let’s do 100k.
You know, I actually just rough am. The person was not an actual engineer. They brought a non-developer to interview me, so I just took that advantage. Immediately after that interview, I called my guy like ‘guyyyyyyyy.’ I called all my guys. All the people I’d been squatting –
Floating
Hahaha. Yes, floating with. Let me tell you about these people. They were taking care of me, basically. I had a friend that used to buy me food, but he believed in me so much that he used to say, “Don’t worry, I’m not doing it for free. I’ll just be adding it to your tab.” He was so sure I was going to make money soon.
Now, imagine he used to buy me food of say, ₦500. I owed him up to ₦32k. Now, imagine how many times he bought me food in that period.
Wow.
The others guys too, whenever they were going to get food, I’d want to stay back because I didn’t have money. They’d be like “guy, let’s go jor,” and buy me food. They let me stay in their room.
So imagine me coming back to tell them. They were so excited. God, that ₦100k was like everything in the world for me. I was the highest-paid I.T. student.
Omo, I now started adding weight.
Hahaha.
Whenever people ask me, I’d say, “Omo, na God ooo.” What made it better was, I didn’t need to show up every time. I just had to get the work done. Two months into it, trouble started.
What trouble? Office drama?
No. From home. I got a phone call from my dad. My mum had an accident. And he wasn’t as forthcoming with all the feedback I needed, like with the money part. He’s a proud man, you understand?
I totally get it.
I just told him not to worry, because I was coming home. I had saved up like 90k, because I wasn’t spending money on much. I withdrew 50k, and took it to the house.
In the long run, it would have been tough to stay at the hospital at ₦2k per night. So we took her home, and I paid a doctor to come in to treat her at home. That cost ₦20k at once.
For the next month, she was bed-ridden. I also couldn’t go home, because I had to make money. So I used to panic a lot.
Sorry about that man.
At this point, I just made sure that money stopped becoming a serious problem at the house. Paid for DStv so my mum could be distracted from the pain. I was burning through a lot of money that by the next month, I asked for a salary advance of half of my next salary.
It ended in us having to do a surgery on one of her joints because it was broken.
So imagine me, in 2017, at 20 years old, having to worry about all of this.
Sigh.
All my money was going there. I just wanted her to get better. And she did get better. But, something else came up. My parents had been avoiding mentioning it to me, but now that the accident had come up, they couldn’t keep it away from me anymore.
What happened?
Not only had the house rent expired, we were also owing a year’s rent. This was a house that they’d lived in for 20 years.
But the landlady wasn’t having any of that anymore. She’d already started sending native doctors to sprinkle jazz at our entrance, cutting off power to our house. Proper “come and be going” treatment.
How much was the rent?
₦350k. I’d just collected an advance on my next salary. Where was I going to get that kind of money? We tried something else – a lawyer that I gave like ₦20k to help us get some more time to get our shit together.
Anyway, by December 2017, I was supposed to be finishing I.T.. My boss understood how badly I needed the money, so he let me stay. In fact, he was willing to let me say until I finished school.
Anyway, one thing led to ten things, and I had to leave at some point.
What happened?
They hired a senior developer who started to shit on everybody’s parade. He also managed to convince the CEO to make me go back to school.
I was close to tears at the office. At this point, my old laptop already went bad with age, so I was surviving on the company’s laptop. Meanwhile, someone had hooked me up with a gig on the side.
How much?
₦250k. I couldn’t finish the job. I was back to square one and didn’t know what to do. I was still the funny, lively person, but my friend was worried. If you’re close to me, you won’t even know what was going on. Do you understand?
Totally.
My mum was just recovering, she needed money. I needed money too. I couldn’t eat. I barely saved anything from that time I was earning. I didn’t think I was going to leave, so I didn’t even plan to buy a new laptop. Huge mistake. I’d already sold my phone, and now I had no laptop.
Woah.
2018 now, and I couldn’t really squat with my friends anymore. They didn’t mind, but I didn’t want to feel like a burden.
I used to sleep at that office. The alternative was to sleep under the stars with the mosquitoes. See ehn, the way I’m now resistant to mosquitoes ehn. Jesus!
Mad.
I used to be hungry a lot. But again, my guys came through when they could, as much as they could.
I knew that the way out of all of this was for me to get a laptop, so I started the laptop hustle. And one of my guys, right there in school, loaned me money for a new laptop.
How much?
₦300k, in March 2018. If you want to enjoy coding, get a good laptop or go and sleep. It was one of those types of loans that you never really had a return date to pay back. But I insisted on paying back in 6 months. It took me over a year. I spent a lot of time at that my friend’s dad’s office. I felt average as a developer. So I knew that if I wanted to earn more, I needed to make more money. I already felt like I’d lost time because there were periods where I wasn’t working or improving. I felt like I had to be really good because it’d need extra convincing to hire a student.
What about classes? Like actual school?
I tried to attend classes, but it was pointless to me at this point. An F here and there. I lost my scholarship too because my G.P.A. dropped. Thank God for my friend’s dad. He managed to – I don’t know how – convince his wife to make food for me whenever she was making for the kids.
Bruh, that food was my hope. See, I don’t know how to explain it, but it helped a lot. The man used to be around three days a week. So food came only on those days. I literally built that free food into my time table. I just knew Monday, Wednesday, and Friday –
Sorted.
You get. I was lean again. Even my friend’s younger sibling helped a lot. I think I’ve been extremely lucky with the people I’ve had in my life. Close to the middle of 2018, I started applying for jobs again. I googled all the things people were looking for in developers and started to learn what I could and threw them into my CV.
I got an interview and they gave me five days to submit a code test. Do you know when I submitted?
When?
A day and a half after. I didn’t really know all the things in the test sef, but the way I studied ehn. One of my friends just gave me his internet for that period. In fact, one of my friends gave me transport money to go for the interview. It took a while, but I eventually got contacted. HR was like “I’ll give you 170k.” They asked me when I wanted to resume, I told them I was ready. And you see, it was at the end of the month that the real money became clear in my eyes.
Net vs Gross?
A little over ₦140k was what entered my account. HR said the rest went to health insurance and pensions. I just felt like a lucky bastard at this point, so I didn’t really care. Also, there were experienced developers there, and I really wanted to learn from them. I told one of them to just pass on all the grunt work to me.
Remember that 250k work I didn’t finish? He asked me to come and continue. So I asked for ₦400k, and the guy agreed. I added ₦150k to the money and gave the money to my dad for rent.
Man.
You know, he used to have money. Like, proper wealthy. Then life happened. Anyway, I gave my mum another ₦100k. Just for her to stay sharp.
Anyway, back to work. I was getting better, and needing more money. When I was getting hired, I was told I’d get a raise in six months. Oya now, give me a raise. Na story I dey hear. The only way to get a raise was to get an offer from somewhere else.
By January 2019, I started looking for a new job. This time, I knew the difference between net and gross. I had almost two years of experience working on actual things. I got an interview that went smoothly. How? Youtube – I watched a lot of how-tos for interviews. When they asked me how much I wanted, I just spat out 400k net.
That’s bold.
Yes. In the end, my net was ₦300k – a little over double of my last net. So that’s where I’m currently at now. The old people took their laptop back, and the new guys gave me a new one straight. But that’s not even all. I got a client – the biggest yet. It involved managing a small team for a project. Sha, my cut was like ₦1 million, you know, make I use pick teeth.
Hahaha.
This was shortly after I started at my new job. I didn’t really loud it, but I took care of the outstanding bills. A grandparent was ill. Family debts, my younger siblings’ school fees.
How much did all of that take?
About ₦700k, so I just had ₦300k left for myself. Thing is, as my money grew longer, my throat grew longer. Sometimes I’ll just be like, let me just go and take pepper soup, just because.
It looks like you have multiple income streams now. What does that look like on a monthly basis?
So far so good, I earn an average of 500k a month – ₦350k on a bad month. That ₦1 million is not a regular something. There’s someone who pays me 50k for a retainer. Just so he can call me to quickly fix something when he needs to.
But I need to save most of it because I have a lot of expenses lined up for the rest of the year. I need to finally get my place, get my own laptop, get my younger sibling a laptop. My budget for all of these is ₦1.2 million
Let’s breakdown your monthly spending.
Ah, this one is hard. Sometimes, I just randomly want to buy shawarma, and I end up buying shawarma for everybody.
Transport is a mood expense for me. Sometimes, I jump bus and if I jumped bus every day, that would cost me like 30k every month. But sometimes, I’ll just call a cab. And one trip will now be like 3k. So I think a mix of all the forms of transport I use will make it about 50k every month. Also, when I buy food, I tend to not buy for myself alone. So now, I’m like, “Have you eaten? Are you okay?”
I still stay with my guys.
How much do you feel like you should be earning?
Deep down, 1.3 million, and this number is because I’ve reached a place where I can no longer think of my income with local rates. It’s why the next job I want is a remote job, working for foreign companies that will pay me in Forex. Convert 1.3 million to dollars, and it’s less than $4000.
What’s something you want but can’t afford?
I want to get my mum a house. Like somewhere in America. Just take her there and just keep her there to just chill. That’s what I want. If my mum has peace, I’m okay. She has suffered too much in this life. She has suffered too much for us. Like all the things she has done, just to put food on the table.
I just need to blow on time to be able to do things like this.
What do you feel like you should be better at?
I need to diversify my skills. Be a better writer, mess around with other things outside of my field. I don’t believe we came to this world to do only one thing. Like just be a software engineer and an actor or something.
Also – and I wouldn’t call this empowering – but I’m actively working to groom people to acquire some of the technical skills I’ve acquired while trying to get better on my end of course.
How would you rate your financial happiness, on a scale of 1-10?
4. I need to create structured multiple streams of income. I want to have an income stream that just goes to my family, for example. Another one for just my enjoyment.
What did you realise changed over the past few years, minus your account balance of course?
When I was getting F’s in some exams, my classmates were celebrating that they were graduating.
Some of my classmates came to apply for internships at my company – graduate intern roles – to come and work for me. These are people that finished before me – I still have about a year to clear my carry-overs.
So now, I’m wondering whether my degree is going to be any good.
Someone would see me and be like this boy is supposed to be sad and he’s laughing. I’ll be like, no problem. Some of them might be excited earning 40k per month, and they’re saying “ahhh, big boy!”
Also all that time I spent working kind of created some gap between me and some of my friends. Good thing is, all my friends are doing really well.
I used to know a lot of people, but I don’t even have the patience for making new friends now. I’d rather just stay at home and press my laptop.
Every week, Zikoko asks anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira. Some will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie–but all the time, it’ll be revealing.
This episode was pulled off in partnership with ARM Life. They’re making it easy to get started with insurance. So make the first move and start here.
Today’s story is about a Septuagenarian. She’s done everything from secretarial work to hospitality, and trade. All of this with one goal; to give the best life possible for her kids. This conversation happened in Yoruba, and this is an attempt at translating it to English, all without losing the yorubaness.
Tell me about your first job.
I worked at the Health Department of the Lagos City Council. I started working there in 1969, and I was 20 at the time – that’s when I got married. My salary was £16 and we used to get a Danger Allowance, because of the department we worked in – another £2.
Ah, Pounds.
Yes, Nigeria still used the pounds back then, and it was the same value as the British pound. I worked there till 1971, and then I travelled to go and join my husband, who was in the UK at the time. In Britain, I got a secretarial job that I didn’t like very much. It kept me seated too much. So I took the City and Guilds Certificate, 1 and 2, in catering. A few years later, we returned to Nigeria in 1975, and it was a different country.
The Naira?
Yes. At this time, I already had three kids. Even the hand drive changed. I got a job as a Restaurant Supervisor at Eko Holiday Inn in 1975 – I was 26. You people now know it as Eko Hotel. I was expecting my 4th child at the time.
Interesting.
Yes. It was a joint venture by the government and some Americans. But we mostly worked with the Americans. My first salary was ₦375. To be honest, Jakande didn’t really care about the hotel business. A lot of his attention was on education and housing.
I had to be at Eko Hotel before 6 am. We were living on the Mainland but good thing was, in those days we had staff buses to pick us up and drop us off at our stops.
One funny thing that happened a lot in those days is this. My husband worked somewhere not too far from me. And he always wanted to come to pick me up, but then, sometimes, he’d have come and I’d have left with the staff bus. Can you imagine all that frustration was because we didn’t have phones that everyone has now?
By the time I resigned in 1981, my last salary was a little over ₦700.
Why did you resign?
My child was born prematurely. And there was the fear that if there wasn’t enough care, the child won’t survive. My husband used to say “If this child dies, it’s on you.”
You know, when I was leaving, the personnel manager did everything to keep me. In fact, they came to the house officially asking that I return. I didn’t.
But at the time, I’d already started doing some business on the side. I had a friend who travelled a lot, so she helped me buy things I could sell while I still worked at the Hotel restaurant. She had a shop at Tejuoso Market then, and she encouraged me to open one too.
So I opened my shop in Tejuoso Market in 1981.
How much did a shop cost at the time?
It cost less than ₦5,000 to set up. About ₦120 per month. Restocking used to cost me about ₦2,000, and how did I restock? Only from buying from abroad.
Setting up wasn’t difficult at the time. I remember I even got a car loan while I was still at that job – ₦1700. Ah, Nigeria ti bàjẹ́.
Back then, when you get the car loan, you could buy a Volks. A Volks didn’t even cost up to ₦1,000. A Toyota Corolla cost under ₦2,000 – my husband bought this one. It was pretty and had so much room.
Toyota Corolla: Helping Baby Boys since (before) 1979
I used my car loan to buy a pick-up truck. I was using it to carry canned drinks for supply. I’d go pick them up at Ota, and then deliver at Apongbon.
So you could even buy a car on your salary of two months?
Daada! Even all the gold we used to buy in those days, how much did they cost? Fashion wasn’t hard at the time. Gold bangles were going for ₦120.
What did you sell in your shop?
Baby wares. Children’s clothes. Those days, if you haven’t bought Mothercare products for your child, it’s like you haven’t given birth. There weren’t any diapers, only napkins.
But around the time I started, there was one Igbo man in my neighbourhood. He used to go to Brazil to get car spare parts. He was the first person that made me start selling Johnson and Johnson diapers. He’d stock up his own container with my goods, and bring them to my shop.
The blessing was that my children also wore good clothes – the boys wore suits, the girls wore the best dresses. My last child at the time would come to the shop, and once he saw a toy, he’d cry till he got it hahaha.
Business was really booming in those days.
What changed?
It started with a house fire in 1983. The things we lost, I can’t even begin to value. The shop was something I started to fill up the time while I was planning to start my catering business. Part of my profits from running the shop went into buying things I needed when I was ready. I didn’t have a warehouse, so things I couldn’t keep in my shop, I stored at the house. Cartons on cartons on cartons.
They all got burnt.
Wow.
We moved into a new place, and that cost ₦250/month in rent. It was a three-bedroom flat. Towards the end of the year, someone wanted to help me get a ₦25,000 loan that same year. That money was going to cover the capital to set up my catering business and pay two years rent. I was going to use my father’s properties as collateral, but my mother didn’t think it was a good idea. So I didn’t take the loan.
The drought hit us proper in 1985. My husband also didn’t pick a better time to marry a second wife. Before then, our kids’ school fees were paid by whoever had money first. I paid, he paid.
When the second wife came, everything thinned out. We barely saw him. Sometimes, we didn’t even see him for weeks. Before this period, work made him go away for months at a time, so I was already used to not having him around in a sense.
How did you cope?
Business never really went back to how it was before that fire, but we managed. That shop was literally how our family survived. My baby sister lived with me too at the time. We’d sell what we could sell, and buy food for the house for that day. The bulk shopping I used to do before became buy-as-you-have.
What was bulk shopping like in the good days?
I had another sister who was the Oga of bulk shopping, bless her soul. Once I gave her ₦200 in the early 80s, we were sorted. Do you know how many people were living with me? Three of my siblings and my own six children. My daily sales in those bulk shopping days used to be over ₦1000 on good days. In fact, I used to be part of a club. You people only talk about Aṣo Ẹbí, but we used to buy a lot of Aso Egbe.
Squad goals.
Illustration by Oshomah.
Kini yen?
Nothing ma. So, back to Aso Egbe.
We called ourselves Club 8. We partied together and bought our clothes together. But by the mid to late 80s, I couldn’t keep up. I had kids to feed, and their suffering was too difficult for me to bear. My baby sister and first daughter got into tertiary school. You had to pay for their hostel rent, school fees, and you had to buy their hand-outs.
Whenever my daughter and baby sister came home and there wasn’t money, they’d take a few things from the shop and go sell in school to lecturers. That was how they survived. It got to a point, by the late 80s, where I could no longer continue selling baby wares. I had friends travelling, who’d help me buy shoes for adults, male and female, and I started going from office to office, selling them.
How did you pull off the school fees struggle?
At the biggest school fees stretch, I was paying the school fees of 7 people, my kids and my baby sister’s. When my last born came, I couldn’t afford private school for her, so she went to one of these under-the-tree schools in the neighbourhood.
At some point, I could no longer afford private school for two of my older boys too, so I moved two of the kids out of private school, and took them to public school – Jakande made those free and that saved our lives.
All you had to do was buy books, uniform, and give them attention.
Where was he – your husband – all this while?
Oh, he said he was raised by his mother too. And so, I should raise my kids too. And it wasn’t just me. He did it to his second wife. If she wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to send her children abroad, she wouldn’t have survived. She faced the same struggles too. She was hustling to pay ₦150 school fees too.
So, all he was doing was having children. What was he using his money for?
I dunno for him o. To be honest, there was a time he quit the safety of a job and tried to start a company, and that was a tough period for him. In fact, it’s in between all of this he married his second wife, and everything just crumbled for him. He sold his two vehicles, a bus and a car.
Was this how they used to do, these men?
Most of them were like that. But there were some who were good homebuilders, despite being polygamous in some cases. They were present for their families. All the while, he blamed me for having all the kids.
Why didn’t your husband use birth control?
I even used at some point, but I’m just unfortunate with birth control. I used the coil but somehow got pregnant. When my child was born, he was holding the coil in his hand. The doctors at that time said I was 1 out of 100, and I was like, why me?
The IUD (coil) is a small, T-shaped contraceptive device inserted into the womb to prevent pregnancy.
Why…why didn’t you leave?
The kids. I kept wanting them to be present in his life. And him in theirs.
The times are changing though.
Do women these days have time for nonsense? They would have flung the man away since. Nobody is waiting around for someone who won’t give them love and give the kids attention.
Okay, back to work.
I kept trying out things to sell and make a living, and by 1988, I started travelling to Aba.
Ariara Market?
Haha. Ariyariya. I used to go and buy cut-and-sew. We walked the length and breadth of the market in those days. The roads were good, and. How much did it cost from Lagos to Aba by bus? ₦120.
Hayyy
Bẹ̀ẹni! We didn’t have to worry about anything on the road. I used to travel with Emerald Motors at Jibowu. Then there was Young Shall Grow. Okechukwu.
The Young Really Grew.
Yes o. They didn’t have enough vehicles then. Emerald was the reigning one, but when the owner died, the business died too. Even Ojukwu had his own bus line then.
Aba was really pleasant. When I wanted to start that business, I didn’t even have up to ₦10,000.
Again, my husband was saying “Why are you risking your life and leaving these children at home.” As if we were even seeing him at home. Hahaha.
He was giving you trouble at the time?
You see, the way he switched when he married a second wife ehn? He just became bitter. So, I just focused on making sure that I could give the kids the best things possible.
What was the most popular order in Eko Hotel?
Jollof Rice and Chicken Peri-Peri. A plate went for ₦180. There were different restaurants – Kuramo, Summit Restaurant at the rooftop. We moved from restaurant to restaurant, but I worked at Kuramo as a Supervisor.
How stressful must it have been?
It was stressful, but it was good work. My health started to deteriorate shortly after I left. I started treating hypertension in 1983 at the age of 34. When I eventually got rushed to the hospital a few years later, the doctors said I was “very lucky”, because if I had delayed treatment, it would have killed me.
Something else came in 1996. One of the kids fell ill, so we went to the hospital. I was just lying down on a bench, exhausted, when this doctor came in and asked if I was okay. He randomly observed me for a few minutes. Then he asked me if I was hypertensive. I told him I was.
I think it was his instinct, but he asked to run some tests on me, and when it was done, he screamed.
What was it?
Diabetes. The doctor said ‘ah! 400!’ I didn’t even know what diabetes meant: there wasn’t that much awareness about diabetes at the time.
I told the doctor that the child I brought, I hadn’t even paid money. Where was I going to get money to pay for mine? Hahaha.
Wow.
I was still travelling to Aba in all this time, while at the same time trying to arrange flight tickets for my son, who was going to the UK. I paid for all of it without his father. I think it was about ₦25,000 in the mid-90s. It could have been easier for us to arrange that travel because he was a British citizen.
What made it hard?
Abacha. There was some embargo on the Nigerian government, and British citizens could only fly from Ghana. That would have cost more money.
All that travelling and stress must have taken its toll on your health. When did you eventually stop working?
I stopped going to Aba in 1998. Do you know what I loved about Aba? Many of them were kind. When you become a regular customer, you can show up with the money for 5k worth of goods, and they’d tell you to take 10k’s worth. Because they knew you’d come back, and pay up. That helped a lot. I dunno if it’s still possible today, but I hope your generation eventually gets it easy.
I travelled in 2002. At this time, two of my children were now in the UK. I really just wanted to go take a break, and see my daughter – I hadn’t seen her in four years. I needed to see how comfortable she was. She was still a teenager when she left. That was also tough for her.
I spent almost a year there, and when I came back, I was still trying to buy and sell things and chasing debtors.
Looks like debtors were stressful.
Yes, they were. People in offices, for example, would take things on credit and pay at the end of the month. And I don’t blame them because they also couldn’t afford to pay till the end of the month, but my children had to eat.
The food sellers in our neighbourhood were really understanding. They let the kids come and buy food and kept a tab open for me. So I paid when I had money.
That year, we moved into our own house. My husband had been building one. By the time we were moving out of the house we lived in, it cost ₦5,500 per month. A lot of it was still incomplete.
Do you want to know how much we bought the land? ₦25,000 in 1992. I contributed ₦8000.
With all of what you know and have experienced now, what would you do if you could travel back in time?
Hahaha. Let’s just be glad I survived. You know, when things happen, it’s impossible to tell outcomes. If I died, my children’s lives would have still continued somehow. They were courageous.
I’m really grateful.
How is old age?
Boring. I’m grateful that I have children who send me money for my welfare. I never have to worry about medicine. But the hardest part about being old for me is that all the places I could go, You can’t move around as much because your body is weak. Some of the things you did with ease when you were younger, now need an extra hand.
I’m treating Diabetes, hypertension, and osteoporosis. My meds are taken care of by my kids. I have no pension. No insurance.
Investments?
My kids hahaha. They’re my pension and my insurance.
They send money, but, even that no longer feels enough. I’d love to talk to them. And my grandchildren. I can’t always do that now, and those times when I can’t hear from anyone, I feel lonely. It used to make me very bitter – the loneliness – but not anymore.
Their father talks about it now, about how much of a lucky man he is. And despite the fact that they remember everything, the children don’t hate him.
Are you happy now?
I used to be bitter a lot. All that suffering alone. Now I’m just thankful, the kids are doing fine.
Thank you for making me remember all of this. It’s so easy to forget.
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Every week, Zikoko asks anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira. Some will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie–but all the time, it’ll be revealing.
The subject of this week’s story just hit 18. He’s also at his first 9-5 ever, as an intern. When he’s not in Nigeria as an intern or on holiday, he’s a student in the UK.
When was the first time that you wanted money and your parents were like, what for?
I think it was that time I wanted money for a website I was working on – I’d already spent £350. I spoke to a company that was supposed to do it, and they quoted $5000.
Then my parents asked, “How do you intend to get the money back? Have you thought about it? What sources of revenue will bring it back?” I couldn’t figure this out.
It made me start asking myself what the point of making something people could use, but still not have a way to sustain it.
Especially since it was something that would have running costs after.
Did you get the money eventually?
No. That was the end of the website. It’s interesting, school always encourages you to feel like you can do anything you want – and it’s true. But there’s a balance of opportunity cost. You can do this, but are you going to have the time? Are you going to be able to look at it properly? And most importantly, are you going to get it back?
That’s when I started tracking how much I made from commissions, how much I spent on equipment, and on financing the projects I was working on.
How old were you when you asked for the money?
16. I’d had other expenses before. Like there was this app that I needed to pay 100 dollars to keep on the app store. And they paid for that.
What are the things you do that fetch you money?
Graphic design and photography. I started designing when I was 14 – self-taught. Then album covers for friends in 2015. I charged like ₦5000 for each –
– Mad thing, but you just mentioned the naira for the first time.
Hahaha.
Okay, back to the things that fetch you money.
I didn’t earn a lot, because Nigerians didn’t see the value in it at the time. The question is, was I not finding the people who were willing to pay? Was I not good enough at the time? Or were people not just ready to give money to a 16-year-old?
Anyway, by the end of 2017, I was charging £100 per logo and £30 for posters.
What are some interesting things you’ve heard about money from your friends?
A couple of things. I’ve heard someone say she has to marry a rich husband. I think that was half a joke though. Hopefully. Then there are the ones that say, “It doesn’t really matter for now, my parents can cover stuff. Why am I bothered?”
Why now though?
I feel like I have a privilege I want to take advantage of. I don’t need to pay rent and I still get financial support from my parents, big time. At this point, I’m still making massive loss in a sense, because my expenses are way more than I’m making on my own.
I still have that advantage for the next two or three years. The way I see it, I’m making a time investment now, buying equipment now that I can, and setting things up properly. By the time I’m no longer under my parents’ care, the investments I’m making now, would make it easier for me.
If you come out of uni and you don’t have a job or means of income, it puts you at a disadvantage, because now you’re thinking about taking your life into your own hands. I feel like that’s what puts a lot of people into system jobs – it’s not really what you want to do, but it’s what’s available to you.
I want to avoid that period where I’m like, what the hell do I do?
That makes sense.
Truth is, there are friends in my circle that will probably get big ass grants from their parents as soon as they finish school. I might get that too, but the way my parents are, it’s not going to be something I’ll get easily. Also, there’s that part where I just want to make something of myself. My grandparents weren’t rich – in fact, they were on the verge of being poor. But my parents managed to make something of themselves. So I’m like, why do I have to wait for my parents when I can just improve on what they’ve already started?
That’s an interesting way to look at it.
I also think generational wealth can be a massive ego dump on kids. It can make kids feel like they’re better than other people. It’s one thing to be better off than other people, it’s another thing to think you’re better. It can be dangerous when you start to feel like the latter.
Okay, let’s talk about your monthly income.
I only just started getting a set monthly income – I’m currently in my first 9-5 as an intern.
People tend to have fixed expenses. But for me, my allowance from my parents is mostly meant to be lunch money. So, food is 60k. Then I spend 10k per week on cabs. I use cabs when my folks’ car is unavailable – that sounds bougie AF. Then I have a bunch of subscriptions: about 24k in total.
Do you feel like you should be earning more money?
Yes! I undercharge big time. One thing you can’t change is perception. If I was 25, doing the things I’m doing now, I’ll probably be able to charge a thousand pounds for a logo. When you’re working with a 25-year-old, you know they have bills to pay, and you won’t want to do them a disservice. Also, I don’t have that much work experience, so people don’t trust me very much even after seeing my portfolio. It’s like people aren’t sure if it’s a fluke or a valid representation of skillset.
If I was producing this type of work at 25, I’d be earning way more.
How much do you imagine you’d earn if you were 25 today?
That’s a good question. I’ve never thought about that. Assuming I stop working 9-5, and some things I’m trying to put it in place is set up the way I want them to be, I’ll be able to make about £3000 a month. I dunno if I’ll be working in Nigeria, but if I work here, probably a mill a month. Now that I’ve said this, I would probably have to check back when I’m 25 to see if I was just chatting kid shit or not.
How much do you think it would cost to fund age 25?
Like, if I had to pay for everything myself? Per month…? Wait. How much is rent?
Let’s start with where you live, how much do you think it costs?
I have no fucking clue. How much is rent? Wow, there’s so much you have to think about when you’re old. Filling your car up with petrol. Electricity bills. Food. Faaji. I don’t know how much that costs! I can’t even start to think about it.
You see, this is one of my fears because the money I’m making now doesn’t mean much. Someone actually working might spend it on petrol in a month.
By the “money I’m making,” are you talking about the 165k?
Okay… This is so confusing because I know that the average earning for an entry-level person in Nigeria is between ₦50k and ₦200k per month. This has me fucked up because I feel like rent for a house where I live will be more than that. Unless I’m delusional. How much does a bank teller earn?
About 50 to ₦80k.
Yeah! That’s actually what I’m actually referring to. I’m so confused as to how someone would earn ₦30k from a full-time job and not be dead.
That’s minimum wage, and I know a couple of people who earn less.
How does a person even survive? Where would you live in Lagos? You can barely live on a bank teller’s wage in Lagos. How would you do this on a minimum wage…? That’s quite scary! How do you hack this?
What do you think?
You can squat…?
That’s the thing – growing up the way I did, you don’t get a full insight into the way Nigeria really is. It’s almost unfair to us, because without understanding exactly what’s going on around you, how do you even begin to help? A lot of people my age say that Lagos is actually a great place.
