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?
When I was in JSS 2, I desperately wanted this trendy purse that all my friends were bringing to school. It cost ₦2,500. I asked my mum to buy it for me, but she refused. It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford it; she just didn’t think a purse was necessary.
Instead of trying to convince her, I decided to find a way to get the purse myself.
What did you do?
I asked my sister for ₦200, and used it to buy powdered drink flavours and small nylon bags. I mixed them with water to make what we called “Tasty Time” ice drinks, and packed them into our home freezer.
Then I sold them to neighbourhood kids for about ₦20 or ₦50 each. Within a week or two, the word spread, and kids would flock to my house after school to buy them. I made enough to save up ₦2,500 and bought the purse myself.
How did your mum react?
She was so surprised. She didn’t realise I wanted the purse that badly, and she definitely didn’t expect me to pull off a business like that. She was incredibly proud of my resourcefulness.
What was the financial situation at home back then?
My parents separated when I was about a year old, so I grew up with just my mum and my sister. My mum was a civil servant, but she also ran two businesses on the side, including travelling across Nigerian states and Dubai to buy clothes to resell.
We were a very comfortable, average family. She paid for private school for my sister and me, and food was never an issue. We even had house helps.
Did you try anything else for money in secondary school after the ice drink venture?
I can’t remember doing much else until after secondary school. I graduated in 2017 but didn’t get admission into the university until late 2019.
During the waiting period, I decided to train to be a makeup artist. I had done a bit of modelling and always loved how makeup artists transformed my face, so I asked my mum to pay for a training course. She paid around ₦30,000 for a three-month programme.
During the training, I got really close to my boss, and she made me her personal assistant. I ended up staying at the shop way past my training period. We’d work together, and sometimes I’d handle clients at the shop or do home services.
Were you making money from that?
Yes, I made between ₦3,000 and ₦5,000 per appointment doing makeup and tying gele. The appointments weren’t frequent, usually once weekly or three times every two weeks, but the money was something. My boss also randomly gave me pocket money.
Around that same time, my aunt noticed that the makeup shop was in a busy market area, with lots of women coming in, so she suggested I start selling women’s accessories. My mum gave me the capital — I can’t remember how much — and my aunt took me to the market to buy slippers, sandals, earrings, and rings.
I’d buy earrings for ₦200 or ₦250 and resell them for ₦1,000 or ₦1,500. It was highly profitable. I sold to my colleagues at the shop, clients, and friends. I also sold to family members whenever I visited them for holidays.
I used the money I made to buy new makeup, clothes, and general supplies to prepare for university when I eventually gained admission in 2019.
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Did you continue the business at uni?
Only in my first semester. The friends I made in school weren’t business-oriented at all, and without that shared energy, the ginger to continue disappeared.
For the rest of my time in uni, I didn’t do a single thing for money and lived on the ₦20k monthly allowance my mum sent me for food. I called home for other expenses, like textbooks and handouts. I also always took provisions and foodstuff back to school whenever I visited home.
So I guess your pocket money was more than enough for survival
Yeah. It also helped that my roommates and I shared foodstuff and cooked together. Whenever anyone had money, we sort of spent it together.
Also, I had boyfriends who regularly gave me money. I hardly ever cooked because someone was always buying me food or junk. So, I didn’t really have a major need for money in school.
How about after graduation?
I graduated in 2023 and went for NYSC the following year. My Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) was a loan company that paid me ₦35k/month, in addition to NYSC’s ₦33k allawee.
The job wasn’t convenient for me, though. I had to stay at my mum’s friend’s because it was closer to the office, but transportation alone was eating up a massive chunk of my earnings. The company’s culture also didn’t align with me. I worked for just about six months and ghosted them for the rest of my service year.
What did you do after NYSC?
I passed out of service in 2025 and tried applying for jobs, but the options I saw paid too little. They were offering between ₦100k and ₦150k/month. I didn’t want to stress myself at a corporate job for that little money.
I decided to focus my energy on running a business instead. I restarted my clothing business, selling basic tops and women’s clothes on Instagram and TikTok. In July 2025, right before Girlfriend’s Day on August 1st, I came up with the idea of making “basic top bouquets.” They were gift bouquets made out of folded female tops and boxes. I hadn’t seen anyone do it online, so I partnered with a friend who does decorations. We rented a hotel room, shot a creative video, and posted it on TikTok.
The video went viral and got almost 400k views. Orders started flying in from guys who wanted to surprise their girlfriends. In that single week leading up to August 1st, I made over ₦600k.
Whoosh! Sounds like a big win
It should have been, but it didn’t feel like it because of a financial crisis happening in the background. I was heavily drowning in debt.
What happened?
My dad passed away in 2021 when I was in 200 level. He was a civil servant. Since I’m his only child, the responsibility fell to me to handle the documentation we needed to process his pension and insurance benefits, which are worth about ₦3 million.
The nightmare started when I went to his office in 2024. For about a year and a half after his death, we couldn’t find his phone or ATM card. It turns out that a woman he was dating before his death had stolen them. My dad lost his sight as he grew older, so she had access to everything.
