Let’s face it — Nigerians don’t like talking about their income. Whether it’s because they don’t earn a lot or because they’re scared of being billed, discussions about money are treated like taboo. It’s also no secret that many Nigerians hide how much they earn from their parents. Is it because of black tax?
We asked five young Nigerians how much they earn and how much they tell their parents they earn. The responses were interesting.
“I send my mum money every month, so she needs to know where it’s coming from.”
— Florence*, 26
I work in client support and earn ₦120k monthly. I don’t hide how much I make from my mum because I send her money every month, and I want her to understand that it’s coming from my ₦120k salary. I need her to not expect too much because I have other things to do with my salary.
“I don’t think they bill my siblings, but I’m not taking the risk.”
— Semi*, 24
I earn ₦300k monthly working as a project manager. I’m the last born, and I know my older siblings earn more than I do. My older brother told the entire family when he started making almost ₦800k monthly, but my older sister advised me to keep how much I earn a secret from my parents. So I lie and tell them I earn ₦200k. In my head, ₦200k is still a pretty big deal for my age, and I expect them to start asking me for money, but they haven’t.
To be honest, I don’t want to be independent yet. I live in my father’s house and work from there. I want them to keep feeding me and dropping money every week. They’re doing that right now, but what if they stop? I’ll now start taking care of myself? With my own money? The absolute ghetto.
“I tell them for accountability purposes. I don’t want to do stupid shit with my money.”
I work from home as a content writer, and my monthly salary is about ₦900k. My entire family — mum, brother and sister — know how much I earn. There’s no reason for it to be any other way. What are they going to do? Say, “Oh no, don’t spend your money?” Nope.
The main reason I let them know is for accountability purposes. I’m young and can easily hide how much I earn so I can spend it on foolish things. Forget what Twitter people say — ₦900k is a lot of money. If I decide to keep it for myself and spend it anyhow I like, I’ll most likely make stupid decisions, and I don’t want to do that. But now that they know, it’s a way to keep me in check for me.
“My parents are rich. Why should I hide my salary from them?”
— Ekaete*, 25
I earn ₦200k, and I’m honest with my parents about it because I have no reason to hide how much I earn. My parents are rich so they’ll never ask me for money. I’m not even worried about them not giving me money because they stopped doing that when I got my first job. My mother still gives me money for small things once in a while sha.
“I don’t like black tax, please.”
— Kenny*, 23
I earn $65k a year. That’s about ₦3 million month with the current dollar to naira rates. My mum thinks I earn ₦250k, my dad thinks I earn ₦120k.
My dad thinks my salary is ₦120k because that’s how much my first job paid, and I never updated him about the jobs I had after. My mum thinks it’s ₦250k because when I left the ₦120k job, I got a ₦500k job, but didn’t tell her the exact amount because of black tax and some comments she’d make when I was at my first job. For example, I could never say I was broke without getting advised to “always save o”, and “what are you even using money to do?”. I wasn’t even spending recklessly at that time.
When I left the ₦500k job for the $65k job, I did not inform either of my parents about starting a new job. I plan to tell my mum my company has increased my salary from ₦250k to maybe ₦350k, but I haven’t done that yet. I’ve been procrastinating.
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.
No Cash? No wahala! With FCMB FastCash, you can get an instant loan of up to N200,000 without collateral or paperwork. All you need to do is dial *329*11# or log in to our New Mobile App. To learn more, please visit here.
Between 2017 and 2020, today’s subject on #NairaLife worked at his friend’s startup and earned a total of ₦60k. Now, he’s taking his filmmaking career into his own hands, and although it’s challenging, he’s hopeful.
What’s your earliest memory of money?
When I moved to Benin Republic for university in 2012, I was collecting ₦10k a month. Before then, there was the regular ₦20 or ₦50 a day for school, but that was it. Once in a while, a visitor would give me ₦1k, but my aunt would collect it to keep it for me and the money would vanish. Apart from that, I had nothing to spend money on and nobody to ask for money even if I needed it.
How come?
I grew up with my mum’s sister. My mum died when I was one and my dad was never in the picture. Nobody told me I wasn’t the child of the people I was living with until I was eight and a family friend visited. She came with her son, who was about six at the time, and while we were playing, he said to me, “You know you’re not their son, right?”
Of course, I didn’t believe him, so we started arguing. First, he asked me why I used a different surname from them. At that time, I used to write both my surname and theirs on my school books, so his argument was invalid. When the discussion was getting too long, he took me around the house to show me all the family pictures and said, “Where are you in all these pictures?”
Omo.
It was like glass shattered in my head. Everything suddenly made sense — the different surname, the fact that I was much younger than my siblings, the beating, the unending errands, the harsh words. And I began to perceive things differently, too. Now, whenever my aunt or any of my siblings said something like, “You’re so ungrateful”, or beat me terribly for the slightest mistake, I understood why.
After some time, I challenged my aunt about the information I’d received, and she replied in the most dismissive manner. “Yes, I’m your aunt. Your mum died when you were a kid. Let’s move on.”
It must have been difficult to wrap your head around everything.
I became extremely quiet and reserved. I didn’t go out to play anymore and I didn’t eat if nobody served me. I didn’t go into the freezer to take anything that they didn’t give to me, and that’s why I couldn’t ask anyone for money. I don’t know if it was all in my head, but things around the house felt different after I found out. Like they knew I knew they were doing me a favour and didn’t want to hide it anymore.
I moved to another aunt’s house about two years later to start secondary school. Things were slightly better there, but I still respected myself and mostly stayed quiet. In my free time, I enjoyed drawing, taking pictures with whatever phone I could find and turning them into movies on the house computer. I also enjoyed watching movies and writing stories.
