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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.
“Do crypto with Quidax and win from a $60K QDX prize pool!” Bayo, a 28-year-old Lagosian tells Jide, his Ibadan friend seeking the most secure way to trade crypto in Nigeria after a major exchange he trades with announced its plans to leave the country. Find out more here.
What’s your earliest memory of money?
In Primary 1, I tore my ₦10 lunch money in front of a fellow student. I’m honestly not sure why I did that. Maybe I was trying to prove a point or was just being mischievous. The student was shocked and said I had cursed myself because tearing money equals a lifetime of poverty.
Ah.
I remember thinking, “What nonsense is this one saying?” I wasn’t living in poverty, so I wouldn’t just suddenly become poor.
Tell me more about that “not living in poverty” bit
My dad worked as an engineer with the ports authority, and my mum worked at a TV station. We weren’t wealthy, but we weren’t poor either. We lived in our own house with a couple of other tenants. I don’t remember us lacking anything even though we were a large family.
How large?
My parents have nine children. I’m the last born. My second eldest sister was already in university when I was born.
What was living with eight siblings like?
All nine of us were hardly at home at the same time because of the considerable age gap between us, but I had a good relationship with my siblings. I regularly made money from them, too.
By billing them?
Yup, and they were happy to give me money. My eldest sibling paid my secondary school fees and gave me pocket money. I decided I could rotate the billing among my siblings, so I’d collect ₦1k from one brother, then go and meet another sister for more money. Getting money that easily meant I also learnt to spend it quickly on whatever caught my fancy.
I continued that way when I entered uni in 2010. I didn’t have a monthly allowance, and my parents were retired, but I could always call my siblings for money whenever I needed it. I abused that privilege a lot sha. I remember being disgusted about going to the bank to withdraw anything less than ₦20k. I was always shocked to see people withdraw ₦5k.
Rich kid
My siblings caught on to my rotational billing one day. I was still in 100 level, and I think I had ₦16k in my account — which, in my mind, meant I was broke. I called one of my siblings, and she said, “What happened to the money our other sibling gave you?” I didn’t expect that.
She asked me to give an account of how I spent the money, and when I couldn’t, she revealed that they’d noticed I had no value for money, was spending anyhow and asking them all for money at the same time. She refused to give me any money, and I felt betrayed. I called another sibling, and that one said the same thing. I was like, do these people hate me?
Screaming. Did they later give in?
No. But after a few days, I began to see their point. A friend in class told me he survives on ₦1k weekly, which made me really think about my money habits. I wasn’t spending money on clothes or girls; it was food. To be fair, I was squatting with someone for free and paid 100% of the food expenses to show my gratitude, but it didn’t mean my money management had to be that bad.
I moved into another hostel the following session, and my new roommates always managed very little money for weeks. They changed the trajectory of my relationship with money. I learnt to save and budget and even began to live on ₦2k – ₦3k weekly like they did. We also contributed money to buy foodstuff and handle other shared expenses on a monthly basis.
I also changed my billing strategy. Instead of calling all my siblings for money at once, I’d call one this month and another the next, so I never asked the same person for money twice in eight months. Till I finished university in 2014, my siblings believed I no longer billed them.
When was the first time you made your own money?
My NYSC service year in 2015. I was posted to a school that didn’t pay an extra allowance, so it was just the ₦19,800 stipend from the government. But I had free corpers’ accommodation at a fellowship house, so I didn’t have to worry about rent.
I ran into many issues at my PPA, though. It was my first work experience, and I didn’t have the “discipline” required for a workplace. I didn’t see the point of coming to school at 8 a.m. when I only had a 10 a.m. class or waiting till 2 p.m. when I wasn’t doing anything. I also never wrote lesson notes.
Thankfully, I befriended someone in the school who always helped me beg the headteacher at month’s end when it was time to sign my voucher.
It was also during this time that I became interested in a tech career.
How did that happen?
There was this ghost corps member in the fellowship house — only came around to sign important stuff — but we connected over finishing from the same university. It was obvious he had money — he regularly bought fuel and subscribed the cable TV at the fellowship house whenever he was around and regularly took us out to eat. I was always fascinated by him. One day, he told me he was a developer and earned ₦100k/month. I was blown away. I thought earning ₦100k/month was more than enough to solve any problem I’d ever have.
I immediately became interested in developing, but I studied linguistics in school and thought mathematics was necessary to learn how to code. He insisted I just needed logic. But I still thought it’d be too hard.
When did you eventually give it a try?
In 2016, I moved to another sister’s house after NYSC because the one I stayed with wanted me to apply for a Master’s Degree and pursue an academic career. I wasn’t feeling that.
I was just sleeping and waking up at the other sister’s house. Her husband even tried to help me get a bank job, but I deliberately failed the test because I wasn’t under any pressure to make money.
But after three months of doing nothing, I remembered my corper friend who was probably somewhere balling on his ₦100k salary, and I decided to take my life seriously. My sister had a spare laptop, so I applied for Coursera financial aid and began learning HTML, JavaScript, Python and other programming languages online. I did that for about three months and designed a basic web app with Python, which I showed my corper friend. He didn’t believe I’d learned it just by taking courses.
Did you try to make money from your new skills?
The same friend reached out to me in 2017, complaining about his hectic workload. He asked if I’d like to join his team to assist him. I said yes, of course.
The company he worked for used Angular2+, a web framework I wasn’t familiar with, so I spent two weeks learning it before I attended an interview with his boss in Lagos. I even made a demo application. But the interview was a formality; the man just wanted to see who my friend recommended. I was asked to resume immediately at ₦100k/month.
You finally got the ₦100k salary
It was about ₦91k after tax, but I was so excited. My sister said the money was too small and asked me to negotiate for more. In my head, I was like, “Does this one want to pour sand in my garri?” I was too scared to lose the opportunity.
She was right, though. I became a one-man software department. My friend worked remotely from another city, so I was the on-ground data analyst, web developer, desktop app developer and backend developer. But it was my first real job, and I enjoyed it.
I also began to save at least ₦50k/month and made my first big boy purchase after five months — a laptop at ₦250k.
Neat. Were you spending on anything else?
Not really. I didn’t have much of a social life — most I did was join tech groups online to network and ask questions. I also didn’t really have responsibilities, so I just went to the office and saved the rest of my money.
My salary was increased to ₦105k after a year, and around the same time, the company hired two new guys who changed my perspective on earning.
How so?
The new guys were also software engineers, and they once let it slip that they shared a ₦900k/year apartment. I was surprised, to say the least. How could they afford to live like that? I interacted with them and observed that they did a lot of side gigs and religiously hustled to upskill.
One of them was also a mobile developer who shared how he charged ₦600k for a gig. My initial reaction was, “This guy is greedy. Why do you need so much?” Me, I was satisfied with earning ₦105k and saving ₦50k for the next 20 years.
But after observing them some more, I thought it wouldn’t be bad to have the same financial privileges they did, so I decided I’d also learn mobile development.
What did that involve?
I procrastinated learning the skill for an entire year, but in 2019, I eventually took courses and began practising.
Interestingly, within a week of learning it, someone on a WhatsApp group I was part of mentioned they needed a mobile developer for a ₦200k gig. I reached out and got it. They paid ₦70k upfront. I should’ve asked for a 70% upfront payment because getting the balance became a problem after I delivered the job. It took a year of back and forth to get it.
Damn
I decided to still pursue a Master’s Degree in Linguistics in 2019. I was still working in Lagos, but they allowed me to go remote because my school was in Ibadan. Moving to Ibadan meant I somewhat became responsible for myself. I rented a ₦120k/year apartment and handled my fees too.
In Ibadan, I got an opportunity to take on a ₦600k job. The employer found me in one of the tech groups I belonged to and offered me the role. It was the biggest amount I’d ever been offered in my life. You’d expect that I’d jump at it, right?
You didn’t?
I didn’t. I felt I wasn’t good enough, so I recommended someone else — an undergraduate — and he got the job. And I was still earning ₦105k o.
The same employer offered me a one-time gig sometime later. I guess he felt I did an honourable thing recommending someone else for that job. The gig was to build a fintech app. I charged ₦300k; he said it was too small and he’d pay ₦700k instead. He also paid 70% upfront.
I was still so doubtful of my skills that I didn’t touch that 70% until I completed the job, so he wouldn’t use police to arrest me if he didn’t like it. I completed the job in two weeks instead of the stipulated two months. I was that anxious. The guy thought it was because I was extremely fast.
LMAO
He recommended me for a job at a telecommunications company. I did the interview, and they gave me a ₦5 million/year offer. But imposter syndrome struck again, and I lied that I couldn’t take the job because of my Master’s Degree.
Fortunately for me, they couldn’t find anyone else for the role, and they contracted it to the same guy who referred me. That one subcontracted it to me and put me on a ₦600k salary for a five-month contract. I know it doesn’t make sense, but I took the contract position in addition to my regular ₦105k 9-5.
After the contract ended in 2020, a former co-worker told me about an open mobile engineer position with a UK company. I applied and got employed for a one-year contract. It paid ₦400k/month.
Did you still juggle this with your 9-5?
I resigned after getting the UK job. But I didn’t even stay at the job for the complete year. It was so toxic; my boss desperately wanted to be the centre of attention. A 30-minute meeting could last for hours because he’d just keep talking. Plus, I noticed my foreign colleagues were earning as much as $8k/month, and I only got ₦400k.
So, I started job hunting again after eight months and got a ₦500k/month mobile developer role at a Nigerian company in 2021. By this time, I’d abandoned my postgraduate studies. The lockdown in 2020 had paused school for too long, and I just got tired.
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How long did you stay at the new job?
I stayed for about a year and a half. My salary was increased to ₦750k/month at a point. Then I got another opportunity with a US company via LinkedIn. That one paid $35/hour and approximately $3,500 per month, depending on my hours. So, I basically had two incomes from 2021 to 2022.
I felt financially comfortable enough to get married, so I did in 2022. Fun fact: I interviewed for another job the night before my wedding.
How did that happen?
I’d helped some of my friends get jobs at the US company I worked for, and one of them left to join another US company. So, I jokingly said I was open to opportunities at his new job. They were hiring, and I applied.
I didn’t even think I’d get the job because I was in my wife’s village the night of the interview, and there was no light. But they gave me a couple of tasks and an offer of employment a month later. They offered $5k, but I negotiated, and we eventually settled for $5,500.
This is the first time you’ve mentioned negotiating
Right? I was deliberate about it, too. I’d always been scared to negotiate because I felt I wasn’t good enough and didn’t want to chase people willing to “give me a chance” away. But I had nothing to lose this time. I had two jobs, and I’d become comfortable acknowledging that I was good at what I did.