When he died, she didn’t report it to his workplace, so the government kept paying his salary for over a year, and she was secretly withdrawing and spending the money. They eventually found out and stopped the payments. I didn’t even know that was happening — it was when I tried to process the pension that his office demanded we refund the overpaid salaries (about ₦600k) before they would release his pension clearance.
We tried to take the issue to court, but the woman vanished. Meanwhile, my mum had fallen severely ill with a chronic leg condition. She hasn’t been able to walk or go to work for two years now, so our finances were completely drained by her hospital runs and expensive medications.
I couldn’t ask my mum for the money, so I took it upon myself to fix it. I turned to loan apps.
Oh no. How bad did it get?
I took a ₦600k loan to pay off the government, fully expecting my dad’s pension to be released in a month or two, so I could pay it back. But the back and forth dragged on.
Because I didn’t have a stable salary, I couldn’t meet the payment deadlines, and the interest rates compounded aggressively. To avoid being harassed, I started taking loans from other apps to pay off the old ones. It became a vicious cycle. My debt ballooned from ₦600k to ₦1.2 million.
Every single kobo I made from my clothing business and my viral bouquet launch went directly into paying off those apps. I had zero savings. I couldn’t even eat properly because any money that touched my hand immediately went to a loan app. I was living in constant terror.
How did you get out of it?
I started dating my current boyfriend in 2024. At first, I was too ashamed to tell him. But by late 2025, he had noticed something was wrong. One day, he randomly asked me, “Are you owing anyone money?” To this day, he hasn’t told me how he found out.
I had to come clean. By then, I had managed to pay off ₦400k from my business profits, leaving a balance of ₦800k. My boyfriend gave me the balance, and that was how I finally cleared my debt in November 2025. I haven’t touched a loan app since then.
That must have been a huge relief. Where do things stand with your dad’s pension now?
We are still processing it. Just last month, I was asked to submit his obituary and some other documents for verification. Every time I visit their office, the officials come up with a new excuse. Today, they’ll say a letter is missing in a name. Tomorrow, they’ll ask for a new affidavit. It’s exhausting, but I’m pushing.
What does your monthly income look like today?
My clothing and bouquet business brings me about ₦200k monthly. Some months are higher, some are lower. Then my boyfriend gives me a monthly allowance of another ₦200k. That’s usually ₦100k to ₦150k for my hair and maintenance, plus some extra money in between. So on average, my monthly income is ₦400k.
That said, I’m still aggressively job hunting. I recently paid ₦5,000 to join two Telegram channels that post job updates. I apply to four or five jobs every single day, specifically looking for remote customer service or administrative assistant roles. I want a steady, predictable salary of at least ₦500k that allows me to work from home, run my business, and occasionally take on makeup clients. I’ve had a few interviews this month, and I’m hoping something clicks soon.
Rooting for you. Let’s break down your monthly expenses
To be honest, my personal living expenses are really minimal. I don’t spend any money on food because I still live with my mum, and she handles food expenses.
Also, whenever I visit my boyfriend, we eat out, or he handles food. In a month, I probably spend an average of ₦300k on data, personal maintenance, outings with friends, some savings, and maybe restocking once in a while.
You mentioned savings. How’s that going?
I think the trauma of being in debt and watching my mum’s illness drain our family’s finances has made me really scared of being broke. I never want to be caught unprepared by an emergency or be in a situation where I don’t have money.
Right now, I have a strict savings plan. I save ₦2,000 daily and have another ₦50k locked monthly in a separate account. Whenever money enters my hand, I try to save something out of it. Since I started this in January, I’ve managed to save ₦850k. My goal is to hit ₦5 million by the end of the year.
I really regret only starting to take savings and money seriously this year. I should have started earlier and would be in a better financial position by now.
What do you think you could have done differently?
I should have been more business-oriented in school. If I had built my makeup client base and consistently run my clothing business while in school, I would be so far ahead by now.
Uni is the easiest place to find a loyal customer base. Instead, I chose to cruise and enjoy myself with my friends because I was getting money from home. I really think that was my biggest mistake. Now, I have to fight for customers on social media. My boyfriend is very business-minded, though, and he keeps pushing me to record videos and stay consistent. So, I guess I’m on the right path.
What are your plans for the business moving forward?
I’m currently rebranding. I want to move away from modelling the clothes myself, so I plan to invest in mannequins. I’m also in the process of getting a proper studio backdrop or wallpaper for pictures, hangers and signage so I can start restocking and selling in much larger quantities.
Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?
Probably new mannequins and a studio light for my business, new makeup products because they’re so expensive, and a pair of real gold earrings or a gold necklace.
The gold is mostly to keep as an investment/backup plan. Gold appreciates, so I can sell it if I need to.
How about the last thing you spent money on that made you genuinely happy?
Last month, I spent about ₦150k to buy six new pieces of clothing for myself. That was nice.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
5. I’m definitely not where I want to be yet, but I’m trying my best. If I can land the remote job I’m currently interviewing for, which pays ₦500k monthly, and combine it with my business income, that number will shoot up to a 10. I’d be really happy.
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.
