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  • The topic of how young Nigerians navigate romantic relationships with their earnings is a minefield of hot takes. In Love Currency, we get into what relationships across income brackets look like in different cities.

    How long have you been married?

    It’ll be 10 years in November.

    Let’s talk about the beginning. How did you both meet?

    We met about three months after I moved to Lagos from Akure in 2013. I was squatting with a friend in his one-room apartment, and Happiness was his neighbour. She came to my friend’s house  to charge her phone one day, and I was immediately attracted to her. I kept thinking, “This babe is too fresh.”

    After she left, I confirmed that there was nothing between her and my friend, and when he gave the go-ahead, I began pursuing her. It was funny — I didn’t have a job or a house, but I was chasing a woman. 

    Haha. How did you convince her to “gree for you”?

    I had a sweet mouth, or maybe she just liked me. While toasting her, I made it clear that while I didn’t have money, I came to Lagos to hustle and didn’t plan to be broke for long. 

    Happiness was — and still is — really understanding. My airtime once finished on a call when I was still toasting her. When I told her why the call ended the next day, she just said, “Ehya. No wahala.” I thought she’d be angry. 

    I wasn’t even looking at a long-term relationship because I wasn’t ready to support a girlfriend or even a family. But Happiness was so considerate and thoughtful. She didn’t bill me and sometimes even cooked food for me and my friend. Me, I was surprised. How would someone I haven’t bought anything for be cooking for me? I didn’t even know when I fell in love, but I knew I was at my last bus stop. 

    So, when I got a ₦35k/month teaching job a month after we started dating, I started seriously thinking about marriage.

    Did you think you were financially ready for a home?

    I wasn’t, but I also didn’t want her to go. Happiness is two years older than me, and when we started talking, she told me about the pressure she was under to get married. She was 29, and her two younger sisters were already married. I knew she’d find someone else if I didn’t show my seriousness. 

    Also, Happiness had a job, so it’s not like we’d rely only on my ₦35k. She was a secretary and earned ₦60k. We figured we’d survive one way or another, so we got married in 2014 and moved into her apartment.

    How did you handle wedding expenses?

    The wedding was a small affair. We went to the registry and had a small traditional ceremony in my in-laws’ parlour.

    Happiness’ parents initially protested. They thought it was an insult for their first daughter to have a small wedding ceremony. But trust my wife. She asked them to pick one: a small wedding or for their child to remain single. Everybody kept quiet.  

    See now, we didn’t have a big wedding, but we’ve stayed together for 10 years and now have three children. The size of the wedding doesn’t mean anything.

    True that. What are both of your finances like these days? 

    My wife’s brother helped me get a local government job in 2016, and I now earn ₦78k. However, I also get free money  — up to ₦15k monthly when a politician shares money at the office or when my office (I work in sanitation) goes on raids at the market.

    My wife left her corporate job after we had our third boy in 2022. It was stressful for her to handle the job with the kids. So, she’s a hairdresser now. During the long holidays, she also organises lessons for children in our area. 

    The woman is really trying. Our boys are a handful, and it’s tough caring for them and trying to do anything else, but she does it. I just want to make plenty money so I can spoil her well, and she can relax at home. But we’re just managing the way we can for now.

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    But how do you spoil her now? Is there a romance budget?

    Ah. Did my wife send you? She always complains that I’m not romantic. She’s not wrong; my own spoiling doesn’t pass buying her ₦3k shawarma once or twice a month. Then I buy her a dress or scarf for her birthday. Sometimes, I send her ₦5k here and there when I get free money from the office. 

    I think she’ll think I’m more romantic when I start sending her more money. She’s always extra happy when I send her random money. I recently promised her I’d be more romantic, so I’ll try to dash her money more. Having any extra money on a ₦78k salary is difficult, but she deserves it.

    That’s sweet. What kind of money conversations do you have with your wife?

    We’re always talking about money — how much my children’s school said we should bring for one thing, how much NEPA sent us for the electricity bill, feeding costs, etc. Tinubu has turned most of these conversations into complaining sessions. 

    For example, my wife will bring one yam tuber and ask me to guess how much it cost. When I guess an amount, she tells me to multiply it by 3 or 5, and we start complaining about how expensive things are. 

    Things are hard o. I’m sure my wife even adds her own money to what I give her for food because there’s no way the ₦50k I give her monthly for food does anything.

    I can relate. Has money ever caused conflict between you two?

    I can’t remember. Of course, we argue, but money is hardly a topic. My wife doesn’t complain about whether the money I dropped is enough or not. I told you she’s understanding. 

    I also don’t hide things from her. A senior colleague at the office always says that women are more demanding when they don’t know how much you have. My wife knows what I have, so she collects it like that. But I still wish to do more for her.

    What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?

    One day, I hope to transfer to work with the federal government so I can earn more. One of the first things I’ll do is to open a shop for my wife. I’m also considering taking a loan to buy a vehicle I can use as a cab when I’m less busy at work. In a few years, our older boys will be ready for secondary school, and I don’t want them to attend an anyhow school. I really just want a future where we can complain less and enjoy our lives.

    Interested in talking about how money moves in your relationship? If yes, click here.

    *Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.

    READ THIS NEXT: The Ibadan Lover Girl Spoiling Her Boyfriend With a ₦120k/Month Salary

  • 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.

    The She Tank and BellaNaija are set to release a groundbreaking film as part of their 2024 Women’s Economic Power Campaign titled #HerMoneyHerPower. The film showcases real stories of women who have used their economic power to lift themselves and those around them, inspiring a younger generation to follow suit. Click here to find out more about the #HerMoneyHerPower campaign.

    NairaLife #294 bio

    Let’s start with your earliest memory of money. Do you remember that?

    I remember looking forward to every Eid celebration because my mum made me take food to our neighbours, who always gave me money in return. One neighbour always dropped at least ₦500. That was serious money to an 8-year-old. My siblings knew about his generosity, and we used to fight to deliver food to him. I often made at least ₦1k at the end of the day from these food runs.

    I saved my money to buy bangers in December, sneaking out of the house to light them with my siblings. Fun times.

    Your mum never asked to “keep the money for you”?

    She tried once, but my dad changed it for her. My mum was the frugal parent who always tried to manage money, but my dad was the jaiye jaiye type. The only arguments they had around us were on minor money matters. 

    My dad didn’t understand how he could be a major car dealer, and his wife would make a case for Nigerian cornflakes over a foreign brand to reduce costs. So when she tried to take the money my siblings and I made, he said, “Haba. Let these children be.”

    Thank God for daddy

    Haha, thank God. My dad tried his best to spoil us as much as my mum allowed. My mum was a stay-at-home mum, so she often “intercepted” any gift from my dad that she considered extravagant.

    For example, my dad gifted me an iPad after I passed JAMB in 2009. He thought it’d be great for uni, but my mum saw it as the weapon that’d push me into waywardness and a desire for expensive things. She seized that iPad and made me use a small Android phone instead. I was so angry. If I made my own money, would anyone stop me from getting nice things?

    Speaking of money, when was the first time you worked for it?

    2011. I started selling panty liners to my coursemates and hostel mates when I was in second year in uni. I got the idea from my cousin, who’d signed up to a business networking company that manufactured health and lifestyle products.

    As a member, she had access to the products and sold them in her university. She told me about it because she wanted me to sign up under her, but I didn’t have the strength to convince people to join anything. We just settled on her sending some of the products my way.

    I can’t remember every detail, but I made ₦800 in profit on every sale. The panty liners were a hit, and it was the first time I realised I knew how to convince people they needed something. 

    I sold the products for almost two years and made at least ₦30k in profit monthly. Add that to the ₦20k I got from home as a monthly allowance, and I was a pretty comfortable student. 

    Nice. What were your expenses like?

    The only thing I remember using the money for was an iPhone. I saved heavily through the year and bought the iPhone 5 in 2013. I think it had just come out and cost around ₦150k. Looking back now, spending all my money on one phone may have been foolish, but it was a reward for all my hard work.