I accepted the offer, quit the Nigerian job and focused on my two US jobs. I felt like the biggest boy in the world. There were some months I earned close to $12k.
What lifestyle changes came with your increased earnings?
I still wasn’t much of a social person, so it was just small home and personal changes. I bought my sister’s old car for ₦1m and started regularly sending my parents at least ₦40k/month. My wife and I moved to a new ₦2m/year house in 2022. I paid for two years upfront and made extensive renovations, bringing the total bill to around ₦10m.
The major change was in how much I saved. I started saving 80% of my monthly income and only lived on 20%. For instance, in the months I earned $12k, I’d leave $10k in my domiciliary account. I get a 6% APY dollar investment from my bank, so it’s my primary savings and investment option.
However, around September 2022, I got laid off from the company paying me by the hour.
Oh my. Why?
Business wasn’t doing great, and my role became obsolete. My income was reduced to $5,500/month, so I reduced my savings to $4k.
Something else that helped during that period was my good relationship with the CTO at the company that laid me off. I didn’t tell him I had another job, so he thought I was jobless. I’d also mentioned that my wife was pregnant, so he felt he had to help me find another job.
And he did. Two months later, he landed me a €40/hour role with a European company. That’s about €4,000/month, depending on hours worked. I didn’t think much of the job because I had another one, but it turned out to be a lifesaver.
How so?
I got laid off from my second US job in April 2023 due to clashes with colleagues. I lowkey think a lot of it was racism because the Black staff members were always treated differently, but I sha lost the job.
Again, having a second job saved me from total unemployment. I’ve been job-hunting since, but it hasn’t been successful. My quality of life hasn’t exactly reduced because I’ve always saved more than I spent. In total, I have saved about $80k so far.
Do you have a saving goal?
I’m honestly just saving for saving sake. I might buy a house down the line, but I’m concerned about building a healthy safety net for my family in case anything happens to me.
Does the high probability of layoffs in tech bother you?
Always. There’s huge insecurity in this industry, and it’s always on my mind. But I try to focus on making myself indispensable. Layoffs will always happen. That’s why I’m very interested in upskilling.
How would you describe your relationship with money?
Growing up, I had this laissez-faire attitude to it; it was always there to spend as I liked. Then I got a reality check in university and suddenly became a conservative spender. It’s been like a full-circle journey, and I like that I’m intentional with spending and budgeting. I think I’ve become even more conservative since I became a husband and father. I just want to give my family a good life whether I’m here or not.
Let’s break down your typical monthly expenses
What was the last thing you bought that significantly improved your quality of life?
I like being in the kitchen, so a food processor and blender that cost about $500 and a new fridge that cost a little above ₦1m. These purchases have made cooking much faster, and I make smoothies all day.
You said something about still looking for opportunities. What’s your ideal salary?
I’d be thrilled to get a job that pays $10k/month. I’m upskilling in preparation for that. In 2023, I spent about $550 on courses and scrum master certifications.
What’s something you want right now but can’t afford?
A house. A good one will cost around ₦60 million, and I wouldn’t want to spend all my savings on one thing, so that’s still a future want.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1 – 10?
9. I’ve lost income, but it could’ve easily been worse. I’m in a better financial position than most, and I’m grateful for the fact that I can give back to my parents and even siblings, if necessary. I only need to keep upskilling to increase my earning potential.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
Find all the past Naira Life stories here.
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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 started getting pocket money in JSS 1. It was the early 90s, so I don’t remember the exact amount now. I always gave the money to my uncle — who was in SSS 3 — for safekeeping because the students in my boarding school were notorious for stealing.
But my uncle was the one I should’ve been careful of. He started spending my money and would lie to me that it had finished. Somehow, I believed I spent it all.
How did you find out?
My dad noticed I was constantly writing to him for more money every few days. He asked, “Why is your money always finishing?” And I responded, “My uncle said the money has finished.” My dad figured he was tampering with the money and asked him. My uncle was mad at me for not covering him.
I changed schools in JSS 2 when I kept getting bullied for my accent and started keeping my pocket money myself.
What accent?
I spent some of my early years in the UK with my parents, who were studying for postgraduate degrees. I was in primary two when they were done, and we moved back to Nigeria in 1991. I remember because my parents were really disturbed by the fact that a dollar exchanged at ₦14 on the black market.
If only they knew now
When we returned to Nigeria, my dad worked in agribusiness for a bit with the company that sent him to the UK while my mum found work as a teacher. There was a bit more money, and I was the boy with comic books in primary school. I had them all — Superman, Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy, you name it.
But my dad left his job to become a missionary around the time I entered secondary school, and we had to tighten our belts. No more comic books, and we moved to a smaller town.
What did your mum think about your dad’s decision?
If there was any pushback, my siblings and I weren’t aware. My parents always presented a united front, and they cushioned us from whatever our financial situation was as best as they could.
I entered university in 2001, and they placed me on a ₦20k/month allowance, which was a reasonably good amount. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to handle money, so I spent it on music CDs and books and was always broke before the next allowance came in.
We’ve all been there. When was the first time you made your own money?
2002. I was studying engineering in school but didn’t like the course. So, I put my energy into learning programming. I found this book called “Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days” and another called “Cryptonomicon” by Neal Stephenson and decided I wanted to be a cryptologist. But I started with programming. I spent hours in the library learning how to code on the computers.
My first gig was to build a website for a church, and they were supposed to pay me ₦10k, but I never got anything. In fact, I didn’t get paid for the first three gigs I did. One was even my dad’s friend who promised ₦50k for a website gig but never paid. Funny enough, he saw me regularly after that and always said, “I have a job for you to help me do.” Yeah, right.
LOL
I quit engineering and moved to Ghana in 2004 to start my first degree afresh. I had started getting depressed because I wasn’t doing great academically, and I desperately wanted to move to the US to study. However, my parents couldn’t afford the tuition, and scholarships didn’t work out, so I settled for Ghana to study mathematics because of my cryptologist goal.
Did you get more gigs while in Ghana?
Yes, but they were mostly from Nigeria. At one point, I worked with about four companies simultaneously, which meant I was in Nigeria almost every weekend. The clients paid for my flights to Nigeria on Friday and then back on Sunday. I had so many airline miles I was giving it out.
How much were you making from the gigs, though?
Anything between ₦100k to $5k per project, depending on what I was working on. Some clients — mostly the big ones — also didn’t complete payment. But I was making money. I also had a friend from a freelance agency who regularly threw work my way.
In my second year in Ghana, I became responsible for myself and stopped calling home for money. My parents had also gone full-time into the ministry, which affected the family’s finances, so I occasionally supported my siblings too. I didn’t really spend on anything else apart from books and music. By the time I finished school in 2009, I had saved about €20k.
That’s huge. Were you saving towards a particular goal?
Yes, a postgraduate degree. I got admitted to an English-speaking German university to study for a one-year Master’s degree in Computational Mathematics. About €15k from my savings went into covering my fees, rent and living expenses for the year.
After one year in Germany, I moved to India in 2010 for another Master’s degree in Computer Science. I chose India because it was cheaper. It only cost me $2k to cover fees and living expenses for the one-year program.
I’m curious. Why the double Master’s degrees?
I just wanted to expand my knowledge. I’ve wanted to get a PhD since I was seven; I consider it one of the highest intellectual awards one could get. It’s not even to become a professor; I’m not one to teach. But that PhD? I still plan to have it before I die. Even if it means doing it at 70 with my grandkids.
Did you do anything for money while in these countries?
I lived on my savings for the most part. My student visa didn’t allow me to work in India. The only job I managed to do in Germany was to assist at a local food mart, where I sat behind a register. This paid like €10 or €15 per hour. It was good money for almost no work, but it wasn’t my thing.
I also did a website for one hair salon lady for €100. I also tried bartending, but I was more interested in drinking than actually serving the drinks.
I left India after my Master’s and returned to Nigeria. Then, I tried to go to Poland for my PhD, but it didn’t work out. So, I decided to stay back and work for a year before returning to school. It wasn’t that easy.
What happened?
Applying to jobs in Nigeria with two Master’s degrees on my CV was destroying my chances. Recruiters said they couldn’t afford to pay me. So, I drafted two CVs: one with all my degrees for foreign jobs and the other without them for local jobs.
Did that help?
It did. I got a ₦150k/month job at a web development studio, but I only stayed for seven months because my boss was more interested in politics than paying us for our work. At the point I left, I was being owed two months’ salary.
After that, I worked freelance between 2012 and 2013. I didn’t get as many exciting gigs as I did in university, but it paid the bills. That said, the thing about freelancing is that you can make ₦3 million today and make nothing for the next couple of months. It wasn’t sustainable.
Plus, my tastes had changed. As a uni student, I didn’t need to spend much. But as an upwardly mobile tech bro, I started hanging out with other tech bros, and my expenses increased. At some point, I reduced how frequently I hung out because I couldn’t always afford the drinks. When your friend buys you drinks twice, by the third time, it’s already looking awkward.
Real. Did you try applying for 9-5 jobs again?
Yes. Fortunately, I landed a ₦200k/month job towards the end of 2013. I stayed there for only a few months before moving to another role that paid three times more. After nine months, I also left the new job because I got bored and returned to freelancing. Nine months is the longest I’ve spent at a job.
In 2017, I returned to 9-5 for ₦450k/month and quit after four months — the boss was terrible. Shortly after, I took up another ₦300k/month job with one of the early Nigerian blockchain companies, but they crashed around March or April 2018.
I then moved to Maiduguri to work with an NGO. It was almost like I did it for charity because the job was below my skills and only paid ₦130k. But after two or three incidents where I ran from Boko Haram attacks, I decided I was done. ₦130k wasn’t enough for that.
What did you do next?
I did another four-month stint at a company I later discovered scammed its customers. They paid their developers, though, and my $500/month salary was never delayed. I left the job for another that paid me $1k/month. I was just moving like that and increasing my income.
My savings increased with my salary too. By the time I started earning $3k/month in 2020, I was saving and investing 80% of it. Mostly because I was living with my parents and had side gigs that brought money in occasionally.
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What were some of the things you invested in?
Stocks: tech, pharmaceutical, and metals through foreign investment platforms. I invested in Tesla when it was $30 per stock. When I sold most of it in 2022, it had grown to $290.
I also had 50 Bitcoins, which I got as a gift in 2012 when it was still around $12. I tried to access them in 2018 and realised I’d forgotten my private key to the wallet.