When it was time for senior secondary school, they made me go to science class against my wishes, but by SS 2 second term, the school told them I wasn’t doing well in the sciences and had to move to art class.
What was that like?
It was what I wanted, so it was fun. I failed my first WAEC exam, and my second wasn’t great, so my aunties advised me to go to university in Benin Republic. The WAEC requirements to study there weren’t as stringent, and I already had a cousin in the school I was going to, so it just made sense.
What did you study?
Mass communication. It was a popular thing for students in art class to do. I also knew they’d touch on media — writing, scripting, cameras — which I was interested in.
How did you survive on ₦10k monthly in another country?
The naira was superior to the CFA back then, so my ₦10k was CFA 30k. All I did with the money was buy food to survive.
In 2013, during my second year holiday, I was in Nigeria and followed one of my cousins to a film set. She was a makeup artist. After waiting for about four hours, the program manager walked up to me and asked what I was doing there. When I told her, she asked me to follow her to her office to do some typing work for her. From typing, I started editing some scripts they already had and dropping some ideas to make scenes better. She liked my work, so she told me to come whenever.
Between then and 2015, whenever I was in Nigeria, I went there to work. She paid me ₦5k or ₦10k from her pocket when she could. I also acted as an extra in three movies. Each of those paid ₦10k. One other time, I said one line in a movie and made ₦20k. Those were the extras I was adding to my monthly allowance to survive because things were getting difficult at home.
How?
By my third year, my allowance was reduced to ₦5k for some months. My aunties also couldn’t afford to pay my school fees, so I owed the school. It took extreme sneakiness for me to keep writing exams until I graduated. In my school, the only way to get into the building for exams was to show your school fees receipt at the door. Because I didn’t have a receipt, I made sure I left home early and got into the building by 6 a.m., so that when the search started outside, I was safe inside. On days when the building was locked by 6 a.m., I had to find a solution like helping a lecturer carry their bag and following them through the checkpoint. Nobody will stop the person carrying the lecturer’s bag and start questioning them.
LMAO. Smart.
I also had to survive on ₦200 food every day. Bread and beans, every single day.
By my fourth year, things got even worse.
I’d stayed with my cousin up until my second year and then moved in and split rent with a few friends after. When I couldn’t afford rent anymore, I had to find somewhere to stay for free. Everyone I asked said they didn’t have space for me. Benin Republic landlords are very strict with the number of people staying in a house. After a few weeks of perching up and down and making people inconvenient, I finally decided to stay in the classrooms. I told a friend to let me come to their house to shower every morning and they agreed, so that’s what I did.
Damn.
It was terrible. There were mosquitoes, sleeping on chairs and on the floor was uncomfortable, and I had to make sure the security men that patrolled by 2 a.m. didn’t find me. After almost three months of sleeping in classrooms and lying to my friends that I was staying with other friends, one of them finally insisted on following me home and that’s when I had to tell her I was staying in the classrooms. That day, I moved in with her. That’s where I stayed until I graduated in 2016.
Did you ever pay your school fees?
Sometime in 2017, yes. That’s when the school released my transcript and certificate. The day my aunt called me to tell me she was sending the money to pay for my school fees, I almost cried. It was about ₦500k.
What did you do after university?
I moved in with a friend who owned a startup. I could have stayed at home, but I wanted to start hustling immediately. It was a startup that connected handymen to people who needed them ASAP and I was the social media manager and customer relations manager. The job paid ₦20k. After about three months, I saw that the company wasn’t profitable so I offered to stop collecting money. As long as we had food and internet at home, I was fine.
The handyman business wasn’t doing well, so we switched to a laundry service from his house. My role was customer relations too but whenever the drycleaners we hired weren’t around — which was a lot — I did the pickups, washing, ironing and delivery. Still, I was being paid nothing.
At this time, what was the plan for your career?
During the period where I was working with my friend, I opened a YouTube channel and made videos talking about football, and I did film edits and gaming edits. Nothing spectacular, just me improving my video skills.
After about a year again, we switched to a carwash business. This one did much better than the others, but I still wasn’t paid.
For how long were you working with this friend?
From 2017 to 2020. I only got paid for those first three months. Towards the end, I began to think about my life and I was wasting my time working for and believing in someone that didn’t rate me. He treated me poorly, didn’t pay me, spoke to me terribly and gaslit me whenever I tried to bring up pay. He’d say things like, “If you want to leave, leave. Someone else will replace you.” And I was afraid because I didn’t want to lose a stressful job that wasn’t paying me.
In January 2020, I reached out to the woman who gave me my first job years earlier and told her I wanted to come over and say hi. When I got to her house, she wasn’t around but I met her husband. I told him I wanted some screenwriting jobs if they had any for me and he said he’d reach out if they found something.
Did you have any experience?
In late 2019, I volunteered to help someone write a script for free. It didn’t go well because the director cut it short, but I counted it as experience.
Nice. So you left your guy in 2020.
Yep. A friend reached out to ask how I was doing and I told him my situation. He advised me to leave and move in with his family. Shortly after, the lockdown happened.
COVID was the perfect period for me to rest. I’d been doing high-pressure work without pay after suffering in university and I just needed to take my foot off the pedals. In my friend’s house, I had food, electricity, WiFi, my own room, peace, everything. After a few months of rest, I decided to take my film career seriously.
My friend’s brother had a professional camera he wasn’t using, so I collected it and started filming TikToks and short YouTube videos. Some of them did well, some of them didn’t. As I was gaining confidence in my filmmaking abilities, the woman’s husband who I spoke with reached out with a screenwriting job. It was a full movie script. I charged ₦50k. I knew I was terribly undercharging, but this was the first time I was going to make money in years and I didn’t want them to run away because I charged too much.