    That same year, I did a three-month undergraduate internship at a production company. They only paid a ₦5k stipend, and I’d already zeroed my mind that I wouldn’t show up every day. ₦5k didn’t even cover my transportation for two weeks, not to talk for a month. But I changed my mind after my first two weeks at the company.

    Why?

    My supervisor was part of the sales team, and she intrigued me. She was so well-spoken and self-assured, it was like looking at a vision of what I wanted to be in the future. I decided there that I wanted to work in sales. 

    It’s dumb, but I somehow equated being confident with working in sales, and I wanted that. My supervisor also talked about meeting targets, but I figured selling wasn’t an issue for me. I mean, didn’t I sell out panty liners in school? Plus, she also got commissions for meeting targets, and the idea of extra money outside salary sounded good to me.

    I didn’t get into sales immediately after I finished uni, though. I taught for a while when NYSC posted me to a secondary school in 2015.

    Did you like teaching?

    Oddly, I did. I taught basic science, and I really vibed with my students. 

    The school paid me ₦10k monthly in addition to the ₦19,800 NYSC stipend. The job also came with free accommodation at the school’s sick bay, so I was pretty much chilling with my income. I also saved a bit. I finished the service year in 2016 with ₦120k in my savings. I didn’t have any plan for it; I just thought it was nice to keep money aside.

    What happened next?

    I toyed with the idea of staying back at the school to teach full-time. But they offered me ₦20k/month and the idea disappeared fast. I couldn’t imagine enduring five years of uni to come and be earning ₦20k. 

    I spoke to my brother about looking for a job and he connected me to a friend who worked at a management consulting firm. I applied, did the interviews and got employed as a business development executive. My starting salary was ₦85k, with the option of commissions if I brought in at least 12 new deals monthly. I usually averaged 6-8 monthly and even that was impressive. I was something like a superstar at work.

    After working there for a year, I was promoted to senior bizdev executive, and my salary increased to ₦120k. I’d been living with my parents since I returned home from NYSC, and after my promotion, I decided it was time for adult life. My mum kicked against it, but she calmed down after I pointed out that our house was far from my workplace. It wasn’t that far; I just wanted to leave.

    Tired of living at home, eh?

    Yes. I just wanted freedom. My mum had started to pocket-watch me, and it didn’t make sense to explain why I bought a new dress or listen to lectures about saving money whenever she saw me with a new shoe. I wasn’t spending frivolously; I just had to constantly update my wardrobe because my job involved meeting people, but my mum thought I was being wasteful. It was tiring.

    How did househunting go?

    Fortunately, it was pretty stress-free. I paid ₦10k to an agent my friend introduced me to, and we found the perfect apartment within two weeks. 

    It was a ₦400k/year apartment, but I lied to my parents that it was only ₦250k so they wouldn’t complain about it being too expensive. My dad gave me ₦300k, I made up the balance and moved in around 2018.

    Living alone wasn’t as easy as I thought. Suddenly I had to start caring when a light bulb stopped working and thinking about what I’d eat for the week. But I made it work. It just meant I had to budget seriously and cut down on some needs.

    For example, I learned to shop thrifted clothes rather than only purchasing overpriced boutique items. And I actually found gems in thrifted clothes o… unique pieces that no one would’ve guessed weren’t new after I washed and properly ironed them.

    I’m always up for thrift praise. Tell me more about how you handled budgeting 

    I created a simple spreadsheet where I tracked my proposed expenditure for a month versus what I actually spent that month. 

    I still use the same method to track expenses today, and it’s been very helpful. There’s no thinking like, “Ah, how did I spend money this month?” because it’s literally there in black and white. It’s also helped me become more intentional with saving.

    I’ve saved at least 40% of my income since I got another raise to ₦200k in 2019. Once I input the salary into the spreadsheet, it automatically calculates the 40%, and I send that amount to a separate account. Over the years, my savings have come in handy for emergencies and major projects. Like when my dad fell ill and passed in 2020, I used my savings to handle my share of the funeral expenses. 

    I’m sorry about your dad

    It’s fine. I often wish he’d stayed alive for at least another year; 2021 was my big break, and I’d have loved to spoil him a little. I landed a sales manager role at a fintech company and went from earning ₦200k to ₦750k from one job change. 

    That’s more than three times your previous salary. How did that feel?

    It felt like I was finally seeing the benefit of all my hard work. I was still going to be pursuing clients up and down like I did at my previous job, but the fintech job came with a 7% commission on every deal I landed in a specific category. 

    I’m still at the job, and my salary has increased over the years to ₦1.2m. With commissions, that’s often between ₦1.8m and ₦2m.

    That’s not bad at all

    It’s not. I know I’m more privileged than most, and I’m fortunate enough to afford to live below my means. My mum and siblings don’t bill me, so my primary responsibility is myself. But I’ve been battling a deep sense of tiredness and lack of motivation since late last year. 

    At first, I thought it was a desire to make more money, so I began applying for other jobs,  but when I got invited for interviews, I ghosted them. I’ve also gone on leave at work a couple of times, but I returned even more burnt out than when I left. I have a theory for why I feel this way.

    What’s that?

    I’ve worked nonstop since 2015, and it’s starting to catch up with me. Nowadays, I find myself increasingly disillusioned with the need to work and gather money. Like, is the point of my life to go from one meeting to the next trying to upsell people and pretend I’m passionate about one fintech product or the other? 

    To be honest, I’m considering quitting my job and taking an indefinite sabbatical to travel around Africa and see if I can drum up the passion to do anything again. Going on leave didn’t work because leave had an end date, and I found myself becoming increasingly anxious as the time to resume work grew closer. An indefinite sabbatical may be just what I need to get my head in the right place.

    Have you considered how you’d survive without a job?

    I think about that every day, and it’s the reason I haven’t dropped everything to sleep on a beach somewhere. 

    I have about ₦15m in savings right now—spread out across my mutual funds and dollar savings—but I know that’s nowhere close to sufficient to fund my travel dreams or keep me comfortably unemployed for long. My rent alone is ₦1.5m/year. It was ₦800k when I got it in 2022, but my Lagos landlord did what he knows best and increased it this year.

    I’ll need a safety net of at least ₦45m to plan an indefinite sabbatical without worrying about getting a job when I’m ready to work again. The way it’s looking now, I may only be able to achieve that by 2027, assuming I have no major expenses and manage to drastically reduce my living expenses or get an impressive pay rise. 2027 is still far away, but it’s the only hope I have right now. Let’s see if I can last that long.

    You mentioned living expenses. What does that look like in a typical month?

    Nairalife #294 monthly expenses

    My dad gifted me a Toyota Camry car in 2020, and that car behaves like an evil spirit. I’m constantly repairing one thing or the other. I can afford to sell it and buy another, but that’ll really eat into my savings and push my sabbatical plans even further. On the days I can’t manage the car, I just take cabs.

    How has your income growth over the years impacted your perspective on money?

    I used to consider money an all-important thing when I started my career, but now that I make more, I see that it’s essentially just a means to an end.

    Don’t get me wrong. I still like money and know how important it is — I wouldn’t be overthinking quitting if I didn’t — but it’s not a yardstick for happiness. It’s good to have money, but it’s not the most important thing. One can have millions of dollars and still not feel fulfilled. 

    Interesting. Do you think you’d return to sales if you eventually went on a sabbatical?

    I honestly don’t know. It’s been a while since I felt the rush of closing a deal that made me love my job. If that returns after my break, I might continue. If not, maybe I’ll just start dancing on TikTok. 

    Haha. What’s the last thing you bought that made you happy?

    A ₦500k wig I bought last week. I still randomly wear the wig around the house just to admire myself, haha. I can’t wait to install it.

    How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

    7. I’m in a good place financially. But mentally? That’s most likely a 3.

    If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

    Yes, I want to do a Naira Life!

    Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

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  • Kike* (27) is no stranger to the loan system. She’s been at it since she took her first ₦50k loan in 2019. It’s 2024, and she just unlocked a whole new risk level — taking out almost ₦80m in student loans to pursue an MBA. How’s that going?

    As told to Boluwatife

    I took my first loan in 2019. I was fresh out of university, earning ₦67k at my graduate trainee job, and shouldn’t have had money problems, especially since I had minimal financial responsibilities. Still, I somehow found myself on the loan path. Loan debt and I have been together ever since.