In your circle
But there are people living in a manner that seems impossible on paper. When we don’t see that, you start to ask, who’s done us the injustice; is it our parents? Probably. Because when you don’t see that, how are you supposed to even appreciate what you have? How do you even begin to think of how to help the country as a whole or the people on the other end of that shit?
Going to work every day made me realise that low-income earners are packed into some areas, and no one cares about them. I saw people bathing outside, not because they chose it, but because the communal shower space is open, visible from the street. It’s like slum living.
It is slum living.
Everyone has privileges, but when did you first realise yours?
Between the time I was 8 and 10, and probably from a couple of places. My parents had people working in the house, and I think from that point, I noticed some differences. We’d travel, but the domestic workers didn’t. I wouldn’t say that’s when it became apparent. At that time, it was just like, that’s life.
But then, the true realisation came in this period of my life. It was last year I started to realise that one of the reasons Nigeria is the way it is, is because a lot of the things we use are imported ideas. Remnants of colonisation. If you ask me, the reason Nigeria looked and felt better just after white people left is that the information was just passed down.
After that – and this is theory – more and more people started migrating to cities. When people come from less developed places, they pick up what’s left of what was taught. Enforcement isn’t as strict, and people start to get away with more and more, the level of how well stuff works just degrades. And more people come in and pick up the remnants and bad habits.
Another thing as well is, we’re not very innovative. We haven’t thought for ourselves how to make stuff work for us. And the only way these people can learn how stuff should even begin to work properly is from exposure. And you can only really gain exposure by going to places where things work the way they’re supposed to.
My new point of realisation was that, not only are people not financially empowered, they are also – for lack of a better word – not mentally empowered. Because there really isn’t much thinking going on.
How are you supposed to think about what you can’t conceive? What does a person working in the market think about on a day to day basis? It’s hard to think about much when you’re in hardship, because all you can think about is, “Where is my next meal coming from? How much have I made today?”
Coming to the point where I realised that thinking about innovation is not evenly spread among Nigerians is the point where I realised my privilege properly.
Okay, okay. Let’s talk about other stuff. What’s something you really want but you can’t afford?
A car. I actually really want a car. I’m currently borrowing my mum’s car, but I want to borrow as little as possible. I want everything to be clear, like “this is my own person as an adult.”
You’re in a hurry to adult.
That’s what my parents say. There’s the thing about ‘waiting to be matured’ that people say. I don’t get it. It’s not as if we’re getting stupider as a species. Why do I have to be babied? I don’t believe you can truly accept responsibility until you’re given responsibility. Raising kids without giving them responsibilities is kind of dumbing them down.
What are old people’s assumptions about 18-year-olds and money that piss you off?
Because I spend a lot, people assume that I’m not saving for the future or something. I’m not stashing money now so I can get things that’ll help me stash money later. Another fucking assumption is that I dunno how much it means to be an adult. Because… apart from rent and shit… Wait.
Hahahaha.
Okay in retrospect, it’s actually true. I dunno. But a lot of people feel all the money I get goes to enjoyment.
Let’s talk about enjoyment. What’s a good day out?
Probably spending 10 to 15k on one meal. Fuckkk. That’s my guilty pleasure. Not much else. I don’t actually spend much on wayward enjoyment.
Financial happiness. On a scale of 1-10.
Right now? I’m very fucking happy. I think I’ve finally reached a point I wanted to get to. At this point, I can say that if my allowance was taken out, I won’t be affected. I’ll still be able to run as my own person.
The constant struggle to be your own person.
Pretty much.
What’s something you wanted me to ask that I didn’t ask?
The only thing missing is how much my parents spend on me, which I honestly dunno. Like, kids are just one big ass investment. But it’s probably pushing £50k a year.
How much of a chunk do you think that takes out of their finances?
I wouldn’t even know to be honest. Oh wait, I just checked the listing of the house when they bought it.
How much did it cost them?
₦150 million.
This story was edited for clarity.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people. But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’, subscribe below. It only takes a minute.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
The lady in this story has worked in digital media (creative industry) for almost a decade. But she’s convinced that she’s just getting started. This is her story.
When was the first time you knew what money was?
It has to be that time I wanted to travel to the UK. Now I was living with a cousin who travelled frequently – and everyone had money to travel. My cousin was like, ah ahn, don’t you want to go?
Somehow, I ended up going with her – but only after asking uncles and aunties to chip in. And even when I went, I didn’t really enjoy myself. I shopped from charity shops, and nobody had my time. My richest uncle there gave me £20, which is ridiculous when it’s 2011 and you’re 26.
Immediately I got back, the first question I started asking myself was, how can I have my own money? I was pampered but also broke. How can you be broke and pampered? And that’s how the ajebo part dropped o.
So I took this strange job, where all I had to do was slot in sim cards into phone packs – it was one of those promos where phones came with sim cards. That was the first time I felt like I was hustling.
Also, because of how I was feeling broke in the UK, I hardly bought anything for myself – most of what I bought, I brought back to sell. At good margins too.
Unfortunately, I still sucked at managing money, so all the money I made, I blew anyhow – not like it was a lot though.
What came after that?
I went away for a year-long course, then went for NYSC, and it was during service I made up my mind that I was never going to ask my parents for money again.
Why?
I grew up in a small town outside Lagos – a dead place. So, I knew that if I didn’t have a plan before the end of NYSC, I would have had to go back to that place, and it would have killed me. Weaning myself off their wallets was motivation.
Small town girl with big dreams.
Yeah, so I started hustling for work in Lagos during NYSC, so I wouldn’t go back to live with my parents. I took my savings, my cousin chipped in, and I bought a camera and started learning photography.
Then I got a part-time radio gig. Basically, I was going ham, anything to not send me back to my parents’ house. I worried that if I went back there, I’d have to struggle to get back out. In all this time, I was still at my actual place of primary assignment – they didn’t care much anyway, so I didn’t have to go every time.
Interesting
Halfway through NYSC, I started trying out for gigs in digital agencies. The first one didn’t pay and would be shouting where is your work. Dumped that after a month. With the second one, I spent only a month – some drama – then I got a third. That third one came toward the end of my NYSC – about three months toward the end.
Wow, so I was making this much during NYSC. Right after NYSC, I started at the agency. I was working in Content, and that’s what I’ve done for the most part since then.
And you put your small town behind you
Hahaha. Yep. So I started full time at the ₦40k agency. But this time, I was earning less.
How?
They started removing tax – nobody told me about net or gross – so now I was netting ₦36k. I would have just been doing my part-time for ₦40k. I got a raise to ₦40k a few months after, net.
About one year later, I left – got another gig that was offering me ₦80k.
Ah, nice. What was that like?
First of all, I made a mistake. Someone told me after I got the job that I should have asked for 150k because I was poached. That meant I was in a good position to leverage a better deal. But the moment I heard 80k from the ₦40k, I was like hayyy double salary!
‘100%’
Bad bad call. At my old place, there was a staff bus for the to and fro commute. Also, food was cheaper around my old place. At the new place though, food was way more expensive – it was on the Island.
I think I realise now that your first salary might go on to affect your salary for the rest of your life.
If I was earning ₦150k at that next gig, I would have had a better starting number to negotiate the next salary.
I did get a raise though, a little over 6 months later. To ₦150k. I actually had to pull an “I’m getting poached” move.
Were you getting poached though?
Yes. I had an offer from one of the agency’s rivals, but I knew I wasn’t going to take the job – I didn’t even like the company. I just used them to get a raise. This was early 2015 though.
You know when I got my next raise? 32. Months. Later. What raise did I get? ₦30k.
Anyway, by November 2017, I was out. I joined another company that offered me ₦300k. Got a raise months later to ₦360k.
But then I resigned by the end of June 2019. With immediate effect.
No notice period?
There was something with the workplace culture I could no longer deal with. My workplace was beginning to feel like a battlefield, so I quit. It didn’t make sense to many people, but I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. It wasn’t supposed to be long term anyway.
I had plans of starting an agency, but that took the backburner. Thing is, I tend to put in everything wherever it is I’m working. That means barely having time for side projects. And because I feel like I haven’t been rewarded properly for the work I put in, I have become disillusioned by 9-5’s. The job before my last didn’t end on good terms too.
So you’re at a place now where you don’t exactly know what’s next?
Yeah. I’m just trying to figure out a bunch of things. I wanted to start work on my agency, but I couldn’t do that while still at my job – conflict of interest. Now, I want to focus on getting this running. It’s going to be a bunch of services, including Social Media Management and O.R.M.
Online Reputation Management?
Yes. Basically, a lot of it involves managing the images of public people online and sometimes cleaning up after their mess.
But then, it’d be nice if I was starting this and wasn’t worried about where my next income would be coming from – no safety nets.
In the time being, I’m looking at freelance gigs, preferably forex-paying, so I can do stuff that will earn money on the side, while I focus on building my agency.
Okay, I hope you get something. But let’s talk about your perspective about this money thing.
I think that if you don’t position yourself to make money, nobody is going to give it to you. There’s hardly anybody who’s earning good money that hasn’t been deliberate about it. It’s not an accident. You have to position yourself with your skills or your confidence.
It’s illegal for me to have been earning ₦360k with all the experience I have, in the places I worked at. There really is no reason why I should be earning less than 1 million a month.
1 million is quite the number. Any rationale for choosing that number?
I got an offer which was basically everything I’d been doing for years, and they were going to pay me ₦1 million a month. I didn’t get the job – I feel like I didn’t interview well – but it opened my eyes to what is possible. Someone somewhere is willing to pay a million for my skills. I should be earning that.
To be honest, I have gotten offers – those ₦200k offers – but I’m not doing again. My friend is like, “just take it in the time being”, but that’s what happened with my last job. I ‘managed’ it.’ Before my last job, I was convinced that I wanted nothing less than ₦500k. Then I met my previous employer, and he sold me a vision. And I managed it.
So, what’s the plan to get by between now and when you can get steady income?
First of all, I have some savings, then I’ll be getting by on freelance gigs, which should get me a decent amount of money.
Also, I’m working to secure a client for O.R.M. The goal is to help High Networth Individuals manage their image online. There’s also the crisis management part. I have a mentor who’s already operating on that level.
She’s working to set me up with a client or two – probably start with the small clients – the ₦500k people. Then we’ll go up from there.
Okay, just so I get a sense. What do you think you’d charge for ORM of a Nigerian Senator?
At the very least, ₦5 million for three months of work. Depending on the profile of the Senator. That should cover a lot of the costs.
Senator’s costs aside. What’s your current survival mode running cost?
I live pretty leanly. I buy in bulk. I don’t go out very much. So that means I can be frugal.
How much runway do you think you have before you absolutely need to get a steady means of income?
First of all, I need to pay rent in October. Rent is ₦350k for a single room. Also, I want to move to a new place. So yes, I need to be earning properly before September.
How much do you imagine you’d be earning in 5 years?
10 million. The goal is to scale up to three hustles properly: luxury goods, real estate, and agric.
What’s something you really want but can’t afford right now?
My own house. In Banana Island. 7-bedroom duplex. So it can become a family home. And so that my friends can come and chill. And then a Range Rover Evoque – I’ve always wanted an Evoque. I think that’s one of the reasons I haven’t considered a car yet, because I don’t have Evoque money.
So, do you have a house plan?
A house plan…? To be honest, I plan to buy my own house… but –
You weren’t thinking of how?
I was thinking of how… To be honest, I’m just looking for who to dash me house in Banana Island abeg.
Hahahahaha
Hahahahahaha. Any house I buy now, it will be in my village. See, right now, it’s to just become an Influencer, and then one politician will like me, and then dash me house in Banana Island.
When do you think you’ll retire?
I think when I’m 60. I would have started easing my workload then. At that time, I just want to be travelling and speaking to people.
What’s the last thing you paid for that required serious planning?
Definitely the Dubai trip last year. That cost me about ₦700k in total. I paid in bits, but that’s the total cost. I chose Dubai because I didn’t have to struggle to get a visa. I could go there on short notice.
See, I want a life of luxury, and being stuck in Nigeria can make you think the whole world likes suffer-head.
Dubai for me is the height of luxury. It opened my head, a lot. These people just thought, what does everyone else do? How can we make our own extra? Everyone has Fountain? Make our own dance.
I watched the Dubai Dancing Fountain. And people just gathered to watch water dancing. And it shows you how simplistic the human mind is. People just want pleasure. People are driving three hours into the desert, to go and pose with a bird.
Dubai is packaged sand. And this business, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. People will pay for enjoyment.
So yes, I think this one was of the most powerful things about Dubai for me.
Hmmm.
Also, I learned that if you want to make money, you have to break out of the mould of culture. Conservative country yen yen yen that people are always shouting, but we went to a nightclub in Dubai, and people were just wilding. They were even playing Burna Boy sef.
This money thing is a mindset.
When was the last time you felt really broke?
Thing is, when I came back from Dubai, I was sad because there were some things that I needed money for, and couldn’t get. Then one of my friends told me to focus on being grateful.
And so I realised that it made me not feel broke. I know it’s weird, but being grateful for things I’ve gotten done makes me feel less broke.
But then again, broke is also relative. I’m living in a house I don’t like. I don’t have a car.
What am I saying? I guess I do feel broke hahahaha.
Hahahallthetimehahahaha.
Hahaha. In fact, I still felt broke yesterday. Imagine I was trying to break a journey to cut cost. Taking Keke then taking a cab. Only for me to realise that the whole thing is not even up to ₦1k sef.
I’m even scared to open my other app, because it’s like I’m owing them money from my last trip. Hahaha.
So yes, I guess the last time I felt broke was today. I speak to you broke.
Do you have any insurance these days?
None. Only thing I own is my investments in stock and gold a long time ago. I can’t even remember them sef.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?
2. I deserve better. I’m not even going to blame it on anybody. I think my awareness came too late. I somehow assumed that if I worked hard, the universe would reward me for it. I hustled so hard – and it’s why I resist that word ‘hustle’ now. It’s a stupid word because it’s not a guarantee of anything.
It’s being smart, and positioning well. Anybody can do the grunt work. In fact, I feel like, being the person known for the grunt work is dangerous. Because suddenly everyone thinks that’s where you flourish best, doing the heavy lifting. No managerial anything.
I feel like I should be doing better than I’m currently doing, considering how much I’ve invested in other people’s businesses.
I find myself having conversations about starting my own business now, and I feel like I’m behind.
I’ve always seen myself as a simple girl. But now I’ve come to realise something; simple girls don’t make money. They don’t get the opportunities. They don’t win.
This story was edited for clarity. Some details have been changed to protect the identity of the subject.
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The guy in this story has literally been trained all his life for one purpose; to fight and defend the sovereignty of his country. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t think about money or worry about it sometimes.
When did you first earn a salary?
My first salary was ₦2500 per month.
Huh?
Oh, it was 2000 when I entered JSS 1. I was 11 years old. Every boy soldier received a salary – there was the extra ₦5,500 transport allowance. It increased as we climbed classes, but somehow I can’t remember how much it was increasing by.
What school was this?
N.M.S. – Nigerian Military School.
I think NMS ingrains this spirit of independence in you, because the moment I entered NMS, I never really depended on my parents for money again. Also, it’s like they started grooming us for manhood at such a young age.
At that time, even though I was still tiny, people said I behaved like a 20-year-old.
Right after NMS, I gained admission to a regular University. But that’s not where I wanted to be.
Where did you want to be?
The NDA – Nigerian Defence Academy. I got admitted in 2009 eventually. I remember my first salary – they gathered our money for a few months and paid us ₦120k. When you resume at the NDA in October, you don’t get paid till December.
What happened next?
Moving forward, they paid us ₦28k, then they did a compulsory savings of ₦14k per month for us. When you’re passing out, they give you all the money they saved for you. While passing out, past administrations used to give fresh officers a Peugeot 206. But they were no longer giving that when I graduated.
Anyway, by the time I was graduating, I was given close to a million naira.
Mad. Freshly minted Soldier. One million bucks in the bank. What did you do with it?
Omo, I no know o. I have no idea exactly what I used that money for. I was just buying and buying and buying. I later regretted it sha. I felt I could have used that money productively.
How?
Maybe invest in property? Even if it’s to buy land in one village or something. Then maybe it would have grown in value. I was just buying wristwatches, perfumes and rubbish-rubbish things. But if it happened now, ah man done sharp.
If you no get sense for Nigeria, you no fit get sense for this life.
When did you graduate from the NDA?
2014. I remember looking at my decorated shoulder like, oh boy na me be this? Best day of my life. There’s this sense of joy I feel by just being an officer and the prestige that comes with it. There’s some access you get that even people with money don’t get.
They gave us a two-week break, and the next thing, we were at the frontlines. I was 25.
Ehn?
Yes. In the Northeast, fighting Boko Haram. I’ve spent my entire time as a soldier there. I can’t remember the last time I spent a celebration or festive season with my family. In fact, there was one festive season we were out on an operation. The town we went to was one of those towns that was once captured by Boko Haram before we recaptured it. I’ll tell you what we did: We got a goat, killed it, made barbeque, then danced, and sang. We had a really good time.
To be honest, I think not being dependent has made being away for long periods easy – it’s a mindset.
That’s interesting – the independent part. Especially since the military forces you to conform to a routine.
One thing about the military is that you have to love it. You need to train yourself to love it, irrespective of the outcomes. There will be good days, and there’ll be bitter days.
Talking about bitter, I’m curious, what’s your most bitter experience?
Ah, there’s this superior I respect a lot. We eat together and gist together. He’s also one of the soldiers who trained me – we were really close.
One time, we went on an operation. I can’t give you the full details, but there was Boko Haram, and there was heavy gunfire.
This senior officer got hit 5 times. Like, 5 actual bullets to the torso and thigh. I was watching him bleed out, and was willing to donate, but our blood groups didn’t match. In the end, he got airlifted and made a recovery. Those moments, knowing he could have been dead any moment, were really heavy for me.
Another officer I knew; they went out, and their truck got blown away by an IED. Just like that.
Personally, there’s something about constantly hearing or expecting someone to say “them dey come, them dey come” – Boko Haram that is. It stresses your mind.
In a scenario where he’d died – grateful he didn’t – what would that have meant for his family?
Someone would have made a call to his wife to tell her; the person would tell her how he fought well and died.
Then arrangements would begin for all his benefits.
What are the benefits?
When someone dies, there are different allowances they pay:
Group life insurance
Death benefits
Burial expenses, can’t remember the rest.
Also, there are educational benefits – I can’t remember all the details – for his first three children up to tertiary level. The Nigerian Army pays.
In the end, about five different allowances are accrued to your next of kin. Even if a person gets injured in battle and they have to be dismissed on medical grounds, they still get insurance benefits
You know, I think I know these things because I have a good sense of how the army works, including a lot of the administrative work that many people don’t care for.
So when I hear people say the Army doesn’t take care of the families of the deceased, I know it’s mostly lies and ignorance.
I’ve helped a friend’s family process their benefits after he died in battle.
Okay, back to you about money, what was the first salary the Nigerian Army paid you?
₦165k net. Everything else is deducted – tax, pension and health insurance. I also get an operation allowance of ₦45k every month. It’s an allowance for serving in the Northeast.
There are also other allowances – for example, if you go for a language course, that’s an additional ₦20k. I’m going to learn Spanish.
Spanish? Does this have anything to do with Barca?
Hahaha. No, I just like the language. I’m not really a football fan like that.
How could you be a football fan when you’re constantly out fighting or preparing to fight?
Ah, forget o. Some people go dey frontlines, still dey watch match, dey argue who play pass. Some people even have cable dishes hanging out of their tents when they’re camping out for long periods. You’ll see people finding all sorts of ways to hang their dishes, still watching, still buying subscriptions.
You have to make yourself happy somehow. It’s yours to defend.
Completely random, but what’s your body count?
Seriously, I dunno. I’m in the artillery, and we fire from long distances. So the orders come like, they are in so and so place, drop two there, drop one there, drop three there. My own job is to calculate the ranges and fire and make sure we hit our targets.
There was this time when Boko Haram was advancing towards a town. There was going to be a lot of fighting; we had to evacuate civilians from the place first. In trucks. It had to be quick. We told them to get on the trucks we brought before a particular time. Missing that truck was as good as missing out on life.
Because when the fighting started, artillery first, anyone who was still there after the evacuation: boom, boom, boom. Na one chance.
Wait, I need to take a call. It’s my babe…
…Okay, where did we stop?
Let’s start with her, how does she feel about you being a soldier?
I made her understand that this is my life. This has been the only life I’ve known. And she seems to be fine with it.
Okay, back to money; how has your salary increased every year?
It’s +8k every year, all things being equal.
So you already know what you’ll collect in 10 years time?
Yes. But then this minimum wage conversation might change that. So allowances are where income becomes slightly different.
Let’s talk about your current net?
Currently, my salary is ₦205k, add my operation allowance and that brings it to a total of ₦250k.
Here’s the fun part: How do you spend the money?
The first thing is, the more time you spend on the frontlines, the less money you spend. So now, the expenses tend to be the recurring things: Subscriptions, phone calls, family, and just baby boy stuff. For my savings, my babe was telling me about one of these savings apps, but for now, I use a separate account.
So money doesn’t come in from anywhere else?
Oh, I farm. Let me tell you how it started. A few years ago, I was like, what else can I do besides this my usual salary? So I started a fish pond at my base. But the problem was that, even though I made a profit on my investment, I couldn’t give it the time it needed. My time is not my own.
So I switched to crops and went to get land. I invested 200k in the whole thing: labour, seedlings, fertiliser – minus land, the Local Government gives you land if you want to farm.
I got 3 acres, and in less than 6 months, I harvested 90 bags of corn. Sold it at 8k per bag. Calculate it.
I didn’t even maximise the farm to the max, again because of time.
To be honest, my own was even small. Someone I know – a superior – harvested 150 bags of rice and 200 bags of corn a few years ago. I know a hunter who was sleeping in his farm during planting season. When he came back, he’d harvested 800 bags of beans (35k). Over 4000 bags of corn.
Eventually, I’m going to just buy more land and pay more attention to it. The Bank of Agric has made these things way easier than they were a few years ago.
There’s just so much money that can be made from Agriculture. Take for example, I bought three really big rams before Sallah season – one died – but how much did I buy them each? 10k. I’m going to put them on a trailer to Lagos. Do you know how much each of them will sell for during Sallah? Up to 60k. Remember that I’m not spending a dime on food. They’re just roaming around, eating grass.
Farming looks difficult to start, but when you get a hang of it and put things in place to minimise risk, you go blow.
What’s the last thing you bought that required serious planning?
I did Ajo for 10 months with a few people and bought a car for ₦1.5 million. I generally don’t have big expenses, well until I started planning for marriage.
Ah, Bae and Baello, how’s that going?
It’s really expensive. It’s a constant struggle because one family member makes a decision, and that decision will cost you extra money.
For example, the hall we might be using will cost ₦450k. The photographer is going to cost ₦250k. I’m trying to budget and the money just keeps increasing and increasing, meeting after meeting.
For example, when we did Introduction, her family wanted to do big things like getting an outdoor space, and calling crowd. But we resisted and all that. Do you know how much it cost? ₦500k.
₦500k for ‘Hello?’
Oh boy, it’s not easy. The lifesaver is that my babe is taking care of most of her own expenses, like bag, shoes, makeup and all that. And I’m just grateful because she’s paying for all of these from her own hustle. She told me she wanted to start selling stuff, so I gave her some money to start.
Interesting. How much did you give her to start?
₦50k. And now, na she dey reign. Whenever I need money now, she’s the one that bails me out. It’s funny how it all started. She was in school when she said she dreamt that she was selling stuff. I told her to do her research, and when she was sure she wanted to do it, I was like, I have this ₦50k I’m not using. Oya take. And that’s how it all started.
You know, I’d love to talk to your wife sometime.
Whenever you’re ready. One of the reasons I like her is that for every money she spends, she’s constantly thinking of how she can earn it back. Whenever I’m getting reckless financially, she just says Oga, you done dey do pass yourself.
It doesn’t mean she doesn’t like enjoyment, her discipline is just on point.
If you had to rate your financial happiness now, over 10.
Oh boy, 8 over 10. I can buy anything I want to buy at any time. I pay all my bills. I can afford all my needs. To be honest, the only thing that I really want that I can’t afford is a house.
When do you think you’ll retire?
I’m doing this day by day, I don’t think about it too much. That’s all.
Nobody wants worst-case scenarios, but what happens to your family if disaster strikes on the frontlines?
I think it just feels good to know that my family will be fine.
I hope you don’t have any more questions. I have to leave now. It’s a long night ahead.
What’s happening?
Work.
That’s all. Thank you man, for everything.
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Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
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When was the first time you understood money?
Ah, I think it was that time when I realised that having the money for something is not the same as having the money for something – if that makes any sense.
It does. I’m listening.
My family was on vacation in the States, and my dad had this thing where everyone gets their own spending money, depending on your age.
So I still had some money, and I wanted to buy some cards – I think they were $1.70. It wasn’t the beginning of the vacation, so I’d almost run out of money. I got my money from my mum who used to help me hold on to it and went into the shop like, take my money.
The attendant said, “That’ll be $2.12,” and I said, “No no, it says $1.70.” And she was like, “Oh yeah, plus tax.” Then I thought, if I take this $2.12, I can buy this card, but what else can I buy after that? In the end I said to myself, I have the money, but can I afford it? So yeah, that’s my first memory of knowing that you can pay for something doesn’t mean you should. I was 11 going on 12 at the time, in JSS1.
So what’s the first thing you ever did for money?
Does dancing at parties count? If it does, then dancing at all our family’s events it is – we used to have a lot! I’m not a good dancer, but we’d wait until the people who sprayed showed up on the dancefloor, and then we’d go and dance.
When you think about it, it’s like stripping, but without the actual stripping.
Hahaha.
But the first time an actual gig paid me money would be when I graduated from secondary school. There was this company’s initiative to get teenagers to work on a magazine. They’d pay us ₦5k a week. 2003, 17, living in my father’s house, and earning ₦5k a week; catching cool fun, buying meat pie.
I went to school outside the country after and all of a sudden, I was in school with the children of some of the richest people.
Interesting. When you were in Nigeria, you were a rich kid. But here you were, abroad, realising that money pass money.
One of the babes in my class was the daughter of one of the richest men in the country; another was the daughter to an ambassador.
The funniest thing about it – and maybe it’s part of why money still doesn’t faze me – is that your money and exposure aren’t the same.
I was getting $500 monthly, and that covered all my bills – they had black cards – but they were so much more childish. These babes got excited by the littlest things like alcohol.
It’s easy to say that they were childish in hindsight, but there were little things that made me think. For example, babes would just be like: “Oh okay it’s the weekend. I’m going to travel and stay in a hotel.”
And me, I’d be doing maths like: “Okay if I buy a ticket of $19, will I be able to pay for a hotel?”
These babes could buy anything they wanted in a store, while I’d be looking for the sales rack. I ate every meal in the cafeteria – I’m not spending my whole pocket money eating out with you people when my parents have already paid for food.
Oh no, I’m eating my tuition’s worth.
How much was your school fees at the time?
I can’t remember, but I think it was around $35-40k.
Did you do any work in uni?
I had a lot of random side hustles. 1st year, I was getting money from my parents. By the end of the first year, I failed uni woefully.
I had to get a job working at one of those storage locker places.
What a storage locker looks like.
I remember the day I went to drop my resume; one of my flatmates used to work there. She was leaving, so she brought me in as her replacement.
The manager came in, and my resume was already on her table. She looked at it and tried to say my name. My resume had my full name, all of them in full glory and syllables. When she tried and tried to say the name, she just hissed and threw it in the trash. She didn’t realise it was me.
And then my friend introduced us, and it got kind of awkward.
If that happened now, I would have fought, but back then, my mindset was ‘epp me’. I lasted a month or two at the job; they fired me.
Why?
Multiple reasons. I wasn’t a bad employee, but I wasn’t a model employee either. The main moment came when a white couple said they couldn’t be comfortable with me around their stuff.
An obvious racist scenario. It was also my first personal incident.
The next time I came late, they were like, “Eh ehnnnn, you’re late.” And I’m just there thinking, it’s been only five minutes bitch.
I think I called in to make a complaint with reference to the white couple incident, probably said I was going to sue. They told me to come and take an extra month’s pay as severance, and that was that.
I wasn’t going to sue of course, who has that kind of time?
Waawu.
After that I learned how to braid hair – my customers were mostly guys, because guys then didn’t like to go to the salon. I think they liked the idea of going to a woman’s house to get braided, but no dear, I’m going to charge you still. To be honest, it was cheap – maybe $40.
I went back to school for my second year and for some reason, I asked my parents to stop giving me pocket money. I think I felt bad that I’d failed. They were still giving me rent money, paying my fees, but no pocket money.
That’s when I started writing essays. People would give me their books – I loved and still love literature – and I’d write a book report, charging $25 a page for about 5 pages. I could bang out an essay in one hour.
Mad.
That was good money. I added research to that too. I think I did that for a few years. After a while though, I was like, I don too suffer, send me pocket money abeg daddy.
Going into my 3rd year, I came back to Nigeria for a summer internship at a bank.
On the first day, my dad dropped me off at work with his SUV, and I became known as the rich intern. That’s how they didn’t pay me shit – as in not even transport money.
I was 19 at the time, but it was a proper job. Unlike other interns, I couldn’t be sent on errands.