By the end of 2020, I’d done three film scripts where I charged ₦50k and gotten much better using a camera.
And 2021?
Early 2021, I found a $500 course online on filmmaking. I couldn’t afford it, so I reached out to an aunt abroad to pay for me. This was a huge step for me because I wasn’t used to asking anyone for money. She didn’t even ask too many questions — she paid immediately.
So I had access to endless filmmaking material, I could write better and I had a camera. I spent the early part of 2021 using everything I learned to get better. As the year went by, friends started referring me for tiny shoots here and there. Between 2021 and now, I’ve made about ₦600k from shooting at small events and writing scripts. ₦70k here, ₦120k there. It’s not a lot and it doesn’t come too often, but at least I’m making small money now.
So what are your finances like now?
Not so great. I don’t have any savings because the jobs don’t come every month, and I have to survive. I’m joining groups of creatives online so I can find more job opportunities and make more money.
What do you spend money on every month?
Most times, it’s vibes, but here’s a breakdown.
Is there something you want but can’t afford?
Of course. A camera, a laptop and a phone. The laptop I’ve been using for the past few months is borrowed, LMAO.
What are your plans for the future?
My immediate goal is to shoot at four small events every month. If I charge at least ₦70k per event, I’ll make ₦280k monthly. That’s fantastic. When I get a new camera, the quality of my videos will improve and I’ll start doing short films and cinematic weddings.
But honestly, all these videos I’m making are just so I can make money for a few years. The real thing I want to do is act. That’s my main passion.
What’s your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
4. Things are moving a bit too slow for me. I’m 27 and still struggling to make a living. This isn’t how I thought my life would play out. But I’m hopeful the next few years will be much better.
No Cash? No wahala! With FCMB FastCash, you can get an instant loan of up to N200,000 without collateral or paperwork. All you need to do is dial *329*11# or log in to our New Mobile App. To learn more, please visit here.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
The doctor on today’s #AbroadLife talks about moving to the UK in 2020 and finding happiness with reunited friends from Nigeria despite how difficult the UK can be.
When did you decide to leave Nigeria?
2017. Before then, I was like a Nigerian who dreamt of moving abroad but didn’t do anything about it. When I finished medical school in 2017 and went for my housemanship, I realised Nigeria wasn’t a place I wanted to practice medicine.
Why?
The quality of medical practice in Nigeria is bad. Let me tell you the experience that made the decision final. In the hospital’s surgery department where I worked, a consultant usually checked on the patients and instruct nurses on how to care for them. On one of these routine visits, the consultant asked a nurse to open up the dressing of a man’s injury so he’d check and advise on how the man could recover faster. The nurse’s response, right in front of the patient: “I’ve recently dressed his injury, and now we don’t have materials to dress it again if I open this one.” And the consultant moved on.
Just like that, the man couldn’t get the care he deserved, and nobody seemed to care.
What was your process for leaving like?
I first had to choose where I was going. USA and Canada were out of the picture because I just don’t see myself living and working in those places. Australia and New Zealand are too far. South Africa is still Africa. The UK is just perfect. It’s also the easiest path for Nigerian doctors looking to japa.
I decided on the UK in 2017, wrote my IELTS and PLAB exams in 2018 and started applying for jobs after. I sent over 100 job applications through NHS and vacancies on hospital websites. By 2019, I had five offers, and I took the one that offered the most money.
Why the UK?
As a child, I fantasised about living in the UK because of the castles, the beautiful scenery, men in top hats, culture, etc. That’s what the movies made it look like.
And when you got there? Expectation vs reality: UK edition
The first thing that hit me when I got off the plane was the cold. I anticipated it, but no matter how prepared you are, you can’t expect what snow cold feels like. As I settled in, I saw that my idea of the UK was flawed. . I found normal houses, normal people, even some bad roads.
As time has gone by, I’ve realised that the England we see in movies is actually Wales and Scotland. Those places are breathtakingly beautiful.
Was it easy settling?
When I first moved here, my sister lived about an hour away, so she helped me settle in.
Apart from your sister?
Here’s where it gets interesting. In the space of four months after I got here, four other people from a book club I was in, in Nigeria, also moved to the UK. We were all still on the book club group chat, presumably reading that month’s book, so we decided to meet at a restaurant to catch up and discuss the book.
None of us had read the book. But at least we saw one another, talked about what life was like in the UK and ate good food. We posted pictures and the story of our meeting on social media, and it got a lot of engagement and sweet comments, so we decided to do it again.
The next time we met was Thanksgiving, and I invited them over for a different version: Friendsgiving. We had lots of Nigerian food, alcohol, music and games.
After that, we decided to make it a thing. We saw how happy we were around one another, and it made sense to keep hanging out like that.
Before we could hang out again, COVID struck.
Ouch.
We spent the lockdown having Netflix parties and keeping up via videos and texts. When they eased the lockdown, we went on a hike. And then we went on a picnic. And then another person came from Nigeria and we went to visit him in his city. We also went camping in cabins near the lakes for a few days. With each hangout, we increased in numbers because people brought their spouses and friends.
By December 2020, I hosted our Christmas party in my apartment. There were 12 of us, and we ate, danced, drank and slept comfortably.
This is so sweet.
We haven’t stopped hanging out. In June, we’re going to Portugal because there’s going to be a long weekend of public holidays when the queen celebrates her platinum jubilee.
Nigerians who live in Nigeria take for granted the support system around them. In the UK, there’s nothing like that. You don’t have family, and the people here aren’t the friendliest. If you’re on the internet a lot, you’ll hear jokes about how people in the UK mind their business to a fault. It’s true. You can stay here for years and not know what your neighbour looks like.