Excuse me. WHAT?
Yeah. I haven’t been able to crack it since, even though I’ve been doing blockchain bounty hunting since 2021.
What does that mean?
I go around different blockchain projects to find security bugs or build something for them. Bounty hunting is all in — you either make so much money or nothing at all. I once lost an $80k reward because I stepped out in the middle of solving the problem to grab drinks with a friend. By the time I returned, someone else had submitted a solution.
Damn.
I landed a more stable job to handle a project’s developer relations shortly after, though. It paid $7k/month with bonuses up to $5k. I did that for about four months. During that time, I took a small break from working on multiple blockchain projects to focus on the job.
I saved and invested aggressively, living only on $1k/month. This time, my savings goal was to get a Golden Visa.
Why did you want a golden visa?
I want to travel the world, which isn’t the easiest thing to do with a Nigerian passport. I wanted a passport that’d give me access to pretty much everywhere. So, I learned about the golden visa, and the most affordable option I found was the Portugal Golden Visa. It cost €350k and involved buying property, which would give me a five-year residency. Last last, I could rent out the property and make money from it. I only needed to visit Portugal for one week every year for those five years, after which I’d get citizenship.
Plus, they don’t pay tax on crypto-based earnings in Portugal, they speak a lot of English, and there’s a relatively big Black community there. It was the perfect option, and I was going to get it. But then I lost all my savings — over $500k in total.
Wait. How did that happen?
I’d invested about $80k in Terra in 2021. By April 2022, it had grown to $150k. Then the Luna/Terra coin crash happened, and took my money with it. Honestly, I should’ve known the returns were too good to be true, but shit happens. It was painful, but I still had about $400k in other savings and investments. So, it was like, “Damn, I lost money. Well, I still have money.”
I just fell to my knees
The plan was to finalise my Golden Visa in November 2022. So, I liquidated the rest of my crypto and stocks in late October and put it all — about $380k — in a crypto exchange, FTX. I didn’t put the money in the bank because I didn’t want anyone asking too many questions or forcing me to fill out forms.
It was supposed to be there for a week. Unfortunately, FTX crashed on November 2. I didn’t even know until November 9 because I was busy with work and was ignoring my emails. By the time I found out, my money was gone. If I had heard the news earlier, I could’ve withdrawn some of it.
Oh my God. I’m so sorry
I was devastated. I couldn’t take a bath, eat or step outside for a whole week. My security guard even came into the house to make sure I wasn’t dead. I usually struggle with depressive episodes. I’m very sure that if I’d been in one of my low periods when this happened, I’d have killed myself.
It wasn’t exactly the money I lost that bothered me; it was the freedom it was supposed to bring.
Ironically, I’d quit my job earlier that year to start my own software development company in February 2022. I was supposed to get a $200k investment grant but got $50k in funding. I also only got 30% of the $50k upfront. The rest was going to come only after we delivered a particular project, so I had to put much of my money into the startup. We had more than 20 staff, and I had to pay almost ₦10m in salaries and other expenditure every month.
By the time I lost my savings, we’d already depleted our initial funds, and I had to take a ₦20m loan to pay salaries in November and December. We finished the funding-backed project in December, and I had to tell my staff we were taking an indefinite break till we got back on our feet.
Phew. That’s a lot. How did you pay back the loan?
The 70% balance came in, and fortunately for me, the naira had fallen against the dollar. It was now about ₦700 to $1 from about ₦300 at the beginning of the year. It meant the naira value I got was far more than when we got the first 30%. I was able to use the money to settle the loans I took and still had about ₦26m.
I still have a few freelance developers on the payroll for another major project we’re working on, but progress is slow — we haven’t gotten to the point where we have paying customers. Maybe if the investment grant had come in and I hadn’t lost my money, we’d have a working product in the market now.
What are you up to now?
I’m definitely more broke than I was in 2022, and I pay more attention to how I spend money. After moping around for months, I went back to bounty hunting for a bit in 2023. Another way I make money now is by participating in crypto communities on Discord.
How does that work?
Once you show you’re active by helping to solve problems in the group, the owners reach out and offer you a stipend to continue giving value.
One group pays me $1k/month. Another group gave me some Joystream coins because I was an early member, and I can always sell them if I absolutely need money. I explore communities to see where I can pitch in and make random $2k occasionally.
Usually, I’m sure of earning $1,800 – $2,500 monthly from bounty hunting and the crypto communities. It’s often higher. I’ve made about $8k once. The only downside is that if something goes wrong in the communities, you’re the first person people will yell at since you’re the one answering their questions.
Out of interest, did you tell friends and family about the money you lost?
I told my family and some close friends, but weirdly, it didn’t stop people from asking me for money. I’m usually the first person people think about when they need money, and it’s gotten worse since September 2023. Maybe I’ll blame Tinubu for it, but everyone suddenly became broke.
In a day, I’d get like 2-3 calls from people seeking financial assistance. It got so bad I had to change my number. I gave a few friends the new number, and now I’m even considering changing it again. Almost every day, someone asks for ₦20k or a ₦100k loan.
What are your monthly expenses like?
I still save 50% – 70% of my earnings monthly. Most of the crypto I got from the community is vested and worth about $40k today, but it’s imaginary money. I can’t access it yet, and crypto prices fluctuate wildly to say this is the definite amount I have. I should have access to it in 2025, and I plan to take 50% out to invest in stocks and metals. I’ll also probably invest in local property.
You’ve been on quite a financial journey. How have your experiences impacted your perspective on money?
It’s a two-way thing. On one hand, I’m trying to spend more conservatively. I haven’t changed my iPhone in almost two years, and I love having the latest gadgets.
On the other hand, I’m very aware of how fickle money is. It’s like, I better enjoy this money now because it may not be there tomorrow. I feel like I didn’t enjoy my money the first time around. So, I find myself constantly trying to strike a balance. I still intend to travel the world, so that’s still on my bucket list.
What do you imagine the next few years might look like for you?
My current target is a startup visa to Portugal, France or Denmark. People aren’t really going through the golden visa route anymore, and this is one of the best ways to get a stronger passport as an entrepreneur. It means I’ll need to pay more attention to building my startup. I plan to do that with the help of accelerator programs later this year, provided I remember to apply before the deadlines.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1 – 10?
4. I need to get to the point where I’m making a million dollars a month. You know, to be able to buy things and travel without worrying about how to fund it or get stopped because of my passport. I’d also like to set up education trust funds for my nieces and nephews.
Have you considered where the $1 million/month would come from?
Income from work projects and investments, plus savings. I’m also talking to several business partners, and I’m hoping that the law of averages alone will ensure at least a few of the projects go my way.
I’ll be able to diversify my investments once my startup starts making money. I believe that’ll happen soon because I’m serving a growing market and offering solutions for a need that has been underutilised. I’m also looking to become an angel investor for startups or maybe even venture capital within the next three to five years.
Interesting
Earning $1 million isn’t just for spending sake, though. It’ll be a great financial security for me and my family, but I’m also looking to invest in lessening the effects of climate change and food and water insecurity.
I believe we’re on the brink of a major food and environmental problem in Africa. If Niger or Mali decide to block River Niger, our water supply is cut off. We must figure out ways to trap water from the environment, reforest our semi-arid areas and even consider renewable energy. I’m interested in these issues, and making that kind of money would mean I can contribute to solving them.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
Find all the past Naira Life stories here.
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What’s Your Backstory?
Remember when Fatu Ogwuche asked everyone on
TwitterX a question and had us all reveal our life stories on the internet?Well, this time she’s taking to our screens and asking our favourite tech entrepreneurs the exact same question, “What is your backstory?”
Everyone has a backstory; a series of big and small moments that push you into your destiny. For Cinderella, it was losing her glass slipper. For the entire world, it was Eve eating that apple. For tech entrepreneurs like Odun Eweniyi of Piggyvest and FemCo, Olumide Soyombo of Voltron Capital and Kola Aina of Ventures Platform, we don’t know their full stories yet, but “Backstories with Fatu” promises to bring them to a screen near you.
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The first season premieres on YouTube at 3:00 p.m. on the 28th of November, and we already can’t wait to watch it. The trailer teases the show content with Odun Eweniyi talking about the backlash Femco faced post EndSARS, Olumide Soyombo reflecting on his time as a bus conductor and Kola Aina explaining why he doesn’t back jerks.
From the trailer alone, it’s easy to see how entertaining and informative this talk is shaping up to be.
You don’t have to take our word for it. But do something: Set your alarm for 3:00 p.m, sit tight and watch all your favourite tech babes and bros dish on what made them, what almost broke them and how they’ve come so far.
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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 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.
Find all the past Naira Life stories here.
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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.
Find all the past Naira Life stories here.
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Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
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What’s your earliest memory of money?
My dad would bring bundles of cash home when I was around 7 or 8 years old.
He supplied construction materials to the military and got paid in bearer cheques. I’d find him removing money from brown envelopes and stashing them in his safe. My mum’s a nurse, so we were quite comfortable.
How comfortable?
My dad worked in the medical arm of the military, but we didn’t live in the barracks. We had our own place, and I attended an elite private secondary school. It wasn’t strange for students to bring ₦500 or ₦1k to school daily for lunch and end up unable to spend it all. My classmates even started a class savings bank of sorts where we all dropped money we weren’t using till whenever we wanted to take it out. I was one of the highest contributors.
What did you spend your savings on?
Random snacks and stuff. I even started a business selling stationery to my fellow students.
What inspired you to start?
My dad had a cool collection of ink calligraphy pens, and I regularly took them to school. My classmates loved them, and I started exchanging the pens for money.
My parents soon noticed the missing pens and encouraged me to start a business with them, rather than selling my dad’s pens. My mum bought the first set of supplies: a dozen 20-leave notes, a dozen HB pencils, a couple of lucky racer biros and six ink pens.
You were officially open for business
I was well-liked in school, so many students patronised me. My mum helped me restock during the weekends, but after the first set of materials she paid for, I gave her money for the rest from the sales I made during the week.
My profits were almost double the cost of the materials, and I spent it mostly on snacks.
The business only lasted two terms before the school management shut it down. They also got wind of the large sums in our savings bank and put a stop to that too.
Na wa
I didn’t try another business until I joined my department’s basketball team in uni.
Wait, let’s rewind. How did you start playing basketball?
I usually followed my dad to the gym at the national stadium in 2013. He encouraged me to play basketball instead of sitting and waiting for him to finish his sessions. The admission fee to the basketball court was ₦500, and I played and discovered I liked it.