One of the workers even used to send an intern to go to the market to buy stuff.
Because of this, I didn’t fight the rich intern tag.
At some point, I started doing tests for new employees. In fact, they started putting me on duty to go to interview people.
Then they put me on payroll, and that was when I knew there was money and there was money. I saw the MD’s salary and I thought, “My God! This is your clothing allowance? Why are you collecting clothing allowance monthly?”
There was furniture allowance, insurance for his kids, and all that. I had to sign off on it
How much was it?
This was in 2006 anyway.
Crazy. How much did interns earn?
₦15k monthly.
Then I went back to school and got pregnant.
Slow down. You what?
I had my kid 2007 and dropped out of college. See, if I didn’t have my parents, I’d be dead by now. My parents supported me through everything. In fact, when my baby was born, my parents increased my allowance. Around that time, I went to beauty school and learned makeup. So I started making money from that.
How much did you charge?
About $150 per session. I did that for a while, then came back to Nigeria with my kid. This was in 2009, and I was about 23. Not too long after I got back, I got hired by a beauty company. How I got that job without a degree was wild. I told them, “You know what, I can fix your business, I have these ideas. Give me a chance and I’ll help you do amazing things, put procedures in place etc.” I can have a sweet mouth when I need it. I got the job and I was like, ah, I dunno this work o.
Hahaha. Why do you think you got hired?
I got hired because I had an accent, let’s start from there.
But seriously though, I didn’t go in there planning to be useless. I had young blood and fresh eyes, so yes, I did make a difference. I like to think I was key to helping them transcend the one-man business mentality, by building processes.
This was about October 2009. I spent about 7 months there, and travelled out of the country to finish school. I was still doing random side jobs here and there. I eventually graduated the following year.
After school, I got a job selling vacuum cleaners door to door. No salaries, only commissions. That was tough.
After this, I got a job as a Telemarketer. Oh my God, I’ve never been abused like that in my life.
Crazy.
I lasted at that call centre for exactly one month. They paid $12.50 an hour. Someone abuses you on a call, but the next call, you have to be like “Hi, my name is Yen-yen, and I’m calling from – ” ugh.
I quit and got hired in a jewellery store in a Mall as an assistant manager. I did so well that in less than 3 months, I got promoted to Manager. We climbed from 15 to number 1 in about two months.
Eventually, I moved back to Nigeria.
An interesting thing, everyone is moving out, and here you were, moving back into the country.
Ah yes, the main reason I moved back was that I wanted my kid to be close to family. Also, the house I was living in was my dad’s; I couldn’t afford to maintain it.
It was a 5-bedroom house. The electricity bill was huge.
Anyway, I moved back to Nigeria and started doing make-up for brides and all. Then I started a kind of make-up business, training people.
That’s when I realised that setting up a school in Nigeria can’t be easy. Babes will show up late; they miss some days, and when they come, it kind of forces you to repeat the last session so everyone is moving at the same pace.
I’d actually paid to rent a space for a particular period, but because they were wasting time, our rent elapsed, and we had to go rent another space.
I did that for a while, then I rented a shop, and started a make-up studio, while also selling make-up supplies. Around that time, I got this opportunity to work for a production studio – it was to lead the Hair and Makeup department. The money was really good. It was ₦250k, but by the time I added one or two other allowances, it went up to ₦400k a month. Imagine earning this while living in my father’s house from 2013 to 2014.
Lit.
I thought I’d be able to do that and manage the studio, but I couldn’t. So I started spending less time at my makeup business, and it was costing me money. I had a shop girl, and it was fine until the products started to disappear. And then one day, she disappeared herself.
Now you see her, now you don’t.
I panicked and was worried for her safety until I found out she eloped with her boyfriend. I shut down the studio and focused on my production job. The work was stressful, but the money was good.
I had no idea what to use the money for that time, I was just spending anyhow. If I could go back, I’d have saved more. I was just buying gifts left and right.
Anyway, I left that and decided I wanted to do stuff with food. I’d saved up a little, and the only reason I’d saved up at the time was that I didn’t know what to spend the money on again. I travelled again – to the Abroad. It was for short courses – 3 months of culinary school, and one month of film school.
Film and Food.
Yeah, I actually had some interest in working on a TV show, so I went to film school to get some experience. I believe in having range, instead of showing up and just talking. Then I came back to Nigeria, and that’s when my real suffering started.
2014?
Towards the end of the year, yes. I was 28. I moved back to Nigeria and tried to set up a food hustle. Ah, this entrepreneurship life is not for the weak. I learned this when I was doing the Beauty thing.
Did you have any contingency plans?
Thing is, I always have a safety net. I’m ridiculously privileged and I thank God for that. I never have money, but I still spend like I do. Anyway, I raised money to shoot a TV show.
Just like that. How much?
Let me run through it. I raised ₦10 million. Wanted to rent, then realised that it’s too expensive. Rented an apartment instead. Part of my problems started here – I didn’t separate the Church and State.
I already shot a pilot – thanks dad for that 1 million.
What happened to it? “No sound” was what the guy who shot it said. Imagine. Add shaky footage and bad lighting. My three-episode pilot only gave me a three-minute trailer in useful footage.
Later, I got new people. Those ones? Another three episodes of trash. They said they’d refund until they disappeared.
Another guy didn’t charge me at first. One mad week of shooting but when it was time to edit, he disappeared.
Wut?
I cried, “Haba is it only me?”
I’d sunk money into equipment and rent, but I abandoned the show struggle for a while. Until someone introduced me to a bunch of people who wanted to do a show. I gave them my space, got some equity, but did they ever pay me for that season 1 I shot as host? Nope. Then I found out I’d been replaced.
After a while, my dad was like, what’s happening with this show? Anyway, he gave me another 3m. I knew we had to do this one right. Got a crew, shot 15 episodes. Time to edit, the guy said I needed to pay his balance first. And I’m like, Oga that’s not what we agreed on na.
At some point, he just sent me the flash drives like, come and be going. Got another editor, and it took him over a year to edit, another disappearing act. The editing wasn’t really great too.
By 2018, I’d given up on it. Then some company stepped in to take over it – editing the content that is.
Almost 3 years. About ₦14 million. How did you get by?
I was making a living off my catering business all this time. It was a month to month grind. Here’s the thing: I’m very terrible with my finances. I can’t tell you how much I made last month. I can’t tell you what I made yesterday. I can’t project what I’ll earn tomorrow. There’s no rhyme or reason to my spending – I mean, I know I spend a lot of it on food for myself.
There are some factors in life that force you to have money. Like rent, like fees.
Let me confess something: every year, I have no idea how I’m going to pay rent, and every year I pay rent. Technically, I shouldn’t be living here – rent here is about ₦2.5 million with a ₦300k service charge. I should be living somewhere cheaper. My problem is that I’d rather die broke than be uncomfortable. Comfort is the one thing I’d die on the line for.
Another thing that requires consistency is child welfare, like school fees.
When she was in primary school, I didn’t pay her school fees, but now I do. I pay about half of it, or a little over half. To be honest, it’s very hard to plan – here, dad is somehow useless – I just set out to pay all of it.
Then after I’ve already paid, he sends me the money. So in my head, I’m like, “I’ve already paid, but I can use this one to Jollof.”
How much is her school fees?
South of 3 million yearly. That’s minus the random ₦10ks and ₦50ks for this and that.
Wild. You don’t know how much you earn, but what are the constant bills that must be paid monthly?
What are some constants in your life that you know you can’t afford?
My life. I can’t afford my lifestyle. Right now, I have less than ₦100k in my bank account, and I only have one bank account. I live way above my means and I know that.
Wh –
– Okay, wait, now that I think about it, I can’t afford to fall sick. I can’t afford for my child to fall sick. If either of us falls sick now, we’ll be doing GoFundme on the Internet. There’s no other way.
So now, you don’t have any Health Insurance?
I used to, but it expired and I didn’t have the money to pay for it. I don’t have any insurance. I have considered other forms of insurance; if someone comes to do all of this for me in my house, I’d happily do it.
I might be poor, but I have rich people mentality.
Let’s say all your finances are in order, how much do you feel like you deserve every month?
For my skill level and work ethic, ₦700k monthly. Actually, that’s a lie. For my skill level and the way I work, ₦1.5 million monthly. But I would settle for ₦700k monthly if it gave me free time. ₦700k monthly can fund my lifestyle. My lifestyle isn’t that expensive. To be honest, if I managed my finances properly, I’d be able to easily afford this place.
Is there a world where you attempt to rip Church and State apart?
I’ve been procrastinating. I called someone that I was going to do it, but I haven’t called back. The person I spoke to asked me to put all my invoices together and I’m like, where am I going to find them abeg?
You know what? I might just close my eyes and do it next month. If there’s anything I can admit, it’s that I can’t do it myself. Part of being older is becoming very realistic about the things I can and can’t do.
I’m 32. I’ll get better, but I need someone to do that initial groundwork. I also need someone to pay me a salary, I’m not cut out for this entrepreneurship life.
That’s honest. Talking about financial literacy, what do you wish you learned when you were younger?
It’s a funny question because it almost implies that my parents failed somewhere. The one thing I’ll say is I don’t think they taught us the importance of money. It’s great in certain ways in that I don’t hold on to anything. If you need the money and I can afford it, you can have it.
I’ve seen my dad buy a brand new car, and someone came to the house and said they like it, Oga gave it to him. Yah.
Mad.
The downside to this is that I didn’t appreciate how important it was to have structure around money.
I may not have a lot of it, I may not have enough of it, but I’m never truly lacking it.
Also if I’m not enjoying something, I’m not doing it, regardless of how much it pays. There’s some guy who was pursuing me for a job – ₦200k for an hour’s work. I hate him. I didn’t take the job.
I make quite a number of decisions that way.
There’s one planner that did me strong thing. I don’t care what the job is – even if she’s making food for Obama – I’m not picking up.
That is –
– That is a lie actually. I’ll pick up if it’s Obama. I might be somehow, but I’m not foolish.
There was a time last year that I was having anxiety attacks, I was getting more worried. But something I later learned is, I can’t come and kill myself. Sometimes, I tell myself, focus! But I no do. It’s quite bad.
There are two payments I need to make next week, over 100k, I don’t have the money now, but I can guarantee you that I’m going to pay it even though I don’t know where it’s coming from yet. Every month, we don’t have money for electricity, but somehow we pay.
We’ve talked about the past. Let’s talk about the future. Do you have plans to make sure your kid picks up some of these skills?
If I say what I want to say now, it’ll look as if I’m a bad mother. I’ll probably put her in a financial literacy course so she can understand it better than I do. But I also think – how do I put this without sounding somehow – we over-burden ourselves with these things. And it’s easy to say this when you’ve always had a safety net. If we focus on living fulfilling lives doing what we want, we may not earn as much, but then we’d be generally more fulfilled. I’ve never wanted a life of luxury, but my ideal scenario is earning enough for my comfort. Maybe enough to go on vacation once a year.
I’ve never thought of being a billionaire, I dunno what I’d do with billions. I wonder what I’d do to become a billionaire, I know I don’t want to do the work.
How much did your best gig ever pay?
There was one gig that paid me 1.4 million and I spent only 200k or so on groceries. And I prepped for it in only one night. Easiest money I’ve ever made – of course, they paid in instalments.
Imagine a world where that came monthly.
I won’t be angry. That’d be a good world, to be honest, I just haven’t put in the work.
What do you mean you haven’t put in the work?
Not physical work. The smart work. I work hard, everyone knows I work hard, but I don’t know how to sell my market. Do you get?
Most annoying miscellaneous?
There’s one ₦22k that I spent last weekend that is paining me. And I don’t know why it is paining me. Car trouble. My problem is, I don’t plan. Take for example, I’m supposed to save north up 6 million for a travel project scheduled for December. Ask me how much of 6 million I have?
How much?
Let me check my account balance… I have exactly ₦62,750. That is all the money I have in this world. I might not execute with 6 million, but I’ll probably go with ₦2-3 million. I dunno how Imma do it. But Imma do it.
First of all, if I sell everything in my house, I should raise good money – wait how much will you pay for my couch?
Hahaha. We’ll get to that. How much did you make last month?
What? I can’t even tell you what I made last week. You know what? Let me check my bank account and let’s track everything from last week, Monday to Sunday.
Okay… Done. How much do you think it is?
₦300k.
₦452,325…
…Wow. So it makes no sense that my account balance is now at ₦62k. I’ve spent over ₦400k this week, on what?
Tracking your debits, it means you spent ₦100k more than you made.
I should do this more often.
On a scale of 1-10, Financial Happiness.
I want to say a 4, but I also want to say I’m lying because I don’t stress out about it. Let’s say 4 – I should say 2 because I shouldn’t be happy at all. But let’s stick with 4. I’m not earning enough – well, from that number you just rolled out, I’m probably not managing enough. So spend wiser, earn more.
Imagine this, what will a life without all your safety nets look like for you?
God forbid it.
Okay, let’s pretend it’s a movie, and you’re the Protagonist, and suddenly, there are no safety nets.
I would have a salary paying job. I’d be living somewhere significantly cheaper. I’d have less furniture. I’d then be forced to get some insurance.
I can do this hustle thing, because I know I won’t die.
So your hustle now is more self-actualisation than actual survival.
Hmmm. I think that minimises my hustle a little bit. It’s definitely survival, it’s doing what I enjoy that matters.
I loved having this conversation so much.
Ya welcomeee.
Is there something you wish I’d asked that I didn’t?
Probably about when I was about my most broke, my rock bottom. I’ve been there twice. When I was at the vacuum company. I went into this store, and they had some lunch packs on sale – synthetic food you shouldn’t feed to kids. They were about to expire and they were selling them cheap. I used my last $4 to buy as many packs as it could pay for, and that’s what I fed my child for almost 3 days. When my child had diarrhoea, I was like Godddd. I was eating rice with nothing, just plain white. One time, fuel finished, and I had to gather all my coins. I bought a little fuel in a bottle, poured it, and then drove home.
I invested in an event project this year, invested over ₦1.5 million into it. It was supposed to fetch $14,000. It was a bust. The ₦1.5 million was an investment but it was also all of my money. It involved international travel too. In fact, I got stranded in another country because there was a mistake on my ticket and I couldn’t afford to get another one to bring me home.
Hello, Martian.
This is where safety nets come in, because I called my parents, and they paid for a ticket to bring me home.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
Quick One: The guy in this story has a serious knack for just hustling for money, and it drove him to do menial jobs as early as age 13. Let’s get into it!
What was the first thing you did for money?
When I lived in Kano, there were people who were selling rams, so I’d pick the hull of beans, and sell to the ram sellers in sacks – this was in 2001. Then I tried conductor work out of stubbornness. The driver paid me 500 that day, but someone saw me and reported to my dad. That ended. We moved to another state, and not too long after, I secretly started pushing wheelbarrow on Fridays. I really didn’t want to depend on anyone at home for money at that time.
My dad never found out, because I knew that if he did, he might just say, “you’re going to pay your school fees with that money.”
We moved again, and in the area we moved to, it was just developing, so there were a lot of construction sites.
Did you move a lot?
Yep. I went to seven primary schools and six secondary schools, because we kept moving. So unlike most people, I don’t have primary school friends and secondary school friends. The only school I spent two years was the school I did my WAEC.
Wait, how old were you?
2003, I started helping out in construction sites, transferring blocks from one place to another. Then I started packing sand from a river. Basically, you’d pack a truck’s worth of sand, and then you sell it to trailers at about 1500.
What sand dredging looks like. A kid in Kebbi state dredging the Argungu River.
Nothing really happened till I got into University in 2007. There was this guy in school then who had a Computer centre. So I’d go there, help people type up their work, and give him a commission.
Then, people will call me from home and be like, don’t you need money, but I’d be like, nah I’m fine. The first project for someone was for a final year student, while I was in 300-level. Then I was on my way home after 400-level, and this student – a pregnant lady – was like, come and help me write my project. She paid me 30k in 2011. When I got back home, I was balling.
I graduated and went to serve in 2013. Then I started the job hustle, travelling everywhere to go and write job interviews. I travelled to Lagos to write one. I travelled to Kano to write another one. And so on. I sent CVs to my uncles and all that, nothing came through. That time ehn, I write cover letter tire.
Then one day in 2014, I got called that my dad was sick in the hospital. He died, eventually.
Woah.
Everything changed after that – I was 26 at the time, and I still had two younger siblings in university. Things got really tough, and we had to sell our house to fund my siblings’ education and stuff. Around that time, I made this friend in my compound at the time, who I can now call big brother, sort of.
He was like “did you send CVs to your uncles about job?” I said yes. And he said, “I’ll advise you not to wait mehn. Just wear your hustle cap, and let’s go and look for money.”
So I started following him to a Ministry in Abuja where he worked. That was how I started my agent work, registering trademarks and whatnot for people. I was learning the ropes, so I wasn’t really making money. I was running a lot of errands – making photocopies, submitting documents, etc. And because I was super comfortable with computers – from all the time I spent working on docs in University – they trusted me with it. So then, I’d make 1,500 on some days, other days 3k. Some days, even up to 5k. Out of this money, I still had to support the family – buy food in the house, give out pocket money, fuel the Gen and all that.
I did that for almost one and a half years.
Must have been intense.
Sometime in 2015, someone tweeted about a job. I applied and got hired as a Social Media executive to get paid 70k a month.
What I didn’t realise was that the role was double fold. It was a tech company, and basically, I was hired to do Social Media work for one of their clients. But then, I also had to do social media work for the company that actually hired me.
So, the interesting thing I found out when I resumed at the company I was posted to was that I walked into what would be my office to see one person in a room that has five computers.
And she just looked up at me like, “oh they brought you here? I’m leaving, that’s why they’re bringing you. You go hear am.”
I should have listened to that lady, because what it meant was that I was doing the work of 5-6 people at the same time.
Then after work on Monday, my boss would come and be like, “let’s think through this,” “let’s do that,” “why is our output low” etc.
I’d recommend solutions, and he’d still come back and rant the next Monday. By the 3rd month, I sent in my resignation with no plan after.
I remember my line manager saying, “won’t you at least wait till the end of the month to collect your salary?”
Nah, I was done.
Crazy.
Also at the time, I’d already started looking for how to make money on Social Media. I’d get tiny gigs from brands promoting stuff.
My mum would just come into the room and be like, “what are you doing on your phone?” She had no idea I was literally make a living off that phone.
My first major gig came that year – 100k. It was huge. And I was like, this social media something might make sense o. So I invested in a better device – a Tab. I bought it for somewhere between 40-50k.
I doubled down, and started doing gigs for all kinds of brands and organisations, getting 10k here, 20k there.. The real big one came late 2015 – I got paid 250k.
‘Influencer Marketing’?
I legit made a living tweeting.
Then one day, a friend of mine emailed me about a company hiring. They were looking for a local researcher. I remember being in a bookshop a few days later when they called me and were like “Is this a good time? We want to interview you.”
“Of course it’s a good time.” By the time the call was over, they’d hired me on the spot.
It was a per diem role, and you know how much they were paying me?
Tell me.
17k per day. I did that for a month and a half.
Omo, I was working everyday for eight hours. It was human-centered research, so I was doing what you’re doing with me right now – interviewing people and then transcribing it. I’d pick out the whats, whys, whens and hows of a story, and move on to another story. The research was basically about how people were using social media to demand accountability from government.
By the time I finished, the year was over, and I had so much money that I just wanted to go and chill. I gave my mum money as usual – I mean, I’d already started sending her money since I was doing my NYSC. After my dad died, it became my duty to make sure there was food in the house.
Ah, the first born struggle.
Yes. By January, the company that needed research reached out to me again. In all this time, my social media profile was also growing. People would reach out to me from companies, and say they needed someone to find people to push stuff on social media. So I’d raise a small team, push the gigs to them, get paid by the company, then get my commission from them too. So let’s say a brand pays me 100k, and want to pay the other people 50k. I’d get my 100k, then collect a broker commission from the remaining people – 20%.
It was a two-way model.
Add to that, I used to get some money from people commissioning me to do some writing for them too.
Back to that research company. They asked if they could take me on as a consultant.
I signed up immediately.
My work was mostly advisory at this point, recommending how to use one or two hacks –mostly with digital skills and tech – on how to improve their development work.
Then in June, they’re like, we think you’re good at engaging our partners. And we want you to become a coordinator for the development project in Abuja.
So, my money got raised 20k a day. I had already switched to 5 days a week at this time. Some days, I’d work extra, and spread it out to make up for other days.
Interesting.
Also, my work involved a lot of travel across the region, so I was also getting travel allowances. I was travelling to Maiduguri, Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, etc. Each trip, Breakfast is paid for, with my hotel fees. Then I got 3k for lunch, 3k for dinner, and another extra 2k for staying in that town.
Sometimes, I’d spend a week in a state, and they’ll pay me a per diem of 85k. Add my main 20k per diem.
20k plus 20 days. Quick math.
Important to note that, travel wasn’t consistent, but I know my average was about 500 to 550k per month.
By mid-2016, they said they wanted to make me a full-time staff. I remember them giving me this long speech because they thought I wouldn’t want to come in full time, but in my head, I’m like “you people, I full ground.”
In hindsight, maybe I would have stayed behind and collected more money as a consultant. But careerwise, it was a good move, because it meant more immersive responsibility.
By August 2016, my first salary was 280k, as part of a one year contract. No more per diem. Only extra money was from travel. I used to go to like two to three locations every month.
I started managing and coordinating not just small teams, but entire projects.
In a month, I might not even spend my salary on myself, but I’d still be comfortable. But, I also had other responsibilities that needed to be met, like family. I don’t drink, smoke, club, or juggle babes. So I had very little need to spend money outside of the usual stuff.
I got my next raise in mid-2018 when I got promoted and took home 310k.
My Social media gigs were coming more frequently, plus travel money. So I always had money week on week.
But you know the one thing I wasn’t doing in all this time?
What?
Saving. As the money was coming, I was just spending. I suck at saving. There’s no story like “oh I’m stashing 100k every month somewhere”. But what I did instead in that period was that, I bought two pieces of land, one 100 x 50 and another 50 x 50.
I started building a house for my mum. 2018 was when I took the worst hit. Every month, about 250k from my salary was going into that house. So –
– Quick one, how much did the entire house cost?
Actually, I had spent 2 million and hadn’t finished. The thing is, buying a house is more expensive but more convenient. But when you’re building, you have to micromanage everything. Keep in mind that the 2 million includes the land I bought.
But one of the things that helped a lot was that I have a friend who volunteered to design the house for free. Based on “our mumsy”. He even volunteered to help supervise every now and then.
It got to a point in 2018, I told myself, “guy you just dey work work. When are you going to enjoy?” So I spent money on vacationing, and that cost about 500k.
Enjoyment.
By 2019, I moved out from my family’s space, and paid the rent for my first space, 500k. Then my mum’s place – because the house wasn’t done – 250k. Then siblings’ school fees. That’s how things have been up till this point.
But, staying alone is expensive. Also, I started spending more on Ubers. I spend about 3-4k on Ubers everyday. Trips to work cost like 1,100 in the morning. And there’s the weekend part. Then I spend another 3k on food. This became like a constant running cost in my life.
*180k*
I tried investment at some point sha – twice. But bad management ruined them.
Random, but the biggest money I’ve earned at once in recent times, was that I helped someone work on a research project for two weeks, and I got paid 850k.
Wut?
Yep. Also, I had just resigned from my job, so add my 310k salary to that. But something interesting happened in all these years. Because of my bad saving habits, I was owing debts of over 300k. I’d randomly just hit up my guy and tell him to send me money etc.
Do you have a money rule?
Never run out of money – number one rule. I have too many responsibilities to run out of money. When it comes to money, I never tell my family no. I never even let them know when I’m broke. I just send money every time they need it.
I end up spending money on my dependents more than I do on myself.
Time for the audit.
My money situation is very messy, because I’m getting it from multiple sources, but I’m not always tracking every dime properly.
So, what’s next?
I have another job I’m going to resume at. My take-home is going to be about 1.2 million after tax. It’s actually going to be in Forex, but that’s what it comes to when it’s changed to naira.
Forex is a Nigerian dream.
Yes. One of my friends has been earning in forex for over four years now. I don’t even joke around with it. I basically go to her to teach me how to constantly find opportunities like that.
What’s the hack for earning in Forex?
I really dunno if there’s a direct hack. But I think that, as people are growing, they should always identify opportunities in their fields that exist outside the country. If you’ve been doing something for so long and you’ve gotten good at it, you should be checking career pages of international organisations operating in Nigeria.
Some people write so well, and a lot of these organisations are looking for technical writers and researchers and so on. Many of them pay in Forex. There are some roles where they pay in naira, but if they’re a foreign development organisation operating in Nigeria, they’re probably paying some people in forex, and you want to be part of them.
Don’t limit yourself and say, “oh I’m earning 200k. I can’t apply for a job that’s paying 2 million.”: You’d be surprised that your skill is what they’re looking for.
What are your earnings looking like 5 years from now?
All things being equal, I’ll be earning about 2.5 million a month. But for the next year or two, it’s looking like maybe 1.2-1.5 million a month.
What about in 30 years?
Well, there’s my pension. To be honest, I think it’s necessary, to just earn and know some of it is being kept safely for much later.
On a scale of 1-10, what’s financial happiness looking like for you?
For now, I’d say 6. Because what I earn is enough to take care of my immediate problems and dependencies. My next salary will take me to an 8. Because that’s when I can now begin to save and invest effectively.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
This week’s story pulled off in collaboration with ARM PENSIONS. Tomorrow is looking good. How’s it looking for you? Start making tomorrow look good by making the right calls today, by clicking here.
What’s the first thing you ever did for money?
I worked for a caterer when I was in Junior secondary school as a Waiter. I was 15 at the time, in JSS2 and this was 2010. We were seven kids – I’m the fifth of seven – so you couldn’t just sit around and wait for anyone to give you money. My mum sells roasted plantain and yam, with fish. My dad sells curtains and other materials you’ll normally need for curtains.
Back then, I used to work at events of all kinds, and got paid ₦2k per day. There were the long weekends of Friday, Saturday and Sunday work.
There were days when we’d travel on Wednesdays and come back on Sunday.
My best month doing catering work ever, paid me ₦38k. I was working at Davido’s show. That show was mad. The crowd was mad, and people were rushing our cocktails and shawarmas. I went to regular, VIP, everywhere.
The moment that burst my brain was what Davido did. What happened was, he was throwing money in the air, and people were rushing to catch money. Then they started stampeding and some girls were getting trampled on. One guy started protecting the girls. Davido just called him out and said, “I’ve been watching you since, helping people. For that, take ₦1 million.”
This was December 2018.
Mad oh! Let’s go back a little.
Back then, the salary used to be like ₦5-₦15k every month, but that’s not where the real money was. The real money was made at the venue. You know all those big-big people at the venue? That’s where the real money is. Some people will just say, “you’ve been serving us well, take this money,” and you’ll see that they gave you ₦3k or ₦2k or ₦1k. The best money someone has given me at once is ₦5k. It’s that money that actually used to sustain me, not just the salary.
Then 2015 – the year I wrote WAEC – there was a period after elections that catering jobs were not coming again. So I started looking for another job to do, something that will give me money monthly. My cousin just came one day and said, “guy, come and escort me somewhere.” When we got there, I saw people there making blinds. I saw one guy weaving it and I looked and looked.
I just dey look.
I just told my cousin, “I think I’ve reached my bus stop. I go like learn this work.” He asked me if I liked it, I said yes. I told my dad, and he asked me if I was sure I wanted to do it. I said yes. Then he took me to someone’s place. And the man told me to write an application letter. I wrote it, and the next day, I resumed.
And that’s how I started working as an apprentice, learning how to make window blinds.
What were your options?
I wanted to learn tailoring. I also considered joining my dad, to sell curtains. Another one I considered was working Aluminium, but my friend that started the work, that one na so-so messenger work, that’s what he was doing at that time. ‘Go and buy this, go and buy that.’
Did school cross your mind at any time?
Yes now, but no money at the time, so I no just stress myself. I didn’t even bother writing JAMB – my senior ones didn’t even bother asking me to – because there was no sign that I’ll have money for university sef.
Our firstborn is a driver, guy. The second-born, third, and fourth born, all women, all tailors. The one after me just finished, she’s learning catering. Then the last born, a girl. She wrote WAEC this year.
How much do you think your school fees is?
I wanted to be an accountant because I was a Commercial student. My best subject at that time was even Accounting – I had a C4 in WAEC. My dream schools were Abia State University and UNILAG. Abia State University was about ₦200-and-something-k when I asked. I dunno how much UNILAG was, but someone said it was expensive too, so I no just bother.
So, back to the blinds work.
Back to the blinds work.
When I started at that time, I was getting paid ₦10k per month, and another ₦500 every day, as feeding and transport money.
By 2017, I was already thinking of setting up my own business, when one day my Oga just came to tell us something. He said that he was thinking of laying off some staff, because sales were not great. He said when more sales come, people can come back. I just used that opportunity to volunteer to leave.
I had ₦50-something-k in my savings.
How did you pull it off?
I moved in with a friend that was getting jobs. So we’d do the work together, and I’d get a percentage. Sometimes ₦2k (40%), sometimes ₦1,500 (30%). We’re still together now.
What was the difference between your Oga and your guy?
