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I’ll just come out and say it: Nigerians have a numbers problem. At first, I thought it was just Old Nollywood and their love for name-dropping huge amounts of money like they were pricing pepper.
But it’s more common now. One person said 65% of the married men in Lagos are in her DM, and another one said Nigerians spend $1 billion on betting platforms daily. The one that broke the camel’s back for me was when another person said BB Naija Sheggz’s house costs ₦600 billion. For God’s sake.
You see why this guide is important?
First, let’s look at the difference between millions and billions
It’s easy to point out that you need one thousand millions to make a billion, but the major problem is visualising it.
Let’s use time as an example. If someone dashes you ₦1 every second, it’ll take you over 30 years to make a billion naira. However, it’ll take you just about 11 days to make a million naira. Can you see both figures are not mates?
Let me blow your brain further, following the same time example, it’ll take you over 31 thousand years to make a trillion naira if you earn ₦1 every second.
“Millionaire” and “Billionaire” aren’t synonyms
Bill Gates is worth around $100 billion. If he buys twenty Boeing 747 planes at $148 million each, he’ll still have over $97 billion as change. A millionaire worth $900 million can only buy the same plane six times before going broke.
Twenty aeroplanes and Gates’ net worth didn’t even feel it. But someone said a house in Ikota is ₦600 billion — more than $700 million. Let’s be for real, please.
One billion naira is not that easy to spend
Even if you spend ₦1 million every month, it’ll take you about 83 years to run out of ₦1 billion. Now imagine ₦50 billion. Unless you’re a Nigerian politician, it’s extremely unlikely you’ll spend it all in a lifetime.
You can never be a billionaire by saving
It’s not like I’m swearing for you o, but how much do you want to save? Even if you save your entire salary every month, it’ll take an average Nigerian minimum wage earner centuries to reach a billion naira.
So, if a motivational speaker tells you, “Making your first billion is just determination and a thing of the mind,” feel free to throw hands.
Consider returning to school
If by now, I’ve not been able to convince you that a million naira isn’t even fit to kiss the feet of a billion naira, run your parents a refund of the school fees they spent on you and start taking maths class again.
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 your earliest memory of money?
Five-year-old me thought money used to multiply. Some context: When I was in kindergarten, I noticed people would walk up to my class teacher with one ₦50 note, and she’d give them two sachets of water and two ₦20 notes as change. In my head, I concluded one single money could give you “two money.”
LOL. Didn’t we all?
I decided to multiply my own money too. So, I took ₦50 from my mum’s purse and used it to buy water from my teacher. When she gave me the “two money”, I proudly took it home to show my mum. She was like, “So, you’ve started stealing at this age?” Good times.
Now that you mention your parents, what did they do for money?
My dad is a lecturer, and my mum has a small business.
Before secondary school, I thought we had money. Maybe it’s because I didn’t pay attention to the finances, and I had mostly all I needed. But I was definitely shocked when I started asking for money in secondary school, and my parents would always respond with, “There’s no money.”
That’s when I started realising the small things like how we never had a family outing. Even on the odd occasion when my mum bought outside food, she’d buy just two plates, and the five of us would have to manage it.
What did this realisation change?
It led to my “I need to make money” phase at 15 years old. I was in SS 3 in boarding school when I started painting my schoolmates’ nails, charging between ₦50 and ₦100. It was illegal, but I’d walk around the hostel with my nail file and nail polish, announcing, “Do your nails!” It was my trademark.
I used to make an average of ₦300 daily and lived large. I spent all my money at the tuck shop.
Did you continue after secondary school?
I wanted to, but my dad thought starting a side business would affect my studies. So, I dropped it.
I started uni in January 2020, but had to return home after a couple of weeks due to a combination of the COVID pandemic and an ASUU strike. In June, I decided to learn a skill, so I picked make-up. My mum paid ₦200k for the three-month training and the make-up box I needed. But I only practised on a few people before abandoning it.
Why?
I felt I couldn’t make people look pretty. Luckily, school resumed in 2021, and I went back to focusing on my studies.
Did you try any other thing for money?
I went to classes from home (I still do), and my dad wanted me to focus, so I couldn’t do any business.
I don’t have an allowance because he gives me transport money to school every day. The man doesn’t even know I have a bank account.
But I was on social media a lot. In 2022, I decided to give content creation a try. I thought it might be fun, and I’d also heard that creators make a lot of money.
How did that go?
I wanted to create content relatable to people like me who weren’t rich kids, so I challenged myself to live on ₦1k daily and share my results. People definitely found it relatable because my accounts grew quite quickly, and I started making money from it in 2023.
How do you make money as a content creator?
Mainly through influencing gigs. Brands reach out for custom content, and others send free gifts so I can talk about them on my channels. My first client reached out to me in January and paid ₦20k for three videos. I was ecstatic. I’d initially charged ₦25k, but I didn’t even mind. It was the motivation I needed to take creating content seriously.
The only downside is, the money is not constant, and brands sometimes owe me too. There was this brand I worked with for three months. In that time, I made 16 videos for them, and my total pay was ₦300k. They paid 40% before the campaign started, and were supposed to pay a percentage every month. But they paid another 20% in the third month, and 40% months after the campaign ended. I’ve worked with them a couple of times, and they always pay late.
Is this your regular experience with brands?
Thankfully, it’s not regular. I guess I’ve been pretty lucky. The wildest influencing gig I’ve ever gotten was from someone who paid me ₦100k just to play their song in the background of one of my videos. It was easy money.
What’s your monthly income from influencing like?
On average, ₦50k per month. Some months are better than others, though. The ₦100k gig was just last month.
What about your expenses?
Pretty moderate. I still try to live on ₦1k daily because of my content, but the way the economy is going these days means I often overshoot my budget. But I still live at home, so food and transportation to school are taken care of.
But I should confess. This moderate lifestyle is just a few months old. When I first started making money online in January, I went on a spending spree for months.
What were you spending on?
Everything I was interested in at the moment. You know how you start getting strange ideas when you have money you don’t need? That was how it was for me.
First, I decided I wanted to get into those coffee girl aesthetics. So I bought an icemaker for ₦90k and a coffee maker for ₦25k. I’ve not used them for even one day; the icemaker is still inside the carton.
Another time, I became obsessed with BookTok — the readers section of TikTok — and thought reading books would help me escape the reality of living at home. I started with fantasy and dystopian books. When I grew tired of those because the plots started to look the same, I moved to deeper self-help books. I quickly got tired of reading those as well, but I just kept buying them, telling myself I’d read them one day.
The last bulk purchase I made was in June — I bought nine books which cost almost ₦100k, plus delivery. From January to June, I spent ₦400k on over 60 books. Most of them are unread and are just sitting on my shelf. I console myself with the fact that I can still sell them someday.
Now, I’ve moved past all that and just save my money.
Do you have a savings goal?
I’m saving to get my own place. My family home is nice, but it gets tiring. Since July, I’ve tried to save 80% of every amount I get from influencing. It’s currently around ₦300k. But I’m still debating whether to stick it out till I graduate and invest my savings in a piece of land instead, so I can resell it for a profit later.
The remaining 20% of my income is the vex money I use for the odd outing, or when I need data to create content.
Can you break down your typical expenses in a month?
Data – ₦15,000
Eating out – ₦30,000
Miscellaneous – ₦10,000
I don’t spend a lot, even when creating content. I just use my phone and a tiny influencer light I bought for ₦10k on AliExpress.
Do you plan to continue creating content after uni?
Yes. It’s my backup career plan. There’s money in content creation o. I know people who don’t have a degree but make millions from it.
Plus, I did a two-month unpaid internship as part of school requirements in April, and I realised there’s no money in the course I’m studying at school. But I’m still studying hard to graduate with good grades so I can have both my degree and content creation. Then, I can stick to whatever pays more.
How would you describe your relationship with money?
I feel like I’ve been playing since, but I’m now focused on making my money work for me. I save better, and I’m deliberate about spending and managing my money. I’m active on social media, and I’m familiar with the urge to live a fake life, but I make do with what I have.
You guys recently did a video where you asked people how long it’d take them to spend ₦500k. It’d probably take me two years with how deliberate I am now.
My mindset now is, I need to make money for my future, and no one will make it for me.
How much money qualifies as “good money” to you?
I honestly can’t pick a specific figure. More money will come with more responsibilities, so I don’t think there’s a point where I’ll be satisfied. It’s always on to the next thing.
Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?
Definitely land. It’s part of my savings goals, but I want to get land in an already developed area to get better returns on investment. I’d need ₦3m – ₦4m for that.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?
10. I’m not spending my money on nonsense anymore. I know where I am now, and where I want to get to. I’ve also learned to limit impulse decisions and not do more than myself.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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 your earliest memory of money?
As a child, I always thought money was just available. My dad was very generous, so all I had to do was ask. My mum, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. You had to beg, lie and cry to get anything from her.
What did your parents do for money?
My dad imported and exported cash crops, and was hardly home. My mum was a stay-at-home wife till I was about 14 years old. She basically took care of me and my younger siblings.
What was growing up like, financially?
It was very up and down. Since my dad dealt with seasonal crops, he made most of his money around harvest time, which was once a year. Other times, there’d be no money, and things would get really bad.
Our life was like that: Money today, no money tomorrow. But when there was money, there was really money. Like flying to meet your dad on vacation money.
When there was no money, there was really no money. I remember returning to boarding secondary school one time, and my mum couldn’t afford the transport fare. We had to take soólè — a cheaper, but more dangerous alternative.
How did that shape your opinions about money growing up?
I had a fear of financial insecurity and instability, and it’s stayed with me till adulthood. I became very money-conscious early. It’s the reason I started working at 14 years old.
Your first job. Tell me about it
During the three-month break between SS 2 and SS 3, I worked as an attendant at a betting shop beside my mum’s provision store. My pay was ₦10k in the first month, then it increased to ₦12k.
What were you spending money on?
Data, snacks and those ₦50 Lantern storybooks. I also had a bank account my dad had created so he could send me money without my mum intercepting it, but I hardly saved.
Ushering was the next job I did. I started immediately after I entered the university in 2013, but my first gig was a scam.
What happened?
I applied to an ushering agency via WhatsApp and sent my pictures. They said I’d been accepted but needed to pay a ₦5k application fee.
Bank transfers weren’t popular then, so I made the deposit at the bank and sent the picture of the deposit slip together with my picture, name and details to an email address they provided. They sha blocked me, and I never heard back from them again.
Omo. Did you try another agency after that?
Yes. Thankfully, the next one was legit. I started working most weekends, earning between ₦5k to ₦8k per event. I did approximately three events a month and could make anything between ₦20k to ₦30k. The highest I ever got from ushering was ₦20k for a politician’s one-day event.
How long did you do the ushering jobs for?
Till 300 level. It was my major source of income because things were bad again at home, and my parents still had to look out for my siblings. While my parents handled my school fees and sent a ₦30k monthly allowance, I took responsibility for all my other needs.
Why did you stop ushering?
I started dating a generous man.