    A little backstory: I didn’t exactly grow up with money. My dad wasn’t in the picture often, and my mum supported the family with her petty trading business. My mum’s a private person. Even though things weren’t great, my mum hardly talked about our financial limitations or sought help from people. She just did what she could, which was mostly enough to get us by.

    I got by in university, even though I only received a ₦15k monthly allowance. I also got by during NYSC. In addition to the government’s ₦19,800 stipend, I received an extra ₦20k salary from the school I taught at for my PPA. Things were going pretty well until I landed that graduate trainee job at a Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company in 2019.

    I’m not sure why my employer even tagged it “graduate trainee” because we were more like distributor managers. In addition to selling products to distributors and meeting sales targets, I also had to manage distributors and field executives, coordinate the van drivers, and ensure they had all the tools to work.

    Most of the time, I spent out of pocket to repair one van here and one keke napep there. I even sometimes gave these drivers transport money just so there wouldn’t be distribution delays which would affect my targets. My salary wasn’t enough to cover those extra expenses, and that’s when I turned to loans. The first one was a ₦50k loan to float me until my salary came at the end of the month.

    Looking back, I could’ve asked my family for help, but I was ashamed. I was a first-class graduate hustling in the market to sell FMCG products, and felt like a let-down. Also, my siblings most likely wouldn’t have given me a loan. My mum taught us not to ask for money and to stay contented with what we had. So, it would’ve been a whole thing trying to explain why I needed money.

    The “Don’t ask” mentality extended to my friendships and relationships; I just had to sort out my needs myself, even if it meant taking loans.

    In 2020, I left the FMCG for a bank job, and my salary bumped up to ₦75k for the three-month training school period. After training school, my salary increased to ₦300k. It was the first time I ever earned enough to save money. 

    The pandemic also hit during that period, and I worked from home for a couple of months. Since I didn’t have to spend on transportation, I could afford to keep money aside and even dabbled in stocks here and there.

    But then the lockdown lifted, and after navigating Lagos Island traffic for several months, I realised I needed to get an apartment closer to my workplace. So, I took another ₦300k loan to meet the ₦950k rent I needed for a bed space in an apartment in Lekki.

    To be honest, I shouldn’t have needed that loan. It’s just that my lifestyle sort of changed with the higher salary. I went from managing to prioritising my comfort, taking cab rides, and just generally having a good time. I still had to spend money on feeding, utility bills, and basic living expenses. So, though I was getting a decent chunk of money, I often returned to broke levels.

    In 2021, I decided to learn software development. I thought it would be a good opportunity to earn extra money while working remotely. I needed a laptop for that, so I took another loan and got a Mackbook for ₦730k. I learned HTML and CSS for a bit, but I never got to finish my classes as I was almost always busy with work.

    A few months after getting the laptop, I took another loan for eye surgery. That one cost ₦2m. By then, loans had become really accessible to me. I worked in a bank, so it was very easy to get them. I tried to only take loans for major projects, though. It was just a way to get quick financing. 

    Of course, the downside was that I couldn’t really stop taking the loans. With the monthly repayments and the interest rates, I rarely got my entire salary at the end of the month. 

    I started dreaming about japa in 2023. Actually, the dream came about a year before that. I wanted to explore my career potential and increase my earning power, so I decided to get an MBA in the UK. I didn’t have the money, but somehow, I knew the money would come. I just needed to get admission, secure a visa and leave Nigeria, and the rest would fall into place.

    I got admission in 2023 and needed to pay a £2500 deposit. At the time, a pound was about ₦795, but everyone kept predicting the exchange rate would go down, so I delayed payment by about six months. When I eventually paid, the exchange rate had increased to ₦1k+. I ultimately paid almost ₦3m, which was like the entirety of my savings. 

    Next were visas and flight fees. I took a ₦2.5m loan from my bank in July and got about ₦2m in financial support from my family and friends — I haven’t repaid the bank loan. In total, I spent almost ₦7m on japa and related expenses and moved to the UK in September 2024.

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    At this point, you’re probably wondering how I’m funding school fees. Well, I took a student loan. I found a private company that offered the loan while watching YouTube videos about japa. This was just around the time I secured admission. I only needed to provide proof of admission, and I got the £36k loan (almost ₦80m).

    This is how it works: The company pays the balance of my school fees, which is about £24k+. Then, they’ll give me a £10k living allowance for my one-year study — the company will pay this throughout my study in stipends. They’ll also keep £1,400 for administrative charges.

    My MBA program will end in September 2025, and I’m supposed to have gotten a job by January 2026 so I can start repaying at least £400/month. The repayment should span 11 years. I’ll be repaying about £70k (with interest) and should be free by 2037. The amount and repayment time will increase if I miss any payment. 

    Honestly, I know it’s a big gamble, but I’m willing to bet on myself. I’m not worried about the loan because I’m not in the UK to play. Aside from the stipends from the loan company, I don’t have any income right now, but I intend to find part-time jobs and internships as soon as I can. It would be even better if I could get these opportunities at top companies because they offer students as much as £20k/year. 

    I’m trying to avoid the temptation to apply for care jobs or other menial jobs here in the UK. They’ll pay well, but I need jobs in my field of study to increase my career prospects after I get my degree or even meet people who could form a vital part of my network.

    After all this, the goal is to become a consultant for financial institutions. I hear they earn up to £100k/year. I’m keeping my options open, though. Who knows if I’ll find better career opportunities?

    I’m trying to remain as positive as possible, considering the circumstances. I’m neck-deep in debt right now and it’s easy to worry, but I won’t do that. I just need to focus on achieving my goals. Maybe then I’ll finally be comfortable enough not to even think about taking a loan.

    *Name has been changed for the sake of anonymity.

    NEXT READ: My Family Resents Me for Becoming the Breadwinner After My Parents Retired

  • The topic of how young Nigerians navigate romantic relationships with their earnings is a minefield of hot takes. In Love Currency, we get into what relationships across income brackets look like in different cities.

    How long have you been in your relationship?

    Four years. It’s my longest relationship, and that’s how I know he’s the one. I used to get bored easily in relationships.

    So, how did y’all meet?

    We met at NYSC orientation camp. He was in the process of “toasting” me when the lockdown happened, and the government sent all the corps members home. We’d already exchanged numbers, so we started talking every day about mundane things. Stuff like me complaining about being unable to go out to braid my hair or about how tired I was of eating beans —the only foodstuff I had at home. 

    We officially began dating when movement restrictions started to ease up gradually. I think I even fell in love before that. My boyfriend’s a nurse, and one of the perks of his job was free movement despite the curfew. The man actually used that perk to bring me rice and some other food items even before I agreed to date him because I complained about beans. Why won’t I say yes to that kind of intentionality?

    Haha, love it. Were you also working during this period?

    My PPA was a secondary school, but physical classes were suspended, and the management didn’t really involve corps members in the online classes they tried to hold. So, I mostly slept at home. My only income was the ₦33k NYSC stipend.

    Was your boyfriend’s financial situation any better?

    Oh yes. He made about ₦100k from the hospital, apart from the ₦33k NYSC stipend. He also received a hazard allowance because of the pandemic, but I can’t remember how much it was.

    He was my safety net during service year. I couldn’t really call home for money because my parents had my siblings to take care of, and I wanted to be independent. My boyfriend gave me at least ₦20k monthly, paid for dates, and got me random teddy bears and chocolate gifts for being a correct babe. 

    We moved in together halfway into service year. By then, we’d been dating for about four months. The love was “sweeting” us, and we wanted to spend every waking moment together. I only stayed eight months before moving out.

    What happened?

    We started having friction. I noticed he wasn’t putting as much effort into “dating” me as he did before. There were no more random gifts and dates. He even stopped the girlfriend allowance because he reasoned that he gave me ₦10k weekly to cook at home.

    I complained about the changes, which led to some disagreements. I felt like I was just giving sex and doing chores like a housewife while he was outside doing his thing. We eventually decided to live apart and work on our relationship more before cohabiting again. 