My Oga is rich. He goes to China and brings goods. He has warehouses, and he started as an apprentice too o. It was one man from the North that used to give him rides from the house to the office, when he didn’t have money. Sometimes, the North guy will not even collect money. Two of them are still together sef. The man is the one managing all the vehicles.
Me and my guy, na hustle. We get small jobs and we do. But I prefer working with my guy, because we share all the wahala together. Some days we make money, some days we don’t.
How much do you think you make in a month?
It’s not stable. Sometimes 25k enters my pocket, sometimes 10k. It depends on the season. The best season for blinds work is October to December. Those are the times that people move the most and are trying to finish their house in the village. This past month, I made up to 25k. But most of the time, it’s like 20k.
Let’s break down your expenses.
The things I spent money on always change according to the month. But let me tell you how I spent money last month sha.
Every other month: ₦4k per month for rent. We use a shared kitchen and a shared toilet. Sometimes, I just go to one of my friend’s place to stay for some time.
Sometimes, I buy stuff for my babe. I bought her a phone one time. An Inifnix Note. It cost ₦40-something-k at the time.
Betting – how’s that going?
I’ve been betting as a junior student, betting lotto – betting with as low as ₦20 sef. I won ₦12k. I told my mother to go and help me collect the money that time – I was underage – so my mum collected the money and when I asked her, she said she’s given my brother to use to repair his Danfo. I was very angry ehn. Then another time, I won like 54k when I was in senior secondary
This last December, I won ₦62k. Then I’ve won ₦8k this year. But the highest amount I’ve won is ₦65k, two years ago – a combined game of teams from England, Spain, Italy and all that. There was a full year I was betting but I didn’t win anything – 2016. But I still continued betting. Altogether, I can say I’ve won 15 times sha.
Do you save?
I like saving, but cash is harder to save. I always save when people transfer money. So generally, I prefer people transferring money to me, instead of cash.
How much money would be great right now?
₦30-₦35k per month. It will cover many expenses that I have now very well.
How much do you think you’ll be making in 5 years?
₦50k and above sha. Steady. I believe if I focus on the job, and work hard, and get more customers, and pray, the money will grow too.
Okay, what about in 30 years?
₦150k. I say 150 because I believe I’ll be bigger then, and I believe that the profit from the sales will be up to that.
How much do you think your Oga makes every month?
Ahhhh, plenty. Plenty money. His manager earning ₦150k per month. He has branches in Enugu, Owerri, Aba, Port Harcourt, Abuja, and Lagos. His money is plenty. He’s been in the business for 10-12 years.
So, do you think you can make that amount in 10 years?
Okay. Okay. In 30 years, I’ll be making more than ₦150k. I believe it’s possible. I’m very sure I’ll be making more than ₦150k every month.
Okay, let’s talk about pension?
I really dunno much about it, but I heard it’s just like savings that you keep aside for future use.
Ah, I’m going to do it.
If you want to start with pension now per month, how much do you think you’ll pay?
Maybe like ₦2k per month. But it actually makes sense. My dad’s plan was to build a house in the village and go back when he stops work, but he hasn’t even started sef. He’s 75, and still working. I know we’re the ones that will take care of him. If he had this one, maybe we won’t have to be the ones to take care of him.
When do you want to retire?
I dunno, maybe 75? I think that’s the age I can just say I want to rest, and stop struggling.
What’s the last thing you bought that required serious planning?
My phone, an Infinix Hot 5 Pro. I bought it for ₦35k from my friend. They stole that phone last-last at another friend’s shop.
What’s your backup plan for when you fall sick?
My savings. I have like ₦20k there now. The only reason I save is just so I can have money if anything happens.
How would you rate life, on a scale of 1-10?
6 over 10. The 6 is because I can go out in the morning and come back, I’m feeding myself, I’m not complaining. Some days, I make money. Sometimes, I can go to the bank and deposit money.
Last question, what’s next for your sister?
She was telling me she wants to study accounting too. She hasn’t said what school she wants to go yet, because she’s still going to write JAMB next year. In the meantime, she’s helping my mum out with selling food. But she’s definitely going to continue school.
Everyone has plans to make it happen for her. Big time plans.
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First money you earned ever?
I think it was in secondary school. We made earrings in school with beads, and then we sold it on Open Day, that felt nice.
Also, my mum owned a restaurant, and I’d help her with work. But my first proper earning was in 2012 when my mum hired me for a catering job – she got a gig and made me the Project Manager. It was less than two weeks, and she paid me ₦50k.
How old were you then?
19. Next was NYSC, I started serving in March 2013. The state I served, you were paid ₦20k per quarter, but you had to travel to the capital to get that money. I didn’t think it was worth it, so I never went to get it. By the way, I was also an apprentice at a tailor’s shop. In fact, I paid them to learn at the time. Add to that, I attended a fashion design school while I was in Uni.
So it’s something you care about a lot.
Yes. When I finished serving in 2014, my parents set up a tailoring business for me. My mum had the equipment, and we had space, so it was easy to carve out an office. While that was kicking off, I applied for a teaching job, because I wanted to do something else that I cared about.
I started in May 2014 part-time. It paid ₦14,500. I really wasn’t doing it for the money, I just wanted to do it. So I was teaching and doing the tailoring business at the time.
How much was tailoring giving you?
I really can’t remember, but I know it fetched enough money for me to buy two phones that year. I didn’t have to ask my parents for money, and I could even chip in with house stuff.
Anyway, I dropped my teaching in January 2015, after about nine months, so I focused on tailoring. Then in August that year, I had to quit tailoring too, because I was travelling away from home for my Masters. September that year, my mum got a catering job in another state, and I had to travel ahead to go sort everything and make sure everything was in place. In the end, she paid me ₦200k.
I didn’t get any income for the rest of the year.
What came next?
I got married in 2016 and had to move to a different city, North-Central. It was hard to be idle – I’d never been idle for as long as I could remember – so I taught myself how to make pastries. Then I started selling. I went to fairs, trying to get the product out. The first fair was a disaster. I paid ₦12k for the stall and made only ₦6k – this was November 2016.
In January 2017, I went for another fair, and I sold out completely – I can’t remember, but I made about ₦50-something-k.
I was taking orders from home, and that felt steady. I went for another fair in March, and it was around that time I stopped because I suddenly couldn’t stand the smell of my kitchen.
Uhm, pregnancy?
Yep. I had my baby in November 2017. But at this time, I was already looking for a space to rent for my tailoring business. Eventually, I found one, and renovations and all that lasted into January.
But in February 2018, my marriage ended – I got a divorce and took my baby with me. He’d rented the house, I furnished it. So I packed all my stuff and returned to my family – my parents took full responsibility of and for me.
Woah.
I already had orders from my tailoring, but because I couldn’t deliver on time – the whole divorce thing – I didn’t charge them. I tried my hands at tailoring again, in June 2018 – I rented space in someone’s shop. But, I’d just gone back to school, and I had a kid, so I had to stop again. Stress.
All this while, I’d been applying for jobs, and then in September, I got called for an interview. Barely two weeks later, I started at the job – a lecturing job – for ₦171k.
It was also around this time I got my own place. It took a lot of convincing my parents to let me get a place of my own. I needed my own space, for my baby, for my Maid. My parents paid for my rent, and it cost ₦1.3 million.
They’re the MVPs.
They’re basically taking care of me. Entirely.
In all this time, what’s your perspective about money?
It’s funny how people say money is not everything when it really is everything. My salary isn’t enough for me to do anything at all. It doesn’t cover my rent, or feeding, or child.
I’m a wanderer at heart, but my salary won’t let me travel anywhere.
So how do you cover your other expenses?
My father. Every month, he sends money for everything – my feeding, child’s feeding, bills, etc. I’ve only ever bought pieces of clothing for my child, my parents always buy clothes, especially when they travel.
My biggest fear is always when my child falls sick. It happened a few months ago, and if my parents weren’t there, how would I have been able to afford to pay the ₦40k that we spent that day?
What’s an average month like, caring for your little one?
Let’s look at your full expense breakdown
A lot of my savings is really so that I can afford to travel for conferences and the likes. Then my emergency fund is me saving up for horrible case scenarios when I can’t get money from my dad.
Looking at your career, how much do you think you should be earning?
Somehow, I feel like this is fair, by Nigerian standards. Every day, I ask myself how long I’d have to work to be able to earn ₦500k per month at a teaching job. How much do you think you’ll be earning in 5 years?
If I stay in academia, it’ll most likely be about ₦250k. But if it’s not in academia, good money, whatever that means then.
My good money is not stressing, not depending on my parents, while also having enough for one vacation a year. Being able to fully support my needs and my kid’s. Like, I stress about not being able to pay for her school fees.
Right now, my good money would be ₦700k.
What do you do when you’re sick?
I personally refuse to acknowledge I’m sick. So I eat and sleep my way through any signs or illness/discomfort. And I am sick a lot. All the time. Plus I hate medication. So I don’t even mention it or I keep saying oh I’m sick but never do anything about it. At most, I take panadol hahaha.
When was the last time you felt really broke?
So it’s either between one of these two times.
First was in 2016. I was still married and I wasn’t working. We got into a huge fight – continuing from where we left off a few days before. I was so pissed because I’d grudgingly agreed to let it go. And he brought it up. I was certain I was done. I packed a bag. And I realised I had less than ₦2k in my account. That wasn’t going to take me anywhere. I was so frustrated. That hurt me more than the problem that was making me leave to begin with.
I was so helpless and didn’t want to ask anyone. It was one of my lowest points in life. If I just had some vex money, I’d have left. No hassle. Nothing.
There was also that other time in 2018 – where all of a sudden – my kid got sick. Her eyes started watering. And it felt like her temperature started spiking. I don’t think I had up to ₦5k with me. There was no way that was going to cover consultation and medication. I was panicking. My heart hurt. I didn’t want to call anyone. So I took her to a 24hrs pharmacy. At 10 pm ish. Came back with less than ₦1k.
I never want to be in that position ever again. I never want to feel so helpless.
Is investment something you’ve ever really considered?
Nope. Well, kinda. I put ₦40k from my first salary into some investment scheme. Mostly because my mum insisted and I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea. I was supposed to get credited monthly, but I haven’t received anything. I hear the thing collapsed or something.
The only thing I think about using my savings for is travel, which doesn’t make sense, because I can’t afford it. But then I think about it as an investment – investing in myself, hahaha.
Seriously though, I think about it, I want to invest, I just don’t know what to invest in, or how to go about it. Not sure who to talk to.
Happiness levels, 1-10?
4. No, 3. Because my salary isn’t enough to take care of me and my kid. In any way at all. If my parents weren’t taking care of me, I’d not be able to hold things up.
I believe in doing and investing in things you genuinely love doing. That way, you put in everything and are hopeful that it translates into results. So I have an opportunity to start a food business. Once I raise funds to start up, I’m good. So yes, getting funds will be a good starting point to raise that happiness level.
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When was the first time you made any money?
That’s an interesting question because I didn’t make money until I was in my final year at school. I had this friend that cared very little about money, and life, so he drank a lot. But he was a really great artist.
So I got the info that one government house where I had a friend was renovating, and somehow, I managed to make a case for an artist to come make murals across the government house.
On the other end of things, my dad gave me ₦50k to pay my school fees. And what did I do, I carried that money and used it to buy materials for my friend.
He went on to do the work. In three months, we got paid – ₦2.5 million.
₦50k to ₦2.5 million. That is quite the start.
I gave my guy one million. Paid my school fees. Then I spent about ₦800k on getting people to make noise about it – PR in some of the right places. That fetched us other gigs that brought in about ₦1.9 million.
Woah.
Some people at the Government house took an interest in me. The best thing about working with people in government is the access it gives you. Meanwhile, I started looking for what to do with all that money, so I invested some of it in stocks and acquired some land. Pushed that into Agric.
Sounds robust. What happened next?
I applied for YouWin in 2014 and got a grant of ₦6.5 million. It was actually a partner and me.
My partner was the admin and comms guy while I was away, and I was the technical guy.
How did the Fonio business go?
First of all, Fonio, or what we call Acha locally, is a kind of grain. It used to be really popular, but it didn’t get all the love that Sorghum, millet and co have gotten. What we wanted to do was experiment with Fonio in more consumer-friendly forms. We tried it in baking and different recipes. So we developed a packaged product.
Interesting
We got the money in tranches, and the first one was about ₦1.9 million. The first thing we bought was some equipment. There was a kind of dryer we wanted to buy, but it would have cost us about ₦1.5 million locally to bring it here. So I carried my mechanical engineering sense, and we fabricated locally. That cost ₦500k.
We didn’t want to wait for all the money, so we got started immediately. Took the rest of the money buying tons of Fonio from local women, dehull, wash and package.
The value we were trying to add was taking it quicker to consumption.
What’s the demand for Fonio?
It’s a resilient crop, and it requires no fertiliser. People use it for various things, like pudding, swallow, and even baking. People also tend to encourage it as a healthy alternative for diabetic people. But, Fonio doesn’t get as much love as you’d expect. It’s not so popular in Nigeria, so while we believed we had a great product, there was one problem – advocacy.
Now, to make a product popular, you need to make a lot of noise about it. When you make noise about it, your increase demand. But that costs a lot of money and resources.
What came next?
I started to experiment with other stuff and gently ease out of full management of Fonio. Somehow, I found my way back to an old obsession – Coffee.
I live in Jos, and because our climate is unique, coffee grows here. I had a coffee tree from about 15 years ago. I’d roast the beans for my dad, and he’d give feedback and I’d improve it.
In 2017, I decided to give it a shot. I actually tried to go at it from scratch – so I threw in one careless ₦5k.
Then I started going to people who had farms and buying berries from them. Buy, process, roast, sell. And slowly, it grew. By October, we’d done about 800k in revenue. The profit was just about 380-something-k.
The biggest struggle that year though, was that when I started buying coffee, a lot of them were bad. So I started researching more about how to properly treat coffee better, and transferring whatever I learned to farmers.
₦380k? I’m not sure that was enough to sustain you.
So, because I was researching more than most people, that also created another opportunity. I started consulting for other farmers, and someone even asked me to help him co-manage his plantation. It’s sitting on about 50 hectares of land.
I believe there’s a growing coffee culture in Nigeria, and I want to be a part of that. Especially because the coffee we brew is not only fresh – a lot of imported coffee is stale – and it’s homegrown.
If you ask me about numbers, I can assure you that I know very little about those things. My wife was the one managing my finances, while I just focused on making my roast better.
Ask my wife, please.
Fair enough.
Hello, your partner asked me to ask you about money, because he doesn’t seem to know much about it.
Hahaha. Very good. I actually started keeping records in July 2017, because there needed to be a system that showed progression and tracked growth or something. There was no evidence that there was growth, because we weren’t tracking anything. He’s passionate, but passion is not always enough to run a business. If you have passion but no skills, it dies.
Word.
In August 2017, it was ₦50k. These days, it can fetch many times that amount on very good months. In March, for example, we made up to ₦400k in profit.
That is interesting.
Yes, that’s more than the entire 2017 from selling coffee alone. We tend to re-invest a lot of it in materials, from the coffee beans to the packaging. Also, because you don’t harvest all year round, we invest in buying a large amount of coffee beans.
So, what’s the most important lesson as an entrepreneur?
First of all, hunger is super important. I think entrepreneurship forces you to improve, make things better, and do things differently.
It is also forcing me to work on my personal discipline; in finance, in relationships, and everything –
Her: – he still needs to hire someone to manage his books. I can no longer do it because my 9-5 job is taking my time. There needs to be someone to actually pay him a salary. That forces him to be more accountable.
How much salary do you think you’d earn as an entrepreneur in 5 years?
Him: Using today’s value, maybe ₦100k?
Her: Add more.
Him: Okay, ₦250k. I think what is most important for me is that we have a strong place in the new coffee culture in Nigeria in the next 5 years.
Entrepreneur or not, bills need to get paid. How’s that going?
First of all, the most important one is rent, and ₦250k per year fetches us a really good 2-bedroom. I hardly go out much, except I have to go and get materials. That means I don’t spend a lot on transport. Last-last, ₦50k is enough for a good month in Jos.
Minus your business, what other investments do you have?
Her: Right now, we’re actually looking into doing mutual funds, my sister is a heavy investor in mutual funds. I’m considering it too though. Aside from that, I also invested in a farm with my parents. It’s about 9 hectares of Rice and Soya Beans.
When do you think you’ll retire?
Her: My husband said he wants to die at 85, so that he doesn’t turn to anybody’s problem. Hahaha.
Him: It’s too much?
Her: Too small. Anyway, you’ll be too troublesome then. Him: By 60, I’m done with work. Then I’ll be travelling, and having the time of my life.
What was the last thing you paid for that required serious planning?
A van – to be honest, it’s still in the works. My farm is quite far from the house, so buying a van will help me move produce fast.
What’s the most annoying thing you’ve paid for recently?
We paid for coffee, and they gave us bad coffee beans. We had to return it, and they didn’t pay back for up to a year. A loss.
Do you have an emergency plan for weird things like health emergencies?
Her: We were actually talking about that yesterday, I think we’re going to do it with one of these apps.
Happiness levels, 1-10.
Her: To be honest, we’ve not reached where we want to go.
Him: Yep. But I really don’t feel like I’m struggling, I even have room to give a lot. So, I’m really good.
Her: We need more sha.
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When was the first time anyone paid you money for work?
200-level. I used to sell cooked noodles in the hostel. I wasn’t really keeping track of the numbers, but I just needed extra cash to add to my pocket money from home – the money my dad was giving me wasn’t enough –10k. Then I started looking for what else students needed but couldn’t get. Our school was remote, so I started selling headphones and memory cards because everyone needed it and couldn’t travel far to get it.
This was 2009. I had outlandish dreams of what University was supposed to be; a place where everything was possible and all that. Well, that was the year that dream died. I just focused on the practical courses and coasted through the abstract shit.
First Semester in 300-level, I first saw Photoshop on someone’s computer in an Entrepreneurship class. Not too long after, I went to meet this guy in my hostel and asked for the full Adobe Suite. Next thing, I’m installing. Next thing, I’m looking for tutorials.
By the next morning, I was going round the hostel, showing everyone what I’d just designed; my first logo ever.
By 400-level, I was just about that selling phone life. I sold up to 20 phones then, most of them Blackberries. I tried to pick out fancy Blackberries – the white ones, the purple ones, the red ones. Just the colourful fancy stuff that I knew they’d like. Everyone wanted to stand out.
What came next?
I went for NYSC in the Southeast in late 2012, but I was getting gigs from Twitter, a logo here, a poster there. I even helped a rapper design the cover art for his song. One of your faves. It was a hit too.
How much did he pay?
EX-PO-SURE.
That wasn’t what I asked for though.
Anyway, NYSC was giving me ₦19,800, my place of assignment was giving me ₦10k. Those random gigs were probably giving me ₦5k per month. I remember that time, I’d send the logos and everything to the clients from the really bad Internet on my phone. I lived in a village so ₦10k a month was enough. I saved the rest and bought two budget smartphones – one for myself and one for my mum.
Post-NYSC?
I was jobless for like 6 months, in the true sense. Then one day, my dad came and said his friend wanted someone to take photos and design flyers for his hotel. The man paid me ₦10k, it was also the first time I saw my work in print.
Around that time, my mum was like “why don’t you apply at a bank or something instead of staying at home? What if you never get a job with this your design thing.”
Mummy, I’ll get.
You can’t work in a bank?
I can. But getting hired in a bank back then mostly meant you had to sit all day at the desk attending to deposits and withdrawals. I didn’t want that.
I had one more cousin staying with us who was also unemployed, so that kind of took away some of the pressure. One some days, I was focused on becoming a better designer and not staying idle. On other days, I was sleeping for the entire day.
To be honest, I was purposely not applying for jobs that she wanted me to apply for. I was looking for advertising agencies. Since Uni, I was really obsessed with having my work on a billboard one day.
So, your first full time gig?
Late 2013. I applied to this music blog, and the owner offered ₦40k in the first month. By the second month, he told me “guy, I honestly can’t afford to pay you. These ads don’t seem to be coming. I’m sorry.”
And that one ended. He was a nice guy though.
After that, I was jobless again for a few months. Then a friend introduced me to this small agency that needed a graphic designer. I took the test, got in, and they started me at ₦50k. About four months into that gig, I went to a small Ad school, and in our final branding task, an agency saw my work and they made me an offer.
So I joined this new agency in late 2014, for ₦150k a month. Payroll issues and they had to shut down business after about 6 months of joining, while still owing two months of salary.
Did they pay up?
They did, a year and a half later. In the time being, I was back to just random freelance gigs after they couldn’t pay, but that lasted for about 2 months. Another friend called and said a Food Processing Company was looking for a Graphic Designer. He told me the offer was ₦200k. I jumped on it straight up.
I went to the interview with my deadbeat laptop, and these guys needed to see my work. The question was, how quickly can I show them all my work before this laptop goes off like a TV. The laptop managed to come on, and you know what they were most interested in?
What?
My personal experiments. I knew I’d gotten that gig the moment they saw those. Oh, and just as we were wrapping up, my laptop tripped off. Hahaha.
Sha, they made an offer of ₦150k for my probation period. I said I wanted ₦170k at least, but they told me I’d get a 200k bump after probation.
First of all, HR delayed, and when my raise finally came, it was ₦170k I received. And I’m like what’s this nonsense?
That’s when I learned the difference between net and gross salary.
Anyway, I’d already gotten into the job, designing all kinds of things for cartons, to buses, and even the one I’d always wanted, billboards.
One year into the gig, I asked for another raise. I legit wrote a list of everything I’d been doing:
When the brand manager left the company, I had to stand in as Brand manager, working with them to create jingles and all that.
I got that raise. ₦250k, net. Can’t fool me twice.
This was 2016. All this while, I was still doing freelance gigs, but they weren’t as intense, because I was putting everything into the work at the time. So there wasn’t really time for me to actually do them.
Still, freelancing was bringing in another ₦50k every other month.
By 2017, I started learning animation. Besides that, the year was pretty meh workwise. Also, I started learning how to shoot properly in 2017. I actually picked up shooting at work the previous year, but 2017 was when I was experimenting in the wild. I interned on the set of a movie – it never got released though
2018?
I got another raise towards the end of the year – ₦300k. Worked on another film set. I really just wanted to learn. Then I directed a short film. I actually planned to shoot two short films, but I didn’t have the time – work, relationship. Generally, I think relationships are emotionally, physically, and financially expensive.
Fast forward to 2019, I started getting better at animation and getting more freelance gigs. So to get better, I started an internship. One class a week. Add Youtube tutorials to that. Add two other online courses. 2019, I’m also going to learn code, because if you’re going to animate for web, you need to learn code.
What’s your most important perspective on money, between 2009 and now?
Money is the bread and butter of this world, and there’s no living without it. People are in denial of how important money is. People will tell you to follow your passion, but they won’t teach you how to make money. We go to school to learn about everything, everything but money, which is like the most important thing, post-school. They teach Entrepreneurship, but they should also be teaching personal finance. It’s why we’re all so shit with money.
People shouldn’t be shy talking about money. If you need help on how to make money, say it.
How much do you feel like you should be earning every month?
₦700k, at least. That’s the value I’ve put on my diverse skills at this point in this market.
Let’s breakdown that monthly income.
My monthly income is at about ₦450k if you add side hustles. This is what an ideal month looks like:
We haven’t accounted for ₦36k.
Eh ehn? Wait, what am I using this money for? Omo, I dunno o. Maybe that’s my own lau-lau.
When was the first time you sent money to my parents?
I used to send money to my mum, but you see my dad, he’s a very proud man. I assumed he was getting his pension, then my mum told me “he hasn’t started receiving his pension. They keep postponing and postponing, but really, nothing is coming in.”
So I sent him money. ₦30k. He was so emotional and thankful, and told me how it was going to go a long way with some family stuff. This was in 2017, and since then, I’ve made it a duty. It’s been everything from car trouble to school fees. I’m just thankful that I don’t have any other responsibility.
Then there’s the random ₦30k’s to people who are really in a tight spot. Whenever I’m in a position to help, I just step up.
Explain this savings things for me please.
My ₦250k first lands in my savings. I tend to save for stuff I need to pay for, or stuff I need to get. Like rent, or a laptop. My rent is actually fair, ₦300k. So there’s that.
I tried investing in an agric business, but I missed the window. I also have some other long term investments, like stocks. I haven’t tried any other investments.
Why haven’t tried any other investments?
I wanted to try Mutual Funds. But I was unsure about it.
You know how Mutual Funds work?
Not really.
How much do you imagine you’ll be earning in 5 years, and how did you arrive at that number?
1.2… 1-point… ₦1.2 million at the very least (using today’s estimates). It’s mostly because of the skills I have and I’m trying to acquire. And the confidence to even call this amount is because with the skills I’m looking to acquire, there is global demand.
Wait, how much is $6000?
About ₦2.2 million.
Yes. That’s the amount, at least. There’s a price chart for motion designers in the US. The pros earn like $300k a year. On average, I should be looking at $7000 per month, but that -1k is to solve for X, where X is the Nigerian factor.
What’s something you really want but can’t afford?
A beach house. I won’t say a car, because I really don’t find driving as a necessity. An efficient life for me will be Ubers, and Taxifies. Or carpooling. But I never get the money reach that side, so I dey jump bus.
What’s the last thing you paid for that required serious planning?
I would have said rent, but I already programmed it somehow. It didn’t really require serious planning actually. I just have this thing where I just keep rent money aside.
But serious planning would be my laptop. I paid ₦500k.
When was the last time you felt really broke?
Really broke? How broke?
What is broke for you?
Broke for me is when you’re down to your last ₦50k. Last time I felt like that was two years ago. There’s an amount of money my bank account dwindles to, that I just start to feel sad. When you have money, you’re calm. That’s why people’s voice changes when they’re rich. They take their words slowly. Because money is a nerve calmer.
Actually, this sadness starts to kick in for me when I’m down to my last ₦200k. Rock bottom is now ₦50k.
What’s the most annoying miscellaneous you’ve had to pay for?
My laptop charger. ₦30k. A bloody Macbook. It scattered. It’s one of the things that triggered me to dump my Mac. Those things are ridiculously expensive. That was also my third charger. Anyway, if you must buy a Mac, buy a surge protector.
What’s your greatest fear, right now?
It’s something coming up that I can’t afford, like a family emergency. This fear has never reared its head in any form, but I’ve had hints. Like the health from one of my parents. I’m expecting it to become a problem in the future, so I’m doing my best to delay it as much as I can, by taking as much burden as I can now, whenever I can.
Let’s talk about happiness. On that 1-10 scale.
About my finances? I’m at a 6-7, because I don’t have grand needs. I can afford the simple things; food, clothing, shelter, Internet, transportation. I can even afford to take a holiday. Then my family, I can afford to take care of
People tend to ignore the things they could be grateful for in the present because they want to aim higher. I get that, I also like to aim high. But I also like to pay attention and be grateful for the present. I have awesome friends. I have an awesome family. Those things are priceless.
What’s something you want me to ask but I didn’t?
“How many children will you haveee?”
Depends on how financially buoyant I am before I start popping, and after I start popping. But also, that depends on how many my wife is willing to pop. Because no be me get the bẹlẹ́. But if I could, I’d have a lot of children. I’m definitely going to be adopting too.
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Every week, we ask anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira – their secret Naira Life.
When was the first time you earned money?
A scholarship when I was in 100-level. The money wasn’t coming to me – it was going to my dad’s account – but it was in my name. That’s the first money that’s ever come in my name. 220k a year.
But besides that, I didn’t make any money in Uni or anything like that. No businesses and all that.
But my first salary was in NYSC – ₦9,775 – in 2009. Then the state I served was paying us ₦40k quarterly.
After NYSC, I travelled for Masters and so I was also working. This was 2012. My first job was paying £7/hour and I worked and I worked 8 hours a day – 40 hours per week. I was a cold-caller at a Utility company. Also, students were restricted to 40 hours a week. I changed jobs twice after, but by the time I was coming to Nigeria, I had about £3,000 in cash. I already invested £1,200 of the money in Nigerian stocks, mostly oil company stocks.
Why did you come back?
Marriage noni. I actually proposed not coming back, but my fiancee didn’t want to relocate. My family was like “Oh come back, don’t worry you’ll get this and that.” So I came back.
Marriage plans kicked off immediately. I think only the bridesmaids’ dresses and my wedding gowns. But I really didn’t have to spend much. My family paid for the whole thing.
After marriage, I was just chilling and getting into the job hunt vibe, then one morning, two things happened.
What?
I got an email from an auditing firm – one of the biggest in the world – emailed But then, something else popped.
Whatttt?
Bẹlẹ́. I found out I was pregnant. I really wanted to continue with the application, but when these guys interview you, there’s always the screening exercise where you run all kinds of tests. The tests were definitely going to come back with a positive for pregnancy. So I just let it go.
Also, there was some comfort in the fact that I hadn’t exactly run out of my small stash of money, so I focused on carrying my baby full term. The baby came in 2015. When my baby came, I wanted to give the baby some time before going back to job hunting.
I committed the next year and a half, and so I started job hunting in mid-2016 again. Then the recession hit.
What was your biggest struggle at this point?
First, I was doing the usual blind applications online, sending in CVs and all. My partner hustled for jobs and opportunities too. The ones that invited me for interview were like, “you’re married. How are you going to manage both? Will your husband be comfortable with late nights?”
