11/01/2021
Making money online as a Nigerian is not easy. Not that it is easy for anyone elsewhere, but it’s a shade tougher being a Nigerian.
Here are a few reasons:
[1] Many of the mainstream online income opportunities are not available for or don’t accept Nigerians, like listing on Amazon, eBay, or even joining regular sites like Wealthy Affiliate, etc. So while others of various nationalities are making tons of cash through these means, Nigerians based in Nigeria are watching from the sidelines scratching their heads in bitter frustration.
[2] PayPal, which is the most popular payment gateway for online income is not available for Nigerians as a fund-receiving medium. Therefore, it becomes difficult for one residing in Nigeria to do a host of genuine businesses that one gets paid through PayPal exclusively. You have to make do with the less popular gateways, and in many cases may not be the preferred means by your intended partners. So you lose out, or you try to get round the PayPal hurdle somehow; a tricky matter of its own.
[3] Poor and irregular electricity supply presents its own unique challenges. Online businesses thrive on good power supply along with reliable computing system. With lean resources, however, it is a big and frustrating struggle to keep up having to generate your own power to run your small business, especially while starting out. And the noise some power generating systems produce can be another put-off emotionally.
[4] Limited and poor internet service in the form of slow connection and expensive data plans are another set of concerns for a Nigerian online entrepreneur wannabe. I, for instance, wanted to try out the remote user-testing as a another way to earn some online income and found the popular 4G network in Nigeria inadequate for it!
There are a lot more challenges you face should you venture into any online business in Nigeria.
Is it then still possible despite these mountainous odds to earn some money online legitimately in Nigeria?
YES!
But it requires gut, it requires rolling up of the sleeves and going down the trenches. It requires perseverance.
READY?
Try these:
• You can start a blog, write about anything of interest to you, from sports, food, relationships, to finance and gossip, work hard to build interest and engagement then monetize through affiliate Marketing [promoting relevant digital products from Amazon as Amazon affiliate, Commission Junction, JVZoo, ShareAsale etc], and advert placements from Google Adsense and Media.net. This, of course, takes time and real effort to gain traction, but the rewards are pleasant.
• You can sell your talents through micro-task sites like Freelancer, Upwork, Fiverr, Udemy, etc. Some of them let you get your earnings through PayPal and if you can get someone reliable outside the country open a verified, receive-enabled PayPal account for you, fine.
• You can list your products on sites like Konga, Jumia and latch on to their amazing audiences to sell; that is if you live around Lagos and Abuja. If you run a blog, you can register as an affiliate as well and promote them and some of their products and earn some extra commissions along the line.
• You can set up and run an online store either on a self-hosted solution like Woocommerce or a hosted solution like Shopify. Here you can list your items, promote them on the appropriate social media platforms for them and sell, just like Jumia and Konga are doing. If you don’t have stuff of your own to sell, you can invite other merchants around to list on your platform and you get commissions per sale. This a multi-million dollar model which anyone with some degree of courage can replicate. No time to waste.