Creativity is the first requirement for making money in the Nigerian University.
Students receiving scholarships in Nigeria must find a way to fend for themselves, especially if they are from low-income families. The likelihood of obtaining a student loan in Nigeria is associated with the likelihood of getting struck by lightening.
Graduating with flying colours from any Higher Institution in Nigerian depends on many factors. Aside from how brilliant you are, having good food at the right time and a comfortable bed to lay your head upon is vital, not to talk of having trending cloths that makes you feel welcome among your peers.
All this affect students psychologically, and believe me, you need to be psychologically balance to excel academically.
I wasn’t fortunate to come from an average family nor ever won a scholarship. The memories of my days in the university include eating Eba (gari) and tomato paste stew. But I learn quickly to monetize my hobby and used it to support myself.
Despite this I always felt broke. Scratch that, I was broke! I was always looking for ways to make extra money in college. Oh how I wish articles like this existed back then!
Even if you have your finances carefully planned in advance, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself needing ways to make money fast to get you through college.
I’m going to recommend some money making methods that are more entrepreneurial than job-related.
Here are 13 Ways to Make Money in a Nigerian University
The problem with holding a job in college is that, most unscrupulous business owners will want to cheat the students as they typically pay lower than minimum wage, which forces you to work long hours that cut into your study time.
The recommendations here will exclude some of the standard make-money-in-college ideas, like donating blood or selling on eBay. With the options available today, I believe you are more creative that those.
Instead, I’m going to make recommendations that can play into your natural talents, provide you with a flexible schedule, and hold the potential to earn a lot more money than a minimum-wage job. And some of them even have the potential to grow into businesses that you can continue after graduation.
Good deal?
Check these out…
1. Drive for Uber
Have a nice car? Put it to good use and drive for Uber.
Uber is a company that connects riders with drivers – and drivers with riders! Uber allows riders to request a ride from their smartphone. That’s when you, the driver, get a notification letting you know there’s someone that needs a ride.
You can track how much you earn as a driver through the Uber app, and best yet, you can set your own schedule. So, if you’re in college and meet Uber’s qualifications, this is a great opportunity for you.
You might also want to try driving for Taxify, a similar company.
Either way, you can make quite a bit of money as a driver for these services. Just make sure to check your local regulations to ensure you can operate as a driver in your area.
2. Tutor
Being a tutor can be especially lucrative in a college community. This is because you will be able to provide your services not only to college students but also to local high school and elementary school students. While a made little income from tutoring, my younger brother makes between ₦70,000 to ₦100,000 from tutoring will in College of Health Technology.
Another advantage is that the subject areas you can cover are pretty broad. If you are knowledgeable in math and science, which are usually of the greatest demand, but you can also tutor in writing and reading, as well as history and soft sciences. If you’re bilingual, you may even be able to tutor in languages, or with English as a second language.
Tutors don’t typically require any kind of special education or licensing. You can market your services through the various departments around the campus, as well as local high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools. A simple flyer showing your subject areas, geographic range and a personal description can do the job. You can also include your fee, but that can work for or against you, depending on how competitive your fee is compared to what others are offering.
In addition to high pay, you can have control over your work schedule, as well as where it is you will commute to (services are generally provided at the student’s home, but you can also arrange to do it in school or at an agreed-upon neutral site if you tutor on-campus students). Still another advantage is that the work runs with the school year, so you’ll be free over summer vacation.
3. Freelance Writing
As internet users are increasing in Nigeria, there are tens of thousands of blogs and websites on the Internet, and many of them need content on a regular basis. If you like to write, have good writing skills, and have command of one or more topic areas, you can earn money writing articles on the web.
How much you can earn will depend upon how much time you put into the venture, as well as the types of sites that you write for. On the blogging side, you can earn anywhere from $30 to well over $100 per article. Business websites may pay even more, particularly for writing on technical topics or creating marketing copy.
You can sometimes find work writing for agencies, but the pay per article is much lower than the numbers quoted above. The best way to find clients, particularly those who pay a decent amount, is to approach those clients and websites directly. This will also provide you with the ability to choose the specific sites and topic areas that you want to write about.
You can start by writing for few blogs for free, as this will serve as a reference for your works when discussing with potential clients
4. Create Videos for YouTube
There nothing much to say here, there are many young Nigerians making money with this. Take Mark Angel Comedy for one. This can be excellent venture if you are creative and have a flair for capturing what’s unusual, interesting and fun. If you can, you may be able to create videos that can generate a steady flow of views, and earn advertising revenue as a result.
Comedy videos are doing pretty well in the country, this is due to that fact that a lot of Nigerians need a way to do away with their pain.
You need to note that this isn’t anything like a job or even providing a service, but more like a business. And you need to have the right entrepreneurial attributes.