Now I need the details
We met in 2015. He was a doctor who worked not too far from my uni, and I typically spent my weekends with him. Since my ushering gigs were during weekends, the work just died a natural death.
He gave me money for the first time after we spent a weekend together. I got home and found an envelope with ₦50k inside in my bag. Subsequently, he just started giving me random money and buying me food. It made my life easier; I didn’t have to ask for money.
One time, I was with his debit card when I saw a ₦10k bag I liked and just paid for it. I remember asking myself why I thought it was okay to spend his money without his permission, but he didn’t even flinch when I told him. We dated for a year before our relationship ended in epic breakfast. But I don’t want to get into that.
Ouch
After I finished uni in 2017, I went for youth service and lived on the ₦19,800 allowance plus other small money I made for writing short articles for a German-based LMS.
How did you get into writing?
Heartbreak brought out my creative side. I wrote dark pieces about unrequited love, depression, family and all that jazz. I even had three journals at a point. My friend saw it and was like, “Why not make money with this thing?”
So, she linked me up with the LMS. She also worked there, and they sent my payments to her account as well. Payment was per word, and we had targets — usually 3k to 5k words. The amount I got at the end of the month depended on how well I met my targets. My very first salary was ₦73k. Subsequent months ranged between ₦20k to ₦70k.
₦20k?
It was a very unstable place. If you didn’t meet your targets, you could wake up to find that you’ve been logged out, and you have to beg for another account. When that happens, you lose any progress you’ve made up till that point, and your hours start counting again. I worked there till service ended in 2018. I think my last salary was ₦48k.
What did you do next?
I studied a medical course at uni, so I decided to try out a hospital internship. I got a year-long internship at a general hospital in early 2019. My monthly stipend was ₦91k/month, which was a relief coming from the unstable LMS job. However, the hospital was really the ghetto. It was the experience that helped me realise I didn’t want a medical career.
What made you come to that decision?
While interning, I happened to be part of a general meeting with senior medical professionals from all over. I remember looking down at all their worn-out shoes and deciding I didn’t want to wear those kinds of shoes. These were seasoned professionals who had been at it for over 10 years. That couldn’t be my life.
I feel you. Was it just the shoes, though?
It was mostly that. Then, I had a friend who joined the hospital’s human resources department. I’d hang out with her in the HR department and admire the work they did. I liked mathematics in school, and they handled a lot of data, which I loved.
Then, another friend introduced me to an HR/admin officer, and I started unofficially helping him with data entry and documentation. Around that time, the departmental secretary went on maternity leave, so I helped with documentation while she was away. At that point, I just liked the work and knew I didn’t want to do the course I studied. I didn’t have a clear career plan.
What did you do after the internship ended?
I’d started dating the friend who introduced me to the HR officer before my internship ended in June 2020. He was also generous, so when my salary stopped, he put me on a ₦50k monthly allowance. Sometimes, it was ₦150k, and after we’d been together for a year, it went up to ₦200k.
I spent most of my time with him, so I didn’t look for a job. However, I started a bedsheet business in November 2020.
What inspired that?
I loved buying bedsheets for my space. One day, I went sourcing fabrics for a new one. I put a poll up on WhatsApp to see which fabrics worked best for men and women, and my friends began to show interest. So, I just decided to start selling.
My boyfriend gave me ₦300k as initial capital, but I started with ₦150k and kept the rest. I bought 16 bedsheets for a start and sold the whole thing in eight days. I made a ₦2k profit on each. I also sold some duvets for a ₦3k profit.
But December was when I really made money. Someone contacted me to supply sheets and duvets for his mansion. The contract was worth ₦200k, and I made an ₦80k profit.
Love to hear it. So, the business was a hit?
Somewhat. Sales were mostly from my family and friends, so it wasn’t that regular. But the business was just so I could have something to do — my boyfriend regularly sent me money. Because of that, I could save most of the salary plus ₦198k COVID allowance I received from the hospital towards the end of my internship. By the end of 2020, I had almost ₦700k in savings. But then, I went to invest it.
It’s already sounding like it didn’t end well
Before then, I had made a smaller ₦200k investment with an agribusiness platform in October 2020. It was a year-long investment, and I was supposed to cash out ₦240k after maturity. There was no issue with that one.
But then, in 2021, I invested ₦800k in one popular forex company and was supposed to cash out ₦1.2m after nine months. They even had an app where you could see your money grow. But the time to cash out came, and I couldn’t click the “withdraw money” button. At one point, the app stopped working. I sent emails and tried customer support with no luck. It was when I went to social media and saw other people wailing that I knew it was gone. I cried ehn.
Omo. I’m so sorry
It was extra painful because I didn’t tell my boyfriend. I wanted my “financial wisdom” to be a surprise to him. It felt like I had nothing to show for the business capital he’d given me.
Also, I wasn’t sure of the future of the business. My boyfriend cheated earlier in April 2021, and while we were still together, things were going downhill. It made me start rethinking the business. He was my primary source of income, and I realised I needed something more sustainable. I was ready to leave, but I was also scared of not having money and being unable to feed— the age-long fear of financial insecurity. It prompted me to look for a job.
How —
Wait. Did I mention I made another stupid investment in 2021?
OMG
This one was with a family friend. He was the accountant and also quite religious, and I believed him when he assured me it was legit. So, I put in close to ₦600k. It was supposed to last six months, but the site crashed after the third month. 2021 was essentially my year of fake investments. I lost ₦1.4 million in total.
Yikes. How was the job search going, though?
I was applying for random jobs and living on online hiring platforms. I used the time to brush up on my CV and LinkedIn with stuff I learned from free recruitment and interview training sessions online.
I also read a lot about customer success, human resources, and even data analysis; practically anything that’d make the transition into related fields easy. I also did some HR courses on Coursera — it was free because I applied for financial aid. After taking the courses, I’d add them to my LinkedIn profile. But I was also depressed and was crying all the time.
Finally, in March 2022, I landed two offers: an HR data analyst role in Ibadan and a Talent acquisition specialist role in Lagos.
Which one did you go for?
I lived in Ibadan, and the HR data analyst role was going to pay ₦150k. The Lagos role was ₦50k. The Ibadan job was more reasonable, but I thought I needed a change of environment to beat the depression, so I took the Lagos job. It’s definitely one of the craziest things I’ve ever done in my life. By this time, I’d broken up with my boyfriend, but we remained friends.
I moved in with a friend at Gbagada — the office was at Surulere. I still had about ₦500k in savings (including the ₦240k cash-out from the agribusiness investment). So, as a soft babe, I used a cab from one of these ride-hailing apps on my first day. It cost ₦3,700. That’s when I knew Lagos wasn’t for the fainthearted. I saw people hustling for buses while returning home that day, and one lady’s skirt even tore. The ghetto.
Not you slandering Lagos
I couldn’t keep up with cabs or hustle for buses, so I moved out of that friend’s house after two days and went to live with another friend in Surulere. The plan was to stay for two weeks while I looked for a house.
But within a week, the friend started asking about my plans to get a place. I was aggressively house hunting, but it was difficult doing that while doing a very stressful full-time job, coupled with Lagos agent’s wahala.
One week and five days into staying with her, the friend sent me a text on a Thursday evening, saying her mum was visiting over the weekend and I needed to leave.
Darn. What did you do?
I just started crying. I was at work, and my boss saw me and gave me the rest of the week off to sort out my house situation and resume work on Tuesday. Luckily, I found a mini flat in Surulere the very next day. It was supposed to cost ₦800k, and I only had ₦500k. So, I called my ex, and he sent me ₦500k.
I ended up paying just ₦500k — the landlord decided not to collect the agent and agreement fees. I then spent about ₦300k to furnish it. I was settling in pretty well until I lost my job in May 2022.
How come?
The job had crazy expectations. I was hired to do HR, but I also did customer service, sales and a little of everything. We also did recruitments and would be given extremely short deadlines to submit candidate profiles.
My boss had given me and one other colleague three days to submit some profiles. We couldn’t meet up, and by Monday morning, I opened my mail in the office to find a termination letter. No one said anything to me, and I stayed till 5 p.m. and left. The next morning, the HR had the audacity to call me to ask why I wasn’t at work because I had a “notice period”.
Mad o. So back to job hunting?
It was tougher this time around because my savings were depleting fast. By June, I had just ₦25k and decided to sell my laptop. I told a friend that I wanted to sell it, and she got so upset that things were that bad. The next thing I saw was her post on WhatsApp: “Isn’t there anyone who needs an HR officer in their company?”
Aww
That post landed me a ₦171k/month HR role. I resumed in July.
That must’ve been a relief
It was. I later discovered I was lowballed because I didn’t negotiate, but it was still life-changing money for me.
I’d started sending ₦20k home as black tax since my internship days — even when I was jobless. The needs from home were increasing because my dad was fully out of business, and it felt good to earn money that could take care of needs as they arose.
Were you spending on yourself at all?
I usually sent ₦70k home in a month, so I’d split the remaining ₦100k into two: ₦50k to my savings and ₦50k to take me through the month. It was tough, but I learned to manage.
In December 2022, I started getting HR gigs from someone on LinkedIn. Mostly payroll, CV, employee handbooks and others. The gigs gave me an additional ₦100k monthly, so I decided the whole thing would go straight into my savings account that I didn’t touch.
How was work going?
I resigned in March 2023. It was the period when transportation costs became too much to bear, and the company refused to go hybrid or give me a salary raise. My mental health couldn’t take it, and I could no longer function well. So, I left even though I had nothing else lined up. But I got another job six days after my notice period elapsed in April.
Impressive
It was a real lifesaver. It was an HR manager role for ₦350k/month — a 100% increase from my previous salary.
It gets crazier. In July, the company merged with a fintech company, and I got promoted to HR manager for the parent company, and my salary increased to ₦910k.
How did you react to learning about your new salary?
It’s a very dramatic story. When I saw the alert, I checked the payroll. The person whose name was next to mine had the same salary, so I thought it was a sorting mistake and I was paid another person’s salary.
The salary came in at midnight, as it usually does because my boss doesn’t live in Nigeria. When I saw ₦910k, I couldn’t touch the money. I sent a quick WhatsApp text to my boss explaining the error, and she just said, “It’s not an error. You’ll be briefed tomorrow. Goodnight”. Ah. How was I supposed to sleep that night?
LOL
I concluded it was probably a performance bonus, but it turned out to be a pay raise. It felt unreal.
What does this rapid income growth mean for your spending habits?
I still live the same lifestyle. A lot of my income goes into black tax. Two of my younger siblings are now in uni, and they’re sort of my responsibility since my dad went and married another wife.
Earning more has made my life a bit better. Dresses I used to think were too expensive don’t seem that costly now. But I’m being conscious about my spending. I want to sponsor my siblings’ education in a way that they don’t have to depend on me.
While that fear of financial insecurity has reduced, it’s still there. I work for a fintech after all, and anything can happen. But at least now, I can save better.
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How much do you currently have saved up?
₦2m. Since I started earning ₦910k, I have saved ₦600k every month. Right now, I have two savings goals: A car to beat my daily cab costs and an apartment on the Island for proximity to work.