Tragic. How were you getting money to get by all this time?
I was throwing the little money I had into a bunch of things. I invested in a family member’s poultry farm that brought in some stipends. For every ₦200k I invested, I got a profit of ₦80k in 4 months. Then allowances from my partner.
I tried experimenting in stuff. For example. I started helping small businesses with their bookkeeping and projections. Only 3 gigs came that year, 2016, and they were at ₦30k each. I tried starting a business to keep busy, but the margins weren’t good enough to earn anything from it. It really was just to keep me busy.
2017 was a drought for me. There was this company – a small financial services company – they hired me on a contract basis. So I only got paid when there was work, but I really just wanted the experience. There was a lot of free time, and I was like, “might as well drop another baby since I’m at home.”
Another one.
I kind of knew how many children I wanted to have, so might as well. I went on to have my second baby in 2018. Some months after my second baby, I got a fulltime job now paying ₦60k.
What’s happened to your perspective between 2014 and now?
Not like marriage is bad, but growth might be harder when you have to carry people along, somehow. If I wasn’t married I wouldn’t have had a child. If I didn’t have a child, I’ll most likely be earning more.
The job market, especially at entry level, has a prejudice against married women and mothers because they assume you’ll be making excuses for family and all that.
That period also showed me that I’m not a “buying and selling” person. I’d rather spend my time providing services. There’s also the part that I grew up really comfortable – there was always money. But you see this period? I learned frugality.
Let’s break down that monthly ₦60k.
First, because I’ve started working, I’m having to restock on work clothes. My partner provides for most of the big bill needs, but he still gives me money for the kids’ care. He pulls in all his weight, but to be honest, baby care money is never enough.
Then there are small debts from when I didn’t have a job. Transport is cheap because my workplace is not too far from where I live, so it’s almost negligible.
How much money do you feel like you should be earning right now?
Hahaha. ₦400k, at the very least. And that’s because of the experience I would have gained between then and now. Plus the qualifications I now have – ICAN.
Okay, realistically how much money is good money right now?
As per Frugal Master now, I’ll have enough to meet my needs and have enough to save at ₦200k.
What’s something you want but can’t afford?
A good phone, a powerful computer, and a good watch.
Do you have a pension?
Hahaha. Pension ko, pension ni. The company I work at is really small. To be honest, they can’t even afford it.
What’s the last thing you paid for that require serious planning?
My ICAN induction. I had to plan for that ₦100k because it’s not like I had any money at the time. Also, I’m currently paying for graphic design classes – ₦70k.
Design?
Yeah. I love design, video games, animation and all of that. I’ve been enthusiastic about them for as long as I can remember. When I was Abroad, I spent a lot of my money on buying game CDs – GTA V, Far Cry, God of War, Assassins Creed, Driver, etc.
Anyway, paying for it took a big hit on my finances.
Sounds like an important investment. Tell me about your other investments.
I invested in stocks, and although it made some decent dividends, it took a hit in 2016 during the recession. At some point, I had to liquidate the stocks for an emergency.
Also, there’s that farm that the family member has. But Oga farmer is no longer receiving outside investment. So I have no active monetary investments.
What’s the most annoying miscellaneous you paid for recently?
A bridal shower. Ugh. It was ₦10k, but that money was unexpected at the time.
Do you have an emergency plan for health and all that stuff?
My father. My father is my 9-1-1. I mean, my partner always comes through, but I can also be sure of my father.
What’s the scale of your happiness looking like right now?
7/10, and it’s mostly because of my kids. They’re the reason I still keep fighting and pushing to be better. They are the reason all those years don’t feel wasted.
What do you think you’d have done differently about the last few years?
I’ll use protection, first of all. I don’t regret my first child, but I’d have conceived that baby much later when I’m already working. In fact, this is the order I would have done it; get a job, then marry, then have kids.
If you’ve been reading this every Monday, you know the drill at this point. If you haven’t, now you know that Zikoko talks to anonymous people every week about their relationship with the Naira.
Sometimes, it will be boujee, other times, it will be struggle-ish. But all the time–it’ll be revealing.
What you should know about the guy in this story: He’s a 23-year-old Youth Corps member working at a decent place of primary assignment in Lagos.
When was the first time you made money?
I was in SS1, and a day student too, so I used to sell noodles. This is how it worked; boarding students were getting served horrible food, so selling a better alternative to them meant an instant hit.
I’d wake up early – like 5am – prepare the noodles based on orders I’d received. Then take everything to school. I was fulfilling a real need, so it wasn’t hard to charge them ₦500 per plate.
In SS2, PTDF – that Petroleum Technology Development Fund thing – they donated computers to my school, about 100 of them. Bu you know what was crazy? The school wasn’t allowing us use them, something about us not being tech-savvy or so we don’t spoil them. They literally just locked them up like they were furniture.
So imagine that one day, we’re all just chilling in the hostel, me and my friends, and someone just said, “what if we took these parts of the computers from the lab, you know, the ones easy to replace. And then we sold them?”
And that’s how we started, we managed to get the key from the prefect in charge of where the computers were kept, then we’d sneak in, take a couple of things, a hard drive here, a mouse there, etc. Then we’d sell them at the side of town where everyone went for the computer parts and Tokunbo phones. There were about four of us, but any time we sold anything we used to get over ₦30k, then we’d split it.
In typical fashion, the others boys found out in the hostel, and it became an absolute mess. They were moving entire computer monitors and stuff.
That is absolutely crazy.
You know what was even crazier? The school had external visitors, and in typical fashion, they wanted to “show off the computers to being used to prepare for our digital future.” A madness. Then they just opened the lab, and bam, missing computers here and there.
We never got found out.
What would have happened if they caught you guys?
Expulsion, most likely. There was always the fear of getting caught, but the money kinda balanced out that fear. That time, I’d just jump the school fence and go deposit it in my Kiddies Bank Account – I already had a bank account then.
How old were you?
16 – a proper Juvenile Delinquent.
Anyway, it was a mostly dry patch after that. I tried out buying and selling stuff, like clothes. That’s when I realised that this version of buying and selling, where I didn’t create the product, sucked.
I started writing, and learning graphics, and getting paid to do them, but the gigs were far too few and far in between for it to be called a real gig.
Then my allowance from home got sparser and sparser – my folks were having money struggles – and I had to do something about it. So I had this friend who was cashing out like mad selling weed – Loud specifically.
I invested ₦35k that should get you a quarter ounce, and you know how much I got back in 2 weeks? ₦50k – that’s a 43% return on investment. I threw more money in, and that’s how I survived my final year in school, mostly feeding off dividends.
You were trafficking drugs?
Basically. I mean, I dunno what the constitution says about that, but I know if you get caught, you’re going to pay.
I wasn’t directly in contact with any clientele, because I really was just an investor, but the market was mostly working class people and anyone who could pay. Students couldn’t afford to pay ₦5k for a bag.
When I was leaving school, I exited at ₦200k. But in total, I think I made up to half a million in like 11 months. The money never came in chunks, except for when I exited.
Then post-school, I reconnected with a previously distant relative, who kind of stepped up, and the random cash boosts were helpful. But it wasn’t consistent, and you don’t want to depend on that kind of money.
What was your solution?
Finding multiple streams of income. I even tried to secure posting to some company that was willing to pay ₦80k, but it didn’t work out.
Currently, money just comes from NYSC and my place of primary assignment. I’m trying to figure shit out while trying not to get screwed over with the law or something.
How much do you get in a month currently?
I get up to 55k now every month – enough for a few Uber trips, transport and food.
What’s the most interesting NYSC season has taught you about money?
Everybody lies about money. Parents lie about money. Friends lie about money. NYSC people lie about money – a corper told me he was getting ₦100k. It’s not impossible to earn that, but I found out that it was a lie. Like, he had no reason to lie, yet he did. Guys at work will never tell you how much they earn. Also, everyone seems to be living beyond their means.
Looking at your skillset, how much do you feel like you should be earning right now?
I feel like I should be earning between 100 and ₦150k. But getting good money right now, that would be about ₦3 million a year. Still, this number will not help me pay rent where I’d like to live. I won’t be able to consistently handle family emergencies when they come up, because they will come up.
What’s your unpopular opinion about money?
Money is amoral. I understand the importance of money – don’t get me wrong – but people try to moralise money. Like, this is how you should earn etc, and I don’t get it. As long as I’m not hurting anybody, I don’t see a problem with the method.
It’s why I never dabbled into Internet fraud – I was surrounded by it in school – but you literally had to take money from someone who wasn’t willing to give you by manipulation. That’s fraud.
Also, I now realise that money really is the biggest motivator. If you pay people, they just tend to act right.
How much do you imagine you’ll be earning in like 5 years?
I was on Complex.com the other day and they pay about $2,500 monthly to their writers. So if I’m earning that, using today’s estimates, I’ll say I’ve done pretty well with the piece-of-shit degree that means nothing to me.
Forget the 5-year question, where do you imagine you’ll be financially in 30 years.
30 years might be too much for me, my imagination tends to run wild. But 10 years, I feel like I would have figured out a lot of it, not all of it. Wherever I’m at, I’m just going to try to be content. Because it’s not about how much you earn, but how happy you are with it – or some shit like that.
If you can’t think about 30 years now, then you clearly haven’t thought about a pension.
Nope. I’ve never really seen myself as someone that would need a pension. I just feel like if in 30 years, I can’t afford the life I need, maybe I didn’t do life right.
What’s something you really want right now but can’t afford?
A very long list of tech that keeps getting longer. Mainly a good Mac, a Sony mirrorless camera, GoPros, etc.
What’s the last you paid for that required serious planning?
A website. Setting it up cost me roughly ₦50k.
What about the most annoying miscellaneous you’ve had to pay for?
Apple Music. Paying for music. Like, I miss 2006. You download music now and everybody thinks you’re archaic. But that’s just the way things are now.
Do you have an emergency plan for when you fall sick and –
– I’m fucked. That’s probably why I never fall sick. Life is very much in limbo right now. But I’m working on plans to prepare an emergency fund. Maybe in a small buying and selling-ish business.
Do you feel like NYSC is a financial hindrance for you or…?
Not really. I needed time off. I was burned out after University. Even if there was no NYSC, I might have had a gap year or something. I just needed a break from chasing and all of that.
Sometimes, I wish I didn’t even get a job, but then I can’t complain. I have job experience – valuable business development experience.
NYSC is ending in less than a year, what’s the money thing looking like?
I’ve not even really planned everything to the letter, to be honest. But the best case scenario is that I get retained at my current place of primary assignment. That might give me up to 150k for a starting salary. Do that for a year or two, then I go back to school to get another degree.
The goal is to attempt to grow my income enough to cater for two people at the minimum. Not because I intend to become the sole provider or anything, but as a personal target. I just want to be able to help out. I’ll consider it a successful three years if I can go to school and juggle work.
Worst case scenario, none of this happens, and I end up looking for a job. Or find a small gig, while doing stuff I truly give a shit about on my own time.
Despite all of this, how would you rate your happiness levels?
I’ve never really been the happiest person. But I’m alive sha, I don’t worry a lot.
I’m trying to enjoy the impermanence of my situation, and not think too much about it.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’ hit the subscribe button. It only takes a minute.
If you’ve been reading this every Monday, you know the drill at this point. If you haven’t, now you know that Zikoko talks to anonymous people every week about their relationship with the Naira.
Sometimes, it will be boujee, other times, it will be struggle-ish. But all the time–it’ll be revealing.
What you should know about the lady in this story: She started off as a hobby, Social Media and writing, and followed through till this day.
When was the first time you made money?
There are stories of me winning essay competitions in Primary and Secondary school, but I have no memory of those days.
Anyway, I found out early that I’m not a “buying and selling of goods” person. I’m more of a services person.
But the first time I remember making money after secondary school, was right before I gained admission into Uni – a writing gig that paid 20k. 2013. I did that for like 3 months.
After that, I did a lot of social media work, just helping businesses manage their social accounts. The 10k’s here, and the 20k’s there for a few months at a time. But the solid and consistent one was like 25k for 2 years.
Then I got to a point where I was like, I can’t be collecting exposure money anymore – the 10k gigs that is. So I quit all the little ones and focused on the 25k one. This was, by this time, late into my first year in Uni.
By the end of my first year though, I was making 50-70k on a monthly basis, including pocket money.
So in the second year, I didn’t take on extra projects. So I switched to social media and started writing for blogs. 3rd year, peg it at 50k a month.
How did you know what was good money or what wasn’t?
I feel like I’m a proud person. The first gig, I collected 10k because I had no experience. But after doing it for 9 months, I already had a good sense of the value I was adding. It’s subjective, but when people starting reaching out to me to do work, I knew I couldn’t be collecting exposure money. In all though, 50k a month in work was okay for me.
Then in my final year, I got a proper job close to school. That’s when I became a proper big girl. The net salary was like 60k. I did that for about a year, until HR came to me one day and said, oh your services are no longer required. Come and be going.
Ehn?
I dunno how I survived for two months. At this time, I had already stopped receiving pocket money from home – this one stopped in 300-level. So I started looking for freelance work that paid good money here and there. One even paid 200k.
Then I got hired in an established company, still working with digital skills. The offer was 200k, and I was like, ‘oh this is not bad’. Next thing, time for salary and 170k entered my account, And I was like what the fuck?
Many of us learn net from gross after the first alert.
What was your first personal encounter with the difference between net income and gross income?
Need y’all to help me take the poll and retweet this #NairaLife. Thanks.
Thennnnn, I got another job – an international tech company – and next thing you know, I received alert at the end of the month. 600k. This was in 2018. It was actually in dollars, but when you convert it to naira, that’s what it comes to.
I’m assuming you’d never seen big alert before then.
Never. When it hit my account, I was like yooooooooooooooooo. I was just looking at it in disbelief. My first disbelief was actually why I was paying so much in taxes. Like, I called my mum to help me calculate to make sure they didn’t scam me.
When my mum heard how much it was, she was like YOU NEED TO SAVE. YOU CAN LIVE ON 10% OF THIS.
10k to 650k in 5 years, how did that happen?
Hopping jobs. Because how else will you get a raise if you’re not hopping jobs? People say if you hop around, it’s bad for your career.
But I’m doing okay if I say so myself.
My major driver, in general, is that I don’t like to be broke. I like to have money. It’s not even so I can buy expensive things. I just want to have that safety that money provides. My folks aren’t poor, but I’ve seen them struggle. And I need it to end with me. Also, I don’t want kids; because fuck them kids.
It’s nice to be able to eat out, but having money as a safety net is even better. Right now though, I’m very broke, which makes no sense–
–talking about being broke;
I had major expenses. In January, I had over a million in my account and I was like wow, first million sitting in the bank. It’ll probably never happen again because I have a lot of expenses lined up. I bought land in January. Then I bought some gear for work, a computer actually.
Okay, let’s break down your monthly spending properly.
First thing, when my salary enters, I let it just sit for like 2 days. Then I dive in.
“No matter how much you earn, make sure you save” is a scam. Saving became easier as I earned more. Also, I have two types of savings. There’s the touchables; small ones I can quickly liquidate. Then there’s the untouchable, which goes up to 80k per month.
I rarely spend on food and transport. The company takes care of that. Also, I go out only twice a month. Relationships are expensive so date nights indoors, please. Then I buy gifts for my friends. Everything else is as e dey hot.
Okay, but how much do you feel like you should be earning though?
Honestly, my money is okay. But if I want to demand more, 1 million to be honest. There are many things I need to do, and money will help me do it faster. But I even feel like if I get that much money, I’ll just be dashing people.
How did you arrive at 1 million?
Omo, I dunno, I just plucked that money from the air. I don’t pay rent, I’m not paying school fees. The only reason I still do some freelance work is that I’m very ambitious and I need more money to achieve some things.
How much do you imagine you’ll be earning in 5 years?
I don’t want to be in this country – let’s start from there. I don’t care about being extremely wealthy. I just need comfort and security. And then whatever is slightly above average in whatever country I’m living in. Whether I go to Spain or Switzerland, or Cuba, as long as I’m comfortable enough to pay my bills, go on holiday once a year, and take care of myself, I’m fine.
It can’t be in Nigeria where you’re one health disaster away from poverty.
I feel like being extremely wealthy has its own pressures, so neh. I just don’t want to have to balance sheets every time to make basic financial decisions.
What’s something you want right now but can’t afford?
I would have said a car, but I’m not sure I want a car. I’m just saying it because it feels like the thing I’m supposed to say. A trip, I guess. I dunno. I don’t really want a lot, just comfort. Unless someone gives me a Glucose Guardian that doesn’t want glucose and just wants me to succeed in life.
I really just want to make money and be alright. It’s why I started working when I was much younger – I didn’t want to wait for my father to stop giving me handouts before I figured it out.
Oh yes – I know what I want but can’t afford. I want to buy a house.
What’s the last thing you bought that required serious planning?
Land – I bought it for 800k. Add documentation to that, and everything cost about a million. Fencing is lined up as my next major expense. I don’t really know what I want to use it for sef. I dunno whether I’ll build on it or something. I dunno. It just felt like a sensible investment channel.
What other investments do you have?
Mutual funds. Online investment platforms. I want to try all those Agric platforms too – ThriveAgric and Farmcrowdy – but I haven’t gotten around to checking them out. I’m a very low-risk person, so I like to know things thoroughly before I put my money on them.
What’s your “One sickness away from poverty” safety net?
I have HMO, I have doctor family friends. In fact, I didn’t bother with HMO because our family doctors used to give heavy discounts. Also, my pension is almost a million. Last-last, make God dey protect person.
Happiness Levels?
A solid 7.5. The remaining 2.5 is because I’m not yet collecting bastard money. I guess if I have 1.5 million naira net, my happiness will land on 10. Beyond the money, I have the things I wanty in life; a great support system, good health, so just give me more money.
Oh, and take me out of this country.
I consider myself lucky because I never imagined I’d be doing what I’m currently doing, earning a living off Digital skills.
I’m generally a go-with-the-flow person. I’ve just been lucky to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right people. I definitely work hard, but it’s like 40% luck. I could be working hard in one corner and still be earningn my 20k.
What’s–
–Actually, it’s not luck. It’s 100% hard work and my mother’s prayers. You were saying?
I was going to ask you if there’s something you wanted me to ask that I didn’t already ask.
I dunno, my account number?
Thank you very much. How old are you again?
20.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’, just subscribe here. It only takes a minute.
Also, you can find every story in this series here.
If you’ve been reading this every Monday, you know the drill at this point. If you haven’t, now you know that Zikoko talks to anonymous people every week about their relationship with the Naira.
Sometimes, it will be boujee, other times, it will be struggle-ish. But all the time–it’ll be revealing.
What you should know about our guy: He’s 25, and he writes code day and night. Let’s get it going.
So when did the first alert enter?
300-level. I worked on a 400-level student’s Final Year project – ₦20k. So imagine still living with your parents, collecting pocket money, and earning an extra 20. Super chill.
It wasn’t exactly hard work – I research, find as much as I can. Arrange it into chapters. But I did it for like two more people and stopped. I was worried schoolwork would suffer.
Interesting, next?
I made friends with someone, who in all truth, I was always looking up to. He got me into coding. I had some knowledge already, but he had the direction. He knew how to convert that knowledge to money. The sum of my 400-level is that I worked with him, taking on gigs with him, earning a ₦20k here, a ₦30k there. Learning from him.
When was this?
2013. I was in school, and I wasn’t using this money for anything per se – maybe just Internet and fuel. By default, once you’re driving in school, you attract attention. So you spend money on fuel and go to places you’d normally not have gone if you didn’t have a car. And then spending on people too.
I recognise this.
You know that break after exams, before the actual graduation? One of my friends came and said his dad’s company wanted us to build something to help them manage their entire process.
So we had a blank slate to think of something, and what did we land on? An inventory managing system.
Next thing, this guy comes and says, yo, my dad has invited us to come and pitch this product. In two weeks. So now, we had two weeks to build something, a minimum viable product, that could at least do the basic functions. Those two weeks was a blur.
In the end, we got the gig. ₦600k split between three people.
Lit.
Fast forward to NYSC, and I was collecting ₦19,800, plus ₦10k at the place I worked. So ₦29,800 per month. This was the first time I was leaving home. I barely knew how the world worked, so I was spending money the way I’d do when I was at my parents’ house.
By the second month, I was broke.
Ouch.
I had to call my dad to ask for money. And it went like,
Me: Daddy, I need money o.
Dad: How much is your allowee?
Me: ₦19,800
Dad: What of the place you’re working, how much do they give you?
Me: ₦10,000
Dad: So ₦29,800. You better manage, because that’s what families use to sustain themselves.
Me: Oh…okay daddy. But can you just send me money please?
Dad: *sends ₦5k*
It’s the last time he sent me money ever.
Wild.
Not too long after, a friend told me about a startup that was looking for hands. I applied straight up. The first week, no response. The second week, same. Then towards the end of the month, I got a response. It was a Quality Assurance role. I got an offer of ₦50k and started immediately.
First week, I did all my tasks and there was like, nothing else to do. And then the CEO just hit me up:
CEO: Looks like you’ve run out of work to do. And it’s only been a week. I’m wondering if I should keep you for the entire month. What are your other skillsets?
Me: I can code.
CEO: That’s interesting. We’ll move you to being a developer. I know you’re serving, but can you come around tomorrow for a meeting with the rest of the team?
Me, a broke Corper: It’s the middle of the month, I don’t have money.
CEO: *asks for account number and sends ₦5k*
I was already at the office in Lagos first thing the next morning. Then I had to head back out of Lagos and I got my first taste of the Lagos traffic. Anyway, I was wondering, this money thing, do I still get the same QA money, or I should be negotiating for a different pay? Sha, I texted a few days later.
Me: Hi boss, nobody said anything about payments to me.
CEO: Oh, that. How much do you want?
I didn’t even know what to ask for, I just sharply texted my friend.
Me: Guy, how much do you earn?
Guy: ₦100k.
And I’m like, I’m just going to tell this guy 300k, because in my head, that’s what you earn after leaving school as a standard. So, back to me and the CEO,
Me: ₦300k
CEO: LMAO. I can’t pay you that.
Me: So how much will you pay?
CEO: ₦80k
Me: ₦150k
CEO: ₦100k?
Me: Okay.
And that’s how I secured ₦100k in my third month in NYSC. That means ₦130k per month. The day the alert entered, I stared at the alert for a long time, smiling. That was almost $1000 at the time.
I just dey super chilllleeedddd.
I worked for another year, then I asked for a raise. It took a lot of courage to ask for it, but I got a raise to ₦175k. Then I moved to Lagos proper. No time. At this time, I’d gotten really good and improved my craft.
I started getting other projects from my friend who got me my 9-5. So I was earning 9-5 money, and I was doing side jobs. What it meant was that I wasn’t getting enough sleep, so I was shutting down on some days. It was hard juggling them, but I made sure not to drop the ball.
What were the numbers looking like?
My side hustle was giving me an extra 100 to ₦150k every month. Then I got a part-time job at a startup where I could work remotely. That one was paying ₦70k, and I did this for 3 months. It also came around the time of a side gig drought.
When the 3 months passed, I was back to ₦175k, but only briefly. Got a gig right after that that paid ₦100k. Then another one that was going to give ₦300k. This was November 2016.
It was a really huge project, and it meant I had a whole lot of stuff to do.
My main job had become mundane at this point, and since freelancing was already giving me good money, I took another step – I resigned. At this time, I was stressed, tired and wanted to leave Lagos, because it was killing me.
So I went to Ibadan, found a place with a friend. A badass three-bedroom. ₦350k per year. Then I ran into a friend;
Friend: Guy, we need a coder in my company
Me: Eh ehn? Me I’m leaving Lagos. I’ve already seen an apartment to pay for sef.
Friend: Why are you leaving? Lagos is where all the action is at! We’re up to big things!
Me: How much?
Friend: ₦300k, for the probation period.
I stayed. But the hard part? I had to start coming to work – my former jobs allowed me to be remote most of the time. So I thought about it, and decided to give it a shot.
You know what’s crazy?
What?
I met my new boss, and there was an opportunity to negotiate for a raise. But it didn’t feel like a lot more work.
I played myself, because the workload was the equivalent of three jobs from the past, put together.
My problem is, I couldn’t get anything done at the office. Open office plans don’t work for me. The constant noise and talking. So I had to work at home at night till like 4am. Then drag muself to work at 8am. Then crash on the weekend. Did that till the end of the year, and I got tired, I wanted to quit.
Then things happened at the end of my first December at the company;
Alert: *Salary enters, ₦300k.*
Me: Oh okay
Alert: *13th-month salary enters, ₦300k*
Me: WOLLOP NIGGA
This was my first time ever seeing the 13th-month salary. I didn’t even know the concept. Anyway, January came, and it was time for a salary review. My salary got increased to ₦400k net. I wasn’t happy with the raise.
Why?
My workload. I didn’t even have time to take up side work. So I went to renegotiate and got an extra ₦50k. So ₦450k.
All this time, I’d been staying with some family in Lagos and I moved out around this time.
How much was rent?
₦1 million at the time. It was a 2-bed I was splitting with my friend. We were paying a million each. I had to borrow, plus all the money I’d saved up.
Mad.
I got another raise at the end of Q1, ₦25k. It was small, but it was extra money, so nothing spoil. But you know what’s even better, I had to go work for the company abroad for a few months. In the US. It was my first time leaving Nigeria, ever. I was getting allowances per diem.
That is super lit. You didn’t touch your salary?
Plis dear. I touched it. I was eating out. But the first thing that struck me about living in Oyinbo country is that they actually wait for you to cross at a Zebra crossing. My first time at a traffic light;
Me: *waits for car to pass at Zebra crossing*
Car: *waits for me to cross*
Me: *waiting for car to pass*
Car: *horns so I can cross on time*
This happened to me like thrice, because I was like, “is this how you people used to do?” That was when it dawned on me properly that we’re living Jungle life in Lagos.
So I had to start unlearning many things. But as I was unlearning, I was buying new clothes and changing my wardrobe. I packed all the clothes I had, every single one from Nigeria, and I gave it to a charity –
–For them to send back to Nigeria for people to sell in Yaba?
LMAO. It was for a local charity for homeless people. Sha, I started buying gadgets I wanted. Like, I even bought Google Home. And every month, I’d laugh at myself like, “we’ll save next month.”
Then I came back to Nigeria, and that was one of my saddest days ever.
It didn’t properly dawn on me until the connecting flight I took was filled with Nigerians, and the air hostesses were shouting at Nigerians to stop being rowdy.
And I was like, oh fuck.
The first thing that hits you when you arrive is the hot air. Come and see my load. I’d spent all my money in the Abroad. It was like I was importing things. But most importantly, I was broke. So I did what everyone else would do – hide at home till the next salary.
But the whole trip made me sad about how far off we are in Nigeria. Once you see the difference between where they are, and where we are, you lose all hope that we might ever catch up. At least once in my lifetime.
Anyway, back to work. End of the year. 13th month again. January, salary increased to ₦610k. Major raise.
Whoop whoop.
Oh wait, I skipped something. I got a gig when I was out of the country. ₦800k. I got 50% while I was in the U.S., then I collected the balance when the job was done.
In January, I decided I need to get back to my side hustle ways. I needed more money and more ginger in my blood. The more you earn, the more you have ideas about how to put money to use and secure your future, the more you need more money. I needed to get back to hustle mode.
So I started applying for jobs outside Nigeria.
How many applications did you send out?
32 in 3 months. I got rejected by all of them. Some didn’t get replied. Some replied, then rejected me. One went through. I did an interview, and I got selected. Did everything – met with the teams. The pay? $4,000.
The day I was supposed to resume, everything got called off.
What…the fuck?
They said something about them not being able to come through at this time yen yen yen. I was just happy I didn’t resign from my current job to start this because that would have been bad.
Ah shit.
Good thing is, I went for training abroad, and I ran into a CEO who offered me a job to work on a product with them. He offered me a job paying $500 every week. It’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but that’s ₦1.3 million from two jobs.
That’s…that’s not a lot at all.
It’s not. Like 3,500-ish.
Have you ever thought about all of this – from that first 20k to ₦1.3 million in 6 years?
Yep. I’ve thought about it a lot, and I realise that there was always a connection. Always a friend offering me the job. Or the next job. Even this dollar gig, if I hadn’t struck up that conversation, I’ll probably still be earning ₦610k. The key has always been people, offering genuine value, and never dropping the ball.
Okay let’s break down the ₦1.3 million and where it goes.
I used to have a spreadsheet, but I don’t track that much anymore.
What? The spreadsheet couldn’t fit?
LMAO. I got tired of tracking my spending. Still, I became money conscious when I discovered I was earning a lot and still getting broke.
But the recurring stuff:
I keep running costs less than ₦200k. But a lot of my money goes into gadgets. I want the latest of everything. So that’s where a lot of my money goes.
What’s your current gadget stash looking like?
Okay, so where’s the rest of the money?
Minus recurrent stuff, and occasionally buying gadgets, I tend to give a lot of money out. If I feel like someone needs money, I just send it to them. We always know someone who needs it. You can file this under lau-lau.
But I’m also trying to save, and on my saving end, that will be $1k per month. Saving it in dollars, because we can’t be saving in naira, please.
Have you considered investing?
Yeah, but to be honest, I’d rather invest in dollars. The naira is a mess. The inflation rate is a mess. So a good investment that does not give you significantly more than what the current inflation rate is, is like a waste to me.