When I first moved here, I couldn’t have my gas cooker or washing machine delivered to me for weeks because the delivery company wanted me to be at home at a particular time, and I had to be at work. In Nigeria, I’d easily meet a neighbour to receive the items for me. People don’t do that here. I had to buy food and use a laundromat for weeks because I didn’t have anyone to receive my package.
My friendship with these people is the blessing I need to survive in this place. In November 2021, we had Friendsgiving again, and this time, everyone took turns saying what they were grateful for. Almost everyone said they were grateful for the group.
Do you guys live in the same city?
The closest person to me lives one hour away by high-speed train. That’s far. All this hanging out we’re doing takes a lot of planning, scheduling, travelling and commitment, but we do it because it keeps us together.
What’s the plan for the future of this friendship?
We just want to keep hanging out and creating memories. Nothing big. Just people in a hard country finding time to enjoy themselves.
Hey there! My name is Sheriff and I’m the writer of Abroad Life. If you’re a Nigerian and you live or have lived abroad, I would love to talk to you about what that experience feels like and feature you on Abroad Life. All you need to do is fill out this short form, and I’ll be in contact.
If you hear Naira Life and the first thing that comes to your mind is, “Oh my God, that’s the series that calls me poor in seven different languages before I can even start my week”, we wrote this for you. It’s true — some of the stories we share are bougie enough to make you ask if you’re really a child of God.
But a lot of the stories we share are also just stories of regular people — like you and me — living in Nigeria and hustling to get our next urgent ₦2k. Here’s a list of some relatable Naira Life stories that’ll make you feel seen.
1. The #NairaLife of a Rookie Journalist Cracking the Gig Life
The journalist in this Naira Life feels like he should be earning at least two times his ₦220k monthly income. His regrets? Not starting the freelancing life earlier. And he doesn’t even want to be a journalist at the end of the day. He wants to be a football coach — he’s always dreamed of it.
2. The Babe Trying to “Trust the Process” at ₦100k/Month
The subject in this Naira Life can draw, shoot and edit videos, do graphic design, code, model and sell. But she’s torn between learning the ropes in a structured environment and looking for how to earn more.
3. The Marketing Babe With Millionaire Dreams At ₦200k/month
“As much as I say money is not everything, it’s still a major key. Being broke makes me cranky. Even in my relationships, when I tell you I have a problem, I don’t even need to ask you to give me money. You’re just supposed to use your head.”
4.The #NairaLife of a Daddy’s Girl Learning to Survive on Her Own
For the longest time, the babe in this story thought she would live on her dad’s money for the rest of her life. The final year of uni showed her she would have to make some money on her own if she was going to survive. Now, she’s a full-time hustler making between ₦80k and ₦200k a month from three businesses.
5. #NairaLife: Working Law Religiously for Self and Family At ₦225k/Month
A consistent pattern in this #NairaLife is how this 25-year-old lawyer’s black tax increases as her income increases. But she doesn’t mind a lot. So how does she balance her black tax obligations with her hopes and aspirations?
6. I Earn 175k, but I Still Dunno What I Want to Do With My Life
“You know, all my life I haven’t done what I wanted to do. To be honest, I don’t know what I want to do – like something I really enjoy doing. I think I like managing projects though.” — The 28-year-old subject onthis Naira Life.
7. The Lady Who’s Winging It on a ₦171k Salary
The single 26-year-old mum in this Naira Life earns ₦171k, and her biggest struggle is taking care of her kid. But with the support of her family, she shows up every day and does her best.
8. #NairaLife: The Factory Worker Who Went From ₦220k to ₦35k/Month
One thing we loved when we published this story was the support and love from people across social media for the subject. One thing stands out about this guy. Just like the rest of us, he’s determined.
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.
After today’s subject on #NairaLife was fired from her ₦200k/month job in 2020, she found remote work and hasn’t looked back since. Since then, she’s gone from $50k to $93k a year, and she’s only 24.
What’s your earliest memory of money?
As a child, I was hell-bent on making my own money. Even today, my dad talks about how much I loved money. I never had a “baby of the house” phase. I’m the firstborn, and my brother was born shortly after me. I had to learn to share from a young age, so it was just natural to want my own stuff.
From my pocket money in primary school, I bought soft drinks and sold them to my parents and neighbours for twice the price. They patronised me because I was a child. My dad was always excited to see me try to make money. He encouraged me by having conversations about career with me and giving me books to read. I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad when I was nine.
But were things good at home?
I’d say we were a lower-middle-class family for the early stages of my life. My dad was a government contractor and my mum was a civil servant. In 2008, when I was 10, our luck changed. My dad got a super contract that single-handedly moved us to being rich rich. We started travelling abroad for holidays, shopping in malls, getting cars, drivers, etc.
This continued until 2015 when my dad invested a ton of money in an infrastructure-based contract that turned bad. Because it was a government contract, people advised him to withdraw and just leave his money if he didn’t want to risk his life.
Ah.
By this time, I was in my second year in university, getting a ₦50k allowance monthly. Thankfully, I saved about ₦30k of it because I didn’t need to spend so much. As things got worse, my dad had to sell assets and borrow money to pay our school fees. On some months, he couldn’t give us allowances, so I had to survive on my savings from both my allowance and the internships I was doing since I was 14.
You were doing internships at 14?
People have always told me I’m ambitious, but really, I just hate being idle. Internships, when I was younger, were just me trying to figure out what I wanted to do in the future.
I wanted to become a journalist, so I worked at a magazine publishing company owned by my dad’s friend. This was in 2012. It paid ₦5k per week for the four weeks I worked there. I basically sat and watched movies all day every day, except the one time I followed the crew out to take celebrity pictures. It was too stressful running around trying to get pictures. That experience and someone telling me journalists didn’t make much money made me cross journalism off my career to-do list.