But I’m also saving so I can have something to fall back on if I ever get laid off. I’m even still job hunting and wouldn’t mind a remote offer, so I can do both jobs together. I want to move to a job that’s more stable, so I don’t have to worry about being laid off and losing my source of income.
Have you considered how much the car and apartment would cost?
I want a luxury car which will cost about ₦8m. An apartment would likely cost me ₦2m, but it’s a secondary need. The car is more important.
Are you still considering investments these days?
I’ve sworn off them. I’m so scared now that I can’t even put money in these fintech savings and investment apps. I have about ₦40k in Nigerian stocks and $180 in US stocks, but that’s about it. I’ve not gotten to the point where I can put my money somewhere other than traditional banks. I prefer to see it every day.
What do your regular monthly expenses look like?
Curious. What amount monthly would cancel the financial instability fear?
My short-term goal is ₦1.5m/monthly. That way, I can save ₦1m monthly and live on ₦500k. I hope to get that by 2024.
Long-term, I’d like to earn in dollars. Preferably $2k/month and above. Of course, I know I need to constantly develop myself to remain relevant if I want to get there.
How would you describe your relationship with money?
It’s been very volatile, but it’s beginning to mature. I’m now very strict with savings. Even when I had my birthday recently, I drew up a budget to outline how much I could use to spoil myself. I still fear financial instability, but I’ve grown more confident in my skills. I know that as long as I have these skills, I can always still make money.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
6. I’m earning good money now, but I haven’t saved enough. I want to get to ₦10m in savings. I also still have a lot of heavy black taxes, and I’ll only be really happy when my siblings are less dependent on me because they have jobs.
If I lose my job today, I’m not the only one who’ll go hungry; my siblings will too. So that knowledge means I never fully settle or have peace of mind. At least, until they’re independent.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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.
When was the first time you made money?
2005, my first year in the university. A coursemate and I worked on a construction site during a brief ASUU strike. I was supposed to go home, but I couldn’t call home for transport money to travel back home.
I was squatting with this coursemate, and we were “soaking-garri-once-a-day” levels of broke, which was why we looked for the job.
We were paid ₦600 each daily to carry blocks, cement and stones. I only did it for four days before I fell sick.
Why couldn’t you call home, though?
My dad passed away just before I got into uni, and things became hard at home. Before his death, he worked as a car dealer and was the sole breadwinner. We lived in our own house and were really comfortable.
After he died, his family started fighting over his properties. My mum had to leave it all to them when the fight became spiritual, and she started having strange illnesses. Afterwards, she did all sorts of petty trading and sent me and my younger sibling to school from the little she made. Of course, I had to adjust my perspective on money and expectations and learn to survive.
What were some of these perspective changes?
I always thought money just came to honest and good people. It’s what I’d seen and learned from my dad. He was the definition of good and honest. My dad had regular clients because people knew him to be honest and trusted him with referrals.
But was the family that took all his properties after death honest? They didn’t work for what they took, but they still had money.
With everything that happened after my dad’s death, I knew I had to hustle, but I also learned that honesty and hard work weren’t a guarantee for success. So, I did several things for money, even some I’m not proud of.
Can you share?
In 2006, I had a six-month stint at a pure water factory. I was in charge of packing and loading bags of water for ₦5k weekly. But I usually made an extra ₦1k – ₦2k by diverting some sachets of water before packing and selling them on my own.
I also used to write GCE exams for students for a fee. It wasn’t regular, but I made ₦2k on every exam I did. I got caught once by an invigilator, but I settled them with a bottle of coke.
That was all it took?
That was all it took. GCE was once a year, so I had other hustles. In 2007, I was a sales boy for a catfish business for ₦10k per month. But I used to make extra money by doing a little addition and subtraction with the records.
What were your expenses like?
My mum still paid my school fees and sent ₦5k at least once a month, but I sorted other costs like hostel accommodation, feeding and course materials on my own. Plus, the odd spending on girlfriends.
I wasn’t even serious about school like that — I had largely abandoned classes because of work. The fish pond was close to my uni, so I could rush to school if there was urgent school business. I managed to graduate with a second-class lower in 2010, though.
Did you work at the fish pond till graduation?
I worked there until 2009, when the owner decided to stop the business. By then, my salary had been slightly increased to ₦12k, but I made about ₦25k in total from the several adjustments I made.
Without a stable salary, I survived the rest of my time in school by taking server gigs at weekend owambes for around ₦5k weekly. I also used to drum at one church on Sundays for the ₦1k they’d give me after every service.
For a while too, I joined market activation campaigns for popular brands. Those gigs are the reason I still equate marketing with standing under the hot sun with a branded polo, and hundreds of flyers in your hand while everyone else tries their best to ignore you. I suffered o. And how much were they paying? ₦5k per campaign.
Anyway, I survived and graduated.
What did you do after graduation?
I went for NYSC in 2011. I only went because I was sure of ₦19,800 monthly, and I wasn’t sure what else to do with my life at that point.
The school I was posted to had an additional building in the compound that was under construction. I studied building technology in uni, and even though I wasn’t a serious student, I could tell the workers were doing rubbish.
One day, I asked the principal if I could help him supervise the workers. He agreed, and I supervised the project until it was completed right before I finished my service year. It took that long because the man was gathering the money and dropping it small small.
Did he pay you for the supervision?
For where? He didn’t. Strangely, I didn’t mind. I did my service year in a boring village, and there was nothing else for me to do after classes. But he did connect me to the person who gave me my next job.
How did that happen?
When I finished service in 2012 and told him I was returning to the town I schooled in, he told me he had a friend there who was into construction. I met with the friend, and he employed me as a site manager. I worked there for three years.
How much was the pay?
There wasn’t a standard monthly payment; my pay depended on the volume of work and the number of sites we had to manage in a month. But on average, I made between ₦60k – ₦70k monthly.
Did you think it was good money?
I thought I was a big boy. I could send money home once in a while, and I wasn’t paying rent since I lived in the office. The workers could spend the night in the office, so I took advantage of that. I also had a steady girlfriend who I supported in school.
There was also usually free money from balances from buying building materials, so I was good.
But in 2015, I decided to venture out on my own and offer construction services under my own firm — even though I was the only one there.
What inspired that decision?
I realised that my boss could make up to ₦800k profit on one project, and we could have at least two projects running concurrently in one month. But I was only being paid less than ₦100k a month. So, I left.
I had about ₦400k saved up at the time, and I used ₦300k to rent a mini flat and registered a company with what remained.
Did you get clients immediately?
Another reason I had the courage to leave my boss was because I met a potential client through a friend who wanted to build some hostels.
I started the project around the time I registered my company. It lasted for a year, and I made close to ₦2m from it.
Wiun. That definitely qualifies as a big break
It was. It wasn’t a lump-sum payment, though; the amount was stretched out over the one-year period.
Most of it went into my wedding. My girlfriend got pregnant, and her family insisted we got married before she started to show. Of course, I wanted to marry her and was glad this came when I had money. We got married in 2016.
However, she lost the baby after the wedding.
So sorry about that
Thank you. It was as if my business knew I wasn’t in the right frame of mind because I didn’t get a client for the rest of the year.
My wife and I managed the little I had left from the hostel project and the occasional support we got from my wife’s family. My wife herself wasn’t working.
When did the next project come?
2017. An uncle from my mum’s side who lived abroad wanted to return to Nigeria and asked me to help build his house. I made about ₦600k from that project.
Then, in 2018, I partnered with my former boss to work on a project. It was a hotel, and I didn’t have enough manpower, so I got him on board. It lasted about six months, and I made close to ₦700k.
On average, I had one major client every year till I took a break from the business in January 2023.
How were you managing when there were no clients?
I started supplying tiles on the side in 2019. Since I already worked with people who were either building or renovating, it was easy to get clients.
So, I partnered with a supplier at a major tile market. Whenever clients needed tiles, I’d get them from him and sell them at a markup. That usually brought about ₦50k – ₦70k a month.
My wife also got a bank job in 2018, so she also supported the income. But she’s currently the primary breadwinner.
Is this connected to you taking a break from work?
Yes. I had a mini stroke in January, which the doctor attributed to stress and high blood pressure. He emphasised that I needed to take it easy, considering I’m just 35 and already having such health scares.
It was supposed to be a one-month break, but I haven’t returned to work since.
Why?
My wife got pregnant again for the first time since we got married. In February, she was six months gone but started having complications and was placed on bed rest. She had to take maternity leave early, and I stayed back to take care of her.
We had the twins in April, about a month too early, and they had to be in the incubator for three weeks. Soon after we returned home, she had to return to work. There was an option to extend the leave without pay, but we needed the money and had no one to help. My mum would have come through, but she passed away in 2022.
I’m sorry to hear that
Thanks. We decided I’d stay home to care for the children. I was only too happy to do it, and not just because I needed to watch my health; we had waited years for these babies. That’s what I’m doing now. I’m a proud stay-at-home husband.
How long do you imagine you’ll do this?
For as long as it’s necessary. My family is my priority now. My wife has endured the struggle and trauma of unexplained infertility for seven years. It’s only fair I take this burden off her, at least until we can figure out how to balance the twins’ care with work.
Curious. What does being a stay-at-home husband look like?
My wife cooks during the weekend and freezes most of it. She also expresses breast milk daily and stores it in the freezer. So, most of what I do is defrost, warm the milk and feed the babies, keep them entertained, do the laundry and heat up the food she already cooked so she has something to eat when she returns from work.
She also has a cousin who is schooling around and pops in from time to time to help with house cleaning, market runs, and the twins.
How do the home’s finances run?
My wife earns about ₦500k per month, and since we’ve had the twins, she sends half of her salary to me and saves the rest. The half with me is what we try to manage for the month, even though we dip into our savings before the month’s end.
We’re saving so much because I have a landed property that we hope to start developing by the end of the year. I also have some money saved up from when I was working. Our combined savings is about ₦2.5m now.
We currently live in a flat my wife inherited from her dad, but we want to build our own and rent to get an added income source.
What do your monthly expenses look like?
The thing about raising kids is, you will spend. They can develop a cough, and the next thing you have to do is change their medicine. Or they poop immediately after you change their diaper, and you have to change it again. But it’s a problem we’re happy to have.
Your story has gone from needing to hustle to doing without it happily. How has this affected your perspective on money?
After my dad died, making money felt like a point to prove. I needed it to survive, but it also felt like an anchor to make sure I didn’t return to that feeling of hopelessness. And when I first got married, it was a way to ensure my wife didn’t have to suffer like my mum did.
But now, money is simply a means to an end. It’s what pays the bills, and that’s it. Maybe it’s knowing that I could easily drop dead if I do too much, or the fact that my wife’s support helps me understand that I’m not alone and don’t need to kill myself to prove a point. I know I still need to make money, and I’m still thinking about how best to work around my business, but this is what works for my family for now.
What’s something you want but can’t afford right now?
Our own house. We’re already working towards it, but getting ₦15m now would definitely fast-track it.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?
6. I’m not actively earning, but I feel somewhat fulfilled right now. I’ll figure it out as it goes.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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 your earliest memory of money?