    So, I moved out in 2021 after NYSC, and he gave me ₦220k to support the ₦300k I needed for rent and the extra agent charges. I also got a job as a personal assistant at a recruiting firm and began earning ₦80k/month that same year. 

    Did that change how money worked in your relationship?

    It did. My boyfriend had provided for me for so long, and it was only fair for me to start reciprocating. He still sent me money and bought me stuff, but I began making more of an effort. I bought him a pair of ₦50k shoes for his birthday in 2021. I had to actively plan for that gift because my salary usually only covered transportation and feeding. But as a lover girl, I had to step up for my boo. 

    I also started sending him data monthly and cooking for him. He didn’t really ask for those; I just noticed he was always busy at work and constantly forgot to renew his data subscription. Plus, he hardly ate good food whenever I wasn’t around. So, I started packing some food for him whenever I cooked and moved to just going to his house during the weekend to cook like three soups and some rice dishes. Between 2021 – 2022, ₦15k – ₦20k could cook three soups. Now, I have to budget ₦30k – ₦40k.

    What are both of your finances like these days?

    At ₦300k/month, my boyfriend still earns more than me. I moved to the HR department of my firm in 2023, and my salary is now ₦120k.

    My boyfriend gives me ₦60k monthly and pays 40% of my rent. We take turns paying for dates. It’s not like we keep track of who paid today; we just subconsciously take each other out. I take care of his feeding and data and love to spoil him with gifts. Now that I think about it, I usually spend most of my girlfriend allowance on him. I’m a chronic online shopper, and I always see something that would look good on my man, so I buy. 

    I wiped my savings for his birthday this year to get him a ₦136k Paco Rabanne perfume and a ₦30k smartwatch. Yes, I’m a mumu for love. Before anyone drags me, he also buys me stuff for birthdays, anniversaries and Valentine’s days.

    LOL. What kind of money conversations do you have with your boyfriend?

    A recurring topic is my money habits. I’m the more lau lau spender—my man is very big on budgeting, and I spend money as the spirit leads. He’s generous to me, but he plans his giving. He budgets a specific amount per month for relationship things. He wants me to have a similar approach, but I haven’t been able to hack accountability. When I complain about being broke, and he asks what I spent money on, I tend to be a little defensive because “Is it not you I’m spending my money on?”. So, he lets it be.

    But we’re working on a fix. We plan to get married next year, and he suggested a joint account so we can both keep track of our finances. We’ll still have separate accounts, but we’ll send at least 60% of our income to the joint account and then use that money to handle joint home expenses. I believe that’ll also help curb my erratic spending habits.

    Has money ever caused conflict between you two?

    Oh yes. Apart from his concerns with my spending, we’ve once disagreed about him giving people money without telling me. He argued he didn’t have to tell me what he did with his money, but I didn’t think that was right. We’re in a committed relationship, and I should know who you’re helping. Before you start giving one babe money out of the goodness of your heart, and she wants to appreciate in kind. 

    It was a big issue because he thought I was unreasonable, but we discussed it, and he saw my point. Now, he tells me whenever he sends anyone money. I just like being in the know.

    You mentioned marriage by next year. How will the finances for that work?

    It’s my man o. He’s the one marrying me. I can support him by paying for my clothes and maybe buying his suit, but he’ll handle the rest.

    Do you have a financial safety net for that?

    Not really. Because of the birthday expenses, I have about ₦50k in my savings account. Before now, my savings were based on whatever I had left after spending. But my boyfriend is on my neck to save at least ₦30k monthly, so I’ll start doing that this month.

    What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?

    To have bastard money, and a major step for that to happen is japa. My man has recently begun seriously considering japa options, especially because he works in healthcare and has the potential to earn more. I hope that works out within the next two years. I plan to support by upskilling in HR. I’m not a certified HR professional yet, and that’s my next goal. I feel like that’ll increase my chances of getting jobs abroad. 

    In summary, an ideal future for us would be marriage, working at good jobs outside the country and earning enough money to afford a good life for our future two children. It wouldn’t hurt if we owned two homes (one in Nigeria and one abroad) too.

    Interested in talking about how money moves in your relationship? If yes, click here.

    *Name has been changed for the sake of anonymity.

    READ THIS NEXT: What’s a 50/50 Marriage in the UK Like on a £70K/Year Salary?

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  • Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

    Nairalife #293 bio

    What’s your earliest memory of money?

    It was in 2008. I remember it because it was also the first time I saw my dad cry. I was 11 and had returned home from school to find my parents crying in the parlour. Apparently, my dad had lost millions to a scammer who was supposed to facilitate the purchase of some acres of land. 

    To make things worse, the money was the settlement my dad got from his bank job when the bank folded up earlier that year. So, there was no job and no money. I remember how scared I was that day. The way my parents lamented, I thought it was the end of the world, and hunger would kill us the next day.

    You’re here, so it’s safe to say that didn’t happen

    But things changed. We moved to a smaller apartment, and my sisters and I transferred to a government school. My dad started a small drycleaning business, and my mum opened a provisions shop to add to what she made at her teaching job.

    As the firstborn, I had a bit more “sense”. So, even though I was young, I quickly realised that those random “Daddy, take us to Mr Biggs” requests wouldn’t work again. My younger sisters weren’t as understanding. I remember my sister once crying for two hours because she was tired of eating eba every day. When threats didn’t work, my mum had to beg her to stop crying and just eat.

    The whole situation sort of gave me a money-focused mindset. It was simply: Having money equals good, and not having money equals bad. It’s the reason I chose to study medicine at the university. I was a smart student, and all my teachers suggested I should study medicine because of that. But I was pursuing money.

    What made you think doctors had money?

    The only person who had a car on our street was a doctor. I mean, it made sense to think someone who could afford a car was rich. Plus, my teachers and everyone I told about my medicine aspirations kept talking about how easily doctors found jobs. 

    So, when I graduated from secondary school in 2012, I decided it was either medicine or nothing. I even forfeited a year because the first uni I applied to gave me microbiology, and I didn’t want that. I decided to use that year to work small while still pursuing admission for medicine.

    What kind of work did you do?

    Teaching. My mum helped me get a job teaching primary school students at her school. I taught mathematics and got paid ₦15k/month. That was the first time I’d earn anything, and ₦15k felt like ₦1.5m. 

    I didn’t have to worry about transportation because I followed my mum to work, so I mostly spent my salary on my siblings, as per big brother. My dad made me drop ₦5k at home every month, though. He said it was to teach me responsibility. I didn’t mind. 

    But damn, I worked hard during that period. I’d teach in the mornings and study all night for JAMB and post-UTME. My efforts eventually paid off — I got admitted for medicine the second time I wrote JAMB and moved on to uni in 2013.

    Did you do anything for money while in uni?

    Between trying to survive medical school and squatting in different hostels to save on accommodation, I didn’t have the time. My parents gave me a ₦10k monthly allowance, and I billed my aunt and uncle whenever I was broke. That usually brought an additional ₦2k – ₦5k.

    Let me tell you something funny. I had the opportunity to write for money in 400 level. A former classmate who’d dropped out to study abroad asked me for help writing a term paper he needed for class. When I sent it to him, he said a few other students would pay if I did the same for them. I refused the offer.

    Why?

    I thought it’d distract me. I was in the middle of professional exams and was scared of failing. It was better for me to manage what I got from home, focus on school, and graduate to start making medicine money.

    By now, though, I already knew “medicine money” wasn’t what I thought it would be. Doctors in private hospitals struggled to survive, and working with the government or very big hospitals was the only way to earn decently. So, my focus shifted to becoming a doctor and working in a government hospital. 

    Did things go as planned?

    At all. After I finished medical school in 2020, the next step was housemanship — the one-year compulsory internship young doctors must undergo before practising. Everyone usually wants to do their housemanship in a government institution or teaching hospital because they pay better and you get more experience. 

    But placement is very competitive. Someone I know was asked to bring ₦200k so they’d help “work” his placement. I didn’t have that kind of money. Ultimately, I settled for a private hospital that paid ₦80k/month. 

    Was that good money?