In 2013, I got an internship at an airline through another of my dad’s friends. It paid ₦10k for the one month I was there. I got to the office and read a book every day. On some days, I was sent on errands. But in that period, I learnt how organisations work and how people communicate in workplaces.
Then you started university in 2014.
And I was still doing internships. This time, it was with an advertising agency. I picked calls and sat in on different teams’ meetings. That’s where I first learnt about content marketing and strategy. In 2015, I went back to intern there again.
So, back to my family wahala. I didn’t notice the shift from being lower-middle-class to being rich like I noticed the shift from being rich back to being lower-middle-class. I was older and much more aware, and seeing my family suffer made me desire to have money even more.
You’ve been working since you were 14. How are you not burnt out?
Oh, I’ve burnt out a few times. The first time was in 2017. A friend passed away towards the end of my internship and all the work stress I’d been carrying just broke like a dam, so I wasn’t focusing during those last few weeks. I also burnt out quite a bit as time went on. Even last year.
Interesting. Let’s go back to your many jobs.
In 2016/2017, I worked at an experiential marketing agency for my school IT. I absolutely hated it. The stress was too much. Experiential marketing means you have to run around to make the campaign work out. Thankfully, my allowance was still coming in trickles, so I could survive.
Before I graduated in 2018, I spoke at a school career fair, and a man from some big company approached me to hire me. He liked my speech and they were looking for an intern. It was April, and I thought it was going to be a summer internship, so I said I was interested. A few days later, some people from the company called me to interview me and ask when I could resume. That’s how I started working while I was in my final year. I went to the office only on Fridays and my salary was ₦20k.
Let me guess, it was stressful.
Stressful as hell. The salary was only enough for transportation and maybe some food. Many times, I got back to school after they’d locked the school gates because of traffic. I had to make friends with the security guards so I wouldn’t get in trouble.
I eventually stopped working there in October. I went for NYSC camp in November, and a content agency that had also heard me speak at the career fair reached out to hire me for the year of NYSC. I accepted the job and started working there in December, two days after my convocation.
Best in working.
LMAO! By January 2019, my monthly income became at least ₦69,800 per month. NYSC paid ₦19,800, and the job paid ₦50k. My lecturers from my old school also started recommending me to final year and master’s students to proofread their projects. This didn’t happen every month, but I charged ₦25k whenever I got a gig. Sometimes, I got three gigs in a month. Other times, people didn’t pay up. I still have like three people owing me from freelance jobs.
I also moved out of my parents’ house in 2019 because work was far from home. I lived with family. The summary of my 2019 until September was that I was broke. My monthly earnings couldn’t sustain me.
What happened in September 2019?
I finished NYSC and got a raise to ₦200k for the same role. Omo, it was amazing. I started taking Ubers to work and was able to save small amounts from time to time. Things were looking good until March 2020 when I was laid off.
Ouch. COVID?
COVID. The company was losing money, so they laid a bunch of us off. That period was extra depressing for me because I had another job offer from a bank that was going to pay ₦300k. When COVID hit, they stopped replying. I got a ₦300k severance package from my job, and my dad asked me to save it in dollars since I wasn’t doing anything with the money.
I moved back home and moped around for a bit. I had zero savings except for the dollars, no job, and nobody was hiring. By June, I decided to go online to look for freelance work.
What did you find?
Between June and August, I helped a couple of people revamp their LinkedIn pages. I made about $250 in total from all my jobs. But freelance was stressful. I had to pander to impress people and didn’t like it. I wanted an actual job, so I started researching how I could find one.
My goal was to find a content marketing job, but I didn’t even know so much about content marketing. I knew more about content strategy. All the jobs I applied for rejected me. By August, I joined online communities of content marketers through LinkedIn and Slack and took it as a job to participate in conversations very actively. What this helped me do was understand better how to present myself as a content marketer.
Another key thing I learned in this period — which I think anyone looking for remote work should learn — was how to present myself as someone looking for a job, and not as a Nigerian looking for a remote job. All those fancy Canva CVs were thrown out of the window. I focused instead on making my LinkedIn look as professional as possible.
When did you find your first remote job?
September 2020. It paid $400 a week. It was a content marketing role for the sister company of a company that didn’t hire me because they suddenly didn’t have a budget for my role. I was in a one-man team writing, creating images, doing social media, and everything else content-related. It wasn’t ideal, but at least it helped me build a strong portfolio in content marketing.
By November, a content marketing agency reached out to me via LinkedIn. They were looking for a content marketing manager. Their offer was $50k a year. That’s $4,187 a month.
I couldn’t sleep the day the offer came. I’d just gone from earning nothing to earning millions in naira. I hadn’t just secured my first million, I was going to be getting millions every month. I had to adjust my thinking to accommodate the fact that I was making that much money. When I got my first salary, I didn’t even spend from it at first. I was just looking at it in my account.
I left the other company in January 2021 because the stress of working two jobs was too much for me.
Did your parents know how much you were earning?
They’ve known all my salaries. They’d always been there, so there’s no point hiding it from them now that it had increased. Thankfully, they’re not the type of people to overburden me with requests. By 2020, my dad had gotten another nice contract that was steadying the family, and my mum had gotten a promotion and a raise too. So things were good.
Back to your plenty money.
By August, I got a promotion that increased my salary to $55k a year. That’s $4,583 monthly. It wasn’t too much of an increase, but it was something. At this point, I’d gotten used to the money, so I decided to spend it. I converted a part of my parents’ house into a mini apartment for myself. I bought everything — new furniture, a new laptop, a desktop, a new phone, fridge, freezer, everything. By the time I was done, I’d spent about ₦10m. I have zero regrets. It’s super comfortable for me.