My senior secondary school didn’t have a basketball program, so even though I was in SS 1 at the time, I went to play in the JSS 3 program of my old school. I did a few competitions with them for the one year I played with them — I stopped when I moved to SS 2.
But I missed competitive basketball. Fast forward to 2016 when I got into uni, the basketball community was the first thing I sought out. However, they didn’t let first-year students join the school’s team, so I couldn’t join until I moved from the main campus to the medical campus for my second year in medical radiography.
How did the business come in?
I schooled in the East, and we didn’t have access to basketball essentials like compression pants, shooting sleeves, and good basketballs. I decided to use my “living in Lagos” advantage, so whenever I went home on holiday, I’d purchase the materials with my pocket money (monthly allowance from my parents) and resell them in school.
I made a ton of profit, too. I could sell something I got for ₦1k at ₦4k or ₦3,500. I did that for almost two years while also playing competitive basketball. We typically played in school and inter-school events and won a couple of games too.
Did you ever get paid for winning games?
Never. We were even the ones spending our money. We got our own kits, painted the court and constructed our own hoops. There was someone from school management who was supposed to be in charge of those things, but this is Nigeria.
I stopped the business and active basketball after a freak injury in my third year. I slipped on spirogyra while walking out of my room and dislocated my ankle. I initially thought it was a minor injury and even played a couple more games. But when I started feeling throbbing pain in my leg, I decided to quit the game. I limped for a long time after that.
So sorry about that
Thank you. After dropping basketball, I started exploring other options to make money. One day, someone asked if I could crack Photoshop. I’d been something of a computer whiz since secondary school, thanks to the comprehensive practical lessons my school provided. I even became a certified network professional with Cisco in 2016.
So, I said yes to the Photoshop cracking request, and they offered me ₦5k. I was shocked because I was going to do it for free. That’s when I realised I could make money with tech.
Soon enough, word got around, and other students on our campus knew me as the guy to see if you needed help with your computer. It wasn’t very consistent, but I made the odd ₦5k to ₦10k fairly regularly. However, it wasn’t until my final year that my finances boomed.
What happened?
In 2019, my mum helped me land an academic writing gig with a friend of hers who was studying for a master’s degree in the US. She was also working and couldn’t keep up with the assignments and weekly projects. I got paid $10 – $15 per project. Then she introduced me to some fellow students to write for them as well, and I started earning $50 – $80 weekly.
Mad
I became confident in my writing skills. I mean, I was doing postgraduate-level work for international students as an undergraduate. So, I started actively searching for academic writing gigs. It paid off because I got clients from the UK and even started contracting out gigs to my friends and took a 50% cut of whatever we got paid.
I was still interested in tech, so on the side, I was also coding and designing websites as practice projects during a free three-month product design training/internship with a Fintech company.
During this time, I did about four freelance design gigs that paid an average of $150 each. There was still the monthly allowance I got from home — usually ₦50k.
To put it simply, you were balling
I was basically spending the money I made on food and enjoyment. I ventured into crypto trading too, but it didn’t end well. I bought $45 worth of Dogecoin in 2021, and it fell crazily. I think I eventually sold it for $5.
I also spent about $1k trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, ADA, and a few other coins, but I didn’t make any profit before I got tired of the whole thing.
The following year, I landed a product design job for a US company.
Tell me about it
I should mention that if it were up to my parents, I’d be a practising radiographer now. My family is very medically inclined, but I was never interested in it. I just did the course for them.
After graduation, I was expected to go on a one-year internship even before NYSC. But I told my parents to give me three months to do product design, and if nothing came out of it, I’d focus on medical radiography.
One day before the three months elapsed, my current employer announced some app updates on Twitter. I looked through their website and noticed a few problems, so I mentioned this to him in the thread. He reached out to me via DM and acknowledged that the data from their software backed up my analysis and wondered how I detected the issues so quickly. He asked if I had more insights, and I responded that I wouldn’t do that for free.
Next thing, he asked for my rates and portfolio, promising to send a contract across. This was around 12 a.m. I thought, “Is this one whining me? Who sends a contract without an interview?”
A few days later, I signed a 1099 contract for $5k/month.
Wow. How did that feel?
I kept thinking, “This thing can’t be this easy now,” until I got a cheque at month’s end for $3k as I didn’t work a complete month. The money was paid to my cousin’s US account because it was a hassle getting paid in Nigeria, and I was constantly asking her to check the money in her account to confirm it was real.
LOL
On July 25, 2022, I got ₦1.5m — the naira equivalent — in my account, and I started shouting, “I’m a millionaire!” I can’t forget that day.
I immediately sent my dad ₦300k and took my family out for a treat the next day. Over the next couple of weeks, I bought some tech gadgets. I got a new laptop for ₦600k, an iPhone 12 pro max for ₦600k, and a Series 7 Apple watch for about ₦200k.
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What’s working for a US-based company like?
The different time zones mean I work between 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. They also pay by the hour, so when broken down, my pay is around $30/hour. I didn’t always make the full $5k; it was usually $4k.
However, I got promoted to design lead about six months later in January 2023 and took on more responsibilities, so I max out my hours and get the full $5k now. That’s about ₦3.5m/month, and it sometimes gets higher depending on the exchange rate.
How has this impacted your relationship with money?
My relationship with money has gotten very bad. I used to be a very frugal person — remember how I used to save in school? But now, the money just goes as it comes. I think this is what they call lifestyle inflation. I now feel like I can afford anything. I don’t even check bills when I go out. I only ask, “Where do I pay?”
It’s made me a bit out of touch about how much money is worth because if I hear someone complaining about needing money, it’s like, “Is it because of this amount you’re complaining like this?”
Last month, I visited a high-end restaurant with my cousin and just went straight to ordering. My cousin looked at me and said, “Are you seeing the prices of these things?” I wasn’t.
Looking back, I realise I probably spend someone’s monthly salary on food regularly, and I ask myself how I got here. With what I earn, I should have a few tens of millions in investments, but I don’t.
Do you have any investments at all?
Since the whole crypto brouhaha, I’ve tried to make safer investment choices. I currently have about $1k worth of Apple, Microsoft and Tesla stocks. I’m no longer trading crypto, but I’m currently holding about $6k in Bitcoin. Then there’s about ₦5m in a Nigerian account.
Can you break down your monthly expenses?
I spend so much on food because I eat out every day except Sunday, and sometimes I buy food for my youngest sister or my mum.
I live with my parents, so I don’t pay rent. My family knows how much I earn, which explains the black tax. Just a week ago, I gave my youngest sister ₦250k for her secondary school graduation. There’s also the odd flight ticket request, money for phone repairs, or school expenses for my younger sister who’s in university. I also collect things a lot; my recent obsession is perfume.
How are you thinking about long-term career plans?
Well, I have two companies, so I plan to be even more into tech.
That came out of nowhere
I hardly remember them because I don’t handle the day-to-day activities. The first one is an outsourcing company for tech talents in Africa. I started it with my best friend when I just got my job — my boss was always asking me to refer tech talents. That’s how the idea to match African talents to companies looking for cost-friendly alternatives to Silicon Valley guys came about. A week after launching, we got paid $5k to analyse data. It was more like an in-house contract, but it was still talent sourcing as we had to find and pay a team of data analysts to get the job done.
The second company is my private design studio which I started in the third quarter of 2022. Design requests go straight to my work email, and I take on contract projects from time to time if I feel it’ll be beneficial to my portfolio. If not, I refer someone else for it.
How do the companies run?
We acquire clients for the talent outsourcing company via cold emailing and running targeted ads on social media. Right now, everything is on hold till next month because we’re in the process of setting up properly and revamping our operations.
How much do you think you should be earning, with your skill level and businesses?
$10k – $12k/monthly.
Is there something you want but can’t afford right now?
I want to visit the UK, France and Spain, but with the current state of the economy, I can go and return to an empty account. Hopefully, it happens before the end of the year.
How would you rate your financial happiness?
In terms of financial liquidity, it’s definitely a 10. There’s really nothing I need that I can’t buy, maybe except a private jet.
But if you mean my relationship with money, it’s a 5. I feel like there are some things I should have that I don’t.
I recently had to pause my plan to purchase some plots of land in Lagos and Anambra at about ₦20m because I couldn’t afford it. But if I calculate what I’ve spent on frivolous items over the last six or seven months, it’ll very likely be more than ₦20m. I’m not happy with my financial decisions so far, and I know I can do better.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
Find all the past Naira Life stories here.
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Besides the imploding economy and the pressure getting “werser,” now is the best time to open your laptop and become a tech-bro or sis. More than ever, global tech companies, like Twitter, Microsoft, Google, etc., have African tech talent on their radars. If you’ve been looking to break into the tech space, you have our full support to go for it.
But wait, before you go and accidentally hack the INEC server, calm down and follow the gist, because we sabi road. Here’s how you can go about getting the right skills.
Do Your Research
You don’t have to already be familiar with tech to get into it – all it takes is that first step. Evaluate your strengths, your growth interests and find programmes and courses that help you. To give you a headstart on where to search, check out ALX. ALX Africa offers tech programmes that are designed to help students unlock a plethora of technical skills and resources that gives them an edge in the job market.
Get a Booster
If you already learnt how to write Java on foolscap in your ICT class, you can now move to the big league and learn a plethora of tech skills from ALX’s programmes in Salesforce Administration, Cloud Computing, Data Science, and Data Analytics.
Find Fellow Tech JJCs and Pros to Ginger You
To make sure you can say “all my guys are ballers” with your full chest, when you become a tech-bro or sis, get people to join you as you take these courses. Tell your friends, roommates, favourite neighbour, barber, ushers and choir members – anyone you can think of in your network that could also benefit from moving into tech. When you have people to keep you motivated, you can build a team with whom you can collaborate as you go. ALX programmes also give you a great way to meet other students and mentors who can guide you through.
Join the big leagues at the ALX Open House Sunday and Application Parties
The top tech programmes such as Data Analytics, World’s most used CRM platform – Salesforce and Amazon Web Services Cloud Computing, are available to you at a fully sponsored placement platter and all you have to do is start and complete your application.
ALX wants to make completing your application easier through the ALX Open House Sunday and Application Parties. Get all the help you need from the ALX team who will be available to help get you started on your applications and provide clarity on the application process.
At the ALX Open House Sunday, you will get all the answers to your questions, and any doubts you may have about the ALX programmes. The ALX team will be available to help get you started on your application and provide clarity on the application process. Register here – cutt.ly/alx-oh
Take your zeal a step further by joining ALX amidst great company and good food at YabaTech on April 13 or come along to the BBQ Weekend at WorkCity Lekki on April 15 for the ALX Application Clinic. As always, the ALX team will be available to answer questions for those who come in to complete their ALX application.