    I’m not sure I had time to consider whether it was good or bad. But I worked constantly. The hospital offered me accommodation — a bed in the doctors’ room — and I jumped at it, thinking I was saving money. I soon found out that living at the hospital meant work always came to me, whether I was on duty or not.

    Housemanship was the longest year of my life. Once, I was on a 48-hour call and dozed off while clerking a patient. It was wild. The only good thing about that period was how much I saved. I had no time to spend, so I kept my money in my account. Sometimes, I lent my dad money to handle one thing or the other, but I mostly saved. By the time I finished my house job in 2021, I had saved ₦600k.

    Nice

    I used the money to buy a phone and laptop. I actually didn’t need a laptop; I just thought it was cool to have one. Looking back, I should’ve used the money to rent an apartment. Instead, I returned home to live with my parents.

    You say that like it was a bad decision

    I don’t know. Maybe things might have happened differently if I’d stopped living at home then. My dad passed away in 2021, and it affected my mum so much that she started having blood pressure issues. The home’s responsibilities automatically fell on me. 

    Thankfully, my two sisters had graduated from university, so I didn’t have to worry about school fees. But they also lived at home, and I had to step up as the man of the house. 

    How did you do that without a job?

    I began job-hunting like my life depended on it. Forget the scam about doctors not needing to look for jobs because there are always jobs waiting for them. That’s not true. Also, I hadn’t gone for NYSC, and some hospitals wanted the certificate. I honestly saw NYSC as a waste of time. I didn’t understand why I had to spend a whole year earning ₦33k when I could earn more working at a hospital.

    At the end of the day, NYSC won. After months of job-hunting and relying on loan apps to feed and support the home, I reluctantly processed my NYSC call-up in 2022. I borrowed ₦35k from a loan app to settle someone at NYSC so I wouldn’t get posted outside my state. 

    My PPA was a mission hospital that only paid ₦15k/month. Add that to the government’s ₦33k, and I had ₦48k/month. Since the money didn’t go anywhere, I had to turn to loan apps. I borrowed no less than ₦20k every month, sometimes more. All my salary went to repaying loans. I honestly hated it, but I had no choice. I had to transport myself to work, drop money at home for food, buy medication for my mum and still have enough left to pay our ₦250k/year rent.

    Sounds tough

    I’m still at it, and it’s tough. Sometimes, I struggle with resentment. My sisters now work but don’t drop money at home because they know egbon will handle it. I can’t complain outwardly because it’s my responsibility to be there for them. It just gets difficult, you know?

    I finished my service year in 2023 and now work in a hospital that pays ₦200k/month, but I don’t feel like I earn that much. I’m always taking loans because my salary finishes in two weeks, and the crazy interest rates on these loans have kept me in a loan cycle. Just last month, I took a ₦35k loan to fix the generator at home. By the time I’m supposed to pay it back in six months, interest will have pushed the total amount I should repay to ₦47k.

    Mad. Can you break down what takes your money in a typical month?

    Nairalife #293 expenses

    Shey you see I spend more than my salary? This breakdown doesn’t even include the random times I decide to spoil myself by eating out or buying a new pair of trousers. Damn, my finances are really in the mud. Can I tell you something?

    Sure

    Most of the time, I feel like a threat to my patients because I’m always thinking about money. I’m on autopilot, and my mind isn’t on the work again. I’m constantly brainstorming what extra things I can do to make money, but I always end up at the same conclusion: I can’t do anything else for money as long as I’m practising. 

    For context, I’m almost always on call at my job. I’m the junior doctor, but the medical director is the only other doctor in the hospital, and he’s always at his government job. So, I work almost 24/7, and it’s extremely dangerous. 

    The other day, I mistakenly prescribed a dextrose saline infusion to a patient with high blood sugar. Thankfully, the nurse caught that in time. I still don’t know whether to put that mistake on exhaustion or disinterest.

    Hmm. Have you considered what you’d do if you weren’t practising?

    That’s one reason I regret not taking that writing job seriously in uni. Now, I hear how people earn dollars simply by sitting down in their houses to write. I still remember the lady in this Naira Life who earns close to ₦1m with social media right there in her house. 

    I’m considering those types of jobs now. I’m currently taking some free online writing and content marketing courses. After that, I’ll look into social media marketing. If I can find a way to get more free time outside the hospital, I also want to explore software development. Right now, I’m open to everything.

    It’s not that I want to abandon medicine completely; I spent too many years on it just to abandon the field like that. I only want to make money so I can japa and practise medicine in a sane country that rewards effort. I don’t have actual timelines now, but I know 2028 must not meet me in this country.

    What’s an ideal amount you think you should be earning?

    In medicine, with my current experience level, maybe ₦400k. But once I get skills in tech and content marketing, maybe ₦600k – ₦800k. 

    With that, I wouldn’t be as dependent on loans. And I’d have enough to get my own place and put my family on a monthly allowance, so it’s not like I’m just spending and spending as needs arise.

    Fair. How would you describe your relationship with money?

    Nonexistent. It’s quite clear that I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m just winging my finances and hoping I get a lucky break soon.

    What’s your biggest financial regret?

    Taking my first loan from a loan app. I can’t even remember what I took it for, but I wish I never did. Those apps are like bed bugs. It’s tough to get rid of them once you try them once or twice.

    What about the last thing you spent money on that made you happy?

    I got my mum a dress for her birthday. At ₦50k, it was quite expensive, but the look of gratitude on her face made it worth it. 

    On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

    5. I need a lucky break soon before I lose my mind.

    If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

    Yes, I want to do a Naira Life!

    Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

    Subscribe to the newsletter here.

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  • How would you feel if your closest friend made a major decision like relocation without informing you?

    That’s what happened to Ezra. He talks about being blindsided by his long-term best friend’s relocation, getting angry, and why he’s decided not to let his feelings affect their friendship. 

    As told to Boluwatife

    Image by Canva AI

    If you’d asked me a year ago how I’d react to learning my best friend left the country without telling me, I’d have concluded that the friendship was over and cut off all communication. Now that it’s actually happened, I’ve found myself a lot more understanding. But it doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad about it. 

    Deji* and I have been best friends since 2014. We met when we started sharing a bunk bed in our first year in university, and, as is usually the case with roommates, we automatically became friends. 

    At first, our friendship was just the standard greeting, sharing food when either of us cooked and gisting about football and girls. Then, we became closer over the years. I still can’t explain how that happened, but we soon began visiting each other’s homes during the holidays and forming relationships with each other’s families. 

    Deji’s mum had my number on speed dial and would call me if Deji didn’t pick up his phone when she called. Whenever she sent money and food to Deji at school, she’d send mine, too. Our parents also became close friends — the fact that Deji and I happened to come from the same state also helped — and we unofficially went from friends to brothers. 

    After we graduated from uni in 2021, I decided against returning home so I could plan for NYSC, and I spent the full three months waiting for my call-up letter in Deji’s family house. His family was essentially my second family; there was nothing that happened in Deji’s family that I didn’t know. That’s why, even though I’m surprised Deji would japa without telling me, I’m not holding it against him.

    The thing is, Deji comes from a heavily competitive polygamous home. His dad has multiple wives who constantly throw shade at each other, and his mum is constantly praying against enemies and spiritual attacks. I don’t consider myself superstitious, but some things I’ve seen in his family are more than mere coincidences.

    For one, Deji and his siblings never hold big parties or celebrations due to his mum’s insistence. She believes that calling attention to themselves can result in spiritual attacks. The two times that Deji’s sister ignored that rule and held birthday parties without their mum’s knowledge, she fell sick and landed in the hospital. 

    Just before we wrote our final exam paper in uni, Deji posted final year costume day pictures on Facebook and suddenly developed malaria the next day. I had to carry him on my back from the school clinic to the exam hall so he could write that paper and not get an extra year.

    So, I understood that Deji had to make most moves in secret. But I didn’t expect that would also extend to me, considering how close we were. In fact, when he landed a tech job a year after graduation, I was the only one he told how much he earned. When he started seriously considering japa in 2023, I was the only person he told apart from his parents and siblings. We even brainstormed routes, and I helped him write some of the applications. 