I remember older people “dashing” me money out of pity. I lost my dad when I was one and was an only child for the first 12 years of my life.
On random Sundays, my mum would take me to greet one wealthy church member or the other, and they’d hand me wads of cash. I used to go to primary school with ₦200, even though I didn’t spend more than ₦50 on food. The rest, I spent as I pleased.
I don’t know what it meant for my mum and grandparents to provide for me, but I know I was quite comfortable.
You grew up with your grandparents?
Yes. After my dad passed, my mum moved back in with her parents. Then, she went back to school and married my stepfather after she got her Higher National Diploma.
My stepfather doesn’t live in the country but has a couple of businesses here, so my mum manages them.
This is a good place to ask about the first thing you did for money
While trying to get into university in 2013, ASUU went on a six-month strike. My secondary school’s principal encouraged me and some other new graduates to return to teach the junior classes.
So, I started teaching a special needs JSS 2 student maths, English and basic science lessons on weekdays and got paid ₦10k monthly.
It was the first time I had money that wasn’t given to me. I spent most of it on clothes, and because I didn’t really know what to do with money, I also naively lent some to my mum’s sibling who lived with us at the time. Of course, I never got the money back.
I was at the job for two months and left after the term ended. By the time the new term started, I had gotten into uni. I started classes in January 2014.
Did you do anything for money in uni?
I didn’t. I’d say it was because I grew up without needing to be financially responsible for myself. Apart from the gifts I got when I was younger, my stepfather took on the responsibility when my mum married him, so I never worried about money.
I only started working after graduating from uni in 2017. There were some delays with my clearance for NYSC, so I took up a client communications internship with a financial institution the following year.
How did you get the job?
I had been home for about four months doing nothing, so my stepdad spoke to my half-sister who worked there. Fortunately, they were taking interns, and I got in. It paid ₦60k/month (₦3k per each day you worked).
Most of my salary went into paying for data to stream movies. I also tried to save, but after spending heavily on data and buying ₦1k chicken and chips daily, I realised ₦60k wasn’t plenty money.
I also gave a cousin ₦20k once to help pay her uni admission acceptance fee. Like me, she also lost her dad early, and we’d grown close. So, she and her siblings tend to look to me as an elder sibling, and I support them occasionally.
I spent only five months at the company, though.
Why did you leave?
I was supposed to go back to school for clearance. I lived and worked in Lagos, and school was in Port-Harcourt. But something happened, and I couldn’t go again. To think that I already resigned officially.
Yikes. So, what did you do next?
I stayed at home again for another three months. In January 2019, I got another job as an audit intern. This time, the salary was ₦40k/month.
How did this one come about?
My stepdad came through again. His cousin owned the company and helped me get a foot in. This time, though, I spent all the ₦40k salary on transportation. We lived on the mainland, and the office was in Ikoyi. My stepdad even had to give me an additional ₦40k monthly for the two months I worked there so I could fend for myself.
You worked there for only two months?
I resigned when it was time to return to school and finally do my clearance and convocation.
I eventually got called up for service in June 2019 and was posted to Jigawa. But I redeployed to Ogun where they first sent me to a village. Then I worked my way to a government office. However, I never actually worked there.
How?
They weren’t paying corps members stipends, and I wanted to return home. There was no point planting myself in Ogun when I didn’t see a future there, and there were better career opportunities for me in Lagos.
From my ₦19,800 NYSC allowance, I paid a guy at my PPA ₦6k monthly and a lady at CDS ₦5k/month so I wouldn’t have to show up. I did have to go to Abeokuta once a month for clearance, and the cost of transportation was ₦5k. At the end of the month, I’d only have ₦3k left from my allowance.
What were you doing in Lagos?
My half-sister got me another internship with the same financial institution in August 2019. The payment structure was still ₦3k for every day I worked and ₦60k/month on average. But they started deducting 5% of my salary for tax, and I was left with ₦57k/month.
This was how the internship worked: The company had different projects at different points in time. A regular team handled these, but but sometimes they had a lot of backlogs to clear. They hired interns for the number of months required to clear them.
When I came on, they needed interns for a year. So, I joined the reconciliation and resolutions team, and my job was data entry and extraction. I was there until March 2020, when the COVID lockdown sent us all home.
What happened after?
I was at home. I even tried my hand at a YouTube lifestyle channel, but I only did it for a bit and stopped. Now, I regret I didn’t use the opportunity to build skills in data science and analytics. I became interested in the field during the internship, and I still feel like I wasted time not acting on that interest. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have enough career information then. I’m on my younger cousins’ necks now to build skills so they don’t waste valuable time like I did.
But what was money inflow like?
Remember the internship was for a year? It was supposed to end in July, but we had to close work in March. However, they paid our salaries till July. I was also collecting NYSC’s allowance, which had increased to ₦33k. So, that’s what I used to cover my data expenses, food — I had moved in with a family to be closer to work — and sometimes send money to my cousins.
I also got random ₦10ks from my stepdad when I complained about needing money. I returned home in July and had no income till August —I received a payment from my late paternal grandfather’s property.
What property was that?
My grandfather had five flats. Each flat was given to one child as an inheritance. Since my dad was dead and I was his only child, the rent income from his flat was given to me.
I got ₦140k in the first year. It was supposed to be ₦400k, but my uncles said they removed some money as my contribution for my great-grandma’s 50th memorial party and some remodelling work at her grave.
It’s an annual payment, so I expected ₦400k the following year. But I got ₦300k. I believe they think I’m young and have no responsibilities, but I don’t fight it. I’m just glad to receive something.
I get what you mean. Back to 2020
I wasn’t getting an allowance since I was home, so I managed that ₦140k from August till December, when I got a modelling gig.
How did you get into modelling?
It was a one-off gig, really. I’d been interested in modelling since 2016 but decided to explore it with a friend who had a modelling agency in 2019. We tried to get me cast for a fashion week show, but I didn’t get in.
In December 2020, I auditioned for another fashion week. I got in and was paid ₦200k for the five-day event. 30% of the pay was my friend’s — technically my agency’s — cut, so I got ₦140k at the end.
Subsequently, I did a couple of free gigs where they’d pay for my transportation and snacks. I did another paid job in May 2021, though: a designer paid me ₦50k for a one-day show. After the agency took its 30% cut, I was left with ₦35k.
I stopped modelling entirely when I wanted to gain weight, but my agency kept pressuring me to lose even more weight.
We were given specifications, too. Your hips couldn’t be more than 33 inches, your bust 31 inches, and a waist between 24 and 26 inches. It was too stressful for me, and I wanted to look healthy. I’m 5’10, and I weighed 55kg. By BMI calculations, I was underweight. I just decided to let it go.
Were you doing something else for work?
Yes. The income from modelling wasn’t consistent, so I took up another brief internship with the financial institution in 2021. It was the same ₦3k daily arrangement, but I had completed NYSC and was qualified to apply to be a full-time staff member. A month into the internship, I applied to go full-time, but I failed the test.
Oh, no
It was really depressing. I felt like I’d lost an opportunity, and I disliked how they didn’t even rate interns and treated us anyhow. Soon, the work environment started affecting my mental health, and I resigned after three months.
Funny enough, two weeks after I left, I heard that some interns spoke with management to increase the daily pay. Instead of increasing it, they fired all the interns and got new ones.
Mad o
I’d always been interested in natural hair. So, after doing nothing for two months, I started an apprenticeship with a natural hair care salon. My stepdad paid ₦75k for the training, which lasted seven months.
I wasn’t paid during that period. Thankfully, my stepdad came through again and put me on an ₦80k monthly allowance.
After the training ended, they offered me employment as a junior stylist. I did that for only a month.
Why?
They paid ₦40k/month, but I worked six days a week. The distance was also a factor. I was on the mainland, and the salon was in Ikoyi. So, I was always late, and they’d always complain about it.
Plus, I noticed some senior stylists only got paid ₦50k to ₦60k/month. The manager’s salary was ₦120k. It was obvious there wasn’t much hope for income growth. Granted, the customers were rich IJGBs and Ikoyi wives who tipped well, but it wasn’t sustainable. The entire salary was only enough for transportation, and I couldn’t rely on making an average of ₦1,500 daily in tips.
Were you spending on anything besides transportation and food?
Those were my major expenses. There were also the occasional expenses on clothes and other stuff. I just know I didn’t usually have money left to save.
What was the next step after leaving the salon?
I began applying for bank graduate trainee opportunities. I also got into a self-paced data science and analytics training with a data camp. It was free, and I had access to the courses for one year, but I couldn’t practise what I was learning because I didn’t have a laptop. It’s still there if I ever get the chance to go back to it.
In September 2022, I got accepted into two banks, and I picked the one whose training school started earlier. Plus, the other bank had a clause where you had to work for two years or pay ₦2m if you wanted to leave before then. The bank I chose had a one-year compulsory stay clause and ₦1m in lieu of one year. It was a no-brainer.
Training school covered a six-month period, which was later extended to eight months due to a couple of delays with the bank. I was paid ₦60k/month for the first four months before it was increased to ₦100k/month for the remaining months.
I became a full-time staff member in May 2023, and my salary was updated to ₦307k. It was increased again in August due to the state of the economy, and now my salary is ₦375k.
How do you feel about your finances right now?
I’m finally making money that makes me happy. I don’t really have responsibilities, but I can comfortably get things I want without thinking too much about it.
What are some of those things in a good month?
I just started saving the ₦75k because I feel like I’m in a position where I can save more. But I still spend more than I save, and I’m hoping to figure out how to manage my finances better soon. But unlike before, when I’d be broke before the end of the month, it’s better now. Of course, I’d still like to earn more so I can do more things.
Can you tell me about some of those things?
My boyfriend is currently working on his Canadian permanent residency, which involves money. I’ve lent him about ₦500k for the process. When he gets an invitation to apply (ITA), he’ll need to include me in the application, which will cost 1,500 CAD for each of us.
We may also need to get married, pay ₦107k for IELTS and get my degree evaluated by WES for $251. In summary, I’ll need about 6,500 CAD for my application and plane tickets. So, I need to make money.
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How much would you need to earn monthly for that to happen?
Ideally, ₦800k or $1k. I currently work as a relationship manager at the bank, but I’m still interested in data analytics. I feel like tech is what will give me the opportunity to get jobs that’ll pay me in dollars. It’s still just a want, though. I’m not sure how to get there. But I’m happy with my current career progression.
When was the last time you felt really broke?
January. I was still in training school earning ₦60k/month. I typically get paid on the 24th, but they paid on the 9th in December. I thought that meant the 13th-month salary was coming. It turned out they only paid full-time staff a 13th-month salary. I was broke-broke all through January.
What’s one thing you want right now but can’t afford?
A MacBook. Last I checked, it was ₦860k.
Is there anything you wish you could be better at financially?
Saving and managing my money. I use a money planner, but I don’t use it daily. Meaning, I forget what I spent that day or dropped money somewhere I can’t remember.