How much do you really feel like you should be earning though?
I’ve never really thought about it, but I can really use some $10,000 a month. That’s just about $120k and it’s not a lot.
What’s something you want but can’t afford?
That I want? Bro. Technically, I can afford it. I wanted a car, but I paused it for a bigger plan.
Bigger plan?
Leaving the country – Canada. You know something I actually want but can’t afford? A second citizenship. There are faster ways to do this citizenship thing – faster than the usual ‘live there for four years etc’. You can buy property or invest in some countries and you get citizenship.
Do you ever think about retirement?
Yep. The goal is to retire at 40 – I mean I’m 25 now – but that still is the goal. Then I’m going to be teaching and mentoring people. And helping out in whatever way I can. I really don’t see myself working beyond 40.
The goal is to stack up like $200k, then put it in some financial instruments that can fetch me maybe like 5-10 million naira quarterly (based on today’s values).
Looks like you have active retirement plans.
There’s my pension. I track that. It’s currently at ₦1.5 million or so. I have no other plans at the moment tbh. There’s also the part where I still want to travel the world, but then I need a different passport to do that.
Back to the moment.
Okay, back to the moment.
I feel like I’ve been able to reach the perfect amount to unlock balling in Lagos. You have enough money for all your needs, and then a decent amount left for lau-lau. What I need to hack now is how to find ways to do way less work, for the same amount.
When was the last time you felt genuinely broke, and how much did you have?
Definitely. When I came back from the U.S, I had ₦30k in my account. At the beginning of the month.
What’s your happiness metre saying?
A 7. That’s because I feel like I need to get to a point where I don’t bother about money. Currently, I’m juggling two jobs. I’m always occupied. Relationships suffer. You have less time to chill and even enjoy the things you’re working for.
So that’s it. All of it.
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Every week, we ask anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira.
In this story, a lady talks about her struggles and it’s not just with money, it’s at the workplace.
Age: 26
Occupation: Customer Support
What’s the first time you made money?
It was in secondary school. Mumsy bought a lot of Chin-chin for us, and I got tired of eating them. So I repackaged it in smaller plastic bags and started selling it to my classmates. What was I using the money for? To buy Rice or Ewa Aganyin.
Next was when I was on I.T., earning ₦15k working HR. It wasn’t even the salary that was sweet, it was the weekend money our boss used to give us on Fridays. Like ₦2k when he’s broke.
I went back to school after I.T., and then lecturers went on strike. I was like, “what am I doing at home like this? I mean, I’m a badass cook”, so I just started cooking for people.
What was I using the money for? To buy airtime for my mummy. Buy data. Buy Shawarma. Enjoy my life. It was an almost effortless ₦15k in profit every month.
The strike was called off in 2014, but I was still cooking, but sparingly.
Did you have an allowance in all this time?
Well, since the time I brought a man home, my dad just stopped giving me money. My mum was still giving me when I asked, but my dad? No. When I asked, he’d be like, go and ask your man. Keep in mind, I started dating this guy in 2012. It’s not like he was giving me money steady, but anything I needed, he got me.
Also, he’d just randomly send ₦10k every now and then.
What’s the highest money he ever sent?
₦50k. I think it was the end of the year, and they gave him a 13th-month salary at the office, so he spread the love.
When did you finish school?
2015. Then I went to serve somewhere in the North Central. But I enjoyed sha, because I lived off Mammy Market in camp. Never ate from the kitchen. Buying everything buyable. I had money, from my mum, from man. My dad though, same old.
NYSC allowance was ₦19,800, plus another ₦20k allowance from bae. Although it wasn’t consistent, it came. My house rent and everything I got in the house, he bought for me. My mum too. But my dad? Deadest. Shi-shi, I no see.
I finished serving in 2016.
And?
I was jobless. And then, I decided to take the food business seriously. I took on a partner too, but we struggled and struggled. Orders weren’t consistent, logistics were tough.
Throughout that time, we didn’t exactly make money from it. We were throwing everything back into the business; buying equipment and all that. It gets exhausting though.
So, how were you sustaining yourself?
I got a customer care gig.
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
That job showed me that sometimes, people don’t want you to grow. They really just want to use you. I was in desperate for a job, so I took it.
My salary was ₦15k and there was barely ₦7k at the end of the job. This was in 2018.
I think I lived like a pauper in 2016 and 2017. Also, I was going through shit with the man at the time. I became an introvert because I was broke, although I was getting handouts from my mum.
My dad didn’t give me a feeding allowance, so food came from when my mum cooked.
Broke. Depressed. Heartbroken.
Sorry you had to go through that.
It was in late 2017 I started looking for jobs. I was looking around HR, customer care, and general admin stuff. I even applied for teaching jobs but my mind wasn’t really there.
When I think about it, I probably didn’t hate the customer care job per se, but my mum was always on my case about it. She made me feel bad about it–the money and all. So imagine I was dealing with angry customers, and having to deal with my mum’s pressure at home.
So I quit.
Lucky for me, I got another gig as soon as I quit. The job description looked like it was going to be creatively stimulating. It was some tiny media company. I was going to be working with designers and doing social media work. Initially, I didn’t feel cut out for it because I didn’t have any background, but at the interview, my boss made me relax, telling me he believed I had potential.
I was glad that I got another job, until I wasn’t.
Trashy boss. The first thing that was off; he copy-pasted my job description from Google. Every single letter and full stop.
And then it appeared that they didn’t really have a sense of what role I was supposed to play. No defined structure. No procedures. They were all over the place.
There was also the part where he started saying he wanted to marry me. I think he just wanted to sleep with me, to be honest. Let’s not forget how he kept hammering on how religious he was.
And then at the end of the first month, I didn’t get paid.
How much?
I was supposed to be paid ₦50k. End of the second month, no pay. No explanation. By the end of the second month, I asked for an explanation for why I hadn’t been paid. My Oga said it was insubordination.
I quit a few days into the 3rd month. I just sat at home, told them I couldn’t afford to come. It took some shaming him, but he eventually paid me ₦70k. I think his method was to control people by holding on to their money.
After then, I was back to square one, jobless, except this time, there was a lot of debt. This was July.
Look at it this way:
You have ₦5, and you’re expecting ₦20. So you spend your ₦5, still expecting ₦20. Then somehow, you borrow here and there, and next thing you know, your debt climbs to ₦30. Then you pay back when your ₦20 comes, but you’re still in debt. So the cycle repeats itself. Your debt keeps accumulating and you keep living to pay off debt. That was my life.
I feel you.
I tried to get back to my own food hustle, and it seemed to be doing not so bad. Profit was like ₦40k. But then we started to remove ₦1k from the profit, then put ₦39k back into the business. Repeat. Currently, the money has climbed to about ₦120k. The goal is to build a base to have more capacity.
I didn’t get another fulltime job until November – a customer care job. At least that’s where I started. It has gotten a lot more challenging now though. I feel underpaid, maybe I am. The good thing is that the salary is paid consistently; ₦50k. It’s a food delivery business and I have to do a bunch of things. I also have to take everyone’s orders. I have to call up old customers to ask why they haven’t ordered. I keep up with everything across Social Media from Twitter to Whatsapp. I also send updates to partners of the business.
That’s four roles; Social Media Management, Logistics Manager, Customer Support/Retention, and perhaps some Business Development.
Chai. I’ve suffered. And I was thinking I’m working from home and enjoying. Enjoyment kill you there! 20 calls a day – and that’s on a Sunday.
You work Mondays to Sundays?
No days off. Except on public holidays. I have to reply to every message. I have to call back every missed call. I have to apologise to customers when riders mess up an order.
What are you thinking right now?
The only thing I need to do is to start looking for better opportunities. Initially, if I knew I was going to do this much, I won’t have accepted the offer. When the job got overwhelming, I complained to my boss. He told me to find someone else, then they’d have to reduce my salary to pay the other person.
Maybe all of this is because it’s still a small business. But still.
Wait, are there remote jobs that can pay me as much?
What is ‘much’?
At least ₦150k. I’m not even asking for too much. The only reason I want a remote job is that I really want to grow this business too. I need it to grow. But who will pay me that much to work from home?
Between 2012 and now, what has changed about your perspective on money?
I don’t want to have to be dependent on someone before I can spend money. I don’t want to have to think, “If I don’t see this person, I can’t have money.” I want to be able to say, “I earned this thing, and I can do with it as I like.”
When I was collecting money from my mum, I kept getting the “What did you use it for” question.
There’s the comfort that comes from having your own money. So now that I’m working, I really just want to have money and be free to do as I like with it.
There’s just this thing–I don’t know the word–this thing that comes from having your own money.
Let’s do the breakdown of your monthly income.
I don’t care what the problem is, but once my salary enters, I just go out and buy food, just to eat and feel alright. Sharwarma or Ice-cream, I must buy something for myself. I never take it home, I just sit down there and eat it. Last salary, I went to Coldstone, bought the buy-one-get-one-free.
I finished the two in one sitting.
Do you have a sense of direction for where you’re headed?
I do now. I want to be a community manager. I have a background in hospitality already. I have some experience in HR, customer relations, Social Media Management. I’m reading materials online, but mostly free stuff.
But it’s hard juggling courses with my current job. I’m constantly replying customer messages and requests pretty much every hour I’m awake.
Looking at where you are, how much do you think you’d be earning in 5 years?
I don’t think my income should be less than ₦500k. Then if my business actually gets off the ground, ah. Can you imagine how much The Place makes in a week? In 5 years, I want to be doing The Place’s volume for one of their restaurants. Food business is super lucrative. Once you have great food and sometimes, great connects, you’ll blow.
Even those that cook trash, people still dey chop.
Back to now, how much do you think you should earn in salary?
Doing all those things? Just gimme ₦200k. At least.
What’s something you want but you can’t afford?
I want to buy my parents a house. Obviously unaffordable. I hate where they currently live, with passion.
When I pay all my debts, my primary goal is to save a quarter of my salary till I can afford to buy land or something somewhere, so they can finally feel a sense of ownership. Everything else I want but can’t afford doesn’t feel super important. Like a car. Or a really good laptop. Or a great phone. Or a camera for taking good photos.
What’s the last thing you bought that required serious planning?
A Bluetooth headset. It wasn’t even funny at all. I think I prepped for like 2 months to buy it, and it cost ₦6k. I took that long because I just had a lot of things to do with money. And even though it was important because of work, it still wasn’t high on my priority list.
Do you have a pension plan or health plan?
Nope. Ah. I hate falling sick. When I start having symptoms, I’m always in denial, because I can’t even spend any rubbish money on hospital bills. I go rugged am, so I don’t have to go to the hospital, because feeling sick means I have to spend money.
There was a time my ear was paining me seriously, and I had to go to the hospital. I didn’t want to go, but the pain was too much.
But when I collected a card at the hospital, they charged my ₦5k. My chest. Then tests, they said I should pay ₦25k.
I dunno how the ear stopped paining me o, but I didn’t do that test.
How would you rate your happiness levels?
Over 10? 10.7. I feel really am content. I don’t have much, but I’m content, especially when I think about where I used to be.
But I feel the full weight of all the responsibilities now. I’m no longer a child.
Damn.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’, just subscribe here. It only takes a minute.
Every story in this series that you’ve missed, find them here.
If you’ve been reading this every Monday, you know the drill at this point. If you haven’t, now you know that Zikoko talks to anonymous people every week about their relationship with the Naira.
Sometimes, it will be boujee, other times, it will be struggle-ish. But all the time–it’ll be revealing.
When do you first feel like you truly understood money?
It was actually recently. Someone hired me to do a job and he hasn’t paid me. This guy has money oh, but somehow it clocked for me that money is money, but value is subjective. Like, money and value are not always equal. Most importantly, there’s the part where I realised that for your account to increase, someone’s account balance has to reduce.
That’s an interesting start.
Even if I remember the first time I made money, I’m sure it wasn’t hard. I always used to be like, “if you deliver value, the money will come.” It’s not that straightforward anymore.
I had opportunities when I was in school, but I enjoyed doing those things so much that I did them for free.
Then NYSC started, and I was getting broke too easily. That’s when I told my friend, “yo, I can do anything. Just holler if you need anybody to do anything.”
Just around that time, a bunch of guys were building a business, and they needed someone to do motion graphics. My guy hooked me up with them.
They were like, “can you do it?” and I’m like, “sure why not?”
Bruh, I’d never done that shit before. I had no experience in design or Motion Graphics. We had that conversation on a Monday, and I sent it in on a Friday.
They loved it so much that they invited me over, and gave me the full gist. Someone had actually hired them to do a job, and they had outsourced that part of it.
So now, all three of us went to meet this person, as partners, and he paid us 60k. It really was a big deal. Bruh, we actually took a photo with the cheque.
It’s also how I learned design, someone needed something done, so i just winged it and learned till I delivered.
How did that business go?
We had a good run, but there were too many forces pulling me away, so I succumbed, and I had to leave.
Forces?
Yes. We weren’t in a major city where all the action was happening. Plus, other forces like family and friends were pulling me back home. I vaguely remember, but we didn’t make a lot of money with that business in the short time we worked together–maybe 400k? But we had a good time while we were at it.
So you mostly survived on NYSC salary?
See, the best way I can explain my financial life is this; I don’t have money o. But I always have money.
Also, this might sound weird, but there was this beggar who had a baby. When I think about it now, if I had only 200 naira, I always made sure to give her 100 naira. As long as I see her. I was probably giving her out of selfishness, to be honest. Because weird thing, but every time I gave her money, someone always calls me to dash me money or pay me for something. I swear.
But anyway, where were we?
What happened after NYSC?
I stayed behind about six months, then I left and returned to Lagos. I got a job almost immediately. This was at the end of 2015. I started at 80k – net was 73k. I joined in November and I didn’t have a lot of needs, so it was a lot of money at the time. But next month? That was the real hit.
What happened in December?
One of the friends I’d already made in the company told me something, “Guy, go and borrow money you know you can’t afford to pay back.” And I’m like, what’s the guy saying? And he was like, “you go soon find out.”
The next week, I got an “end of the year” bonus–500k. After working for only two months. Bruh. I remember sitting inside keke, in the middle of two people, looking at them left and right, and saying in my head, DO YOU PEOPLE KNOW HOW MUCH I HAVE? ARE YOU JOKING?
Of course, I was super chill outwardly, but I was ecstatic. I saved it though, because I didn’t have any need for it.
It was also a time that my work required a lot from me that didn’t make side interests easy, so I shut them out.
So, 2016?
I was collecting my 73k, but now that I remember, it’s like most of it was going to Amazon. I liked to buy fancy stuff for my girlfriend at the time, like scented body wash and stuff like that. I’d just buy and ship.
Smack in the middle of the year, I got another bonus and gbas; 650k.
Is there a structure to these bonuses?
We thought there was, turns out there wasn’t. I was saving most of it anyway, so I was good. It was a quiet year, doing my work and minding my business, but by the end of the year, another bonus gbos; 1.2 million. I wasn’t expecting it. Them no dey expect that kain thing. This was in December 2016.
This was also the time I thought it’d be great to do something with all that money. So I convinced my mum to buy a car from someone–cost about 1 million. Then I bought it off her and had to pay in instalments. The goal was to use it for Uber. Do you know what’s mad? That car actually cost me 1.4 million, instead of 1 million. That extra money came from getting the car to the best condition possible.
I think this was when my downturn with money started.
I think I made only 180k from Uber. It was on and off the road–terrible investment. So by December 2017, I sold the car to someone that I sometimes feel guilty about selling to, even though he was aware of the car’s condition.
That was also the time I decided to move out of my parents’ house.
Ah, that.
The place I got was 650k. But you the Landlord wanted me to pay 2 years, so it actually cost me 1.4 million. And that was the first time in a very long time I felt like, “oh shit, I’m burning through all my cash.”
Still, I went for Umrah that December. I just felt like I needed it. This one cost 800k.
How did you fund your December?
Oh, I got another bonus – 2 million – so it made all of it easy.
Also – I wish I tracked this but – I spent close to 600k to get my house to living conditions. I bought my TV for 360k – it was a Black Friday sale – then I spent the rest on painting for the house, bed, fittings and other stuff.
Sha, at the end of that period, it felt like I was back to zero. At the turn of 2018, the office decided to increase my net salary from 70-something-k to 90-something-k, which is ridiculous, but okay.
It really does feel like your real salary comes twice a year.
The reality of this started setting in at the beginning of 2018. I’m like, how can I be collecting 90k a month? It’s been three years, and that was when I started to think properly about my growth within the company.
I mean, there were occasional bonuses that still came here and there. They’d come like twice a year and bring another 200k. The problem with all of it was that you couldn’t plan around it.
Wait, what company was this?
It’s a services company running a very lucrative business by Nigerian standards. The company has cash, there just doesn’t seem to be a proper structure. Can’t tell you the name 🙂
Anyway, I got 650k again, middle of the year. At this point, it was boring. There was already a shortfall for me that when the 650 came, the money felt like “are you joking” money.
To be honest, I want to quit, but I haven’t garnered enough courage to quit. I just need a financial justification to do so, like when my side hustle can sustain me without my 9-5 salary. I feel generally disenchanted with the whole 9-5 system at this point.
Did I mention that I bought a car? That made me completely wrecked. Only reason I could even survive paying for that car was paying instalmentally.
Anyway–
–End of the year bonus, 2018.
2.5 million. I pushed like 1 million into a project. Another 1 million went to the balance of my car. The remaining 500 went into tiny holes, like debts. Sha, the money on top of the 2 million completely disappeared.
What project?
A lifetime project – marriage. I mean, I know 1 million isn’t going to be enough, but it’s a start. You blink and 6 months will pass and next thing you know, I don’t have any money for my wedding.
What are the numbers looking like?
Argh. In total now, I’ve put in about 2.25 million. My parents have put in like 5 million. I’m sure my bride and her family have in well over 5 million.
So let’s say it has already crossed 10 million.
Wow. I’m shocked hearing that out loud. Like, it doesn’t feel like it, but then the numbers don’t lie. We’re actually planning for 500 guests, but realistically, 600.
What’s your financial future looking like inside marriage?
I’m screwed. While my job gives me a bad salary, it’s not exactly bad money. Also, there’s the part where my fiancée is doing fantastically well.
So even though I need to pull my own weight, I’m not under as much pressure as you’d expect.
So side hustles will go a long way, because my job actually gives me time.
We have big goals, so I’m going to have to step up. I don’t have it entirely figured out right now, but I’m in good company.
Let’s talk about your monthly income
I’m winging this money shit every month. My only luck is that I’m not that much a heavy spender, so I only spend when I need to. Also, I have a reflexive saving habit. Money comes and I just save, and it’s not accessible short term.
Also, I invested in something once; Sukuk. I can’t even remember how much I put in it, I just gave my babe to sort it out.
For health emergencies, I have my office HMO. They also sort out pension too by the way. Imagine how much pension you’ll be getting from a 100k gross salary.
How much money do you honestly feel like you should be earning every month?
800k to 1 million. And this is an educated figure. My skillsets across my side projects say I should be earning that much.
Something you want but can’t afford?
Nothing. I have everything I want. There’s a part of me that will say material stuff, but right now I think I’m fine. I think I’m just extremely lucky for everything I have, for the people in my life. For my fiancée.
These material things are mostly random shit, like a GoPro, or a drone.
Grad school would have been on my list, but I like where I’m headed. But if I had to go back to school, it’d be to study Sustainable Energy Futures. I’m enthusiastic about energy solutions for our part of the world.
When was the last you felt genuinely broke?
Yesterday. I almost cried. I was looking at my account balance and the list of things I have to do. And when I thought of the fact that at the end of the month, I’ll get 92k, it started driving me nuts. Funny thing is, I feel this way every month.
There’s something about my growth at work that depresses me. The closest people around me make me feel like I should be doing more.
And it’s not like they’re saying it or anything, I look at them and I just know I should be doing more. I’m not poor, but I could be doing way better.
Most of them are doing between 500k and 1 million a month. My existence is not threatened, financially. But I’m not happy with my financial performance, so far.
I feel you.
In the middle of this madness, my friends and I started a company in 2017.
I think we’re up to something, and I can see money or other success in my future. I care very much about building digital products–systems, apps, etc. It’s super interesting and lucrative. It’s still a tough sell at large, but we’ve been lucky a few times.
The most I’ve made from a gig – argh I don’t keep track of these things – I think it’s 200k and that’s minus the company revenue. This was a personal gig. To be honest, it was only for a few hours of work.
Despite everything, it always feels like I don’t have money. But I just always have money and I never lack.
Someone always tells me the best things that have happened to me were the ones I didn’t really plan for. I’m honestly grateful and optimistic about the future.
Random, but what is your Nigerian dream?
Building something that blows. Blowing in Nigeria is selling something to the government, then relocating your family Abroad.
Then join them later after you’ve hustled well here. And then live happily ever after; The Abroad Nigerian Dream.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’ just subscribe here. It only takes a minute.
If you’ve been reading this every Monday, you know the drill at this point. If you haven’t, now you know that Zikoko talks to anonymous people every week about their relationship with the Naira.
Sometimes, it will be boujee, other times, it will be struggle-ish. But all the time–it’ll be revealing.
When was the first time you made money?
After school, before NYSC. I was working at a car management company, and I was the data management person. ₦15k every month–10 actually, but the MD liked me, so he was giving me extra 5k. This was in 2011, and I did that for 5 months.
It was a boring job, my goodness. But yeah, 15k was not a lot, but I didn’t have to give anyone. I don’t even know what I used the money to do, because I couldn’t account for anything that happened in that era.
Were you getting an extra allowance from home?
After school? No. I mean, if I needed anything, my parents would, you know, sort it out. But there had to be a need. We were not very well-to-do at the time–not comfortable enough to be giving you money based on “Oh I want money.”
“What’s wrong with you?” my mum will be like “me too I want money.”
NYSC came and I was earning 5k, plus NYSC salary, as a teacher in a Secondary School. I started service in 2012.
At the time, my older brother was sending me money every other month. There wasn’t a pattern, but he was helping out–5k here, 10k there, 20k later. So that helped a lot.
But then, I was still sending money home to my parents, 5k. Not for them to use it for anything per se, but just so they could know I was doing something.
Girls just tend to send money home. When parents say they want someone that will take care of them when they’re old, they tend to mean girl children.
Post NYSC?
All through 2013, Life happened to me, so I had to go live with my brother. He was giving me like 5k every other week. I was living in his house and I wasn’t going anywhere. So he was pretty much just giving me money to survive and do other girl stuff.
It was a rough year, my worst year ever. I was on the edge all the time.
Then 2014 came, and I got my first real job as a Sales Associate with an auto-servicing company. My pay was 100 grand. And in the first month I started working there, the MD-slash-CEO, married man, decided that I was going to be his conquest. I no gree.
So, I pretty much earned one salary there.
Ehn?
So, I used to show up early because I lived far away. You know, the whole waking up to beat traffic. Many of the people who lived nearby came late on a regular. Anyway, the one time I got there late, this guy had gotten to the office before me. Someone else came late.
And then he decided that we were going to get punished. He legit came to the gate and told the security, “don’t let them in, they’re on indefinite suspension.”
They finally let us in, to collect our indefinite suspension letters, and I just dropped my laptop. Dropped my tag. Took my personal stuff and left. I knew I wasn’t coming back.
But I knew I wasn’t leaving Lagos to go back to my parents. No way I was going to tell them that I quit a job. I dunno how I survived till October. My family doesn’t even know I didn’t have a job that long. Because I was still sending money home from my savings. So I survived on that, living with a friend and her family. I wasn’t spending much on anything. So that money was what I was using to live every month.
Thank God we don’t look like what we’ve been through.
I got another job in October of 2014. Now, my salary there was 85k (100k) while I was in Sales. Then I moved to Marketing, and that’s when things started to turn rosy. In marketing, I got bumped to 120k. Net. I can’t remember what the gross was.
Nobody seems to care about gross.
Aha! I left in 2015 December, then I started working at an agency. My net was 180k. That was when I actually realised I might not be bad at this marketing thing. Bear in mind that I already started volunteering the year before, 2014 that is.
I only got paid a total of 50k for two years, but it really was volunteer work for me. Them paying me was just a stipend. I really just loved doing it.
Anyway, I started volunteering for another community group, and I wasn’t just going to do it because I loved doing it at this point. I was sick and tired of that loving-it shit.
Back to the Agency.
Anyway, I was in the marketing agency till the end of 2017. But before we even got to this point, I started taking side jobs. My first side hustle was to manage social media and I was getting paid 35k. After that, I got–
–I can’t remember the job I did o, but I know they were paying me 30k every month. All of this was while working at the agency.
Another place I was volunteering also started paying like 20k. Wait, was it 20k or 15k? Erm… Yes yes! 20k. In between all of this, I had a project for three months for another company that paid me 120k every month for three months.
Anyway, I left that agency to another job that was paying 900 dollars. Then another side hustle that was paying 50k.
So side hustles have always been a thing.
Since 2015, yes. They still are. In 2018, I worked for another small company. It was part-time, so I didn’t have to go to work. I did that for four months–150k/month. I was still doing the 50k one still. Is it confusing?
Mad o. At your peak, how many side hustles did you juggle at the same time?
About four. There was a time I gave one to someone sef. So they were paying the person through me.
So you’re an agency, basically.
Hahaha. I already registered my business name. I just don’t have the time to give it the attention it deserves. Because I got more jobs but I couldn’t take them on, not because of uhm…
It was too much to handle?
Neh. They weren’t paying me enough to handle. The main reason I still work for the 50k gig–I mean it’s now 40k–is because I really love the person. Can’t go that low for anyone else. By the way, I was getting some of these gigs through someone, my plug.
Shout out to your plug.
Got another gig mid-2017 that started paying me 60k. Then another gig that paid in dollars and was approximately 330k. Did that for 6 months.
Then I moved to my current job. My current job pays me 350k net. Then there’s the 40k one. Then I get another 35k. Then my husband gives me another 100k for house allowance, which I get to keep because sometimes I use just about half for house things. The rest, I pocket it. It actually used to be 150k before it reduced to 100k, and I’m just looking at him. Because if he should reduce it to 50k, this house will not contain two of us.
Hahaha.
See, the first day it happened, alert just entered kpim-kpim. 150k. Wow. What am I using it for? Wow. My husbanddddd. Then we had this month when we were moving, and had a lot of expenses and real estate investments, and the next month was when it first became 100k.
I barely get to spend my own personal money like that.
What has changed about your perspective between 2012 and now?
Put in the work. Everything will click. Like, when I think of the things that made me put myself under a lot of pressure, I probably shouldn’t have. I have a lot of leftover anxiety from those days.
What someone might achieve at 25, you might achieve at 35.
Also, I used to spend without thinking about the big picture, so it felt like I spent anyhow. That has changed. I bought some things today that I’ll now transfer to my Spreadsheet.
Everything is budgeted. I hardly do spontaneous expenses anymore. What happens when I want to do something tomorrow and I don’t have money? I’ve been poor before. I don’t ever want to be poor again, it frightens me.
So, your fear of poverty is a thing.
Yes. Constant fear. I don’t want to ever be poor. Like, I don’t want to hear that my husband loses his job and I can’t support the family. I don’t pray for it, but anything can happen. That fear helps me in my spending, my saving and my investing.
Now, let’s break down that monthly income.
Waait, let me bring my calculator…
Wow, where’s all the money going to?
I put 100k in my savings first. Again, I don’t have a particular amount I save in total every month. I use an app for saving, so It takes every week. So the money just goes. So sometimes I’ve already saved my regular 100 grand, then they can remove another 40k. So, average, I save about 150k every month. Save or invest. I do mutual funds too. And I want to start farming.
My husband invests in farming cycles. I asked him yesterday like, “Is it that you don’t think that I like investing too?” He said he knows I invest in other things.
“But I know that you farm, so you don’t think I can farm?”
He said okayyy, when the next cycle comes I’ll tell you. And I said waaaait, so you didn’t know you’ll tell me since?
The place he invests in, they do mostly crops, and he gets margins of up to 50-something per cent. I’m moving all my investments into this when the next cycle is coming.
I don’t really splurge, because I don’t really go out. Every month, someone in Church is always wanting us to pay for something. So
So, your money looks split between the House, Family, and Faith.
Yep. I spend a lot of money on my husband too. You garra take care of the person that is giving you money. Keep him happy and all that.
“You don’t have black shoe again? I buy you black shoe.”
“Native is fading? Let’s sew another one.”
“Baby, you need a pedicure.”
I have a budget for him every month.
Then, I change money to dollars. Wow, that means I actually save more than I think I save o.
What’s your dollar budget every month?
100 dollars. Because you never know when you can ja from this country.
You don’t seem to be doing badly, but how much do you feel like you should be earning?
Minus side hustles? 6 million per annum, net. I actually got an offer like that, but it was a startup. They asked me what I wanted and I said 6 mil, and they said okay, come for an interview. I was just there thinking “ehn? Why didn’t I say 8 million?”
Why don’t you want to work for startups?
Generally, startups are too unstructured for me. Like, it’s great and everything, but there’s just too much chaos. I’m sick of it. I can’t deal with the communication issues, the uncertainties, the fact that you talked about doing something in two weeks, and suddenly you want to do it tomorrow. I never want to get to the point where I tsk at work. Because when I start doing that, I start looking for another job. I don’t want to work in a place where they tell me that after two months, they can’t pay my salary, because of kini-kan kini-kan.