My taste also went up. I bought only expensive things — plates, furniture, high-end clothing, etc.
By October, I got another promotion and raise. This time, to $60k a year. $5k a month. When I got that raise, I started feeling super dissatisfied. I knew I could earn so much more elsewhere. These raises were too small to keep me in one place.
Back to LinkedIn?
The next thing was to find a job at an organisation that did their content marketing in-house and not work with an agency. At agencies, you have to work with different clients who have different needs. But on an in-house marketing team, you can focus on the company and avoid the stress of talking to too many people. That same October, I started applying for in-house agency jobs.
One that I applied to got back to me, and by February 2022, I started working with them.
How much do they pay?
$93k a year.
Interesting.
I’m not used to the massive jump yet. In three months, I went from earning $5,000 a month to saving $5,000 a month. Right now, my monthly income is $7,746. $5k goes into investments and savings, and the other $2,746 is spent.
What do you spend your money on?
Let’s also look at your investment portfolio.
I’ve always gravitated towards non-traditional investments like crypto, so I have a lot of that. However, the downturn in the crypto markets made me reevaluate my investment strategy and redirect to more traditional instruments like property and mutual funds. Right now, I have $26,000 in crypto assets, $4,500 in an investment account I’ve just opened, $5,000 in my savings and emergency funds, and land worth ₦2 million. I also now use a financial management company to manage my finances better.
Where do you see yourself in the near future?
My immediate goal is to be making $10k per month in the next year. As I climb higher up the ladder, it’s going to be more difficult to make massive jumps. My dream is to make $150k a year by the time I’m 30, but I’ve realised I dream too small, and my reality always blows my expectations out of the park. So let me keep my hopes at $150k, maybe I’ll be making more than that soon.
What do you want right now but can’t afford?
Hmmm. Nothing. Wait, maybe citizenship to a different country. Maybe my own house. Maybe to move to a better, bigger rented apartment. I’ve seen one in Lagos that I like that’s ₦10m a year, but I don’t want to take it yet. I want to focus on investing and building wealth.
And your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
8.5. It could be a 9. It can’t be a 10 because there’s always room to earn more.
Apart from Lebanon, do you know the other countries whose names start with L?
What country names start with L?
You named #{score}/#{total} countries
You can do better, no?
You named #{score}/#{total} countries
We want to say you tried small, but omo this is actually really good.
You named #{score}/#{total} countries
Look at you, smart person.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
On a trip to the US in 2020, today’s subject on Abroad Life decided he wasn’t returning to Nigeria. Well, the US didn’t work out for him, so he processed his master’s in Canada and japa’d last year. Now he’s there and he has no motivation to come back.
When did you first decide to move abroad?
My mum and I visited the US in December 2020 and somehow, we decided I wasn’t coming back to Nigeria. I’m not a US citizen or anything. One aunty in the US said, “Let him stay now. He has finished university. He can stay with us while he processes his master’s application. There are more opportunities for him here.” And my mum thought it was a great idea.
Did you think it was a great idea?
I didn’t mind. I’ve gone to the US on holiday multiple times, so finding out I was going to be staying behind wasn’t a big deal. I told my two best friends in Nigeria, we laughed about it, and that was all. When we started making more defined plans, we decided I was going to stay with an aunt, work at a warehouse so I wasn’t idle and apply for my master’s. As time went, it became clear that we weren’t going to go ahead with the plan. Schools in the US were too expensive, and the process for applying for university was generally stressful. What we decided to do was return to Nigeria in January and start processing a Canadian school’s application.
What did that feel like?
I had mixed feelings. I was already getting used to the idea of staying abroad, so the change of plans was a bit unnerving.
On the other hand, I got to see my friends and spend time with them again before leaving. I also got to spend time with my parents. I’m an only child, so I’m pretty sure they were already missing me before I left.
When did you eventually leave?
October 2021. At some point, I was scared I wasn’t going anymore. I waited for my visa for about four months. I honestly think it’s things like these that make Nigerians hide their travel plans from friends and family. Imagine I’d told everyone I was traveling and the visa eventually didn’t come. Thankfully, I’d told only my two best friends. Other people knew when I was on the plane or when I’d gotten to Canada.
Where in Canada did you move to?
Ontario.
What do people there think about Drake?
I’m more curious about what they think about Kizz Daniel. What’s my business with Drake?
LMAO! What do they think about Kizz Daniel?
I wouldn’t know. I’ve been indoors almost throughout my stay here. I haven’t socialised one bit. My school is online, and I live alone. I studied communications in my undergrad in Nigeria, and I’m here to study computer science as I try to pivot into tech, so school is also super difficult. I don’t have time to go out. All I do is work.
Expectation vs reality: Canada edition.
Because I’ve been to the US multiple times, I didn’t expect Canada to be any different. In my opinion, they’re almost the same — same language, people, cultures, e.t.c. My predictions were correct. The only thing I’ve noticed is that food, clothes and other everyday things are more expensive here than in the US.
A lot of people have told me recently that they get really lonely abroad.
I don’t even have the time to be lonely. I’m occupied with classes and tasks and assignments all the time. I also talk to my friends in Nigeria pretty frequently, so I can’t get lonely. The only person I really miss is my mum. Since I got here in October, there’s been only one day where I didn’t speak with her. The next day we spoke after that, it felt awkward — like I hadn’t spoken to her in ages. I can’t go a day without talking to her now.
You seem satisfied with things the way they are.