How would you rate your financial happiness? The scale is 1-10
6. I’ve grown up without much responsibility, and I’ve mostly only spent money on myself. What I earn right now is enough for me, and I’m happy. I only regret that I didn’t use my free time to work on myself and upskill. I see what people are doing around me, and although I envy them, I still struggle to put in the work.
I still can’t believe there was a time I was receiving so many allowances from home, but I just spent it anyhow. I think I wasted a lot of opportunities.
What do the next few years look like for you?
I may take a professional accounting course since I plan to relocate. If I don’t stay in finance, it’ll be data. I just need to work on building opportunities for my future.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
When Chimodu* (28) joined a music label in the 2010s, he thought it’d help him get his big break. It didn’t. He shares his experience navigating contract issues at the label, developing a cannabis addiction and having to go to rehab, and how he’s slowly piecing his life back together.
For anonymity, names and other identifiers have been changed.
This is Chimodu’s* story, as told to Akintomide
I was trying to adjust to the reality of life after uni when my friend, Ogbe* convinced me to apply to a Nigerian music label’s academy.
I’ve been into music since I was a teenager, and he thought the academy would help me better my craft. It made sense, so I applied.
The label’s head is a well-known Nigerian artist and, up to that point, had been one of my biggest influences as a producer. It was an opportunity to learn from my idol, and I knew I had to take it. I even told some of my guys I’d get in even before the academy picked me. I wanted it that much.
Getting selected was the validation I needed at the time. Up till then, everything I knew about music was self-taught. But being something of a nerd who wanted to understand things from every possible angle, I knew I needed more technical knowledge. The academy provided that; a chance to ask questions and hone my skills — a stepping stone.
Little did I know that this “stepping stone” would turn out to be the feet-hurting pebbles that’d steer me into a path I least expected to take.
I resumed at the music academy in 2013 for the month-long training. The first day was nerve-wracking, at least for me. I met the organisers and the other students, and we started talking about ideas and techniques immediately. I noted something odd, though. Anytime I asked a question about music production or other technical stuff, the label head would say, “Just choose better sounds”.
Besides the odd attitude to questions, it was a comprehensive training. They taught us about the music business and branding. Top producers, songwriters and industry people came to talk to us. There was even an entertainment law class, where we were taught not to work with anyone without signing a split sheet that detailed how payment would work.
But a week into the programme, the organisers began to emphasise how we needed to “do anything it takes to succeed in the game”. They asked if we’d give them the intellectual property (IP) rights to the music we’d make while in the academy. The music in question was supposed to be an academy project which seemed to be a requirement for the training, so we all said yes.
I should mention that the whole training was filmed, so they had video evidence of each student agreeing to release all IP rights. It wasn’t a red flag at the time because, in my head, the academy would be my big break. Even if they owned my music, the exposure would do me a world of good.
The project never happened, by the way.
Fast forward to the end of the training. The organisers gave us all a one-year contract to become official signees of the music company. There was a clause, though: They’d also own everything we produced under the label.
I showed my dad the contract, who in turn showed it to his lawyer best friend. The lawyer asked me not to sign it. I was pained, but I had to tell the label lawyers I couldn’t sign based on those terms. They refused to negotiate and asked me to remove all brand benefits like academy logo, social media handles and hashtag in the bio from my social media accounts. I was even subtly threatened not to “misyarn about them” or I’d be sued for causing “emotional distress”. It felt like I was stripped of an honour and taken back to square one.
I couldn’t release music immediately after the academy because I thought they’d accuse me of using the social media leverage that attending the academy had given me. I didn’t want anything to tarnish my reputation or end my career before it even started, so I stayed off social media.
While this was going on, a former mate at the label started making waves. All the hit songs on the radio had his name, and I started overthinking about money and blowing up, too. I even briefly considered contacting other guys who also attended the training, but thought against it. The lawyers would probably have told them not to talk to me or each other.
So, I kept to myself. Then one day, Ogbe* told me that the lawyers from the label were trying to reach me. They’d told Ogbe* what happened and claimed I didn’t honour an agreement. One even said she was looking for me because she was worried.
I thought, “Oh, maybe things can be ironed out.” So, I called the lawyer and said I was hoping to negotiate the contract. She called me a dumb ass who had wasted an opportunity and that I needed to apologise to the lead organiser for wasting his time.
It was like a switch flipped on in my head. I knew I wouldn’t receive that treatment if I had a hit song, or if I’d “blown”. That was my “fuck it, I must make money” moment.
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The only problem was, I didn’t know how to invest in myself to make the money. It took me four years after the label to put out music again, and when I resumed, I focused all my energy on it, believing I had a talent people would pay for. I didn’t have a job, or money to get equipment like a studio monitor, better microphone, software, things that would help me level up.
I just expected at least one of my songs to blow up because I put out music with friends every three months and I produced songs regularly for others.
I was a studio rat, but I didn’t have a direction for myself. It was only fun and pleasure. I spent all my NYSC allawee on babes and weed. Same thing after my Service and during the three years that I worked as an accountant at a private firm.
It wasn’t until I lost three years in rehab (due to my cannabis addiction since my uni days), just wasting away, that I started to take my life seriously. When I came out, two of my guys had gotten married. A couple of others had changed their cars. Guys were making moves. That was when I said, “Omo, I’m done sitting on my ass.”
I saved up and bought a MIDI controller. I had a guitar I’d never played. I’m now learning how to play. Then, I went to a software engineering boot camp. I’m working towards positioning myself for a steady income stream from my various passions, from music to game software development to drawing and making short films.
Currently, I’m a games software developer, and I run music projects on the side. After the projects I’m working on come out, hopefully this year, free work stops.
Another thing driving me to hustle now is to look at luxury cars on IG. Benzos, Lexes, Bentleys.
But all in all, I need to make these things work, even for another reason, like my parents. They’ve done their best. But also, I need to get out of their faces. My dad thinks I’m wasting time with music and my mum treats me like a child. I don’t want all that for my life.
My music career hasn’t turned out the way I expected, but I’ve accepted that this is my journey. I’m glad I didn’t sign into that label. Every other person in my set signed, but most are still on the same level as me. But I’m not going to be here for long, it’s grinding season for me.
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 your earliest memory of money?
I don’t think I ever had an “aha” moment about what money could do. My parents were civil servants, and being the last born of eight children, I came when they’d finished hustling. I mostly had everything I needed, but I didn’t have access to money at all.
Like, they didn’t give you money?
Whenever I needed something for school, my parents would give my older siblings the money to get it for me. It pissed me off to no end. Was I too small to handle money?
In JSS 3, I noticed that my elder brother, who was in university, always returned from school with goodies for me and my siblings. For some reason, I concluded that once you entered university, you’d start making money. That became my plan. Go to uni and make money.
Did you follow the plan?
I followed passion first. After finishing secondary school in 2013, I did a three-month basic computer training course because the uni I applied to used computer-based tests for their post-UTME exam. But after I took the exam, ASUU went on strike. So, I was home for six months, waiting for admission.
While I waited, I took an interest in graphic design and volunteered to teach new cohorts at the training centre basic computer skills for free. A corps member noticed I was passionate about digital skills, so he taught me web design, HTML, CSS and PHP. When I finally got admitted into uni, my dad gave me his laptop as a gift, and it helped me practise my skills.
Did you monetise the skills in uni?
Sort of. In 200 level, a friend ran for a political post in the faculty, and I made designs for him. He paid me with food when he won the election. Another guy who was running for a departmental post saw my designs and asked me to do some for him as well. He squeezed ₦200 into my hand as payment when he won.
Ah!
The problem was, I wasn’t charging people for designs. Some other students also randomly came to me for designs, and I expected they’d compensate me. You’d think the ₦200 debacle would’ve given me sense and taught me how to charge for my skills. It didn’t.
It looks like the “make money in uni” plan wasn’t working
It wasn’t. To make things worse, I was surviving on a ₦1k weekly allowance. My parents had retired, and cash flow wasn’t as regular.
I didn’t care so much about money though; I was just hungry for knowledge and wanted to learn as many skills as possible. By the time I resumed 300 level, I’d learned to build web apps. I built a computer-based voting software for my department’s elections. With a friend’s help, the word got out, and a few other associations in school adopted the software for their elections. I got paid ₦20k for every association that used the software.
What was that like?
₦20k was a lot of money to me at the time. And I was just happy people were interacting with a project I created. My first big break came the following year.
How?
It was 2018 — the year of Ponzi websites — and everyone was building one. I charged between ₦80k and ₦100k for each website and built four that year.
How does someone even get a gig to build a ponzi website?
MMM had just crashed, and people were pissed they didn’t make enough from the scheme. They’d either lost money or wanted to use the trend as an opportunity to take people’s money, too. So they looked for anyone who could write code and gave them the job on the spot. The website would crash in weeks, but no one cared. They just wanted to make their own money.
Me, I liked the money and enjoyed spending it. But I soon felt bad about being part of something that was scamming people of their hard-earned money, so I stopped after the four gigs.
My next stop was an internship at a design agency for IT. They paid me ₦5k/month for three months.
That’s a sharp drop
The sapa was strong. I’d also lost both of my parents earlier in 2017. It was tough.
I’m so sorry to hear that
Thank you. Luckily, my dad wrote a will before he passed and allocated about ₦5m to me. It took a year to process and access the money, but even then, I needed my elder brother as a signatory to make withdrawals. The money helped as it was what I relied on during IT and the rest of my time at school.
However, I didn’t want to be too dependent on my inheritance. So, I limited my withdrawals to only essential expenses and school fees. I didn’t want to create a too-comfortable life for myself with that money and then struggle to keep up when it’s exhausted.
By the second semester of 500 level, I stopped withdrawing from the account entirely and haven’t touched it since then. I still have about ₦3m now.
All of this meant I had to make my own money. Fortunately, I got a motion designer role soon after I stopped withdrawing from the account.
How much?
We didn’t even discuss a salary. But anytime I worked on a project, my boss would just squeeze ₦15k or ₦20k in my hands.
Not the “squeezing money” stage again
I worked on about six video projects in total during my two-month stint with him.
Then, someone else offered me another motion design gig. It was a lot of work, and I wanted to be sure I negotiated properly. So, I contacted a professional to ask how much he’d charge for the same project. The professional mentioned a couple of millions, so I divided the figure into two and charged one-half of the value. In my mind, I’d blown. Only for the guy to price me down to ₦50k.
Screaming
Although we eventually agreed on ₦80k, the guy only paid me ₦60k when the project ended. I had a bit of a dry spell after that until NYSC in 2020. I survived on the ₦19,800 allowance plus ₦4,900 stipend from my PPA for a while.
A few web design gigs came here and there, where I made between ₦15k and ₦40k per gig. But I realised that I could make more if I was better at negotiating. So, I made it a point to upskill and read books to improve my negotiation skills.
I was prepared when the next gig came. I charged the client whom I’d worked with before ₦100k, and instead of just going “okay” after she priced it down to ₦50k, I asked her to clarify the components of the website. When she did, I focused on the complexities and used English to defend why the amount I quoted was the only option. Surprisingly, she agreed, and even returned later for another project. In my mind, I was like, “So it’s this English I didn’t know that’s been suffering me all this while?”