For more information on the application party visit: http://bit.ly/3nPLb7G and follow the ALXNigeria Instagram handle for more details,
- Application Party – 13th April at Yaba Tech
- BBQ Saturday – 15th April at Work City Lekki
Jollof rice is sweet, but a tech career is sweeter. Don’t miss this opportunity for anything in the world!
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For this week’s episode of Navigating Nigeria, we spoke to Mark*, an IT and networking specialist who is dealing with a huge electricity bill after being swindled by his landlord.
In the wild adventure that is house-hunting in Nigeria, there are chances that an unsuspecting tenant can be tricked into getting a house with heavy electricity arrears among other issues. This is Mark’s experience about the pains of estimated billing and the dishonesty of some landlords.
Walk us through your experience getting an apartment in Lagos
I started house-hunting in early 2020, just as we were entering the lockdown proper. Lagos being what it is, has a high demand for residential buildings. It wasn’t easy at all. The process of jumping from one agent to another was so annoying. You’d have to pay an agent fee for anyone you came in touch with. And you’d still have to pay their transport fares.
There are multiple agents for one property and when you call them, they’ll tell you agent fee is ₦5000. I found a way to negotiate it down to ₦2000 although this also depended on the nature of the apartment. Several agents took me around. I couldn’t find anyone to my taste because it felt like all the places I was taken to were shacks. And the landlords really don’t send you because they know that if you don’t take it, someone else will.
I was just walking on my own one day and was fortunate enough to see this bricklayer working in front of a building still under construction. I stopped to ask if he could give me the contact details of the house owner or the agent in charge. He told me all the apartments in the building were already taken, even though it was still under construction. Imagine the extent people go to secure houses in Lagos.
Wow.
Anyway, he told me there was an available place somewhere he had finished working on, somewhere around the Palmgrove-Shomolu axis. Lucky me! When I got to the location I found the only available room left there — it was a one room self-con with a bathroom and kitchen and it looked quite spacious. I didn’t waste time, I took it. I paid ₦300,000 for the rent. Agent fee, agreement and damages took ₦50,000 each, so in total I paid ₦450,000. Service charge came down to ₦5,000 a month.
The next week, I moved in. This was in June 2020. The building had 14 flats of different sizes in it. Before paying the rent I confirmed with the landlord about any outstanding bills — Electricity, water, service charges and all. He promised that we would be getting a prepaid meter and made me feel at ease and I believed I was getting a very good deal.
So, I settled in my place. The first three months were smooth. We were paying our electricity bills at ₦2000 per occupant which seemed fair enough even though I didn’t have appliances at the time. In the fourth month I started noticing some hidden charges in the light bill. Electricity distribution officials would come around to harass us. They’d tell us we had some things to pay. From ₦2000 it went to ₦3000, then ₦5000, then ₦7000. When it got to ₦7000, I knew there was a problem as it wasn’t normal anymore. The bills we started getting were outrageous, the type that printing presses or industrial companies accumulate.
Our light bill as a whole moved from around ₦100,000 to ₦200,000 per month. Don’t forget that the landlord had promised that I’d get a prepaid meter. He didn’t fulfill that promise and so the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) was charging us based on estimated billing. If we were only billed based on three meters — which was what the house had at the time — it would have at least been bearable.
We later found out that the landlord had opened extra accounts with IKEDC for the prepaid meters that were yet to arrive. So we were receiving estimated billings for the yet to be installed meters. They opened 10 accounts like that for that building.
Ah!
To make matters worse, I found out that the house had accumulated a power bill of ₦3 million before I even became a tenant. At first, we thought it was a joke because the landlord said he had cleared every debt. He swore to God and everything, asking us to confirm from outsiders. We tried everything, including going to IKEDC’s office to confirm the authenticity of our landlord’s claims. The IKEDC officials showed us the account and we saw the bill for ourselves. An outstanding bill of ₦3 million was passed down to us.
This three million was aside the prepaid meter accounts that were opened for us. So while we were even thinking of how to resolve that debt, another was piling. Every month, we were receiving estimated billings for these prepaid accounts. Some months we’d receive bills as high as ₦700,000.
What?
See ehn. We were in a bad place because who doesn’t want light? And no matter what, you cannot shoulder all that debt on yourself with your salary. How much will you have left at the end of the month?
We had several engagements with the landlord and asked him to at least try to clear his own end of the outstanding bill. Among the tenants we agreed to pay ₦60,000 each to at least offset some of the bills because IKEDC’s harassment was unbearable. Almost every day you’d see them coming to disconnect us. Imagine the pain of coming back from work, every other person has light and it’s just you living in darkness.
Even after we convinced the landlord to clear his own debt, we had a new problem. The uninstalled prepaid meters had accumulated a bill of ₦3 million — this was separate from the ₦3 million the landlord was owing. It was a real terror for me. The estimated billing was pure extortion by IKEDC. No matter how much electricity was used, there’s just no way we were consuming that much.
Eventually, the landlord met with his lawyer who advised him to put the house up for sale. By early December 2021, we received an eviction notice. Despite the eviction notice, we were still paying bills through our nose.
Towards the end of December, the landlord came with a surprise announcement. He had had a rethink and would no longer sell the house.
Phew.
But there was a catch. The landlord informed us that at the end of the year, we would be treated as fresh tenants. This meant we were to pay agreement, commission and all those fees again. And he doubled it. What we were paying as ₦50,000 had become ₦100,000. He also increased rent, some apartments increased by ₦100,000 while some increased by ₦200,000.
The audacity. Did you explore any other options on your own?
Yeah. We tried to engage an insider who worked with IKEDC to confirm if there was a scam going on with the billing. But then, they all work for the same people and even if there was, there was no incentive for him to get to the bottom of it.
We also tried to engage a lawyer. But I noticed that not all the tenants were into that and some were nonchalant about it. Me taking it all upon myself would have been an exercise in futility.
I had no choice and as much as I hated to cough up those fees, the place had some features that I liked. It was just unfair to be given an eviction notice for no reason and then to have my rent increased unjustly.
What happened to the laws on giving quit notice and not increasing rent until after three years? There are many unanswered questions and I know that even though my story might be different from others, there are some similarities that you will find that Lagos tenants face at the hands of their landlords.
Even though it was difficult for me, I just had to pay. I considered the stress of looking for a new apartment, moving, repainting and so on. There was also the fact that most places wouldn’t be as spacious as where I am. Also, if I was getting a new place I’d still have to pay those commissions and other charges. My plan was that if I had to move, it would be to a bigger accommodation and at the time I didn’t have the funds for that.
What is the situation for you like now?
Not every tenant renewed their rent. Some were aggrieved and felt cheated. For those of us that stayed, we finally received our prepaid meters. Ideally, IKEDC will need you to pay a certain amount before giving you a prepaid meter. What they did was to sum up the debt and split it equally across those meters.
Whether you’re a new or old tenant, you have an outstanding bill waiting for you if you agree to stay in that building. So every month I pay two light bills, one to offset an outstanding charge and another to pay for the power I plan to use for that month. And I cannot skip these payments or else I won’t be able to load up my prepaid meter. The last time I checked, the outstanding bill on my meter was ₦400,000.
Sigh. What advice would you give to people looking for accommodation in Lagos?
First, you should do due diligence on any apartment you plan to move to. When agents are showing you a house, just note the address. Take it to an electricity distribution office to confirm if there are any outstanding bills for that address.
This is important because these are things the landlord won’t tell you. Even if they tell you the house has prepaid meters, don’t fall for it because even those have hidden bills. In your excitement about getting a prepaid meter, you may not be aware that there are bills you’d end up servicing.
*Name changed to protect their identity.
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Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
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When we asked the 19-year-old on this week’s #NairaLife about the ASUU strikes stopping him from graduating, he replied, “I don’t mind. They should take their time.” And why not? He’s a millionaire.
What’s —
My earliest memory of money?
LMAO, yes
I used to collect ₦10 from my mum for school, and I spent it on Tosco every single day. Good times.
Tosco?
It was a popular yoghurt brand in Kaduna where I grew up.
Tell me about growing up in Kaduna
It’s a pretty great place to live. If you remove the fear and insecurity that comes with living in Northern Nigeria, it’s perfect. I’m Yoruba, and I never really learnt to speak Hausa, but the Hausa people around me were always super nice. When I moved to Ilorin for school in 2018, I also realised the north is super cheap. The foodstuff you’d buy for ₦100 in Kaduna was ₦300 in Ilorin and maybe even more expensive in Lagos.
And your family?
We were pretty comfortable. I grew up with two sisters. My dad was a doctor who worked in Kano before he died, and my mum was a teacher in my school. We could afford three meals a day, extra money to buy snacks, new clothes, toys, everything we wanted, really.
When did you lose your dad?
Ten years ago (2012). I was 9.
Did things change for your family after he passed away?
Thanks to my mum, no. The only reason she was a teacher was that she wanted to have time to take care of us. She was a certified accountant, which meant she was in charge of my family’s finances even when my dad was alive. So no matter how much we spent, we always saved and maybe even invested. My dad’s death didn’t change the way we lived.
What did you study in university?
You mean what do I study. ASUU strike is holding me from graduating o.
Ouch. So what do you study?
Water resources and environmental engineering. And no, I didn’t choose it. I finished secondary school in 2017 and couldn’t get in to study electrical engineering the first time, so I had to wait for a year. 2018 came and I still couldn’t get in, so I just accepted what they gave me.
What career did you plan to get into after school?
Oh, I just wanted to be a professor. I still do. I think I fell in love with teaching in senior secondary school when people who didn’t understand commerce and accounting — my mum’s subjects — would meet me, and I’d give them extra lessons.
When was the first ASUU strike you experienced?
The one that kept us out of school almost throughout 2020. Honestly, I didn’t care about the strike. I just wanted to stay at home and sleep.
Professor professor
LMAO, please. It’s not like the Nigerian education system is great anyways.
Did you use that period to build any skills?
By 2020, I’d already been coding for eight years and —
Pause. What?
There’s a game we had on our home desktop — Tank Racer. I liked it so much I wanted to build my own game. So I went online and researched how to make computer games. I found C and C++ but it was too complicated for my 9-year-old brain so I settled for learning a version of JAVA and Python 2.7 online. I also started learning HTML and CSS.
How did you know to do these things?