I am. There’s not so much I’d be doing differently. I’m not the type of person to go out for parties or to hang out with people. Staying at home and focusing on school is how I imagined I’d be spending my time in Canada and that’s what I’m doing.
I’ve been thinking of signing up to play football occasionally, so I can maintain my fitness, but that’s pretty much the only thing I’d change.
That’s great—
Oh, and I’m looking for a job. Once I start making my own money, I want to buy mics and cameras so I can start a podcast and a YouTube channel where I talk about football.
Tell me about your favourite part of being in Canada so far.
It’s the fact that I don’t have to worry about things like electricity and good roads. I can decide to cross and all the cars on the road would wait for me.
And your least favourite part?
The winter cold. It’s unbearable.
What’s the plan for after master’s?
It’s to stay o. My mum and dad are thinking of coming to stay here too, so we’ll just continue our family here. As I’ve left Nigeria, I’ve left forever. I’ll still visit, but I’m now one of those IJGB people that just go and come from time to time.
I’m in my new dispensation.
Hey there! My name is Sheriff and I’m the writer of Abroad Life. If you’re a Nigerian and you live or have lived abroad, I would love to talk to you about what that experience feels like and feature you on Abroad Life. All you need to do is fill out this short form, and I’ll be in contact.
Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
If you’re used to poking your nose in Nigerian men’s businesses and asking about their marriage plans, you’ve probably heard something like, “Omo, I don’t have money yet o.” Or, “I’m looking for money first.” But what is “money” to these men?
Well, these five Nigerian men tell us how much money they need to have before they can think of marriage.
1. “If I don’t have $500k in investments, no marriage for me.”
— Seriki*, 23
At this point, I’m not sure I want to get married because I don’t trust women. However, if someone gets my mumu button, I’m going to have to go all the way for her. I’m a content writer and I currently earn ₦930k monthly. Before I get married, I have to be earning at least $5,000 monthly. I also have to have my own house, at least one car, and at least $10k in savings.
My crypto and other investments need to be at about $500k.
I need to be able to treat my wife like the queen she is. I want to get her anything she wants and fly her wherever. If she gets pregnant, I want to stop working for those nine months and just be there with her. You need a big bank for things like this, and I think I’m going to be able to achieve these goals in seven to ten years.
2. “Let me japa first.”
— Wale* , 28
I currently earn ₦400k as a product manager, but before I think of marriage, I want to japa. That’s my immediate goal for this year. I have a babe I’m talking to, but she’s currently in Canada. When I go and meet her, we can think about marriage. I don’t have any specific figures for how much I need to be earning or how much I need to have in savings or investments. I just know that I need to look at my career and be sure I have a five-year projection set. If I’m earning ₦400k now, I should be doing better numbers very soon. Maybe I’ll get married in two years. By then, I should be able to take care of my family.
3. “If I have my own house and I make ₦1.5m, I can marry.”
— Thanos*, 22
I hate the concept of rent, so the major financial benchmark for me before getting married is that I need to have my own house. Apart from that, I need to be earning at least ₦1.5m because Nigeria is hard and taking care of a family is expensive, although I want my wife to match my salary, and I don’t want kids. For the money part, I think I can achieve it in two to five years if I take myself seriously. For the house, omo, the easiest way I can get a house is if my parents give me one of their houses. But right now, they’re in the phase where they’re trying to make me independent and learn some life lessons. Excuse me sir, I don’t want to learn lessons through hardship. I want a soft life, please.
If they eventually don’t give me a house, I believe I can get a house myself in five years. Unrealistic, yeah. But I like setting unrealistic goals so I can at least hit somewhere close to it, if not the goal exactly.
4. “Omo, consistent ₦300k is enough for me.”
— Manny*, 27
If I make ₦300k consistently for a year, I’ll get married. Right now, on a very good month, I make ₦200k as a freelance video editor. If that increases to ₦300k and I start some side businesses, I can get married.
5. “I can get married on my current ₦500k salary.”
— Pemi*, 32
I can get married on my current salary — ₦500k. My girlfriend makes money too. I believe my salary is going to increase really well in the next couple of years, so yeah, marriage is probably not that far for me. I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe I’ll pop the question soon, who knows? I have a car, and while I still stay with my parents, I have about ₦3m in savings. I’m sure my babe and I can contribute money to rent an apartment and furnish it.
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.
In 2020, today’s subject on #NairaLife left his job as a social media manager to sell spare parts in Gabon. Now he can afford almost anything he wants and he has no regard for money.
Let’s start with your earliest memory of money.
For a long time in my life, I felt a strong sense of inadequacy whenever money was concerned. It started when I was a kid. My parents had money, but my mates at school just seemed to have it better than me. They went on holidays to London and the US, but the only holidays I had were to Gabon, Angola and Cote D’Ivoire.
Why those countries?
My dad is the typical Igbo businessman that sells spare parts. He also has land, apartments and halls for rent. His business is spread across Nigeria and those other countries. It was only when I went on holiday to these countries and got a CFA 100k shopping allowance that I had money to spend on clothes, shoes and phones.
It didn’t bother me too much that I didn’t have money though. As long as I bought all the essentials during my holiday, I was satisfied.
The first time I ever tried to make money by myself was in 2006 when I was 18. I’d just finished secondary school and I saw that unlike the kids on Lagos Island, the kids in my area didn’t have a party to celebrate the end of secondary school. A friend and I organised a party and I made about ₦50k from tickets.
A businessman.
The feeling of inadequacy returned again in university when I was getting a ₦20k monthly allowance when my friends were getting ₦50k and above. But I tried not to focus on it too much. I could actually survive on ₦20k, so there was no need to be dissatisfied.