How often were the gigs coming generally?
Not often, but it was regular enough for me to put myself on a salary during the NYSC year. I didn’t want to finish service with nothing to fall back on. So, I kept everything I made from gigs in a separate account and only paid myself ₦20k/month.
What happened after your service year?
I returned home broke. I had to use most of the money to replace my laptop, which cost ₦120k. After removing the transport fare to return home, which was miles away from my PPA, I had just ₦10k left.
But I had a plan: move to Ibadan to look for work. I’d even paid a friend ₦20k to renew his rent so I could stay in his one-room apartment when he left for NYSC. Before that plan materialised, a company in Lagos I’d applied to intern with as a game developer invited me for an interview.
Also, someone from the design agency I’d previously interned with called and said they’d like to see me. The plan was to attend the interview and meet with the design agency during the same weekend. I ended up spending nine months in Lagos.
Why?
The design agency offered me a ₦120k/month job that included free accommodation. I didn’t even go for the other interview again.
What about your place in Ibadan?
I abandoned it. My job paid 4x what I spent on it, and I didn’t have to pay rent. I was in Lagos with just one shirt — remember I only planned to stay a weekend — but it didn’t matter because we soon entered the 2020 lockdown and worked remotely.
I moved back to Ibadan after the lockdown was lifted because remote work was now a thing. But this time, I rented a ₦250k/year three-bedroom apartment with two other friends. I also got a raise the following year, and my salary increased to ₦150k.
How were you feeling about your earnings?
It was good money. Plus, the agency also started a profit-sharing system where you could make extra money when you led a project. However, I wanted core programming and thought it was time to apply myself somewhere other than an agency.
So, I applied for several jobs, and got served breakfast just as often. I even started learning JavaScript for about six months after flopping a simple programming question at an interview. The hard work paid off. I landed a ₦400k/month front-end engineer role with a Nigerian fintech towards the end of 2021.
What was that like?
I didn’t have time to take it in because I got a contract role with an international company almost at the same time. It was in dollars, and I can’t remember the figure now, but it was equivalent to ₦400k/week — what I was supposed to make in a month at the fintech company. But I wasn’t eager to take it.
Why not?
I didn’t see career growth opportunities. Everyone I told thought I wasn’t okay. At the end of the day, I took both jobs. It was one of the most mentally draining periods of my life. I had to live with other members of the fintech’s team for a three-month hackathon, and still had to work in the evenings for the other company.
The work culture at the international company was terrible, and after three months, I decided I couldn’t do it again. So, I left. I didn’t touch the salary for the three months I worked, so I had the ₦6m in my account.
I also hardly spent the fintech’s salary because they accommodated and fed me during the three-month hackathon. This was an additional ₦1.2m in my savings.
You seem to have a thing for not touching money
I do. I’m very pro-savings. In January 2022, I got promoted to senior front-end engineer, and my salary doubled to ₦800k. The company allowed us to choose whether to receive the salary in naira or dollars, and I chose the latter. So, I started earning $1,500. I also began to leave all the money in my USD account because I still had over ₦6m in cash to spend. That’s what I spent for the whole of 2022.
What did you spend on?
I budgeted 20% monthly for tithe and offering, which was a recurring expense. Then I got a two-bedroom apartment for about ₦550k. I also got an inverter at ₦540k and a monitor at ₦80k. I was deliberate about keeping my expenses as low as possible.
My spending didn’t exactly increase with my earnings. When I was earning ₦150k, I’d be broke before the end of the month. But when my income increased, I noticed that I’d spend money, but the money wouldn’t finish.
I think that was the first time I realised I had money. I decided to take advantage of that by saving half of my salary. If I could survive on ₦150k, then I could surely survive on ₦200k.
What’s your perspective on money right now?
I don’t appear to have as much money as I do, and I think it’s a very good thing. I follow a principle with purchases: If an item costs close to 10% of my income, I start to seriously consider if it’s really worth it.
I read The Psychology of Money and The Millionaire Next Door recently, and they’ve further shaped how I think about money. I wanted an iPhone a while ago that cost ₦1m. In my mind, I’d saved up, and I deserved it. But when I was honest with myself, I realised it was just peer pressure to follow trends.
People who work in tech tend to have this problem the most. I watched a video of a designer asking how you could be earning ₦1m/month and also spending ₦1m/month. You’re already living above your means. Do you really need to change that laptop or phone? This position may also lead to you being stingy with yourself, but I’ve found the balance between the necessary and the unnecessary. For instance, I don’t play with my food. When I’m hungry, I buy food. I can’t be doing millionaire next door and starve.
LMAO
Oh, I should mention. I got another raise in 2023, and my salary is now $2,500.
Impressive. Let me guess: you’re saving most of it
I am. I leave $1,500 in the account and convert $1k to naira, which is about ₦900k, to spend monthly. Most times, I don’t even finish it all.
What does that look like, broken down?
I randomly stopped using ride-hailing apps this year because the app can say ₦1,200, but the drivers want you to pay ₦3,500. Now, I just take bikes, reducing my transportation costs by over 50%.
Food is my major expense, and recently, I realised I spend an average of ₦5k ordering food daily. It just takes too long to cook.
How much do you currently have saved up?
I save in dollars, so based on the current exchange rate, it’s about ₦28.5m.
Have you thought about what you want to use it for?
I actually had a savings goal of ₦10m for 2023, and I’ve exceeded it. I’m considering going for a master’s abroad to boost my career chances. My girlfriend is also actively talking about japa, so a lot of that money might go into that.
How about investment options?
One of the lessons I’ve learnt from The Richest Man in Babylon is to not invest in something you don’t understand. Investments tend to look attractive, but I’m very sceptical about them.
I’ve experimented with investment platforms too. I put $350 in one of them, but now it’s down to $250. I’m just waiting for it to go back to $350 so I can remove my money.
I want to take a proper course on understanding investments before trying it again. I don’t want to invest just because everyone is doing it. I’ll just keep saving my money for now.
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Why do you think you save so much?
Honestly, I have a fear of going broke. If I lose my job now, do I have enough money to help me stay afloat for six months or a year?
How much is “financially stable” money to you?
My goal is $100k/year. But my idea isn’t for it to make me financially stable. It’s to show me how much I’m worth as an individual. For me, earning $100k means I have value people are willing to pay that much for.
What’s a recent unplanned expense you made?
I visited Ghana a few months ago. It wasn’t part of my budget, and it cost around ₦300k – ₦400k. I’m really considering doing more random stuff like that.
I’m curious. Do you think about the ₦3m inheritance at all?
Not really. It’s been in a bank all these years. I might go check what’s left at the bank one of these days. I like to think of it as a safety net; the very last option if it ever comes to it.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
5. I still have this lingering fear that all the money can just disappear, and I’d be back to ground zero. I also feel I’m inconveniencing myself because I’m trying to create a safety net. Nonetheless, I know I need to up my game. I’m only a front-end engineer now, but I need to gather skills that will make me a more robust professional.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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.
Tell me about your earliest memory of money
I always got random ₦50s and ₦100s from neighbours and strangers because they thought I was a cute child. My “pretty privilege” has been a thing since I was seven. One neighbour even used to call me his “small wife” and gave me money whenever he saw me. In Primary 4, my class teacher gave me ₦20 every other day for sweets.
Were your parents aware of this?
I’m an only child raised by a struggling single mum. If anything, the gifts helped. She always collected the money from me to “save it”, but I knew she used it for us, so I didn’t mind.
Do you remember the first time you worked for money?
After finishing secondary school in 2014, my mum paid for me to learn how to braid hair at a unisex salon. The alternative was staying at home for one year because I didn’t pass my O-Levels. She thought it was better for me to keep busy.
I wasn’t allowed to touch clients for seven months. Even after that, I only assisted the hairdressers. The way the salon worked was that the people doing the hair were required to pay a cut of their earnings to the salon owner every week. Since I was just an assistant, any hairdresser I worked with gave me a small part of whatever they made. On average, I made around ₦500 daily from regular work.
You say “regular” like there was another income source
You caught me. I had plenty of toasters — mostly uni students who came to cut their hair — and they regularly gave me money. One of them even bought me a Nokia phone I didn’t ask for. I had told him I couldn’t give him my number because I didn’t have a phone. I collected the phone sha, but I hid it from my mum so she wouldn’t worry. On average, I made an extra ₦2k weekly in money gifts.
What were you spending the money on?
I was 15 years old, and there was a limit to how much I could spend without alerting my mum. I definitely couldn’t get clothes, so I mostly spent a small percentage on food at work. The rest, I sneaked into my mum’s kolo from time to time. She still thinks she had a guardian angel who was somehow multiplying her money.
That’s so cute
I stopped working at the salon the following year. I got into uni in 2016 and started making hair for my colleagues. Most of them didn’t pay me, but I made about ₦5k/month. My mum also sent me a monthly allowance of ₦10k.
I made people’s hair for only one year, though.
Why?
It was too stressful, and I wasn’t making much from it. A friend suggested signing up for ushering jobs because of my looks, so I joined an ushering agency in 2017. I worked during the weekends and got paid per event, making an average of ₦20k/month. But I always got tips from men at the events, which almost doubled my salary at the end of the month. It was good money, but I stopped after six months.
At an event I ushered at, I met a guy who had a modelling agency. He convinced me I was just wasting my looks and figure, so I decided to join his agency and focus on taking modelling gigs. It was mostly photoshoots, and I got paid between ₦20k – ₦30k per shoot. Sometimes, I’d have as many as four shoots in a month.
Not bad
I was active on Instagram because of my modelling. And, of course, the men came. The funniest DM I ever got came from someone I’d never spoken to.
Him: “How much to hear your voice?”
Me: ₦100k.
Him: Send me your account number.
I thought it was a joke, but he sent the money o. I gave him my number after that, and we talked a couple of times, but we never met.
Did this happen regularly?
Oh yes. There were the creeps who wanted sex, but I got a number of admirers who sent me money to ask for dates or on my birthday. I welcomed the attention because it was free money, and it also helped me limit how much I had to call home for money.
In 2019, I started dating the first person to put me on a monthly allowance: ₦200k. I still had my modelling gigs too.
What was your relationship with money like at this time?
I spent like someone was pursuing the money from my account. Aside from my girlfriend allowance, the person I was dating also paid for my off-campus accommodation and sometimes bought me food, so I spent on whims. My biggest expenses were clothes, make-up, hair and shoes.
But I usually sent money home to my mum. When she asked where I got it from, I’d say it was from the modelling gigs.
I stopped modelling in my final year. The 2020 pandemic affected the agency I was working with. After that, I didn’t work for a while until NYSC in 2021. Even then, I just collected the ₦33k allowance and didn’t show up to my PPA.
Wait. How?
My PPA was a school, and I wasn’t up for that. They were supposed to pay ₦10k/month, so I arranged with someone there to collect the money if it meant I wouldn’t have to show up. I also settled the people at my CDS with ₦8k – ₦10k monthly.
What were you doing with your free time?