Where I currently work though, there really is a sense of security for salary and other stuff, so I’m good.
Also, I’m looking to switch from marketing to actual management of products. That’s where the money is. I wanted to take a course online for it but it’s a lot. And I’m just like, is it really worth it? Should I wait till when I move to Canada?
Ah, Canada when?
Next year, maybe. We’ve started the process, little by little. Are you religious? I am religious. God has shown me where I’m going to work in five years.
Tell me.
It’s one of the Big Tech. Managing products. When I had that revelation I was like, “I don’t know shit about product management” so I have to start learning. So I’ve started taking courses on Udemy, for example. Small-small.
So it means you know what you want to be earning in 5 years.
110 grand per year. In dollars. Because the average is 110. That’s not even you being exceptionally good.
What’s something you want but you can’t afford?
A new car. This car is showing me pepper. I’ve spent over 200k on this car this year alone. And it’s still making noise. But then I’m not sure it’s a real need, because why am I buying a new car when I’m leaving Nigeria next year?
Do you see a future where you retire from work?
I will–but I’m still going to have a business. Also, my children need to be in football or something so they can be part of my retirement plan.
Have you started saving for their football money though?
We’ve started saving for their future. We both have a savings plan for them. It’s part of my money that I’m saving, but he’s also investing in a bunch of things. To be honest, our investments are pretty much for them.
Like, all I have in my mutual funds are for my children.
I need them to be well equipped, so their mum and dad can enjoy their lives when they’re 50. It’s important they enjoy before they can make us enjoy.
Talking about the future, what’s your pension looking like?
One of my first jobs had a pension plan that was keeping aside 8k per month. The next one, about 12k. To be honest, I don’t even know how much is in my pension account right now sef.
If I ask you what your most annoying miscellaneous has been, will you say your car?
Ah, yes. Wait, it’s my phone. Last year. They stole my phone, and I wasn’t ready to buy another one. I went for Christmas rocks, and they stole my phone. I could have just stayed in my house and slept. This phone cost me 300-and-something-k.
But this year, it’s definitely my car. It cost me 55k. Then my husband paid 80k, because he loves me like that. Because I’m his sugar baby.
I just saw alert, and I’m like “you sent me money?” and he says, yes, it’s for your car. He takes care of me actually. He takes really good care of me.
Not sure I need to ask you the satisfaction question. But anyway, on a scale of 1-10?
Awwn, 15. I’m really happy. Can’t even lie. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed with work, school..Ohhhhhh, I forgot one part. There’s this certification I’m going to school for. Totally not worth it. If I had known 2 years ago that I was going to become a product manager, I wouldn’t have taken the course. I paid almost 200k last month. I was now living from hand to mouth. I don’t like this course anymore–it’s dragging for so long and it’s not giving me the value. They didn’t even advise me properly. The only reason I’ve not abandoned it is because of Canada.
What’s something you wanted me to ask, but I didn’t?
Oh, I’ve seen you ask this question before. Neh, nothing. You asked everything. Wait, maybe you should have asked me about investments, but then I already said everything because I knew you were going to ask about it.
This was super lit. Thank you for taking the time.
Worth it.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’ just subscribe here. It only takes a minute.
The wild thing about money problems is how you can have none one moment and have 8 of them the next. So you’re left holding on to the last contents of your bank account while owu blows you around violently.
Take today’s case study: a young man named Fola.
We may have told you his name but we actually can’t put up his real picture. So for the sake of this story, imagine that this generic stock photo of a smiling black man is our protagonist.
Folajimi graduated from the University of Lagos in October 2018 after studying computer science.
Knowing that it was going to be a while before he went for his NYSC (due to problems in the scheme), Fola decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make some money during that time.
You see, a major reason he applied for computer science in the first place was because of his passion for graphic design. It didn’t take him long to realize that he wasn’t going to acquire the skills he needed in classrooms, so he turned to online video tutorials. 5 years later, with a couple of projects under his belt, he felt he had learned enough to rub shoulders with the best.
This was the confidence Fola used to apply for a high-paying graphics designer job at a creative agency in Lagos.
Fola’s first act after getting called for an interview was to walk around like a peacock wearing shoulder pads. Then he proceeded to freak out because 5 years of wearing jeans and t-shirts meant he didn’t own any job interview-appropriate clothing. So he borrowed some from his brother.
And boy, did he look the part.
Again, we can’t put up a picture of Fola for privacy reasons. So this photo of a black man in a suit will suffice.
Fola was informed immediately after the interview that he’d gotten the job and asked to start the following week. He was then asked if he had a personal computer he could use, seeing as he would be working remotely.
This was where things almost fell apart.
The laptop he owned was 5 years old and – though capable of decent graphics work – would surely explode if it attempted the level of design he’d be doing at the agency.
He told the interviewer that he had a computer he could use. This was one of those cases where telling the truth could ruin everything. What if they offered the job to someone else because they couldn’t be bothered with buying him one?
So, he decided that he would spend the next week raising money to buy a computer with the right specs needed for the work he would be doing.
This proved to be a lot more difficult than he expected.
“Uncle Dele, can you please lend me some money? Aunty Lara, nko? Hay God! Please help me give the phone to Wole? Hello Wole? Abeg you fit borrow…”
After 5 days of running around, Fola had raised about 60% of the money he needed. He had run out of friends and family members to borrow from. He thought of getting a loan from a bank to complete the money but decided against it because he’d heard terrifying stories about the things banks do to people who don’t pay back on time.
Then he found out about Branch from a friend and how they give loans of up to N200,000 without demanding your soul as collateral. He downloaded the app on his phone later and after signing up, he’d gotten a loan within minutes!
He was like:
“Damn! That was quick.”
And so it was that Fola bought the laptop the very next day and was able to start work on the day he was meant to.
Every week, we ask anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira.
In this story, a man will do anything legal for money. Like, anything.
Age: 32.
Industry: Informal
When did the hustle start for you?
2005. Inside Main Market, Onitsha. That time, I used to do Striker work–walking around the market and helping people sell clothes. So if they give us cloth for ₦1k, we’ll sell at ₦1,500, and so on.
I was also born and brought up in Onitsha. My parents are Yoruba, but the way hustle carries everybody, that’s how it carried my parents. My father butchered cows, and mumsy was selling food. That time, I could only speak English and Igbo, no Yoruba or pidgin.
I still did a lot of other work in Main Market, like picking plastics. By 4pm every day, we’d start going around the market, picking plastics till 7pm. Our pay was ₦15 per kilo, and one bag of plastic used to be like 10kg.
This was when I just finished SS3.
My actual plan after secondary school was to be a lawyer. And it really started in my mind then because, whenever people were fighting in school. I was the one that used to resolve it. Also, I really loved Government–especially the parts when they’re talking about our history and past leaders.
See, the main reason I didn’t push on with my education was because there was no money. What ruined me was I couldn’t afford to pay for WAEC. Ordinary ₦18k. I would have written with 2004/2005 set. Those days, I think I almost went mad on top of this matter.
So it was when I missed WAEC that year that I entered hustle.
I sold minerals, pure water. Packed gutter. Packed dustbins. I had hands to pack anything that needed to be packed.
What was the moment from those days that you can’t forget?
December 21st, 2007. I used to live with a friend. By this time, my father had already died, and my mother relocated back to Kwara.
My friend had issues with some guys, and those guys were cultists. Me? I didn’t even need to be a cultist, because everyone respected me.
Sha, we went to the guys’ place, and that’s how shouting started, and then fighting.
Later, in the night, my guy was at the junction. Not too long after I told him I was going inside, some men came in a Hummer that night. People who saw the car said it was about 4 guys. They told him to help them locate a place. “Come and show us the place na.” That kain thing. When he entered the car, they drove off. And he was gone. Just like that.
Ehn?
Ritualists. Sha, three days later, Police came, and the gist was “the last person everybody saw him with was his friend.”
In fact ehn, the policemen walked up to me and were asking, “we’re looking for so-and-so.” They were asking me about me.
“He’s not around..” Omo, as they left, I took off. People said if they catch me, it might be death or 25 years in prison.
So I was hiding from place to place, for two weeks. Whenever I stayed long at one place, the guys there will pursue me saying, “abeg be going before Police will come and pack all of us.”
Then my older brother just called me one day and said, “You can’t be here, let’s go to Lagos.”
And so one early morning, before I could even shower or brush my teeth, I was on my way to Asaba. I had only the sweater I was wearing, ₦20 in my pocket, and my phone–a Nokia 1110.
We took a luxurious bus, standing, to Lagos. ₦600. This was January 2008.
Mad o.
You see Lagos? That’s where the real hustle started. We had some family in Lagos, and so when they asked me what I wanted to do, I told them I’d like to learn tailoring. But my uncle had other plans, and that’s how I ended up selling building materials in Mile 12. While I was selling, I started learning how to dismantle things–air-conditioners, freezers.
I did this until the beginning of 2009.
The thing about working iron is that, I had to work under sun and rain, doing the hard work of dismantling for scrap. So even though I was making ₦1k to ₦3k per day, I’d work one month, and fall sick the next month.
So mumsy told me to leave the work. I became jobless for the next 6 months, even though I was constantly looking for work.
One time, I went to Lagos Island, I saw a sign for a shop that needed a sales boy, selling ceramics and pots. I got the job; ₦15k/month. Sales got bad, and I had to leave. So in the end I stayed there from July till December 2009.
I was unemployed for another 5 months. Then in May 2010, I started rolling with this guy who was a trailer mechanic.
I told him straight, “Guy, I’m sure you don’t like how I always ask you for Garri money. I need a job. If you hear of anything, tell me abeg.”
One week after I told him, he called me around midnight. A driver needed a Motor-boy for his trailer. It was a 40-feet trailer–a CR7 Mack. I took it straight. We were picking containers from Apapa Wharf and delivering around Lagos. He used to pay me ₦5k per trip, and sometimes we did up to 5 trips a month.
What does a Motor-boy do?
I wash the trailer, fix the tyres, check engine oil and water levels. Then I also help check my side, for when a driver can change lanes. I tried to get my Oga to teach me how to drive, but he didn’t teach me.
So one day, I called my friend and said, “oya show me Gear 1.” And I started learning small-small. Not too long after that, they sacked my Oga.
The next Oga I had was paying me ₦200, while we were making ₦6k a day. But we were working with a Biscuit company, so biscuit was free at the factory. So, I was living on biscuit and water.
Then I did some work for a man working in the factory, and when he liked what I did, he gave me a job in the factory.
I started there December 26, 2010. The money they were paying was ₦850 per day, every two weeks. I was at the vehicle loading section, because them see say I get strength. I used to compete with one other guy who was bigger than me, over who will load more trailers. We used to load up to 10 trailers a day.
Work was 6-6, but loaders used to close late, sometimes up to 11pm.
So ₦11,900 every two weeks?
When my first pay came in January, omo, I happy die. I went home and was looking at the money. I was like, what if I spend all this money and I end up not having a job again? So I started trying to save ₦5k every month and eating mostly factory biscuits.
But the problem I had was that, because of how hard my work was, I was always hungry. So all the money I was trying to save went back into food.
One day, our boss wanted us to work overtime again. Just after everyone had showered and was ready to leave. It vexed me, because we don’t get paid for working extra. It looked like he didn’t really care about us.
The next day, one trailer driver asked me if I wanted to be his Motor-boy. At first I didn’t agree, but he told me that he’d treat me well. I accepted.
Now, this was when I entered the real road life. December 2013.
One thing I’ll never forget about him is, everything he ate, I ate. Any food he bought for himself, he bought for me.
After Mile 12 days, this was my highest paying job. My first four days, ₦15k. What we were doing was carrying biscuits from this factory that I just left.
Not too long after, they sacked my boss. So I had to get another job. The Biscuit factory moved from Apapa to Shagamu, Ogun State, and I was lucky to get another Motor-boy job.
But I quit that one later.
Ah, why?
One day, he went to go and drink and carry Ashawo. When he came back, he forgot that he left someone sleeping under the trailer to secure the trailer battery and fuel tank. This man just drove off, and was already on his way to Lagos when he remembered me.
Then I got another boss. Really good man. One time someone from his village asked him to come home, he went and never returned.
I worked with more people, and started to relax more. I used to cry a lot when I worked at the factory but now I wasn’t crying.
I was now getting up to ₦70k per month. But the problem with trailer life is that you eat a lot. So na food I dey use am buy.
2015, I made my first trip to the North. We were carrying biscuits across the North; Kaduna, Maiduguri, Gusau.
Then Zaki Biam–ah, they used to rob too much. Armed robbers with checkpoints and military uniforms.
Maiduguri in early 2015, we used to see dead bodies on the road to Maiduguri sometimes. One time, we were parked along a highway and this small truck just packed, offloaded rice. Inside bush o.
Later, another truck came, and there were men. They were wearing military uniforms, and they covered their faces in those turbans and masks?
Who were they?
Omo, me I no know o. Sha, After then, we went to Gusau, to pack oranges for offloading at Ore Toll Gate. I never went back to Maiduguri again, but I won’t forget that journey because, when we got to Kogi, my Oga parked the trailer, came down, and told me to enter the driver seat.
That was the first time I drove my own trailer in my life, and when I got back to Shagamu, I got my first trailer job.
Mad.
So when I started, they were paying ₦20k per month. But we don’t really care about the money they pay us. It’s the money we make on the road that’s the koko–up to ₦80k. It was this period I started saving. Also, I now had my own Motor-boy. I made sure I treated him well.
Nice. How long did you do that for?
Not long. Kasala burst. I had a small room I rented in Shagamu, and there was someone staying with me. I was in Lagos for a family thing. My room caught fire, burnt my neighbour’s room.
How did it happen? I had gas cylinder. The person staying with me cooked noodles. And when he finished, instead of turning off the gas, you know what he did? He just poured water on it. Like a Kerosene stove. But the gas was still open of course.
A few minutes later, he wanted to smoke, and as he used his lighter; GBAO.
Ah.
When I got back home, the person I was staying with had run away, but the Landlord was waiting with Police. They collected all my savings, ₦350k, and they came back for more. But when they came, I done ja. This was April 2017.
I didn’t get another job again for one year. All I was doing was helping people park and shouting twale for change.
But in July 2018, I finally got my current job, selling grilled catfish.
Between 2005 and now, how you see life?
Wait, make I off my cap.
See, life is hard for a poor man. Even worse for a person without a proper handwork. The worst thing is to not have an education. Life is just really hard. There’s a kind of hunger you have when you have very few options in life. Na that one I get.
I struggle to sleep because of all the times I was working on trailers. But the struggle continues.
Only advice my mumsy gives me is, don’t steal. Don’t do rituals.
Some days, she doesn’t even care whether or not I give her money. All she wants to do is hear my voice.
I believe one day, it will be well. If na by who work pass, I no fit carry second. I work for what I eat. My own is, I just want to make it before my mother dies. Because after God, she’s next.
How much is your salary now, and how do you spend it?
I was collecting ₦20k, but now I’ve started collecting ₦25k. See, my spending is straightforward. I save ₦5k. I send my mum ₦5k. I survived on ₦15k and the tips that people give me when they come to buy fish.
I save, just in case anything happens, I can have backup.
How much money is a good salary right now?
₦70k, and I go dey okay. I’ve collected this salary before, but trailer job is different. In a trailer job, we spend money as it comes. We collect money, work a lot, and spend a lot. Because it’s physical work. But I’ve seen how I managed with ₦20k, so ₦70k will be enough now. Also, I’ve done all the types of hard, physical work. I can do office work. I can read and write.
What’s something you want to buy you can’t afford?
Right now? Clothes. And paint, because the room I’m staying, the paint done peel.
What size do you wear?
Shirt size; Small. Jeans; 29-30. Shoes; 40-41.
What do you think about when you think about the future?
Guy, many things. The first thing I want to do is build a house for my mother, I don’t care if I’m living inside one room. When my father died, my spirit could take it. But if my mother dies without me giving her a better life, ah.
Then I want to build a home for homeless people. Free. This is my biggest dream. Just come and live, then we’ll help you get work, so you can also get work for other people.
I want to wipe tears. I want to help people forget, and think of bright things.
Wait, what of that your friend in Onitsha?
Ah, yes. One time when I was a Motor-boy and we weren’t too far from Onitsha, I told my Oga I wanted to go into Onitsha to visit someone. When I went back to the hood, I heard the good news and bad news.
He came back. What happened was that, when he entered that Hummer, he said he didn’t remember anything that happened. But when he finally escaped from where they were keeping them–he escaped with someone–he found out that they were in Shagamu.
The bad news is that, they say when he came back, he moved out of the area not too long after. Nobody knows where he went.
I’ve never seen him since that December 21st, 2007.
The end.
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Every week, we ask anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira.
In this story, the woman talks about her choices, like not getting a job and choosing to raise her kid.
Age: 25
Tell me about the first time you made money
The first time I probably made money for myself was after school. It was a small newspaper and they only paid my first month. It was something I was doing to pass time while I waited for NYSC.
Bear in mind that this was a 15k job, and they still owe me 2 months till this day.
By February 2013–
–NYSC?
Yes. NYSC. Back to that job thing–my parents didn’t want us to work at all, so we won’t get “distracted from school work”.
Back to that NYSC part. I got posted to Bayelsa, and I remember crying so much. But you see, my NYSC was the most interesting of all NYSCs. I got posted to a riverine community in Bayelsa that can only be reached by boat.
We got free pots, kerosene, accommodation, mattresses, mosquito nets, and if you’re a super cool teacher, your students will bring you fish and periwinkles. There was also a community generator that meant power was out for only 6 hours every 3 days. We had a Common Room, so all we did was watch Game of Thrones and stuff.
Basically, all I had to bring was rice and myself. Jonathan was President at the time, so whenever the First Lady came to town, they still shared money. Corpers would get like 5k.
I was earning like 29,800 in allowances from NYSC, the state government, and even from the school where I was teaching. So 19,800 from NYSC, and 10k from all the other village hustle.
I barely spent any money. In fact, I only spent money on Suya and meat for when I was tired of fish. So by the time NYSC finished, I’d saved up 450k in the bank and another 20k in cash.
The first thing I did was buy a laptop–it still works. Then I bought a phone. Then I told my parents, “come, lemme pay part of the next rent.”
I was going on 21, and I’d never seen that type of money in my life, so I was just spending fala-folo.
So, post-NYSC?
Aaahhh, that’s when my struggle started. I worked at a newspaper. They started with me at 40k, then it increased to 60k by the 3rd month because I started writing tech and religion. Buttttt, I never really got that 60k–they started owing again.
I was passionate about working for a newspaper, but I needed money. They still owe me 4 months salary by the way. I then hopped to another paper that was just getting off the ground, but never really took off.
Then in September 2014, I got a ₦60k gig. That’s where I was till March 2015 when I got another gig.
See this latest one? My parents were so proud because it was the first time I had a job with a welfare package–HMO and a pension plan. It was huge.
At first, my dad was like, let’s see how this goes. The first month, they paid. And the second. And the third. And so on. I got started at ₦70k net. 6 months later, I got a raise to ₦120k, because of my performance.
I had some dissatisfaction with the company at the time, especially with regards to some aspects of my personal growth, but I needed that consistent money.
Ah, that struggle.
Ah, let me tell you about this 2016 job interview experience–a TV station. I knew I wasn’t going to take that job for two reasons. First, they delayed me for two hours. Then the interviewer was using me to watch comedy on Youtube, while I was sitting there. When he starts asking questions, he goes “are you a moderate Muslim or an extremist Muslim?”
Like, seriously?
I told my dad when I got home, and the vibe I got from him was like, “why you dey vex, small play.”
My job at the time paid ₦120k net and the TV station was offering ₦150k. I didn’t take it, because it didn’t seem like they cared about my welfare.
My own workplace, on the other hand, I remember asking for a raise and someone in management saying, “oh the company doesn’t really have money. You know you don’t have that many needs. You still live with your parents blah blah.”
She was actually right in that I wasn’t spending money on anything but transport. Pretty much all my needs were met. So I just stuck with that plot.
Still, I was a dunce sha.
January 2017, I left. I’d saved like ₦600k at the time.
What came next?
With my savings, I was like “Oh, now’s the time to be an Entrepreneur. The spirit is calling me!”
Huhuhuhu.
I started selling stuff online, and that is when my wahala started. Ah, Nigerians are wicked. There are people still owing me till this day, and I suck at disturbing debtors.
I think I was a horrible businesswoman. I trusted people too easily and they just kept owing and telling stories. The stress was so much, I was struggling to sleep. My mum even said I was sleep talking about money.
I shut down that business.
Meanwhile, I met my husband while I’d started my hustle. And somehow, I told myself I wasn’t sure I wanted to live with hypertension over money, or work and not get paid. So I made up my mind that I was going to marry someone who’d earn for me and the kids.
So in November 2017, it was bye-bye entrepreneurship.
What was the weirdest reaction to you not wanting to take a job again?
Ah, my dad wasn’t having any of it. “Oh, after all the money I’ve spent,” he’d say, “how are you going to marry without having Dr. in front of your name?”
Then he’d send me articles of women pilots and high flyers, to ginger me, but to me, those were different. Those were foreign women in better societies.
I had a friend who used to work in the U.K. She was having the time of her life, and not only was her pay good, but she also got a lot of respect.
Not only am I likely to get underpaid or owed here, but you also go to work and still get snide comments like “you can’t hear me properly because your hijab is blocking your ears” and all that ridiculous stuff.
I used to be like “Ohh, you can be a superwoman.” But my stress levels are currently at “I can’t kill myself.” Since I left Lagos, moved to Abuja in 2018 and I had our baby, I haven’t entered a market since–that’s my husband’s job now.
I really don’t understand how women are expected to go to work and still come back to take care of a child. I’ve picked my own struggle, and it’s raising my child. Half the time, I’m already exhausted sef.
I respect people who are doing all of it, but it can’t be me.
Hypothetically, will you work if the conditions were better?
To be honest, my husband has good money. So unless he can no longer take care of all the responsibilities, I’m not working. Maybe my answer will be different when I’m faced with an actual scenario.
Let’s create a perfect scenario; what will make you become an entrepreneur again?
See ehn, I don’t even know if I want the money. The stress is just too much. I get frustrated easily, my BP rises over the littlest things, my asthma escalates. It’s not for me. I was suicidal when I was running a business, so I don’t understand why people glorify entrepreneurship. I think about those times and cry.
So, no income?
Well, I get allowances. There’s the ₦100k every month, and another specific ₦100k in savings every other month. That savings money is supposed to be an emergency fund. Just in case.
How much do you have saved up?
I have about 1.2 million saved up. Also, that money could go into my baby brother’s foreign degree. I tend to dip into the savings to help people and stuff. Can’t help it.
To be honest, I actually don’t need a lot of money. The 100k I get for allowance is to get a thing or two for myself or my baby.
Between 2012 and now, what has changed about your perspective about money?
‘Savings’ is hype. Nigerians talk about “oh save this and that.” You save for something and by the end of the savings cycle, you can’t afford the things you saved for. There’s inflation and all those things to worry about.
I think Nigerians like to save, but we don’t know how it works. It irks me a lot. We can’t save our way out of poverty, Now I’m more interested in using my money for experiences and intellectual capital.
Investing, on the other hand, I wanted to do that in my friends’ businesses, but they tend to reject it. I think many Nigerians treat investments like debt, and so they refuse it.
What’s chopping your money these days?
I’m addicted to weird things; like stickers, and pretty journals from AliExpress. Sometimes, it’s Alloy Cars. Or iPhone cases. Or water bottles. Ali Express and Amazon are my number one problem.
Argh, I need a support group.
Everyone thinks it’s an expensive habit, but these things are really cheap.. An iPhone case will go for as low as 0.98 cents.
There are also books–I have 364 of those. I know this because I counted yesterday.
A book I used to have but wish I still did? The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime. It’s about this boy who was forming investigative journalist over who killed his neighbour’s dog.
Uhm, what else? I try to use as little single-use plastic as possible, so I buy reusable stuff. Also, being a hermit means I have few expenses and few friends.
Let’s talk about future plans.
My mum asked me this question and I’ll tell you what I told her;
“I don’t have one.”
I’d say travel and all that, but it’s hard to make travel plans when you have kids. So I really just want to read more books and learn new languages.
At my language peak, I could speak English, Spanish, Arabic, Bahasa, Hausa, a little French, and Yoruba.
I used to learn foreign languages on Livemocha–miss that thing so much. It was actual human interaction, instead of talking to some software.
Still on this future p, what about your old pension account?
I have about 700-and-something thousand naira sitting there. But if I’m going to cash out, I’m just going to calculate my actual money and leave their interest with them. Riba struggles.
Tell me something you want but can’t afford?
Huhuhuhu. A Tesla–self-driving. But I don’t even go anywhere. You know, the only time I prayed for a car was just so I could just race around with my friends. And I had a bike phase too where I just wanted to stunt on them. But I have a child now, huhuhu.
Let’s imagine being a stay-at-home was an actual job, how much will you charge?
250k. The money I’m collecting now is an “I love my husband” discount.
What do you do when you have free time?
I listen to a lot of podcasts. My favourite is Reply All. It’s made me superconscious. I don’t use Facebook or Whatsapp. I uninstall apps I’m not using. Can’t let anyone be playing with my data or security.
There’s this website you can go to check if your online accounts have compromised. I think Nigerians generally suck at Internet security.
There are other podcasts like This American Life, Serial, 99% Invisible. I like The Mad Mamluks, but they ramble a lot.
Do you have a healthcare plan?
Huhuhuhu. Am I too reliant on my husband? Medical bills are sorted. Look, I’m enjoying here.
On a scale of 1-10, what’s happiness looking like for you?
Seven. The remaining three is because I worry about illnesses where the money you earn is never going to be enough to sort it out. Also, I wish Abuja had more women-only places to just chill. That’s it.
Tell me something. Anything.
That breadwinner story, it terrifies me. I’ve never had people depend solely on me. I feel like if I ever become a breadwinner with all that burden, I’m just going to get depressed.
Also, when we started talking I was a little scared. Now, just thinking about it, I feel more confident about how I want to use money generally.
I feel a greater need to even begin to equip myself.
Update: Some parts of this story have been edited to further protect the identity of the subject. None of it removes from the core Naira Life story here.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’ just subscribe here. It only takes a minute.
Every week, we ask anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira. This time, it’s a little different, because we have our first not-entirely-naira Naira Life story.
The guy in this story started out bored and looking for action in University. Somehow, that action he found in programming flung him across the world.
This is a story about a guy who went from bored to Abroad.
Age: 25
Occupation: Programmer
Gross Income: €5000/month
Tell me everything that led to building your first app.
Imagine this. It’s the end of 2014 in Uni and I haven’t done any school reading the entire semester. Still, I’m really gingered to try something new. A friend of mine is already building apps at this time, and I go to him like “this guy, let me help you with something na,”
Next thing you know, I’m taking a course on Udacity, and that’s when I started making apps–stupid apps.
Fast forward to 2015. I see a tweet; someone’s looking for someone who can do just about anything–mostly tech stuff. So I apply.
Bear in mind that I have no job experience at this point. I get hired anyway, as an intern. And you know what my first project was? To build an app for the company.
Thing is, that app was never released, that set me up for my entire career.
Lit.
Yes, it was. The internship salary at the time was ₦60k, and it was the first time anyone paid me to build anything. Big deal. Super big deal.
Add to that, I go for NYSC the same year, and I’m pocketing an extra ₦19,800.
The best part? I served in a ridiculously low-cost-of-living town in the Southwest. So inexpensive that I paid only ₦20k per year for this massive mini-flat.
Majority of the Youth Corpers were hailing me like ‘Ah boss’, ‘chairman’ with my ₦80k. It’s crazy when I think about it now because many of them were still sending money home from their NYSC salary.
Mad ting.
Mid 2016, I left that startup and went to another place. This one was more company-ish and less startup-y.
I remember negotiating that salary and they initially offered me ₦120k, because that’s what most of the other people were earning. But I was like, I want ₦150k.
Their reaction was like that Soulja Boy meme.
Say no more.
Anyway, they gave me that money. ₦150k. But I wasn’t ready for what came after I got that job.
Hit me.
I went from spending ₦300 every day on transport to ₦1200. My life didn’t get any better. I went from walking to work at 12pm, to having to wake up super early to get into traffic early and get to work at 9am. It was more stress, more pressure, more office bureaucracy, and less freedom.
Also, I was in for a shock at the end of the month. Instead of receiving ₦150k, only ₦140k landed in my account. That moment was when I learned the difference between net income and gross income.
It hurt so bad, and this was when I realised I done played myself. HR didn’t tell me shit, and their job is to educate. Most of what you learn in other companies, you learn by asking other employees. The higi-haganess is just crazy.
You really have to live in a better environment to see how much suffering it is really. Lagos is a terrible place man. You have all of this struggle for next to nothing. Your employers are still going to treat you like shit. Agbero will insult you. Someone on the bus will still insult you. It’s just a struggle, and people are living that life. I dunno man.
Bruh.
Imagine that on ₦140k, you’re still living a basic life. Back when we were in school, if someone said they were going to pay ₦150k, you’d have jumped. Even at that, the majority of the people who knew how much I was earning were like, ‘man you dey ball’.
Anyway, by the end of 2016, I quit.