After university, I went to Bayelsa for service in January 2012. My parents gave me ₦270k to survive the year, NYSC paid ₦19k monthly and my PPA paid ₦5k. By May, my ₦270k had finished. I had to survive on ₦24k, feeding myself.
Wait, what job was paying you ₦5k?
I worked at a real estate company. Throughout the year, we didn’t have one client. For some months, they didn’t even pay me. My major tasks there were to clean my boss’ shoes, fetch water and wash plates in the office.
Sometime in the middle of NYSC, The Avengers came out. There was no cinema in Bayelsa, so my friends and I took a road trip to Port Harcourt to see the movie. Because the trip was fun, the girl I was talking to and I planned to take another interstate trip. This time, to Abuja. She wanted to attend a law conference in October.
At that time, flights to Abuja cost about ₦15k, so if I was going to pay for the both of us, pay for hotels and small enjoyment, I would need about ₦60k. Where would I find ₦60k in the next few months?
Yes, where?
The CDS I was in was called the Editorial Board. We spoke on the radio once a month, and because I talk a lot, one of the women at the radio station started putting me on her own show. I knew I was good at stuff like that. So I wrote a proposal with two shows — one music show and one game show — and took it to the station. My plan was to make some money from sponsors or ads or whatever. They accepted the music show, and I did it for three months. Guess how much I made?
₦200k?
₦0. The babe went to Abuja on her own. You win some, you lose some.
I returned to Lagos in December 2012 and just went to chill in Ivory Coast and Angola. By March, I got back and started looking for a job. Although I studied economics, working in media just seemed like the natural thing for me. I found a job at an entertainment company doing social media and digital PR. It paid ₦40k monthly. Again, I started feeling inadequate. My mates and friends were earning ₦150k.
I couldn’t do anything with ₦40k. If I tried to spend that money on fuelling my Benz alone, it wouldn’t be enough.
You had a Benz?
My mum gave me her Benz when I finished university. Imagine driving a Benz and earning ₦40k while your bosses are driving Corollas. On the days when I didn’t have any money, I jumped buses sha.
After about a year and a half, my salary increased to ₦100k, and that’s what it was until 2015 when I left the company.
Why did you leave?
I decided to freelance. The company started owing salaries, and my bosses made it a point of note that we needed to bring business to the company for us to be profitable. I found a big restaurant in Lagos, made a cold call to them and pitched for us to become their social media and PR managers. They accepted, and I was the one handling their pages. A few months later, I left the company and they left with me. That’s how I started freelancing.
How much did freelancing pay?
With just the restaurant, I was making ₦300k monthly. From time to time, I got other side gigs as well. After freelancing for about a year, I applied for and got a social media job with a media production company. It paid ₦250k. It was in 2016 when I started making money from two jobs that the feeling of inadequacy left for the first time. My monthly income was over ₦500k. This continued until 2017 when I left freelancing because I was tired from overworking, and it was showing in the quality of my work.
By then, I had enough money to buy my own car for ₦1.7m and to rent an apartment on the island for ₦600k. I’d technically become a Lagos big boy. I could buy clothes, shoes and spend money on women. By 2018, my salary increased to ₦350k
It was also during this period I discovered the joy of giving people money.
Tell me about it.
When I was a child, my uncle visited one time and gave me ₦3k. I couldn’t contain my excitement. When I started making money, I just always found someone in need to give money to. If I can better the experience of someone I meet, I do it. When I hear or see people need help in my immediate environment or on Twitter, I help in any way I can. Sometimes, it’s waiters that I give ₦5k tips for no reason or CFA 10k if I’m in Gabon.
Are you still at your production company job?
Nope, I live in Gabon now. My dad has been looking for someone to take over the family business as he and my uncle get older. They tried to do the regular Igbo apprenticeship thing, but the people they hired just saw it as an opportunity to come, enrich themselves and leave. They didn’t want to stay in the long run.
In 2017, my dad told me that he needed me to take over the family business. At first, I resisted, because I have my entire life ahead of me. But as time went on, I became more open to the idea.
From August to December 2018, I came to stay in Gabon for three months to sort a few things out. I didn’t leave the job though. I worked remotely. In January 2019, I did three weeks in Angola. And then in June, I spent some time in Gabon again.
June 2019 was the first time I had a problem with my boss because my absence made me unable to deliver on some tasks. That was when I knew I had to leave and focus on the family business. In January 2020, I left the company and moved to Gabon.
How’s that been?
Not bad. I don’t have a salary, but I take home about ₦1m monthly for myself. In 2020, I did some freelance work that paid me about ₦2m for a few months. I bought a PlayStation 4 and sent the rest to people who needed it in Nigeria. COVID was outside and people in Nigeria needed money more than I did.
Nowadays, whenever somebody gives me money in naira, I give the money out. It doesn’t make sense to keep naira in my Nigerian bank accounts, and there’s always someone who needs money.
What does this mean for your finances?
When I convert my CFA savings to naira, it’s about ₦4m. I know I should be saving more, but I don’t know how to. I can afford almost anything I want. My spending habits also probably come from the fact that I know where my next paycheck is coming from. People are always going to need spare parts and real estate.
I’m now at a point in my life where I have no regard or value for money. Money is placed on too high a pedestal in society, and it’s the cause of a lot of man’s problems. So, I don’t acknowledge it too much or try to hold on to it.
Let’s break down your monthly expenses.
Is there something you want, but can’t afford right now?
Trips. If I had to travel, I’d have to budget for a few months. For example, I want to come to Lagos for four weeks this year. I’d need about ₦3m for hotels, gifts for people, drinks, etc.
What’s your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
7. I’m pretty satisfied. The three points I took off the score are just because I know I should be handling money better. Maybe I’ll go on a philanthropy break soon, who knows?