    That’s why I felt blindsided when, a few months ago, Deji sent me a WhatsApp message informing me that he’d arrived in Canada two days before and apologised for not telling me earlier. I honestly had no clue. I’d visited his house two weeks before then and asked about the visa status, but he said he was still waiting for feedback. 

    Honestly, I was angry at first. It felt like he was subconsciously classifying me as one of the “village people” who would spoil his plans if he told me about it. If I even wanted to spoil the plan, wouldn’t I have done so when he first mentioned it?

    I reduced communication for a bit after that because of my anger, but after some weeks, I realised I needed to get over myself. This is someone I know, and I understand his family circumstances. He’s still my best friend, and I’m sure he meant no harm. Plus, japa is something you can’t really afford to play trial and error with, considering the money involved in the process.

    So, regardless of my feelings, I understand why Deji did what he did. If he had to do it again, I’d have no choice but to understand. The fact that I don’t believe telling me would’ve affected his plan in any way doesn’t mean I should ignore his fears. Whatever he chooses to do, he’s still my best friend, and I don’t want anger or a slight misunderstanding to change that. 

    Right now, I’m helping him sell off the properties he left behind. He didn’t sell anything while still here to avoid arousing suspicion. Once that’s done, I’ll send him the money and look forward to when he can afford to visit Nigeria. Or maybe I’ll be the next to japa. Who knows?

    *Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.

    NEXT READ: At 62, I Returned to Nigeria to Retire. Things Took an Unexpected Turn

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  • The topic of how young Nigerians navigate romantic relationships with their earnings is a minefield of hot takes. In Love Currency, we get into what relationships across income brackets look like in different cities.

    Love Currency Bio page

    How long have you been with your partner?

    We got married in 2020, so it’s been four years. But we started dating in 2017.

    Tell me more about how you met

    We both lived in Nigeria, and he and my cousin were old school friends. He got my number after my cousin posted one of my pictures on WhatsApp. We got talking, and then we planned to meet up at a mall. We were still just friends then, though. We officially started dating a few months after that meet-up.

    My new relationship also coincided with my entry into the job market. I finished serving in 2017, just after we started dating and landed my first job in a client communications role at an asset management company. 

    How much were you earning then?

    My salary was ₦110k/month, which was fair, but I didn’t love the role. I wanted to work in an auditing firm, but I was stuck in a job that was essentially customer service. I also worked weekends and public holidays, leaving no time to do anything else. That almost affected my relationship, but I made it work.

    How did you do that?

    A lot of planning and small trickery. My parents aren’t the type to let their children go out anyhow, so I had to be at home or work. My job sometimes lodged us in hotels for work, and that became my excuse. Even when work didn’t take me out of the house, I’d tell my mum we had to lodge overnight so I could see my partner. 

    My partner was also really intentional. He often picked me up in the evenings after work so we could spend time together. We were both intentional about going on dates and getting to know each other. 

    What was dating like in the early days… in terms of what it cost financially?

    My partner and I were generous to each other. While he sometimes got extra income from his brand consultancy side gig, his salary from his 9-5 was in the same range as mine. Still, he often gave me gifts and paid for dates. I also got him gifts, but he sacrificed more. 

    In 2018, I took a salary cut to ₦70k to participate in a bank training school, and I lost my phone while struggling to catch a bus to work one day. My partner bought me a Samsung phone and a smartwatch to replace it. 

    His sacrifices taught me to be generous. I’d been burned before in a previous relationship at university and had vowed never to spend money on another guy. I was really gullible in that relationship o. I gave my ex half of my monthly allowances and even my salaries from undergraduate internships. Last last, he still broke my heart. 

    But when I saw my partner’s generosity, I had to step up. I think the first gift I got him was a ₦120k gold chain. Also, I occasionally paid when we went on dates. I honestly can’t keep track of all we have given each other from when we were dating to even now that we’re married.

    Tell me about the wedding

    We got married in the middle of 2020. It was a small sitting-room affair due to the lockdown. But that wasn’t the plan. We budgeted ₦6m to hold the ceremony a bit earlier in March, but COVID happened. By then, we’d already paid some vendors and secured a hall. 

    We couldn’t get most of the deposits back and had to repurpose some vendors for our slightly bigger traditional wedding in December. We lost a little above ₦1m altogether, which we’d committed to the hall and decoration. My husband handled most of the bills, though. I only paid for my outfits and makeup.

    Did japa happen immediately?

    No. We stayed in Nigeria for one more year. Before the wedding, I’d already gotten my dream job at one of the big four auditing firms and earned ₦550k/month, but Nigeria began to get boring. All my siblings had relocated, and it looked like I could get better opportunities abroad.

    Fortunately, my husband secured a UK Tier 1 visa endorsement in 2021, which provided the perfect relocation opportunity. Japa wasn’t expensive at all. I don’t have actual figures, but we only had to pay visa fees, IHS fees for healthcare and flight tickets. 

    I already worked in a Big Four firm, so it was easy for me to apply and get a new job in one of the UK offices. I even got the job before I arrived in the UK. 

    How has relocation affected your relationship dynamic?

    There wasn’t much of a change initially. While in Nigeria, my husband financed most things, and I only assisted with food and small bills. We continued like that when we got here. 

    My husband earns slightly less than me at £60k annually, though he gets at least £15k/year extra from side hustles. At first, he handled our £1600 monthly rent and major bills. I handled food and minor bills, which was about £800 monthly. But we bought our house early this year and are now splitting bills 50/50 because of monthly mortgage payments. 

    What’s that like?

    We paid a £100k upfront deposit and now pay £1800 monthly as mortgage. That should continue for about 30 years — if we continue living in the house that long. So, every month, my husband and I chip in £900 each. 

    Actually, we share bills by looking at our total expenses for the month, including transportation, council tax, utility bills and feeding, and then bringing our share. In a typical month, that comes to almost £4k, and we contribute £2k each. We even budget down to date nights and self-care. 

    I’d like to hear more about the date night budget

    Date night is every Friday, and we budget £400 monthly for it. However, we only dress up and go out to a nice restaurant only once or twice a month. I prefer staying in and ordering food. We don’t have kids yet, and as a dual-income couple, we can still afford to treat ourselves every week.

    Is there any form of gifting that happens outside your monthly budget?

    Of course, but it’s not regular. It depends on how we’re both feeling. If I’m shopping and see a nice shirt, I get it for my husband. He does the same as well. However, I prefer him to tell me what he’d like to buy me so I can give suggestions and make sure it’s to my taste. If not, I have to take anything I see like that.

    Haha. I’m curious. What’s the most expensive gift you’ve gotten each other?

    My husband got me a car while we were in Nigeria. For me, I honestly can’t remember. I hardly keep records of these things. It’ll probably be one of our yearly overseas trips, and I offered to pay. Or maybe I just gave him money. 

    You mentioned not having kids yet. Was that planned?

    For me, it’s planned. However, when we got married, we agreed to wait for at least a year before bringing in children. Then we relocated and suggested waiting another year to settle into the new country. Then, I got promoted to the level just below manager at work, and we decided to wait for me to become a manager. After that happened last year, we decided to start trying.

    But I changed careers this year and am on a six-month probation. I’m wary of taking maternity leave—which can last as long as a year in the UK—while I’m still learning the ropes in a new environment. With the pace I’m currently on, I might move to a senior role next year. So, while my husband is at the point where he wants kids now, I’m not eager yet. Let me rise through the ranks first so I can return to a senior role after taking a childcare break. 

    Asides going 50/50, what kind of money conversations do you have with your husband?

    I’m very conscious about having safety nets, but he’s different. For instance, the deposit we paid on the house was from the two years’ worth of savings I didn’t compromise on. Without that safety net, we wouldn’t have a house today. 

    I’ve built back a safety net by setting aside six months’ worth of my share of the monthly expenses, and I try to convince my husband to do the same, but he’s more of the spending type. After settling his share of the expenses, he likes to spend whatever he has left.