You create videos, put them on YouTube, set them up with Google AdSense (much as you would with a blog), then earn income as people view your video, and click on the ads displayed.
Should your videos draw thousands of viewers, the income can be steady, providing you with a regular monthly income from the ads. This will require that you produce multiple videos, since some may be popular, while others may go nowhere. But if one or more of your videos goes viral and draws hundreds of thousands of views, ad revenue can be substantial.
The disadvantage is that you may need to produce several videos before you generate a steady income. You will also need to create fresh videos as existing ones fade. But an unexpected bonus is that success in this venture could translate into a profitable business both now and after graduation.
5. Do What You’re Good At
We’re talking mostly about the Internet here. College students are often more savvy in navigating and using the web than most of the rest of the population. For example, along the way you may have become quite accomplished in regard to social media, graphic design, creating websites, or creating videos. Any one of these skills could be sold to both businesses and individuals with the potential to produce a large income.
Pick your specialization, see what others are charging the same services, then set your fees a little bit lower. Many businesses and individuals are looking for someone to handle special projects for them, and being able to do that at a low fee can often gets you business.
Once you get a few projects going, and you are getting repeat customers, you can look into increasing your fees. But your primary purpose at the beginning will be getting some paying clients. This is another business venture that could mushroom into something more serious after graduation.
6. Mow Lawns
If you’re in college and have access to a truck, a lawn mower, and an edger, make use of those tools and mow lawns!
This is a fantastic business for college students living in sunny areas where the grass grows quickly. And, because grass grows faster during the summertime than any other season, you’ll be able to run your yard maintenance business while you don’t have any classes.
At this job, you’re going to have to be fast and skilled. There is a lot of competition out there, so make sure you do a great job for your clients, be polite, and throw in some extras like weeding or blowing off the walkways.
You’re probably not going to need a business license for mowing lawns, but be sure to check with your local government to see if you do.
You might be able to get ₦20,000 per month for weekly service. Let’s say that you do. If you mow a residential lawn and it takes you an hour, that means you’re making ₦5,000 per hour – not including preparation or driving time. That’s not bad at all.
Try mowing lawns to make money in college. It’s worth giving it a shot.
7. Be a Virtual Assistant
Today there are many one person business everywhere, these people have a lot to do and needs people to do it for them. Virtual assistants help business owners get more stuff done. What makes a great virtual assistant? Here’s what you need to know.
Great virtual assistants are fantastic at organization. They live and breathe it every day. Just about aspect of their lives are organized, and believe it or not, many successful entrepreneurs need the help of virtual assistants to keep everything going in the right direction.
The tasks a virtual assistant might help with might include but aren’t limited to:
- Organizing a business owner’s calendar.
- Managing virtual employees or freelancers.
- Maintaining a business task list.
- Orchestrating speaking engagements, meetings, or events.
- Completing research on behalf of the business owner.
- Reminding the business owner of their schedule to keep them on task.
These are just some of the main ways a virtual assistant can help. But there are others.
Virtual assistants are often skilled writers, designers, or tech experts. Sometimes they help lend their skills to build something online for the business owner.
Truly, how you define yourself as a virtual assistant matters. Seek out your very best skills, advertise them, and see what happens.
8. Blog!
Few years ago while I started blogging, I wouldn’t recommend this to my enemy. Yes, I won’t. But today I can say that you can make money blogging.
That’s because I’ve found tremendous success with blogging. I believe you can make money blogging, and while it may take you several months or years to see results, it’s a fun and rewarding experience.
The good news is that you don’t have to go through the rough roads I went through, you can easily become a mentee of an honest blogger and let him or her guide you to success.
It helps to get the advice of some other bloggers before you start. Study their tactics and discover what worked well for them. The most important tip I can give you is to never stop learning. Search engines are continually updating their search algorithms which in turn affects your website traffic. And, your website traffic affects your ability to earn money.
Start Blogging Now!
If you can write, and you’re passionate about a topic, you can blog. WordPress and Blogger are popular blogging platform you can use to create a free blog. It is advisable to self host your website, even though this will cost you a few bucks, its worth giving a shot. If you want to start with free platforms go ahead as you can migrate to self hosting later.
If you’re going to make money blogging, you have to have great content. Whatever you do, don’t write just for the sake of writing or earning money. Produce content that you can be proud of and will help other people.
The other great thing about blogging? You can do it anytime, day or night. Many jobs require you to be at a certain place at a certain time. As a blogger, you can be anywhere there’s an internet connection and write anytime. You can as well schedule your articles to auto-publish whenever you are busy. It’s one of the most flexible jobs available.
So, if you aren’t pressed to make a lot of immediate income, and you like the idea of being free to work whenever it fits with your schedule, then blogging might be the ticket.