I got a social media management job through my boyfriend. My employer had a clothing line and paid me ₦70k/month. I took up the job because my boyfriend claimed things were hard and reduced my girlfriend allowance to ₦100k. That’s why he helped me get the job. But I only did the job for two months.
Why did you leave?
It turned out my boss was my boyfriend’s wife. I knew he was married, but we didn’t talk about it because I didn’t want to know. So tell me why this man took me to his actual wife? It took me a long time to realise because they used different surnames, and she was hardly around at the boutique.
How did you find out?
She shared their anniversary post on her WhatsApp status. I resigned immediately after I saw it and stopped taking his calls. It feels extreme now, but I didn’t want to risk the woman finding out and harassing me.
I guess that meant no more girlfriend allowance
I also had no savings, and my allawee was my only source of income for about a month. I knew I could easily get someone else to fund my lifestyle, but I decided to try doing it on my own first. I was in my independent babe phase.
I made a post on my Instagram story about looking for a social media management gig, and one of my followers got me a job at an advertising agency. I should mention that I also made about ₦120k from that post. Some guys DM’ed me and sent me money because, apparently, the post was giving “damsel in distress”. Again, how could I say no to free money?
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God abeg. How much did the job pay?
₦85k/month. I did that for the rest of my NYSC year, plus an extra five months. I really loved the work, but I had to leave because a team lead refused to stop asking me out. I liked him, but I didn’t want a work relationship. Plus, he was friends with the person who got me the job. I didn’t want to be a topic between them.
What did you do next?
I found another boyfriend who put me on an allowance.
What happened to independent babe?
Capitalism showed her shege. Job hunting was difficult, and I don’t do well broke. So, I got serious with someone I’d been chatting with on and off with on Instagram and went on a couple of dates with him. He worked in tech and had sent me money before while we were still just talking, so I knew he wasn’t stingy. Also, he wasn’t married.
How much was the allowance?
It wasn’t fixed, but he sent me between ₦100k- ₦300k per month. We weren’t exclusive, so I still talked to other guys who sent me money when I needed it. These people were basically my sources of income for the last few months of 2022. One of them even got me the laptop I use for work now.
You got another job?
I got my current job — a ₦200k/month social media management role at a tech company in March 2023. The tech bro and I mutually ended our arrangement at the beginning of the year, and I thought it was time I became serious about my career. He’s even the one who referred me to my employer.
What are your finances like these days?
Besides my salary, I get a lot of random gifts I can’t account for. For example, I made double my salary last month from meeting someone who wants me to be his side chick. But I’m terrible with money. I almost always need money by the middle of the month.
Why do you think that is?
I live a very “baby girl” life, and a lot of money goes into maintaining my lifestyle — money my salary can’t fully cover. I’ve dated on and off this year, but I wasn’t in most of them long enough to have a monthly allowance.
On one hand, I’d say that’s limited my financial planning in a way because there’s no specific amount of money I’m looking forward to. But if I’m being honest, my spending habits could be better.
Can you break down your typical expenses in a month?
I live with three friends, and my contribution to the annual rent is ₦500k. However, I’ve never paid my rent with my own money since we started living together two years ago. It’s always on the neck of whoever is funding my lifestyle at that moment.
I’m curious. What’s the most expensive gift you’ve received?
The tech bro sponsored a trip to Dubai in 2022. I’m still surprised he did that because, like I said, we weren’t exclusive.
Do you have any financial regrets?
Plenty. I’ve gotten so much money from men in my life, and I wish I’d managed it better. I tend to feel there’ll always be someone who’ll want to take care of me because of my looks, but it’s not sustainable.
People think I have money because I have a great wardrobe, but I’m very broke. It’s one reason I’m trying to take my career seriously. If I can keep this job, I’ll try to save most of my salary and look at how to fit in my recurring expenses around what I get from people.
How would you rate your financial happiness?
2. I feel like I’m just sailing through life without a solid safety net. Pretty privilege has been both a blessing and a curse. It means I get a lot of money, but it also means I’m too dependent on the money I receive to actually live within my means.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
Femi Dapson recently went viral on X for this post.
He shared a throwback video from when he was a cleaner in 2017, which he’d made as evidence of his strong belief that he’d make it one day. It has since amassed over two million views.
It’s 2023, and he did make it. He shares his inspiring journey with Zikoko.
As told to Boluwatife
Credit: Nouvelle Films
I grew up poor.
We were so poor my family rented uncompleted buildings because we couldn’t afford anything else. It was that bad.
I was born in Agege, but we moved to Idowu Egba, a neighbourhood in Igando, when I was about four years old. The uncompleted building we lived in had no windows or roof, so we used empty rice sacks to cover the ceiling and window openings. The floor was uncemented, so we put mats over the red sand.
Despite the sorry situation we were in, I always knew it wasn’t the life I was made for. My dad was a driver, and my mum sold food. I saw them constantly struggling and would always tell myself that I’d never end up like them.
And I backed this mindset with actions.
I made a deliberate effort not to make friends on my street. We were all poor there, so what was I supposed to gain from an equally poor person?
I have a way with people, and I’d always target rich kids. I wanted to be like them. So, I’d wake up every morning, iron and wear the only shirt I had, and walk the 15-minute distance to Diamond Estate to meet with the friends I’d made from church or while helping my mum sell food in schools.
My rich friends liked my vibes. I showed and told them things and slang they’d never heard before. In return, I learned how they lived, ate their food and always stood out when I returned home. The only person I got close to in my neighbourhood was the son of a prominent general, and it was because I did everything in my power to make sure we became friends.
Growing up poor meant I also had to start hustling early. I did many menial jobs while moving from one secondary school to the other due to challenges with paying the fees. You want to clear the grass in your compound? I’m there. You need someone to paint your house? I’ll most likely do rubbish, but just pay me ₦2k.
I started my hustle proper after I dropped out of school in SS one when my parents could no longer pay my fees. There’s almost nothing I didn’t do to survive —from barman, to primary school teacher, to factory worker. One thing I made sure to do each time was to put in 110% in every job.
In 2014, we moved to yet another uncompleted building in Sango, and I got a job cleaning at a popular church’s headquarters in Ota. I got paid between ₦11k – 15k monthly to sweep portions of the church premises, chapels, and sometimes, wash cars. I did that for about two years.
One principle guides my life: “If you can read and write, you can teach yourself anything.” In 2016, while still cleaning, I started volunteering to help input evangelism converts’ data into a computer. I’d taught myself computer basics with a cousin’s computer when I was in JSS one, so while other volunteers would use all day to input the data of 100 people, I’d do it in 30 minutes.
The General Overseer’s secretary noticed and took a liking to me, and I unofficially became the assistant secretary to the G.O. Because I didn’t pass through the normal employment process, I didn’t get a raise. But it didn’t stop me from putting in my all. I helped the department make financial approval processes almost paperless before I left after six months. My reason? I was scared they’d just wake up one day and tell everyone without the right qualifications to go.
In 2017, I moved in with a cousin in Ikeja and got a cleaning job at an event centre. It paid between ₦18k – ₦21k/monthly, but damn, the workload wasn’t beans. After parties ended around 10 p.m., the whole place would be a mess, and I’d clean and clean.
But I understood the power of positive confessions. I’d always tell my guys and say to myself that I’d be great; I was born to be great. I’d watch celebrities come to parties where I worked and even pour soap to wash their hands after they used the restroom so they’d give me ₦200 tips. That was the life I wanted. To spray money freely at parties and be greeted, “Good evening, sir”, when I entered toilets, too.
I made this video in 2017 at a low point. I was down with Typhoid and had been in and out of the hospital for two weeks, but I left and returned to work while still sick because I was scared I’d be sacked for staying away that long.
On that day, I was weak and frustrated. I had just finished cleaning the hall and was washing the toilets. At a point, I stopped and started self-affirming that this was just a temporary phase and I’d look back at the memory one day. I decided to document that moment, so I took my phone and recorded myself. If not for the fact that my physical look has improved since then, people would say I took the video yesterday, and I’m just lying. The confidence with which I spoke was crazy.
A large part of my confidence stemmed from the fact that I know God loves me — that’s even what my name, Oluwafemi Ifeoluwa, means. I also had a habit of sacrificially giving out the little money I had at the time — I still give a lot. I believe that the more you give, the more you receive, and I know God is too faithful to fail.
Knowing God saw my heart, I’d drop my bracelet or anything on me in faith when I didn’t have money. I even gave my toothbrush as an offering once. It wasn’t useful to anyone, but God knew that was all I had.
So, I made that video with complete confidence and kept it as evidence so that when I made my money, no one would come and say I did fraud.
And God did come through for me.
I gathered the little money I had and sat for O’Levels in 2018. Then a year later, I got an opportunity to work as a junior auditor in an auditing firm for ₦30k/month. How I got the job was even funny. When I arrived at the interview, I met guys with degrees speaking big English, but when it got to my turn and I showed the partners how I helped make that church in Ota go paperless, their minds were blown.
I had to leave the job a couple of months later because I had stayed with my cousin for too long, and it was starting to become uncomfortable for him. My next stop was Egbeda, where I moved in with a photographer friend, Perliks. We started working together, and I helped him rebrand and manage his business. He was such an amazing photographer, and I made sure he saw it, too. Many of the projects we worked on together went viral.
It wasn’t just Perliks and I in Egbeda; some other friends lived with us. One of them was an artist, and that same year, he got funding for a music video. Perliks had some directing knowledge because he had been on a similar set before, so he said he could shoot it, and I’d produce. I didn’t know anything about production, but I read up about it and said I could do it.
The first day of that production was a disaster because rain destroyed the set, but we pushed through and made the video. It cost ₦800k to shoot, and we even ran at a loss because of the rain. Another artist manager saw it, loved it, and hired us to shoot a video for one of the artists she managed. We went on to shoot three videos for three of her artists. We didn’t make any money from it — we were just trying to give our all.
Around the same time, I pitched a social media influencer and told her I’d like to manage her, and she agreed. While doing that, I met someone who organised monthly parties for a Whiskey brand. He asked me to come on as his partner to blow the brand in Lagos. We threw the littest parties, and it brought cool money. Money cool enough to buy my first car; a Toyota Avalon which cost ₦1.6m.
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In 2020, a media production company signed Perliks and me as director and producer, respectively. It’s still crazy how these professionals were absolutely loving what I did with music videos, and I was just a random boy from Egbeda.
When my contract expired the following year, I left and created my own company — Nouvelle Films — and I’ve had the privilege of working on amazing jobs. That’s what I do till date: production and the parties.
I believe everything I’ve gone through in life was specially designed to allow me to get to where I am right now. I never look down on people because someone selling Gala on the streets could be at a level you’d never imagined tomorrow.
Now, some people message me to say we grew up together; they may never have imagined I’d be where I am today. I mean, if someone had told me four years ago that I’d be driving a Mercedes Benz today, I may not have believed it.
Some advice I’d give anyone is to hold on to positive thoughts, hold God and believe in yourself. If you don’t first see IT, no one will see IT with you.
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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’s your earliest memory of money?