    I’d also like us to start investing, but I’m limited in that regard because of my work. I can’t just invest in any kind of stocks or bonds because they could breach my independence and contribute to a conflict of interest —most of these institutions are my employer’s clients. I’ve had to make do with investing in mutual funds in Nigeria — I have about ₦15m there now — but my main investment goal is real estate. Once I’ve gotten my husband to build a safety net, we can look at more real estate investment options. 

    Have there been any challenges with the 50/50 approach?

    I honestly don’t enjoy it. To be fair, I earn a bit more, but I can’t wait for 50/50 to end.

    Oh, there’s a timeframe?

    Oh yes. We’ll probably stop next year when one of my husband’s side hustles clicks. I can’t wait. 

    What’s the ideal financial future for you and your partner?

    I’d love to return to Nigeria while still earning in a foreign currency, possibly even more than I currently earn. I’d also like us to have real estate investments and have some financial structure for our future children. I really don’t want so much wealth. I just want to live happily and comfortably. And, of course, my husband needs to have a healthy safety net as soon as he learns to stick to not spending so much.

    But why the desire to return to Nigeria?

    People don’t get it, but trying to understand how people work here is a lot of stress. I have to do so much code-switching. I just want to work with people I easily understand. I just want to be in a country where I’m comfortable and can earn well without needing to run to a foreign country.

    Interested in talking about how money moves in your relationship? If yes, click here.

    *Name has been changed for the sake of anonymity.

    READ THIS NEXT: Dating Life of an MSC Student on a ₦50k Monthly Allowance

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  • Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

    Nairalife #292 bio

    Tell me about the first time you made money

    I was 13 years old and in SS 1. I had the bright idea of selling my sister’s time to senior boys in boarding school. She was in SS 3 then, and the finest girl in our school, and all the boys followed her like bees to honey. So, I monetised it.

    How did it even work?

    My sister and I are really close, but she’s quiet to a fault. I’m the stubborn, outspoken one. There was this boy in her class who liked her, but my sister was blissfully unaware. He came to me to help him talk to her, and I jokingly suggested he pay me ₦100 to arrange a time for them to talk during prep. 

    He paid, and I convinced my sister to talk to him. Then I did the same for another boy, then another. I got away with it five times before my sister stopped cooperating. 

    I still jokingly tell her we could’ve made serious money if she’d been more open-minded. Maybe she’d have agreed if I’d given her a cut of the money. But to be honest, it’s not like we needed the money.

    That means there was money at home, yeah?

    Oh, there was money. I come from a polygamous family; my dad had four wives and plenty of concubines, but he did right by everybody. My dad had filling stations, and all his women had their own houses. 

    My mum was the last wife and didn’t work — except for a lace store she kept for keeping sake — and my sister and I didn’t lack. I can also say we were spoiled. When I graduated from secondary school in 2010, my mum gave me a brand new Blackberry as a present. Blackberry phones were the iPhones of 2010. I was a big girl. 

    My mum doesn’t even know this, but I gave the phone to one foolish boy I liked at university. He broke my heart and refused to return my phone. 

    Breakfast … we’ve all been there. Talking about university, did you do anything for money while studying?

    I tried my hand at several small businesses, but I was a classic case of “money miss road.” I had too much money, and I’ll explain. 

    The minute I got into uni in 2011, I began receiving double allowance from both parents. They didn’t live together, so they sent me money separately, and I never mentioned that the other parent had already sent money. My mum sent ₦40k/month, and my dad sent ₦60k. Apart from the money, my mum regularly sent me foodstuff through other relatives. 

    Me, I was just spending like Mother Christmas. I had an off-campus apartment, and my friends loved to visit because I’d either cook or take them out. If I wasn’t buying my friends food, I was dashing them money. I once paid a friend’s ₦80k hostel fee because I was tired of looking at the money in my account. It was the same friend who suggested I try a business since I didn’t have anything to do with money.

    I’m screaming. So, what did you do?

    I decided to sell chiffon tops and jeans in 300 level. My sister introduced me to a friend who sold them wholesale. I think I bought each top between ₦1k – ₦2k, and a pair of jeans for around ₦2k. The first batch I bought cost ₦50k, and I added a profit of between ₦2k – ₦3k on each item and made good sales. But I didn’t see any money. Both capital and profit, I didn’t see. Everyone bought on credit and didn’t repay me.

    I think a major reason my friends were comfortable buying and not paying was that I already had a reputation for being Mother Christmas. Me too, I didn’t know how to pursue people for money, so I only asked a few times and left them. The business didn’t last three weeks.

    Next, I decided to sell makeup products. I used ₦30k to buy powders and brushes, but I ended up giving them out because marketing them was too stressful. Imagine someone asking whether the IMAN powder I was selling for ₦2500 was original. How will original IMAN be ₦2500? Nigerians should fear God. I sha left that one too.

    Then I tried to sell sneakers, but after I kept “collecting” my goods for personal use, I decided to hang up my entrepreneurial boots and call it a day. I survived on my allowance until I eventually left university in 2016.

    Let me guess. NYSC came after

    Yup. NYSC posted me to the north, but I wasn’t about to risk my life for ₦19800. So, I worked out redeployment through my dad’s friend to my home state. My PPA was a local government, and the only thing I did was to buy food for my supervisor. I did that twice before I gave myself brain and  decided I couldn’t use my one-year service to play errand girl, so I disappeared. I paid my supervisor ₦5k from my allawee monthly so I could leave to look for better opportunities.

    Did you find better opportunities?

    Not immediately. I wanted to get a job with one of the Big Four accounting firms, but omo, I saw shege with the assessment exams. When nothing came out of those, I took a gap year to just relax. I planned to rely on allawee and my mother’s food — an advantage of living at home. 

    But I almost didn’t survive that gap year sef — I was so broke. I didn’t realise just how little ₦19800 was until I had to live on it. I never went hungry o, but I was so limited. I couldn’t eat out with my friends or buy clothes and shoes. It was terrible. I couldn’t even whine my parents to give me money because they’d be like, “What are you using money for? Aren’t you at home?”

    I tried to find jobs halfway through the year, but the only one I found was a ₦50k accounting job, and the office was so far from my house. I’d have spent the whole salary on transportation. I didn’t take it.

    That period made me realise the importance of savings or a safety net before making foolish decisions like not wanting to work. Maybe if I’d saved when I was receiving so much money in school, I wouldn’t have felt like poverty was knocking on my door.

    Real. Did you have better luck with job search after NYSC?

    Not really. I wanted a job that paid nothing less than ₦120k. But I was broke, and beggars don’t have a choice. So, I settled for one at a small firm at ₦70k/month. This was in 2018.

    The salary wasn’t too bad, sha. My boss lived in my neighbourhood, so I hitched free rides with her daily. I wasn’t flexing as much as I did in uni, but I could afford to buy myself a nice bag after collecting my salary. I also tried to save at least ₦10k/month for my emergency savings.

    I worked at the job for almost two years before I got married and left in 2020. By the time I left, my salary had grown to ₦105k.

    Did marriage mean you had to stop working?

    Yes. My husband requested it before marriage, and he probably thinks I stopped because of him. Oga doesn’t know I was only happy to leave the workforce.

    A little backstory: My husband was widowed when I met him in 2019. His wife had passed away a few years before, leaving him with two children. He wanted someone who’d be there for him and the children. So, he was clear that he wanted a housewife.

    On the other hand, I was already looking for how to get paid to do nothing. I didn’t enjoy working and the idea of slaving all month for a salary that didn’t last two weeks. I was already checked out. But I didn’t tell my husband this sha. I made him believe he was asking too much of me. We came to a compromise — He’d pay me ₦300k/month as “salary” so I wouldn’t have to work.

    I have no choice but to stan

    Haha. That’s minus money for food at home and the children’s expenses. The salary is for me to spend as I like. My salary increased to ₦400k earlier this year after complaining about Tinubu’s economy and how inflation has made everything expensive. 

    However, the truth is, I hardly spend the salary. The ₦500k allowance I get for the home’s upkeep is enough to cover the necessities, and I still squeeze out a little to buy the random shoe or bag. I also whine my husband to give me extra money for aso-ebi and gold for family functions.