I had an uncle who was a computer science student, so I asked him questions, and another uncle who visited us regularly and taught me how to use the internet to get information. One of my mum’s students introduced me to W3Schools where I learnt HTML and CSS. Also, I grew up with a desktop at home, so using computers wasn’t a problem for me.
In 2013, I found out about the National Institute of Information and Technology (NIIT) through a radio ad calling for people who wanted to learn programming to apply for a scholarship. I registered, and when I went to write the exam, I was the only child there.
What type of exam was it?
A simple IQ-type test. Like advanced quantitative reasoning. A few weeks later, they called my mum to say I got 95% in the exam and they wanted me to resume the scholarship.
A genius
But I didn’t go. I was a child. I couldn’t attend the program myself after school, and my mum was busy, so we just decided to wait one year and write the scholarship exam again to see if I would qualify. 2014, I got 97%. But there was terrorism in the north, so my mum decided I should be at home as much as possible. Once again, I didn’t take the scholarship.
What I did instead was visit a neighbour who was a WordPress developer. I would do this every day, watching him work and learning from him. By 2015, my uncle got me a laptop so I spent the next two years learning PHP and building projects.
What kind of projects?
I built a blog, a to-do application and a student management system application. Just practical things.
In 2017, I joined a Facebook group for developers in Kaduna. One day, the group administrator, a top developer in Africa, posted one of those “What’s stopping you from being the best developer you can be?” posts, and people replied with their problems — electricity, etc. My laptop was bad, so I mentioned it in the replies and he DMed me. We spoke for a bit and when I sent him links to stuff I’d done, he asked me to come for an event at his workspace. My mum didn’t want me to go at first, but when she found out my neighbour was also attending the event, she allowed me.
I met the man, and after we spoke, he promised to get me a laptop. It was only after I got it I found out the workspace/hub used their Twitter account to ask for a donation. The laptop was from a total stranger. Wherever that person is, God bless them.
When I got the laptop, I started learning JavaScript, and that’s what I did for the rest of 2017. I also wrote my first two technical articles in December 2017.
Technical writing again?
LMAO, yes. I’ve always loved writing. I used to write an essay every day, almost throughout secondary school, and submit it to my principal, who also taught English and was my private lesson teacher. She didn’t ask for it o. I just wanted to improve my writing skills, and she was happy to give feedback every day. I even graduated as best in English.
So when my mentor asked me to create a tool that turns images into favicons in December 2017, and I successfully did it, I decided to write about my process so anyone who wanted to do something similar could learn from it. The next day, I wrote about how to use a tool that’d been helping me with my coding. I published both articles on a site where programmers go to ask questions and share knowledge.
Who was this mentor?
I met him on Facebook in 2017. He was on one of those programming groups I was on, and after we interacted, he asked if he could be my “remote mentor”.
What happened after 2017?
I got my first job via Twitter in May 2018. I was doing university remedial courses and someone texted me on Twitter to ask if I wanted a job writing technical articles for them because they saw the stuff I wrote. The pay was $300 per article but $250 for my first article. It took them a few months to publish the first one. I think $250 was about ₦68k then, so I became a big boy.
LMAO
Every chance I got, I was at the mall buying chicken and fries.
I wrote for them again in December 2018 and got paid $300. This was like ₦96k. I used most of it to buy crypto. Speaking of crypto, I have an interesting story from my past.
Tell me
In 2012, I found out about crypto on Facebook and used my mum’s card to buy ₦20k worth of Bitcoin without telling her. When she saw the debit, she went and rained hell at the bank. She told them they had to return her money or she’d move the remaining out of the account. My dad’s gratuity had just been paid, so there was a lot of money in the account. Well, the bank found a way to reverse the money and my account on the crypto site was banned. Imagine what ₦20k Bitcoin from 2012 would’ve been now.
My chest. I’m curious, did you eventually build the game you wanted to?
Nope. That’s why I kept learning new programming languages, but at some point, I just decided to settle for web applications because game development is hard.
Did you continue writing for $300 after 2018?
Nah, I only wrote those two articles. Then, 2019 happened. Oh my God, 2019 was the absolute ghetto. I didn’t get any writing gigs, and I was already used to having money and spending recklessly, so my ₦20k allowance was not doing anything for me. I even took out all my crypto to have cash at hand.
In August, some guy found me on Twitter and hired me to do some small coding work. I only got ₦30k from him. I didn’t even continue after that month because he stressed my life.
Was 2020 any better?
In December 2019, I was discussing with a friend and they encouraged me to look for writing gigs online. Because of how bad the year was, I’d lost the motivation to write or develop myself. After that conversation, I reached out to a product analytics company that regularly put out content and told them I wanted to write for them.
On January 1, 2020, they reached out with a contract offer. $350 per article. I grabbed it with both hands. As the year went by, my writing became much better and the editors didn’t have to review it too much before publishing. By September, another company reached out to me, and I got the contract. $400 per article.
For the $350 company, I wrote 12 articles between January 2020 and January 2021, and for the $400 guys, I wrote only three articles in 2020. This time, I was much wiser with my money. Yes, I bought a new iPhone and AirPods, but I also saved and invested in stocks.Did you get another job after that or just focused on school?
I got another job in April 2021. I reached out to these people on Twitter and told them I could write for them. First, they paid $250 for an article, and when they liked it, they wanted three more. The conversation progressed to a one-year contract in which I’d be a content writer and community manager. Their first offer was $1k per month because one of their investors was a Nigerian who said ₦400k was enough for the role. But I told them I wanted $2k instead, and they agreed. Along the line, it increased to $2300. That’s almost a million.
Baller
Yes o. I started skin care, bought a MacBook, started sending my mum money, got an apartment, and created a home workstation; everything was good. I also had all the fries and chicken I could ever want. If you’ve not noticed by now, I like fries and chicken. But I was also saving sha.
Let me not lie, I was even on the verge of resigning before my contract expired in April (2022).
Why?
I was tired of working for them. They weren’t doing anything new, so it was difficult to find things to write about. Then, there was a change in management and a lot of clashing ideas for community engagement. Everything was just somehow.
Thankfully, I was unemployed for only a short period before I found something new.
What was it?
My first ever programming job. I started in May.
I’m on a Discord server with many programmers, and someone posted a job opening for a full-stack developer at a foreign company a while ago. I still had my community manager job, so I didn’t take it then, but I reached out to him in April, and he said the role was still available. I didn’t do any interviews or anything. I just sent him my past work and personal projects I’d built, and he gave me the job.
How much?
I told him I wanted $6k, but he said the budget was $3500. I took it.
What’s that in naira?
About ₦2.1m. I have another remote job I got last month (June 2022). They reached out on LinkedIn for a technical writer role, and I took it. It pays ₦500k. Thankfully, I only work a maximum of 20 hours a week on the $3500 job, so I have time to do the other one. But if they stress me, I’ll leave.
₦2.6m for a 19-year-old is… a lot of money
I have friends who make up to $10k monthly doing software development for foreign companies. So I don’t want to tell myself it’s a lot of money. I’m not pushing myself to make that type of money now now, but I know I still have a long way to go. By next year, my income has to be much higher. Experience plays a huge role in increasing earnings in the software development industry, so I’m building that with this job. Also, even though there’s ASUU strike, I’m still a student.
How do the ASUU strikes make you feel?
I know it sounds selfish, but they should take their time to fight for their rights since that’s what they want. I don’t mind how long it takes because I’m using my free time to build skills and make money.
Does your family know how much you earn?
LMAO, nope. Only a handful of people in this life know. In my family, only one of my sisters knows because I’m sure she won’t tell anyone. Telling your family you earn ₦2.6m will just lead to billing and expectations. I’d rather just be responsible on my own terms.
For example, we’re building a house for my mum in another state so she can move away from the north, and I’m basically funding the entire project. Honestly, they probably know I make good money, but they can’t say how much.
How much have you spent on the house so far?
₦4m.
Tell me what your finances look like right now
If I join what I have in cash savings and assets like stock together, it’ll be like $20k now.
What’s one thing you want but can’t afford?
There’s this nice Audi car I want. I can’t afford it, but even if I could, I wouldn’t buy it. The questions would be too many. That’s even why I don’t have a car at all.
And what do you spend your money on?
How happy are you on a scale of 1-10?
9 because my mum and sisters are comfortable and happy. My mum earns ₦35k right now, so imagine her joy when I send her money. My sisters work, but giving them something extra is always refreshing. I know there’s food at home and they don’t lack anything. For me, as long as I have food to eat and clothes to wear, I’m fine. The people who matter are my mum and sisters.
What about your goal to become a professor?
It’s on track. My first book will be published this month. The copy editing and indexing are done; the pre-final and final checks will be done this week.
I’m writing books so I can become well-known and build an audience. Plus, you need to be published to become a professor, so I’m starting early.
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Jeremiah*, 30, worked non-stop 18 hours a day for 18 months until his health forced him to take a break, but his boss had other plans. From earning in dollars to living on vibes, read how the ting go.
I spent my NYSC in Abia State serving as a teacher in a public school. During that time, I saved up my monthly allowances to buy a laptop and learnt how to build websites through tutorials. In 2018, after my youth service, I saw an internship opportunity online. The company promised that after the internship, I would be offered employment. I took a leap of faith and left for Lagos.
The internship was a breeze because I already knew most of the things they taught. I was just there for networking and making connections. I was the first person to get a job from my set — I was hired even before the end of the internship. I’m still at that job to date. The company works with the government, so there are usually lengthy intervals (about four months) between projects where there is no work. I had to find a way to fill in those downtimes. Early 2019, I found an online software engineering peer-review cohort, applied and got accepted.
How I became a workaholic
I was the least experienced during the cohort, but I made the extra effort to upskill. I would spend up to 12 hours writing code. I desperately wanted to level up, and so I gave it my all and some extra. At the end of the cohort, I interviewed with a US-based startup and got a three-month internship contract.
The cohort facilitators would supervise the contract. The initial pay was $400 monthly. If I performed well after the internship, I would be offered a full-time position and my compensation, doubled. I couldn’t believe my luck.
I resumed my internship and found out that I was the only other person in the startup. The founder was a back-end engineer; I’m a front-end developer.
My internship contract stated that I was only meant to work a maximum of six hours daily, but I wanted to prove my worth and get more dollars at the end of the internship period. I ended up working twice longer than required. I built the whole front-end of the application from the ground up.
At the end of the internship, the founder refused to offer me a contract, but he did not let me go. He claimed he was still testing me and asked me to intern for another two months.
After the two months had elapsed, he wanted to extend the internship yet again. The cohort facilitators had to intervene. They demanded that he sign me on full-time and update my monthly payment or let me go. He eventually conceded. He was supposed to double my pay, but he only increased it by $200. He also delayed payments by weeks.