You know what’s insane? Most of the people I served with hadn’t gotten a job at this time. The ones that had were getting ₦30k jobs.
And then you start to ask, what exactly is the Nigerian dream?
I know I had privileges more than the average Nigerian, but it was still hard. Am I going off topic?
No, you’re not. You’re right on track.
This is random but, Andela was the most important company in the space. To me, they offered something bigger than Nigeria. Being in Nigeria is limiting, but Andela gives exposure. Also, they seemed to give a shit about their employees.
It’s why I applied to work there. I never got in though.
There were so many things I normalised working for Nigerian companies, that just working for foreign companies showed me yo, this shit is not normal.
Crazy stuff.
Anyway, in January 2017, I joined another company. It was the best experience I’d had up until that moment. Interesting work, interesting people, and most importantly, a general sense of ownership of the work.
Let’s not forget that I joined because they offered me more money too. I asked for ₦300k. Net. Can’t be fooled twice.
And this is when adulting started to happen. All this time, I’d been living with my sister. And now it was time to move out. It was impossible to get a decent place at a decent price. Also, I was considering that my younger sisters were going to want to come and stay over. So I was looking for a 2-bed. Good thing was that my friend was also trying to get a place.
The Lagos Hack: Live with someone. Lagos is bloody expensive, rent-wise. So you need to share that responsibility with someone.
Still, I struggled. So I had to reach out to my privilege. My parents helped me raise part of my rent money. And it had me wondering what it’d look like for people who didn’t have that privilege.
Rent was supposed to be 800k. I thought that was all. We ended up paying ₦1.1 million. We were supposed to get our caution fee back. Oh shit, I just remembered that the landlord never gave us.
Imagine starting out adulting and the first thing you have to pay is ₦1.1 million. Even though I was splitting it, I don’t imagine a lot of people would have been able to afford that. How can a currency so disappointing be so out of reach?
Did I forget to add that we had to buy a generator? And a lot of other stuff too.
Okay, so back to work.
I spent all of 2017 at this company. All was good and amazing, till investors pulled out. And to stay alive, the company had to lay-off two-thirds of the company. So imagine about 400 people suddenly becoming unemployed. I was one of them. But one of the advantages of working with this company–one of the best in Nigeria at the time–you get a severance package. I got ₦800k.
Interesting.
But ₦800k is not a lot of money when you’re unemployed. If I was smart enough at the time, I would have left Lagos and gone to live in Ekiti to be eating Pounded Yam straight out of the mortar.
I told myself, ‘oh, I’m just going to stay at home and this money will last 6 months.’ But being unemployed is so terrible, that I dunno how that money finished in 3 months. Guy, e no even reach 3 months.
To be honest, I think my lifestyle at the time is to blame. I was confident I was going to get a job, except, I didn’t.
I had to leave Lagos.
I really can’t wait till people move out of Lagos to places where the air is cleaner and everything is cheaper.
By this time, a lot of my friends were hunting and finding jobs abroad.
I tried and tried, but it was hard. So I just started looking for a Nigerian job, you know, something to sustain me while I look for my dream job abroad.
But there’s no way I would have survived that period without the safety net of my parents and friends. Nigeria will touch you–and maybe I was having the occasional rough two weeks–but I wasn’t suffering.
So just when that ₦800k was about to finish, I got an email. Foreign gig. Someone finally offered me a job. And so 5 months after I got laid off, I left the country and headed for Europe.
I even applied to Andela, but by the time they responded to my application, I was already gone.
I haven’t had much to do with the naira since then.
Do you send money home though?
In the time I was sending money home, the fluctuation has been around plus or minus ₦30. When I moved it was ₦420 to the Euro. Then it moved to 3-something. Now it’s at 4-something. And all of this was in months.
For like 4-5 months last year, I was sending about ₦200k home.
Gimme the figures.
I earn 5000 Euros. My net income is 3000 Euros. The cost of living is higher than Lagos, but you still earn more than you’d earn on the average in Lagos. Also, quality of life is better.
Rent?
850 euros gives me a two-room. In Nigeria, you’d call this a mini-flat–room and parlour–but here, two-rooms is two-room. And this one is expensive because it comes with some extra comfort, like a washing machine, oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc. It’s actually possible to pay 600-650 euros for a cheaper place.
Where do you think you’ll retire?
I’m retiring in Europe, even though I don’t share the same sentiment with a lot of my peers. When you retire, there are some things that will become important, like mental wellbeing and health. You currently can’t get the best of any of that in Nigeria. Healthcare is part of my tax right now, so it’s basically free. It feels free because the money never reaches me in the first place.
Will you be investing in Nigeria though?
Yes. Yes. Believe it or not, Nigeria still has immense potential. But not being on the ground makes it harder to track investments. I’ve considered investing in real estate, not real estate to enrich per se. It should be common knowledge by now, but highrise buildings are how to fix the problem of not having enough horizontal space. Lagos is crowded because everyone is trying to build their own small house.
It’s going to need a lot of capital, but I’m interested in affordable housing. A cheaper 1004.
I’m thinking about your Nigerian Dream question, and now I’m curious.
I’d really like to say that I know exactly what the Nigerian dream is. Or that the Nigerian dream is something worth aspiring to. Help me out here man…
…
The Nigerian dream is being able to survive with minimum casualties. At my second job, I had to deal with dust on my morning commute, and it was miserable just dealing with the smoke coming out of exhausts.
It will eat away at your sanity. At your funds. At your life.
The Nigerian dream is minimising losses because there’s no win.
Sigh.
If you can actually survive Nigeria, I can say you’ve lived the Nigerian dream. Of course, the easiest way to survive all of that is to have a lot of money.
But then the alternative is to just leave Nigeria.
That escalated quickly. Tell me something else.
I sound like someone who’d never set foot in Nigeria, but that’s not the case. First of all, food. Nigerian food is better than anything else in this world. There’s also the weather.
Then–this is weird–there are Nigerians. I dunno where we get our happiness from, but Nigerians will always be the happiest people you’ll ever meet.
You’ll enjoy being with happy Nigerians more than any other kind of happy people.
That means a lot.
Random question, how much will great Jollof rice cost you in your Abroad?
20 Euros with dodo and meat. That’s ₦8k. What the actual fuck? This good is just good enough to eat. I’ll take White House Jollof Rice over this any day. You can’t eat Nigerian dishes out, you’ll run down. Best thing is to buy African foodstuff, which is way more expensive than it should be.
What of Pounded Yam?
Just buy poundo. First, yam is even expensive. poundo yam is the closest and it’s expensive. And I dunno where they get it.
First thing I’m doing when I come back is to just eat. Boli and Fish. Amala Skye.
If you ask me what I miss the most about Nigeria, it’s the food. Period.
A little throwback before you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA7BOXCyuOM
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, just subscribe here. It takes only one minute.
Every week, we ask anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira – some will be struggle-ish, others boujee–but all the time, it’ll be revealing.
If you’re looking for a person who’s genuinely enthusiastic about work, the subject of this Naira Life story speaks to this.
This particular episode was pulled off in partnership with Fairmoney. They’re promising that you can get up to ₦150k in 10 minutes. Mad ting.
Age: 25
Occupation: Product Marketing
Current Income: ₦210,000/month (net)
Rent: Nil
Tell me about the very first money you made.
Let me think–it was at my Church’s Media Team. I was a P.A. to the Director of Productions.
Oh no! Wait, I also made money in school–I sold Cheese Balls and biscuits.
The first time I tracked my profit, I realised I actually made ₦5-₦7k. I went to a private University where leaving school was a problem, so I ended up having to send school workers to help me buy more goods. This was my 2nd year and I guess that counts as my true first hustle. I did this for at least 2 years.
The Church money was in my 3rd year, and that was ₦30k.
Were you getting pocket money?
I didn’t exactly grow up in a proper mummy-daddy family. So for some reason, there wasn’t any structure around pocket money. Money just came when it came. Whenever I was broke, I just go, “can I call my aunty to tell her I’m broke again?”
What other hustles did you have?
Before I served, I worked at an Ad agency as a front desk officer–₦50k, plus tax. I remember when 40-something thousand naira entered my account, and I was like, what is this tax thing for sef?
Omo, I was a big girl that time o. It was close to work, so I never spent money on transport. There was this guy who was toasting me, so he was always giving me free rides.
That period was actually the first time I bought stuff online–one rubbish skirt that cost ₦6k.
Then NYSC?
I was tired of being at home in Lagos with my folks–too much control and curfews–so I was glad I got out of Lagos. My allowee was ₦19,800, then ₦10k from my Place Of Primary Assignment (PPA).
But I had one extra hustle there: My PPA was at the Government House Church, so there was an extra gig–as a church greeter. I kid you not.
“You’re welcome to Church!” every time the governor was arriving. Different colourful clothes and all that, every Sunday.
Then I took another weekend gig that had very little to do with money. I always had this dream that I’d have some form of impact wherever I serve. And because I like kids too, I started teaching some children on weekends. I asked for ₦2k. Do you know their father still owed me? Nonsense.
When did NYSC finish?
2016. Then I started working at a small media company. I got paid ₦50k. Ah, my mum insulted me sha. Plus my uncle too. They didn’t understand how they’d spend almost 4 million on my education and then I’d settle for ₦50k for a first job.
It wasn’t even funny at all.
But to me ehn, it wasn’t really about money at the time, so I was willing to take it.
I left after three months. The structure, or more accurately, the lack of it, was a problem. I did Social Media management there.
Then I joined another media company. I was working on digital strategy and content management. This was actually where I started taking all the online courses I could find because I realised how much I liked marketing. I studied something completely different by the way.
How much did this new company pay?
I asked for ₦120k, and they basically just said: “you’ll see your salary.” That’s how my salary came and I saw ₦70k. Rookie mistake.
It was a disaster.
Then they stopped paying consistently. Then one day, in the second half of the year, we got laid off. Bruh, I cried all the way home. I didn’t even know where to start. Keep in mind I still had responsibilities with family. So I started job hunting again.
While I was looking for a job, someone told me about a woman who had a blog and needed someone to handle social media.
I was like, oya let’s do this. Why I especially liked this gig was that I had enough room to grab new skills. ₦35k.
I started at another media company in October. But how I ended up as an intern there despite having some decent experience is even more epic.
When I first applied for the gig, I got an email that said stuff like, “Oh apologies, we don’t have full-time positions, because we’ve hired for these positions. But we have internship positions.”
I was willing to take it to be honest, but my mum was like “what exactly is your problem? What internship are you doing with all your past experience again?” She wasn’t having any of it.
But I really felt like this company was pretty much one of the biggest in the media game.
When I resumed, there were no ‘filled out full-time positions’. In fact, no fulltime hires had been made recently. They just wanted someone who could do all the work for less money. The learnings ended up becoming valuable, but I can’t forget that.
I got paid ₦40k at first, then later ₦50k after 3 months.
Crazy.
Also, I still had the side hustle–that woman with her blog–that gave me ₦30k.
My internship was supposed to last 6 months, but by the sixth month, there was no word of the way forward. So when I sent in a notice that I was going to quit, I got a “Oh you’re going to get a raise. We’re going to confirm you, full-staff.” In my head, I was like ohhhh, so you had to wait for me to try to quit first.
I quit anyway.
Something I told my mum before I took the job was that, when I begin to apply for other jobs, it won’t matter much that I interned. What will matter is the work I did, and bruh, did not I not do a lot of work? It stretched me intensely.
Then I joined another company and my net was ₦210k. Even better is that it was also close to home. The thing about this new gig is that it required all my attention when I joined, so I quit my side hustle.
What has changed about your perspective, in all this time?
As much as I say money is not everything, it’s still a major key. Being broke makes me cranky. Even in my relationships, when I tell you I have a problem, I don’t even need to ask you to give me money. You’re just supposed to use your head.
Okay, let’s talk about the money you currently earn.
First of all, I budget a lot. I know where my next salary is going.
I tend to feel bad about it, but I spend a significant amount of my money on hair. My monthly spending tends to change a lot too. For example, my ideal savings should be ₦100k. But then I spend on hair, and that one just disappears. Also, makeup. Usually, each time I’m shopping for makeup, the budget is ₦10k, but I just bought a crazy new brand that’s more expensive–₦26k.
See ehn, I’m not doing again.
Let’s create a scenario of what an average month looks like
looks like.
I’m also big on kolo or piggybank–anyone you call it. I just throw change in there. I’m not a cash person, so every time I withdraw money, I make sure to keep some of it in. I have no idea how much I have in there to be honest.
There’s also the part where I’m obsessed with clothes.
What’s the highest you’ve spent on clothes at once?
I spent ₦50k once. It might not seem like a lot, but that’s a quarter of my salary. No shopping for another four months after that.
How else do you manage your money?
I sit down at home. What am I looking for about? If you want to take me out, come and carry me, please dear. Last weekend, when I wanted to go out so badly, I slept through it. When I’m craving anything that involves going out, I sleep. Sleep works like magic.
Let’s talk about your airtime spending.
I was in a long distance relationship with someone Abroad, we used to text and do video calls. Then I took a break. Then I started talking to someone back here. That meant that I started buying airtime to talk on the phone because the Internet can’t be trusted. I’ll buy ₦1k airtime, and next thing I’ll hear after talking a little is “your account balance is low.”
Mad ting.
One of the guys I’m currently reviewing said we need to take a break from going out. Because every time we go out, it’s like “let’s go and eat here,” “let’s go and chill there,” and then you end up spending money. One guy took me to this restaurant that’s so damn expensive. When they brought the bill like this–₦40k. And what did I even eat?
Local relationships are expensive. You want to go to nice places but they’re all overpriced. Abroad, good pizza is cheap, but here everything is expensive.
Long distance relationships or just being single saves you money.
Okay back to income: How much do you feel like you should be taking home monthly?
Like ₦400k. Because my work stretches me mentally a lot. I have sleepless nights just trying to crack it. If the things I come up with to add value to the company, I should be paid. My work takes all my time. I have no work/life balance. If I spend so much time on my work, I should be paid more.
How much do you think you should be earning in 5 years?
I see myself being Marketing Director in a top company. Or a marketing consultant. I should be earning like ₦3 million a month when I think of where I’m headed and the amount of knowledge I’ll have by then. This figure is of course based on the current value of the naira.
What is something you want right now but can’t afford?
A car. I need it now-now. I’m done with these Uber drivers. I’m tired–the ones that smell, the ones that talk to me one kain, the ones that annoy me.
The car I want is ₦10 million, but the one I’ll manage is ₦2 million. Two separate things.
When do you think you’ll retire?
I intend to run a primary and secondary school in my 50s, when I’m done with the corporate world. But if you’re asking when I’m going to stop working, the answer is never, because I really can’t be idle.
How much do you know about your pension?
13k gets put in my pension account every month? To be honest I’m not sure. It’s just one of those things I do because they said we should do it. But I don’t feel strongly about it, because I feel like if I have my own money, I won’t need it. But they say things might just go wrong and then you suddenly need it.
Last thing you bought that required serious planning?
My phone. It cost ₦306k. My Airpods, on the other hand, didn’t require serious planning because I bought it once–it did require serious thinking.
Most annoying miscellaneous.
As much as I didn’t want to do it and didn’t budget for it, it was school fees for one of my siblings. It was some ridiculous reason that would mean he didn’t resume on time, so I paid ₦40k.
Do you have any investments?
My baby brother’s business. Investment is something you get out right? Uhm, no I don’t. Because it’s more of giving than actual investing. This is why I want to start my own. I also want to invest in someone’s business soon. Someone I know is starting a food business.
Rate your financial happiness over 10?
Something like a 6.5. My current income just gets me the basics, but there are so many things I need that I don’t have. Like my car, I want my car now.
There’s still so much more I want to do, but I can’t do now. I won’t say I’m unhappy, but I need more to be able to do more things than I can do now.
What’s something you’d have loved me to ask you but I didn’t?
I was hoping you’d ask how much I’ve ever earned in my entire life?
That’s interesting, tell me.
Add all the money I’ve earned since then–the 50k gigs, side hustles, the end of year bonuses and returns on small investments here and there. I’ll put the money at maybe ₦15 million?
What’s next?
I’m starting a side hustle soon, it’s more about finding personal purpose than finding money. I feel the need to touch lives to directly and I want to do it with business.
The funding for this? It will have to come from my savings.
It’s time to put all that kolo money to work.
Two things:
The people at Fairmoney aren’t playing around with this spray-the-cash movement. You shouldn’t be playing either. Check it out now-now.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else (plus some stuff I might have edited out), just hit me up here. It takes only one minute.
In this story, we talk to a man who spends his days selling water out of his cart, and his nights keeping watch.
Age: 27
Income: ₦82,000/month
When did this hustle start?
I first came to Lagos around that time Jonathan first became President after Yar’adua died. The first job I started then was fetching water and selling. That time, water used to be sold for ₦20. I’ve been selling water since then.
What’s your average water selling day like?
I always sell between 6 to 8 carts. But on some very good days, I can sell up to 10 carts. My best water days are actually Monday and Thursday. I buy every keg for ₦10 when there’s light then sell each one for ₦40. When there’s no light and they pump water with a generator, each keg is ₦20.
Then recently, I delivered water to one man, and he asked me if I could come and stay as security in his office compound every night to avoid burglars. He offered me ₦10,000. So that’s where I sleep.
So how do you spend your money?
I try to spend no more than ₦300 on food everyday. Then whenever I’m sick, I buy medicine. I try to call my family every time. Every time I call home, it costs me at least ₦500.
Ah, ₦500?
Yes, every time I have to call my family back at home, it costs me ₦500 every 2 minutes. International call.
Tell me about your family.
My parents are from Kidal in Mali. It’s in Tuareg territory. So I’m Tuareg. Tuaregs were fighting to leave Mali and form their own country in 2012. We didn’t really support the movement and fighting in Kidal, because we didn’t want to follow those Tuareg to form new country.
Why?
Those Tuareg that were trying to form the new country are light-skinned. We’re dark-skinned. They won’t treat us well, so we just stayed with Mali. They didn’t succeed in the end. But my family moved to Bankilare in Niger. That’s where they live now.
I have a wife that I married in 2017, we also have a daughter. My wife is 21 now. Then I have my father, my mother, and two sisters. The first one is 19 and the second one is 15.
Does anyone of them go to school?
My wife? No. My 15-year-old sister was going to school when she was younger, but no money again, so she’s no longer going to school. She dropped out of Primary School in 2013.
Does your wife work?
No, she just takes care of the child and maybe does small-small things at the market. But she doesn’t really work. Every month, I try to send home 100,000 CFA every month. That is about ₦60,000.
Then she keeps 20,000 CFA and distributes the rest among my father, mother, and sisters.
Back to Lagos; how far with these Agbero people?
Those ones? They’re always mad. If they see you and you don’t have a Local Government Ticket, they’ll collect ₦5,000. But if you have a ticket, ₦50 every day. Then another thing that takes money once-once; immigration card. Every 6 months, we have to re-register at the immigration office for ₦1,500.
Do you pay rent?
No o. Because that security job is a night job, that’s where I sleep. If I earn more money, maybe I’ll try to get a place to stay.
Do you keep aside any money?
Yes, I try to save ₦5,000 every month. The money is supposed to be what I’ll use to travel back home. So, to travel back home, I need ₦100,000. Last time I travelled home was 2017.
Because I need to take things for the family when I’m going home. For example, I’m going to buy clothes for the whole family. I want to travel around May or June.
What’s the most vexing thing you’ve spent money on?
It’s not even money I spent, but it pained me. One time like this, I went to the place where we buy water, it’s like when I removed my wallet to pay, I forgot to put it back in my pocket.
By the time I went back to check it, someone had carried it. That wallet? It had ₦35,000 inside that I was supposed to send home.
My head scattered. My chest was paining me.
What do you think about your hustle, between 2014 and now?
I’m getting old now. I really wish I had gone to school. Because if I know how to read and write, there are some jobs I’ll be able to do. For example, I can get a better security job in a good place that will pay me well. Or even learn driving and become a driver.
What are your plans for the next one year?
I really just have to travel home. When I get home, I’m going to farm. I hate farming, but I have to do it. I’ll grow maize. What I grow, they’ll eat. The rest, we’ll sell.
I also hope that when I come back, I find a better job, like good security work. Or even driving–this one, I have to learn reading and writing first.
Right now, the only thing I want is for my family to always have food to eat.
That’s why I’m here.
Two things:
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people. If you’d love to share your Naira Life with us, tell us here. You’ll be anon of course
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, just subscribe here. It takes only one minute.
In this story, we’re speaking with a super-talented lady who is torn between learning the ropes in a structured environment and looking for how to earn more.
But quick one: This week’s story was pulled off in collaboration with mycashestate.com–they’re making it ridiculously easy for everyone to grow money by investing.
Age: 21
Occupation: Multidisciplinary Creative
Net Income: ₦100,000/month
Rent: Nil
Do you remember the first time you made money?
Is this like actual money or…?
Okay, actual money. When I was in Primary School. My aunt travelled Abroad and came back with a lot of Haribo–those gummy bear sweets–so I took them to school and started selling them one by one. I used to sell them like ₦10 each at the time.
Also, I used to make tiny little cards and people would pay me. I remember one boy wanted to buy for two girls at the same time, so I sold them for ₦50.
To be honest, I had no real use for the money, so I’d just save it up till my parents decide to help me keep it.
That’s an early start.
But actual money, that’d have to be in Secondary School. Blackberries were a thing, so I used to play around with photo editing apps. Like, I don’t really know why people didn’t really care to research these things, but they sha wanted me to edit for them.
So I started to charge them.
Like, I’d design today and they’d pay me the next day. Also, my parents used to give me ₦150 to school every day. To be honest, I think I just always had money.
Next, people started throwing secondary school parties, and I learned how to design flyers. So I started charging like ₦5k-₦15k.
But by the time I charged my highest for a flyer, ₦20k, I was already in 100-level at University.
And then I was suddenly introduced to this new world where everyone was a hustler. There were better designers and people just killing it.
A whole new level.
Then I was like “oh there are already too many good designers, I’ll try Print.” I had plugs in Mokola–which is like the print capital of Ibadan–so I used to get really good deals.
My first major gig was this woman who needed books and souvenirs, and I got paid ₦400k. I was 18 at the time. It was supposed to be for an event, and when the people at the event saw my work, they gave me another gig.
That one? ₦1.5 million. But then I had to settle labour costs, and my cut was ₦950k.
Bruh.
As I collected that money, I bought matching shoes for my friend and I. Bought an iPhone. Bought a Macbook. Even fixed my friend’s phone sef–that’s after she refused to let me buy her a new phone. Paid my sister’s school fees–my mum said she’d pay back but she never did. I rented my own BQ–had air-conditioning and everything. Bruh, I was balling.
In 400-level, my mum made me move to the hostel, because “how will you go to Uni and not even stay in school at all?” That’s actually when many other students first knew me.
I was still getting gigs and all, but nothing met that ₦950k. Also, I used to give a lot of that money out because I just felt I could always make it back.
Mad ting.
One time in Church, they talked about this challenged family. I was shy to give them, but my mum helped me hand them the money. She was probably like, “so you this girl, you have this type of money?”
How much?
₦400k.
I was about to enter 400-level. Which is weird, because that’s when it started to take its toll. The stress of running around and walking about to get stuff printed was getting to my health. In fact, I actually fell sick. The solution to that was to find a plug to do the running around.
No matter how plugged in the person is, they won’t be loyal. Because they have their own shit to worry about.
Also, I started modelling just around that time, so I stopped pretty much. Although it felt like a downgrade, going from ₦200k to ₦10k design work.
Modelling?
Yep. With all of that. So, imagine in my final year–I’m trying to model, not doing well with school work, commuting from Lagos to Ibadan. Crazy times.
The first show I ever did, I got paid ₦120k. Agency takes their cut and you get 90k. My second gig paid more, and my cut was ₦120k.
The thing about modelling is that it’s highly competitive, and if it’s something you really want to do, it makes you highly driven. If not, you’re going to drop out. It makes you hustle, because everyone looks like you, the same height as you. Standing out is hard.
Anyway, I got another gig that paid ₦80k. Then I started to worry about consistency because there wasn’t really any order. You just get a random call for a job, or you don’t.
I was going to quit, then I started to worry about being a quitter. Like, I felt like I’d been quitting too many things; first design, then the slowdown on printing etc.
Ah, that fear.
What’s interesting is, I was making videos all this time and not showing anyone. It was also the thing I cared about the most, so I never really thought it was good enough. But I knew from the beginning that videos were exactly what I wanted to make for life.
As soon as I finished school, I stumbled on a job, I got a ₦100k offer. This is where it gets really interesting because when they were like ₦100k, I was like oh okay, shouldn’t be bad. Problem was, I was judging Lagos ₦100k with Ibadan brain.
The thing with Lagos is that everything is too cost. Ah. Like, when I first came to Lagos, I was paying tithes, but now I can’t even afford it. See ehn, I hope God understands.
Okay, let’s break down that ₦100k.
I barely see my friends because I’m broke. They ask me to hang out and I’m like “no thanks”, but they never understand that I’m not coming because I don’t have money like that. Some of my friends think I have a lot more money, but I don’t.
Last-last, I know I won’t make ₦100k for the rest of my life, I mean, I sold Haribos. I know I’ll make more. So I think I’m just being intentional and learning as much as I can. Also, I have NYSC allowee money that I can’t touch–some issue with my bank or something. So I know at the end, there’ll be at least ₦200k waiting for me.
You’re serving?
Yeah, started at my job, then NYSC called, and I just posted myself to where I was already working.
Let’s talk about zero rent.
A scam–because I live with good people who I’m not exactly comfortable with. But I need to earn more if I’m going to even attempt moving out. That’s that.
Transport nko?
I used to take a bus in the morning, and Uber at night because of safety. Now I do ridesharing with colleagues, but still, I don’t know where the money goes. People ask me why I still take Ubers, but it’s just like a ₦400 difference per day, compared to public transport. What just stresses me is that I’m broke all the time.
What does broke mean to you?
I mostly save just so I never get stranded, so being broke means when I have to dip into my savings, or even worse when I don’t have them anymore. Broke for me is living to survive. Everyone is living to survive, but in this case, your money is in a box. This box is just survival and nothing else.
Just randomly remembered that I can’t find all the shoes I bought.
Talking about those shoes, what has changed about your perspective–then and now?
First of all, it’s like my life went down. I mean, I was earning more. Only thing now is that there seems to be more purpose and intention with the things I create.
How much do you honestly feel like you should be earning?
Are we looking at my talent or just experience? I mean, I have a friend who does exactly what I do and earns ₦250k. Maybe I should be earning ₦250k.
Buttt, if you want to pay me for my talent, that’d be a whole different conversation.
How much would be great money right now?
Maybe like ₦300k? ‘Don’t really know–I haven’t had ₦300k in Lagos. I think ₦300k. Maybe that.
What’s your life like in 5 years?
I’ll be 25 right? Every time I think about this, I just think about being rich for the people around me. Also, I want to be making a lot of music videos. But most importantly, I really just want to be comfortable enough to make the people around me comfortable.
I want to be able to live alone. And be able to travel a lot. As much as I want to do my own shit, I always want a steady income, except I’m established enough to pay myself every month. Quite frankly, I don’t see myself being in that place in 5 years.
Also, I don’t ever want to retire. I want to die making videos. At least that’s how I feel now.
If you’ve never considered retirement, I’m guessing you’ve never thought about a pension.
Nope. I mean, I’ve had a conversation once, but I’ve never really thought about it.
What’s something you want but can’t afford?
A camera. It’s complicated, but I can explain. I got a camera but it’s not the one I wanted. So if I say right now-now, I need a new phone. Wait, what am I saying? I want a house. I need a house. I need to move.
If someone secretly texts you, please tell them I need a house.
What’s the last thing you paid for that required serious planning?
A camera. This makes no sense–I just said I need a camera–but I already paid for a camera that I saved up for. So now I have two cameras, and I’m in some debt. I paid ₦250k for that camera.
What’s your dream camera?
There’s a lot of them, for different purposes. Technology is a scam. The gear that has everything I want is not affordable. It’s about ₦1.2 million.
What’s the annoying miscellaneous you paid for recently?
So, I did some freelance work and got like ₦30k. Before then, I didn’t have any cream and all of that. So I said lemme buy some stuff o. Also, I wanted to buy a weave. I think I look like a child too much.
So you’re buying wig to look older?
Look, I’m trying to be a babe. I’m buying this thing to be a babe, lemme not lie.
In the end, I didn’t buy anything I wanted to buy that day and ended up buying a ₦20k perfume. Stupid, because that thing was expensive.
The first time I sprayed that perf ehn, I sprayed it with vex.
My real struggle now is: I don’t buy things because I don’t know where to go to buy them. I don’t know where to go because I can’t afford to go out. Everything is just long.
If you had all the school money now, what will you do?
I dunno, but I also feel like I would have blown it. I’d be going out more and buying more shoes. It would have gone to things that I actually need now.
Have you ever imagined steady income without steady 9-5 hustle?
I want work-from-home steady income. Okay?
Have you ever invested in anything before?
I wanted to buy a printing press in school so that all the money that went to labour costs would have been for me. That money I paid for labour, I won’t have had to pay for it again. Also, my friend built an app that I’m kind of invested in, so if that blows, I blow.
Financial satisfaction, 0-10?
-10. Are you wining me? After all my story?
Abeg.
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