I made my younger brother and I trek home for a week in primary school because I was saving money to buy a football.
Ah. What was his offence?
He was just a victim of my ambition, really.
Our parents gave us ₦20 daily for transportation and an additional ₦20-₦30 for lunch. I can’t recall how much the football was, but the plan was to save in my kolo for a week to raise the money.
I was responsible for my brother, so he couldn’t go home before or without me, hence the trekking. It turned out to be a wasted effort though.
What happened?
On the Thursday of that week, my mum saw us walking home while returning from her shop. Of course, I had to explain, and she was angry I made my brother go through that.
For context, the walking distance between school and home was about an hour and thirty minutes.
She revealed I wouldn’t even find any money in my kolo. It turned out she’d been using it to give her customers change at the shop.
Screaming. Was there money growing up?
There was. My mum was a trader, and my dad owned a petroleum tanker for African Petroleum before it became Forte Oil. He was also an executive in their petroleum tanker drivers association, so he was hardly home during the week. We looked forward to the weekends because he always returned with goodies. But everything changed when I got to SS 1.
How so?
There was a change of management at my dad’s workplace when Forte Oil acquired the company, which brought new rules. For example, they brought new type and model specifications for the tankers, meaning my dad needed to buy a new tanker, but he didn’t because he couldn’t afford it. He also wasn’t part of the association anymore because his tenure ended, and some benefits stopped.
I know all this because he sat us down to explain the situation. Our new financial reality meant I had to leave my school’s boarding facilities, which I’d attended for junior secondary school, for day school in SS one. He still got contracts to transport fuel, but it wasn’t regular anymore.
How did this affect the family’s finances?
It didn’t immediately become obvious that we didn’t have as much money. My dad protected us from it as much as possible. It was only after I failed my JAMB exam in 2013 that I realised we didn’t have much.
What happened?
I scored 166 on the exam, so we explored the A-level route. But when my dad and I inquired about the cost of studying petroleum engineering, they billed us almost ₦600k for the one-year programme. So, the plan changed to attending a polytechnic, though I didn’t like the idea.
I remember my dad saying, “You know this wouldn’t be an issue if things were like they were before,” and I had to be reasonable.
I got into a polytechnic the same year, but I still wanted to go to uni. So, I focused on getting good grades for direct entry. That meant no hustle till I finished ND in 2015.
What was the hustle?
I interned with an electrical company during my IT. The pay was ₦10k/month, but I got paid ₦40k during a two-month period — I was assigned to a special project where I had to work from early morning to late at night.
What were you spending money on?
Mostly on the direct entry application — I had to process transcripts, sort out school clearance, and then buy the forms. I was advised to also apply for HND as a backup plan, but I refused. Guess what?
Direct entry didn’t work out?
It didn’t. I also could no longer apply for HND as the time frame had passed, so I was stuck at home for another year. I’d left the internship because I thought school would work out.
To pass the time, I got a job with a family friend who had a microfinance firm. They collected daily contributions from traders, and I was a marketing officer — a posh name for a money collector.
How much did it pay?
₦15k/month. But my boss — because of her relationship with my family — used to give me random lunch and transport money.
Although I didn’t spend much from my salary, I couldn’t save because I sometimes made mistakes when recording the amount I collected daily. When this happened, I used my money to balance up the difference so there’d be no story.
When it was time to apply for uni again, I took up an additional job at a JAMB tutorial centre where I taught in the mornings. I got paid the odd ₦3k or ₦4k/month for teaching, but the payment wasn’t structured —the centre was new and was owned by someone I considered an area brother. I honestly did it to help myself prepare for JAMB, considering I had to cover the syllabus to teach the students.
You did JAMB again?
I wanted to give myself more options, so I applied for both direct entry and JAMB. I wanted to ignore HND again, but my dad insisted and gave me the money for the form. Thank God he did, because both direct entry and JAMB didn’t work out.
Ah
I dropped my uni dream and faced my HND squarely. Before leaving for school in 2017, the area brother I worked with advised me to do a little bit of everything, so I decided to do anything legally possible to make money.
I started writing and joined a couple of writing communities, where someone introduced me to ghostwriting gigs. He got the clients, and I’d write for him at ₦1 per word. The gigs weren’t regular, but I remember getting two gigs that paid ₦10k and ₦40k at some point. I did that for a semester before I stopped working with the guy. I found out he got paid as much as ₦5/word but only paid me ₦1.
Did you try getting the gigs on your own?
I didn’t have the connections, so I dropped the gigs. I still wrote because I got into campus journalism in 2018. But I didn’t get paid for that.
Interestingly, campus journalism led me to tech.
How did that happen?
In February 2018, someone I exchanged contacts with at a program for journalists posted about a digital skills training for students who were home during the ASUU strike. I was interested in web design, so I paid the ₦6k fee and attended the two-week training, using a friend’s laptop to practise what I learned. A couple of months after the training, I got my first web design gig.
How?
I was part of the press council in school, and I pitched the idea of having a web presence. I charged ₦25k to design and build the website.
Did you get more web design gigs?
The guy I mentioned earlier wanted to bring the training to my school. Let’s call him B — he’ll come up a few more times.
We got closer, and he noticed how committed I was to pushing the startup. So, B made me a campus ambassador, giving me access to learning skills like graphic design, social media management and digital marketing for free.
Also, B regularly referred me for web design gigs for a small cut. A gig could be ₦60k, and I’d pay him ₦10k as a commission. In 2019, I made approximately ₦50k/month from the gigs.
This was enough to get me a ₦53k smartphone when my phone had issues. I also paid my tuition that year. It felt good to be able to do things with my money without having to call home.
But I was still using my friend’s laptop, and when I graduated in November 2019, I realised I no longer had something to work with for the gigs.
Yikes. What did you do?
I had about ₦20k in savings, which couldn’t buy a laptop, so I went back to live with my parents. I got bored after one month, so I worked with a tech consulting company for a month-long unpaid internship as part of an entrepreneurship program. I moved in with a friend who lived closer to the company to save money and to get away from home.
What happened when the internship ended?
I got a reality check. I had no source of income and was broke. I considered returning to work as a marketing officer for my family friend, but B came through.
He brought me on as a tutor at his digital skills training startup, and I started teaching there on the weekends. I taught graphic design, web design, digital marketing and social media management. I got paid ₦4k for each session and roughly ₦32k to teach one class per month. And I taught four classes.
Not bad
With this income, I got a laptop for ₦80k in March 2020 to resume my gig hustle. B introduced me to someone in the U.S who needed a social media and web manager, so I took up the role in addition to my tutoring. That paid ₦50k/month, but it lasted only three months.
Why?
Some personal issues led to a mental breakdown, so I quit both jobs and deactivated my social media. My U.S boss tried to persuade me to take a one-month break and offered to pay for therapy, but I was just really tired of the work. I knew accepting the help would make me indebted to her, and I’d have to return. I didn’t want that.
Sorry you went through that. What did you do next?
After I got better, I borrowed ₦40k from my mum and applied to a program to learn product design. Three months later, B introduced me to someone who wanted to build a mobile application. I got the gig and was paid ₦90k. I remember being so shocked that I could earn so much for a one-time thing. The first thing I did was pay off the debt I owed my mum.
So, you added product design to your hustle
Yes. It was also when product design became more popular in the tech space. B decided to add product design classes to his training, and I handled the class for ₦4k per session as usual. That was all I did for a while because I kept getting rejections on job applications. Both junior product design roles and internships –everywhere rejection.
Omo
In 2021, B reached out and pitched the idea of both of us co-founding a fintech startup. My job was to design and manage the product to save us money, while B provided the finances. It was awkward being a broke co-founder, but it was also an avenue for me to build my portfolio. It helped give me a sense of purpose, too — I was building something.
How did that go?
We’re still trying to get funding, so we’re still at it. But I finally got a ₦250k/month junior product design job in September 2021.
That was after over a year of unemployment
Omo, I felt free. I had to relocate to a new city because it was on-site. Fortunately, I found a friend who’d paid for his apartment before leaving for South Africa. So, I lived rent-free for the five months I worked at that company.
You left?
I got into an eight-month-long, fully-funded tech entrepreneur training program in Ghana. While I could’ve kept my job, I wanted to give the program my full attention.
I was paid a ₦40k (GH₵ 600) monthly stipend, which I didn’t really spend because data, transportation, food and accommodation were already paid for. I sent money home periodically, though.
But after the program, I returned to Nigeria and my eyes cleared.
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Let me guess. No job?
Back to square one. I’d also run out of my savings and had no income for about five months. Luckily, I got a gig in December 2022 to design a product and mobile application. I was supposed to be paid ₦700k but only got ₦500k. The person still owes me, but that money lifted me out of poverty.
LMAO. How did you survive when you were unemployed, though?
I borrowed a lot from my mum and younger brother. So, the first thing I did was clear my debts and used the rest to do fine boy. I also travelled to see my girlfriend — now my wife — because our relationship had become long-distance when I was in Ghana. It was as if I knew I’d be returning to Ghana.
Why did you return?
I’d applied for a job while I was still running the program, and they offered me the job in January 2023. The salary was GH₵ 10,000 — about ₦600k — but I had to be on-site for three months. Of course, I accepted.
I mean, it’s ₦600k
After three months, they agreed to let me work fully remotely, so I returned to Nigeria. I still work there on the same salary, but the exchange rate in the past two months means my salary now moves between ₦725k and ₦820k.
Has your spending increased with your earnings?
Somewhat. I try to be more intentional with my savings now, but the last six months have been capital-intensive. I had to fund my wedding, rent and furnish my apartment, which cost about ₦2.5m in total. 80% of that went into the apartment, though. We had support from family for the wedding.
But now, I only focus on spending on essential things. I don’t do delayed gratification if the item is important because if I don’t buy it now, the price can change tomorrow. I also take emergency savings seriously. Then there’s the regular savings and investments in fintech apps.
What does this look like in a month?
There are other expenses I can’t account for now because they seem intangible, so I’ll just tag them as miscellaneous. My savings and investments portfolio is currently around ₦300k – ₦400k, but now that I’m off capital-intensive projects, I should be able to grow it more. My target is to finish the year with a portfolio of above ₦1million.
How has your view on money changed over the years, coming from almost no income?
Having money gives you confidence and leverage. It can practically solve almost 90% of the issues people have.
It’s good to have money, and it should be spent. I believe that it’s the money that I spend that’s truly mine. So, I don’t usually have money lying around. Before the money comes in, I already have what I want to use it for.
How are you thinking of long-term career plans?
Honestly, anything that’s paying me handsomely. I like to say I can do anything legal to make money. Product design is still paying me at the moment, so I’m still here. I’m also considering DevOps engineering and have started taking courses. If it pays me more than product design, I’ll switch to it. I’m just pursuing financial stability.
What does financial stability look like to you?
At least, ₦1m – 1.5m/monthly. Or preferably in dollars. $2k/month isn’t bad.
How happy are you financially? The scale is 1-10
4. I’m not in debt, but I’m not liquid enough. I want to get to the point where I have heavy investments and can also become unbelievably liquid.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