The situation wasn’t ideal, but I needed the money. I am the firstborn, and my family depends on me for finances. $600 a month wasn’t nearly enough for the amount and value of my work, but when converted to naira, it wasn’t so bad.
Here’s what my typical workday looked like:
Remember that I took this job to supplement my other job.
I would wake by 7 a.m. and go to my day job by 9 a.m., working till 5 pm. Then I would rush back home to resume the remote job. Ideally, I was supposed to close for the day at 1 a.m., California time, but I often found myself working until 6 a.m. the next day.
I worked like this for another year. During that time, the startup launched and started getting customers and revenue. My workload quadrupled, but the founder refused to hire new hands. I’m a front-end developer, but he forced me into doing backend work as well. I wouldn’t have minded, but it was how he went about it. He never acknowledged his faults, always looking to blame me even when he was wrong. He also refused to hire a designer, so I was ideating designs as well as implementing them.
I worked like this until my body shut down
I didn’t get any paid leave; I worked during Christmas and the New Year. I was on my laptop 18 hours a day with no breaks and no time off.
Last year, when my father fell sick, I took a break from my Nigerian job and travelled to visit my family in the village, but I still had to work at the remote startup. The power supply is poor where my parents live, so I would go to a late-night restaurant to work and sometimes stay there till dawn.
There were days when I would break down in the middle of a workday (night) and weep. My physical and mental health fell off, and my productivity nosedived.
It was brutal.
One day, I explained to the founder that I needed a break. The work was taking its toll on me, and I feared I could fall sick or slump at any time. He refused. I begged and begged until he reluctantly agreed, but there was a catch: I had to complete a few more tasks before I went on leave.
I told him I could not handle anything new. At that point, my hands were trembling from stress and lack of sleep, and I couldn’t focus on anything.
[newsletter]
I got the sack on my second day of leave
Any developer who has ever worked at a startup knows that things need to move fast. Founders want to ship products and updates, and they typically don’t care about code quality. Many times, developers have to do lots of patchwork and sellotaping to keep up with demand.
I’m a workaholic, so I blocked out some time to clean up the codebase and make it more readable even while on leave. I also wanted the codebase to be easy to read for future hires as the company was expanding.
On the second day, I went to GitHub and discovered that the founder had removed me. He also deleted me from Slack and revoked my access to every other company channel.
I didn’t receive a termination notice or anything — I didn’t even get fired. I got dumped.
The aftermath
After the initial shock, I just went to sleep. I slept like my life depended on it (honestly, it did). For two weeks, I slept like it was the only thing I was born to do.
Two weeks later, I hadn’t heard from the founder. He fired me but was stalling on paying me. I reached out to the cohort facilitators to help demand my outstanding remuneration. He resisted at first but eventually paid up.
A month later, I got a recommendation to work for a startup in Nigeria. I’m also building this one from the ground up, but I like this one so far. My CTO is a designer, and his designs are delightful to implement.
What I learned
I now value my mental health more than anything else. I take care of myself and make efforts to be at peace. It’s a long, winding road, but I have made progress. My current income is not great, but I now have the semblance of a healthy work-life balance.
But it’s not been smooth at all
While I’m consciously rebuilding my life (and mental health), I’m not happy. As the first child, I’m the primary breadwinner. The startup I currently work at has run out of money, and I’m being owed for two months. I’m only staying put because I believe in the business, and I have stock options. They also rate me highly. However, I need money to sustain myself.
When I got fired, my father got into trouble. He lost a huge amount of money from the community esusu; I had to pull every last penny of my savings to get him out of trouble. Right now, I’m pretty much rebuilding my life from scratch.
Looking forward to something hooge
I‘m actively looking for a well-paying job. I constantly second-guessed myself at my previous job, but I’m great at what I do — I have built functional software from scratch at two startups. One year later, my code still powers the company whose founder dumped me; it is my work bringing them revenue, and I have nothing to show for it. I will not let another person make me feel small.
I hope to get a big break soon.
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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.
This week’s Naira Life is brought to you by QuickCredit. With QuickCredit, you not only get the funds you need instantly, but you also get to pay back at the lowest interest rate in Nigeria.
The first time the guy in this story tried to make money, he was beaten for it. Years later, he became a product manager and was slowly building up his wealth until a work mishap sent him out of a job and wiped out his life savings. Two years later, he’s building it back up and at $9800/month; it’s never been easier.
What’s your oldest memory of money?
It dates back to 1994 when I was in primary three or four, I stole ₦20 from my mum to buy some biscuits and sweets for a teacher so I could become their favourite student. I said it was from my mum. Unfortunately for me, the following week was Open Day and the teacher thanked my mum for the gifts. When we got home, she asked me to explain and I came clean. I got the beating of my life.
Wiun. Could you paint a picture of what it was like growing up?
My mum was a teacher in the civil service and my dad was a jack of all trades. What both of them made wasn’t always enough for a family of eight. Things were especially tough during periods when the government owed my mum salaries or times when my dad’s businesses didn’t do so well. We were pretty much alternating between plenty and lack for the longest time.
Do you remember the first time you made money?
1997, and I was about 10 years old. I had friends who worked at the local market. They helped people carry their goods for a fee. I asked to follow them one day to observe how they worked. After watching for a while, I joined them. I made ₦16 on that evening and was so proud of myself. Unfortunately, one of my church members saw me and reported to my mum. I got another round of beating for “embarrassing the family and making people think we were hungry.”
I don’t even remember what I used the money for anymore. But I stayed off trying to do anything for money until I got into university to study computer science. This was in 2005.
What was the next thing you did for money?
I helped someone write a math exam in the second semester of my first year, and I got ₦2k for it. I got over the guilt of what I had done when I got the money. For context, my allowance from home was ₦1k/month.
When I got to my second year, he introduced me to another guy who had missed out on school for the entire semester due to a personal tragedy. He was going to write six exams that semester, and I agreed to do it for ₦6k per course. That brought in ₦36k.
I knew it was illegal and could get into a lot of trouble, so I pivoted into something different in my third year.
What was this?
I started a tutorial centre to teach students in the lower levels. The centre caught on, and I was always booked and busy during the exam periods. On the side, I was writing final year projects and seminar papers for final year students. On average, I was making more than ₦150k per semester. I did these things until I left university in 2011. By that time, I had about ₦1m in savings.
Hmm.
One of my cousins was going to a university in the UK that year, and I started thinking about the possibility of going abroad for my master’s degree. He directed me to the affiliate centre that helped him with the whole process, and I went there to make enquiries. But I missed the floor and found myself at an I.T training centre. Somehow, the facilitator of the centre convinced me to get some certifications with them instead and showed me a pathway of how I could use this to get into tech. I thought it sounded good, so I paid for six certifications in software development and network engineering. It cost me ₦600k.
The courses lasted for six months. The centre retained me as a facilitator after I finished my programme and paid me ₦15k/month. On the side, I was also looking for a better paying job, but nothing came until NYSC in 2012.
Two weeks before my service year ended, I got a job as a systems and server admin with a contractor doing some IT work for the government.
How much was the pay?
₦90k. But I also had to be transferred to a state in the south-south. However, I was at the job for only three months. I resigned in May 2013.
Ah, why?
I found out that my chances of growth were low. On my team, there were people who had been working there for two to three years and were still at the same income level they were when they joined. I didn’t want that for myself. I’ll admit that I made the decision because I had a bit of savings. ₦450k.
Fair enough. What came after?
Unemployment. I was at home for five months.
Uh-oh.
I was getting interviews but I either didn’t think the companies I was interviewing with were the right fit for me or they were offering me ridiculous salaries. I was bent on not accepting any offer below ₦100k and these companies were offering me ₦40k or ₦50k.
By the fifth month, I had burnt through my savings and had ₦70k left. I was beginning to realise that saving money only works if you’re earning.
Thankfully, a company reached out to me in October 2013. Someone at my last job had referred me to them. I got an offer almost immediately after I did my interview. They wanted me to come join them as IT support staff and my starting salary was ₦90k. Not the ₦100k I was looking for, but it was close.
I get that. How long did you spend there?
Six months. I left in March 2014 after I got a better offer from an FMCG company. They brought me on as an IT lead and my salary was ₦150k. This was probably one of the most toxic places I’ve worked at.
Why, what happened?
First, an IT lead was the highest role for the Nigerians who worked there. The supervisor positions and other superior roles went to foreigners. So, there was no opportunity for growth for me. I spent six months there and left in August 2014 after an argument with one of the supervisors.
Here’s where it got interesting: they didn’t accept my resignation.
Why not?
A lot of the foreigners on the team were in violation of their visas, and they feared I would report them to immigration if I left like that. They gave me an offer instead: they would pay my salary for six months if I didn’t get another job within that time frame. I accepted it.
Sweet.
I got a new job lead at a fintech company about two weeks after I left. Two months and a series of interviews later, they offered me a senior IT role. My basic salary was ₦250k, but there was an extra ₦30k transport allowance, which brought my total monthly earnings to ₦280k. Another ₦150k was coming in from my last job. In total, I was earning ₦430k until November 2014. Somehow, my former workplace found out that I had gotten another job and stopped the payments.
Hehe. How did it go at the fintech company?
Oh, it was great. I spent three years there. A lot of growth and learning happened there, so I wasn’t in a rush to leave. However, I never got a salary raise even once. It probably wouldn’t have mattered much, but I got married in 2015, so I had to earn more. Ultimately, it was one of the reasons I left.
Another fintech company had been trying to bring me on board, but I didn’t give them a lot of attention. I accepted their invitation to interview when I made a decision to leave the company I was with at the time. They liked me, and I got the job. Like that, my salary grew from ₦280k to ₦650k. It was a massive move I should have made earlier.
It does seem that way.
Haha. Apart from my salary, there was at least one bulk payout in every quarter of the year: leave allowance in March, performance bonus in June, Profit from the previous business year in September, and end of the year bonus in December.
Could you tell me a bit about how you navigated money at the time?
I was saving 40% of my monthly salary. The remaining 60% was spread across other expenses, mostly household expenses and black tax. At the end of everything, my core savings was enough to cover house rent, which was ₦1.8m.
The bonuses I got on the job went into investments.
What kind of investments?
Bank investments. Treasury bills were hot and at an all-time high, bringing in 13% – 14% per year. I also had a fixed deposit account I was putting money into. By 2018, I had gathered ₦6m in core savings and investments.
Then something happened.
Uh-oh.