9. Bartending/Serving in a High End Restaurant or Club
If you are a very social person, this will really be great for you. Many of my colleagues made a good amount of money doing this in the University. I am an introvert, the idea of going to a party never strike a good cord in me, not to talk about serving in the party.
That been said, the weekend parties and the Owanbes (Local parties) can be a great source of income for you. Furthermore, it is easier to contact the Event Planner in charge. And this events mostly comes up during the weekends which means your academics is save.
More so, you probably have a good idea as to what bartenders and servers do, so I won’t spend any time on that. However, the type of establishment you work in will have a huge impact on how much money you earn. High-end establishments typically come with much higher tip income, while those on the lower end could be no better than minimum wage.
Bartending and serving can also be a good way of blending your social life, at least if you work at establishments that your friends frequent. It also has the benefit of paying daily (or more likely, nightly), since most of your pay comes in cash tips.
The downside is that you may find yourself working when everyone else is out relaxing or playing. For example, dinner shifts tend to be the best for servers, and weekends are generally better paying for bartenders. The work can be tough, but you can probably make more money working two or three shifts per week than you could working for five days a week in a minimum-wage job.
Bartending may require that you complete a bartending course, though there generally are no formal requirements for a server.
10. Become a Handyman
If you are lucky to pass through any of the Technical Schools across the country, you might have being a step ahead of your colleagues if you are the creative type.
You can do all kinds of jobs as a handyman, including but not limited to: plumbing jobs, electrical works, construction jobs, woodworking, and much more. Some of these jobs you might need to be licensed for, so be sure to check with your local government and your technical school certificate should be enough to get you started.
Another signal to take note of is to see if your friends always calling you up asking you how to fix this or that. Or you do have more tools than your local hardware store. You just might be a handyman – why not put your skills to good use?
Just imagine the possibilities. You might have yourself two career paths to choose from by the time you’re done with college: to continue your handyman business or to follow the career related to your major. The choice will be yours! The more doors you have available to walk through in your career, the better.
11. Help Out at the College
Colleges love hiring students to do all kinds of tasks around campus, though this has reduced drastically in recent years as unemployment increases and more people are forced to take up menial jobs from the campus.
Some of the task could be that you help out with some of the janitorial duties or serve as a secretary or receptionist. You might enjoy overseeing a dormitory or providing security for the college. Make sure to ask your school about the opportunities that are available to you.
Professors also sometimes need help with some of the technical aspects of their jobs. Ask them to see if there’s anything they might need help with. You might help them with preparing slideshow presentations or creating homework documents.
The great thing about working at a college is that they understand you take classes and can’t be in two places at once. You might find the work programs are available after classes and/or on the weekends – exactly what you’re after!
12. Help Other Students
One of the best things I did when I gained admission into the university was to source for all the past questions on the major courses and collate them, answer the question and package it for sales.
The idea came as a result of the fact that I hate taking note so, I spend a lots on textbook and I need past questions to prepare myself. So getting past questions was very difficult since there was no past question and answer package available then. All you have is a photocopy of math from a friend and a copy of physics from another friend.
So, I took it upon myself to collate at least ten years of all the major courses and I did and make good money off it.
Later on, a friend of mine decide to be taking notes in classes whenever he is free. These notes would then be repackaged and sold to students. What an excellent idea! Many students aren’t great notetakers. He even went further to partner with some departments, so why not see if your college would be interested in doing this for their students?
If you need to make money in college, don’t be so quick to take a minimum-wage job at a local big-box or fast food joint. Instead, think about what you can do – and what you like to do – and how you can turn that into an income source. That will enable you to both earn higher income, and have greater control of your time.
Be creative, look around you. What are the problem faced by your colleagues and find a way to solve it.
13. Take Online Surveys
There are dozens and dozens of ways that you can make money from behind your computer, and working with a survey site is a great way to do that. Though this is just gaining momentum in Nigeria and you cannot really make lots of money from this but there a few available options that will help you to recharge your phone. A free airtime! Sounds great to me.
There are dozens and dozens of different survey panels on the Internet that you can join. The idea behind these websites is simple. All that you have to do is create an account, and then wait for your invites. You’ll get an invite, you complete a survey, and you get paid. Every website is different on how they will pay you and how much you’re going to make for each completed survey. Some sites are going to give you straight cash for every survey, while others are going to offer you points.
You can use those points to redeem for gift cards to transfer them into cash. Each site has different advantages and disadvantages to their program.
In Conclusion
Life is tough but you can make it tougher by being ignorant, so it is with living on campus in Nigeria. If you are not from a wealthy family (of course, most do not) you need to find ways to make money in college, so that you can be able to cope with the high price of schooling in Nigeria.
So you have seen 13 ways to make money in a Nigerian University. It’s time to put on your creative cap and make that money you need.
So, what are the other advises, tips, strategies, techniques or methods that you have used to make money on campus? Please share with us in the comment below
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