At the fintech where I worked, I was on a product team where we managed high network individuals. We helped them buy international portfolios and investments to reduce tax.
Everything ran smoothly until December 2018. I got a call from work and was notified that the infrastructure we used to facilitate these transactions had been exposed. What had happened was that the systems could not verify if the transactions we had made on that day to the BDCs — who were the middlemen — were successful, so we ended sending money to these people more than twice. And these were large volumes of money — $30k here, $20k there, some were more than that.
By January 2019, we had recovered most of it. But the other BDC agents went underground with the money. The total debt that was on our head was $2m.
Ehn? This sounds like a nightmare.
It was. The affected High Net Worth Individuals were on the company’s neck. Before long, the regulators got wind of it and everything spiralled out of control. My line manager resigned. I was next in line, so I had to be the fall guy.
When the regulators came knocking, they seized the assets of everyone on my team to recover the money. All the money I thought I had went up in smoke.
How much?
About ₦8.2m. They also took two cars belonging to me and my wife and some pieces of land I had bought. I was at level 0.
Damn.
The company asked me to resign, so I was without a job for the most part of 2019. Marrying my best friend saved me. My wife took over providing for the family on her ₦200k salary.
Seven other people were affected by the asset freezes, and we were fighting it in court. But I pulled out in 2019 because I realised how long court cases in Nigeria can drag on. I had to move on.
What did moving on look like for you?
For starters, I had to figure out how to make rent in October. Thankfully, there was something to look forward to.
What was that?
Before the whole situation started, I had been talking with some Chinese acquaintances about the possibility of bringing in Android POS machines into the country, and I had paid ₦700k for it. In March 2019, 10 POS machines were delivered to me. I had the infrastructure and configuration skills, but zero coding skills to integrate the POS into the Nigerian payment gateways and teach them how to read ATM cards. I went back to the same fintech company I worked at the previous year and convinced two friends to work on it with me, promising them 15% equity each. After five months, we figured it out.
Agent banking was already becoming popular in the country, so it wasn’t hard to find 10 agents. I got ₦120k in revenue from the 10 machines in the first month. It increased to ₦300k in the second month.
Then I ran into another problem.
What was it this time?
Regulators again. I got an email and they informed me that I was running the operation without a license. That’s how I was back to fighting for my life. I still had a relationship with the MD of the last fintech company I worked with, so I thought I could leverage it. After a series of back and forth, the company bought me out and paid me ₦10m for the POS machines and the solution I had built.
Whew.
I paid my guys ₦1.5m each per our equity agreement, ₦2m fine to the regulators and paid my rent, which had been due for a month. At the end of everything, I had ₦3m left. Things were beginning to look up again.
Did you ever get another job?
I did in the same month. My former boss came through again and referred me to a company that needed somebody to manage their payment gateway. The salary was ₦350k.
It was less than what I earned at my last 9-5, but it was either that or rely on the ₦3m I had left. I spent only three months there and left in January 2020. The people there weren’t open to change and preferred to stick with their old ways of doing things.
The same week I left, I got a call from an oil and gas company. They were looking to build a product for efficient fuelling for their fleet offshore and someone had referred me to them. I got a six-month contract as senior product manager for the product. ₦750k per month. When I left, I had built my savings to about ₦5m.
Then I got another job.
Tell me about it.
I wasn’t even keen on another 9-5, but it was a digital bank and the offer was good. ₦1.3m. It’s funny when I think about it now, but it took me about eight years to hit ₦1m every month.
Inside life.
The product I was building went live in December, but I stayed two extra months before I left in February 2021. The plan was to take some time off, build and ship my own product. But I couldn’t refuse the next offer I got.
Ghen Ghen.
One of the VPs of a digital bank in South America DMed on Twitter and asked if I was interested in a senior product manager role at the bank. I got an offer from them in April 2021.
How much?
$11k gross. $9800 net. That’s about ₦4.9m per month.
Omo. How do you move money in and out now?
Every month, I take $2k out for my monthly running costs, $2900 for short term investments, and I leave the rest in my international bank account. My wife and I should leave the country before the end of the year because of my new job, so I’m saving for when the time comes.
Let’s start with a breakdown of your running costs.
This is not an exhaustive list, but I imagine it looks something like this.
What about your short term investments?
Every month, $900 is spread across different crypto investments. $400 goes into my PiggyVest for any emergency expenses. I put $1k in mutual funds, and this is to raise the tuition for my two kids when it’s time every three months. I also put $600 across a couple of agritech investments.
What has all of this done to your perspective about money?
First, your risk appetite is directly proportional to how much you’re earning. I’ve realised that the more I earn, the more my interest in investments grows. A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have considered investing in crypto.
Also, whoever says money doesn’t give happiness isn’t being fair. I would know because I was at my lowest point in 2019, and I know what that did to me. I developed high blood pressure during those months that I now have to manage for the rest of my life.
I’m sorry about that.
Thank you. I’m fine. But perhaps the most important shift is realising that people who depend on you will manage without you if you don’t have money. For the entire time I was down to zero, calls from members of my extended family were non-existent. The good thing about that is it’s now easier to say no to them when they come knocking. So, maybe don’t kill yourself so others could live.
How much do you think you should be earning now?
I don’t think I should be earning a salary at this stage. I feel like I should have launched a couple of products in the market and earn money based on their market valuations. That’s one of the things I’m looking to do in the next five years.
Let’s come back to the present for a bit. Is there anything you want but can’t afford?
I’m big on family houses. I’ve been thinking about a building that would accommodate my family, my parents, and my siblings and their families. I know the location I want for this project, but I’d have to buy old properties from the current owners and tear them down, and that alone will cost about ₦90m. It’s a huge investment I can’t take on yet.
That’s an ambitious project. Is there anything you’ve bought recently that’s improved the quality of your life?
An air fryer. I bought it for health reasons, and it’s been absolutely worth it. It cost only ₦120k.
Ah, nice. Is there a question you think I should have asked but didn’t?
My financial happiness.
I was coming to that, but let’s hear it.
It’s a six. 2019 was tough, but it could have been worse. I’m also glad that I’m bouncing back. I’m not 100% fulfilled yet because I haven’t built and shipped a product for myself — all the ones I’ve worked on have been for companies I’ve worked with. When this finally happens, I’m moving up to an eight or nine.
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Unscramble these words in 2 minutes to show you’re a tech bro/babe.
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Take this quiz and we’ll tell you which Nigerian tech company you should have started.
QUIZ: How Will You Blow?
BBN, tech or blood money? Find out here.
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We believe you are aware that tech companies are cashing out. First, it was PayStack, now Flutterwave. These people don’t have two heads nau. If they can make it in tech, you too can build your own and blow. What is inside unicorn that you cannot do?
Here’s how to build your own unicorn tech.
1. Grow your own dada.
That’s your ID card into the tech world. If you must beat them, you have to be like them.
2. Start painting your nails.
You need to build your identity first before building your business.
3. Now, upgrade your vocabulary and start speaking “tech.”
Anytime you open your mouth, these are the words that must tumble out: Stack overflow, Figma, Knorr, UI/UX, Vedan, Comms, Unicorn. By our mouths, we confess what we hope to become.
4. Oya, choose an area to base in.
PayStack and Flutterwave are into money. Why not upgrade? Start your own eyelash company that will allow people see into the future. Or maybe a catering service that will deliver food to aliens in space. Thinkkkk. Na who sabi think dey blow for tech oh.
5. Anything you settle for, sprinkle Flutterwave and Paystack on it.
Your investors: Tell us about your idea.
You: It is like Flutterwave, but for eyelashes.
You: Oh it’s like Paystack, but for puff-puff frying. We’ll be able to make even generations unborn taste hot puff-puff while in heaven.
You need to show them that if Flutterwave can do it, you sef can do better.
6. Lest we forget, you must not bathe oh.
That’s the secret charm. You think those tech bros and baes do usually shower? My dear, that odour is their aura, their essence, the core of their ideas. I’m telling you facts.
7. Whatever you do, avoid that man they call Sanwo-Olu.
May we not jam someone that will kill our unicorn and roast the flesh for meat, plis. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, abi what is that saying again?
8. And BuBu, his sugar daddy.
Aww, he’s shy. Silent pistol.
9. Please and please, don’t announce yourself before your time.
You need to let God announce you. Don’t make noise on your own head so that they will not kill your unicorn before it starts to gallop.
10. When the money comes, don’t forget us oh.
We can run ads for you and make more people patronise your unicorn tech. What is life if we don’t help each other to grow?
11. How can you keep bad belle away from your new wealth?
a) BUY CATS.
The richest tech bro I know owns cats. If that’s not a sign, then I don’t know for you oh.
b) Always thank Emefiele.
Before he will wake up one day and decide that it is your market he wants to spoil next.
Goodluck in your journey to building the next unicorn tech. We are rooting for you, omo olope. Rise like bread and don’t waste our money.
11 Ways To Instantly Recognise A Nigerian Tech Bro
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Everyone is on the hunt for a tech bro or tech babe (or both) of their own, but besides this article that helps us spot tech bros, we need other mediums to help find them. This quiz is the latest one.
Prove your status by getting at least 7/11:
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There’s every other normal person in life, and there are tech bros. Such is the difference between our species. Nonetheless, it’s not hard to pick out a tech bro from the crowd if you know what to look out for.
1. Turtleneck.
Every tech bro has at least 3 different shades of black turtlenecks. It’s part of their uniform.
2. Chelsea boots.
Once you see this, just know that this is a tech bro.
3. Laptop bag.
This is also part of the uniform.
4. Afro/dreadlocks/dyed hair.
As most of them are going through pre-midlife crises, they suddenly decide that a non-conventional hairstyle is what has been missing from their lives so they try to fill this void with hair. Unfortunately, most of them don’t have the hairline capacity for this.
5. Laptop covered with stickers.
The only thing more important than having a head of unexplainable hair is making sure everyone knows you’re a tech bro.
6. Headphones.
Accompanying the overburdened laptop is often a headphone that’s probably too large for the tech bro.
7. Preaching on Twitter.
Tech Bros always have something to say about everything, so it’s not strange to find a tech bro spinning long Twitter threads about god-knows-what.
8. Lives in Gbagada/Yaba/Surulere
Our very own Silicon Valley
8. Probably drives a Corolla.
It is easy to confuse them with GTBank boys but that’s expected.
9. Sweatpants.
Is he really a tech bro if he doesn’t own several pairs of sweatpants?
10. Piercings.
Your average tech bro wears a earring. Or plans on getting a piercing.
11. Painted nails.
If his nails are painted, he is a tech bro.
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