    My attitude to money has changed since I got married. I’m now very intentional about having different safety nets. I save and invest first before doing anything. I have about ₦2m in a secret savings account and two landed properties in my hometown. I also have a considerable gold collection I can sell in an emergency.

    Is there a reason for the sudden interest in safety nets?

    I know that being a housewife is risky. My husband is a good man, but he’s still a man. I’ve heard several stories about how men can suddenly start acting funny because their wives are 100% dependent on them. 

    Plus, he’s a Muslim. What happens if I wake up tomorrow and hear he wants to marry another wife? That might reduce my allowance. I also suspect he has a girlfriend, but I won’t bother myself with that. 

    I just need to make sure I have healthy safety nets in case anything happens. He doesn’t know about my properties, and I’m trying to convince him to build me a house as my next birthday gift. If anything goes south, I want a secure future for myself and our children.

    What needs to happen for you to know you’ve hit this goal?

    Hmm. I haven’t really thought deeply about this. I think the biggest indicator of a secure future is when I can afford to create a trust fund for my children’s school fees up until university. I’m not sure what that’ll cost yet, but this question has got me thinking about how I can do that. At least if anything happens, I should know I can keep my kids in school.

    Let’s go back to the monthly allowance and salary. How do you spend that in a typical month?

    Nairalife #292 monthly expenses

    My gifting budget is for the biweekly bulk cooking I do for charity. Sometimes, part of the money goes to settling people who come to me with needs. I send my mum a monthly ₦80k allowance, but that comes from my husband. It’s not part of my salary or home upkeep allowance. 

    Do you think you’d ever return to the workforce?

    What for? What am I looking for there? I intend to avoid having to work as much as I can. It’s not like I spend my days lazing around. I’ve had two more children since I got married, and taking care of four children isn’t beans at all. 

    A cleaner comes in twice a week, but I still feel like I’m constantly cleaning, cooking, and shouting at the children. I can’t add a job or business to the stress I already experience daily. That’s why I’d rather focus on having good investments and emergency savings to fall back on. 

    What’s an ideal investment portfolio for you?

    Real estate, gold, naira, and dollar savings. I’d like to own at least two houses and rent them out for extra income. If my husband builds me one, I’ll just have to focus on getting money to build the second one.

    I’m considering using one of my lands as a farm as I’m not building yet, but I’ll need to figure out how to get someone to run it so I don’t stress myself out. But then, I don’t trust Nigerians like that. I can employ someone to oversee the farm now, and they will use my money to enrich their own pockets. So, I may not do the farm thing. 

    I don’t have a cap on how much money I’ll have in naira and dollars that’ll be enough for me. I just want to have money.

    I get it. What’s the last thing you bought that significantly improved the quality of your life?

    This is funny, but I bought a child leash for my 1-year-old last month. We spent part of the summer holiday in my husband’s hometown, and I know my child likes jumping up and down. He literally watches for when you’re distracted so he can snatch his hand from your grip and rush into the road.

    I didn’t want him walking around, so I bought a child leash online for ₦50k and put it on him. It’s like a mini bag pack with a rope that I can snap on my wrist so he doesn’t go far. People kept looking at us weirdly, but I was so happy with my purchase. I wish I had known about child leashes for the other kids earlier.

    How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

    7. I have all my needs met, and I don’t regret dumping my career. It’ll be a 10 when I have my houses.

    If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

    Yes, I want to do a Naira Life!

    Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

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  • Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to a 28-year high in 2024, and food inflation has been hot on its heels. Most Nigerians may not have paid attention to the inflation figures, but everyone saw it play out in the sharp increase in tomato prices these past few months. 

    Considering just how important tomatoes are to the average Nigerian — Sunday rice and stew is a thing — we thought to ask some Nigerians how they survived the price increase.

    Image: TechCabal

    Helena, 41, Housewife

    My family of five can’t go a week without eating stew. It’s one of the easiest meals to cook, and I love that I can cook a big pot of stew at the beginning of the week and use it to eat rice, yam, swallow and even bread all week.

    But when tomatoes became expensive, making my usual pot of stew became hard. Typically, ₦3k buys me the tomato and pepper mix I need for stew, but tomatoes alone started costing ₦5k during the price increase.

    I tried cucumber stew to save money since everyone else was trying it. I bought three sachets of Gino tomato paste, some cucumbers and my regular pepper mix, and I made my usual pot of stew. It tasted great, and my children didn’t even notice any difference. I still make cucumber stew once in a while.

    Prudence, 25, Caterer

    My church held an anniversary program in June and asked me to cook the jollof rice and stewed chicken for our 300+ members.

    The only problem was that it was the period when the price of tomatoes was really high, and my church had a tight budget. I couldn’t buy more than a small basket of tomatoes, and even that cost ₦30k instead of like ₦7k.

    I had to use sense to carry the remaining one. I bought several tins of the big Gino tomato paste and used plenty shombo and tatashe to support it. That’s what saved me. The food still came out nice, and everyone was happy.

    Taiwo, 27, Driver

    Honestly, the high tomato prices didn’t really affect me. I don’t cook much, and most of my cooking is limited to jollof rice or white rice and stew. When I got to the market and realised there were no ₦500 tomatoes again, I just jejely bought plenty party jollof tomato paste and kept them at home to cook. I even prefer tomato pastes because they’re cheaper and basically do the same thing fresh tomatoes do. Win-win.

    Seyi, 30, Teacher

    I avoided cooking tomato-based meals when tomato prices increased because I just couldn’t afford to. Imagine using ₦2k to buy only tomatoes. Where would the money for the other ingredients come from?

    So, I stopped cooking those meals for a while until a friend shared her hack for making stew without fresh tomatoes—she just used tomato paste, plenty of onions, bell peppers, and ata rodo. I wasn’t really a fan of tomato paste because I thought it tasted sour, but she introduced me to this Gino tomato paste that already had pepper and onions in it, and I loved it. It really came in handy during that tomato inflation period.

    Onyeka, 22, Student

    As a broke student, tomato paste always rescues me when sapa hits extra hard. So when tomatoes became expensive, I didn’t even stress myself. I only bought them when it was absolutely necessary, especially to fry eggs. I used tomato paste for everything else: spaghetti, rice, and stew. I’m a tomato paste warrior.

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  • Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

    NairaLife #291 bio

    How did you find yourself working as a security guard?

    Ah. It’s a long story.

    Let’s start from the top

    I’ve been hustling since I was around 12 years old. My father was a butcher who couldn’t provide for his three wives and 11 children. So, my mother used what she made from her provisions store to take care of me and my three biological siblings. She didn’t make much, so I mostly paid my school fees myself.

    How did you do that?

    Different things. For example, when I was in JSS 2, I learnt how to repair phones from a friend. I also got into online business around that time. This was around 2012/2013.

    What kind of online business?

    Actually, it was yahoo yahoo — another friend introduced me to it. I was pretending to be oyinbo on Facebook and Instagram and chatting with oyinbo people. Some people have luck with this online work, but I didn’t make much from it. The lowest I made was $100, and the highest money I got at a time was $400. 

    I didn’t make money regularly, and the dollar exchange rate wasn’t up to ₦200 then, so I didn’t make big money. But it was enough for me to drop small money at home for foodstuff and pay my school fees. 

    I also didn’t regularly make money from my phone repair business because I didn’t have a shop. I just had a spot where I worked after school with my tools. My pay depended on whatever fault my customer’s phone had, but it was usually between ₦500 – ₦1k. 

    When I got to JSS 3, I decided I couldn’t continue school.

    Why?

    School fees. I just know I couldn’t afford it again. Things were tight. 

    From 2014 to 2020, I survived on what I made repairing phones and some financial support from a brother who was out of the country. I still lived with my parents, so I didn’t have many responsibilities. But after I got married in 2019, I realised I needed to do something more to bring more money home. 

    How did marriage happen?

    It just happened. I’d been with my girlfriend since primary school, and getting married was the next step after she got pregnant. It wasn’t a proper wedding like that, more like an introduction ceremony. But a baby was coming, and I knew it’d increase my responsibilities, so I started looking for business ideas.

    Were you still doing the “online business”?

    I gradually stopped because it wasn’t really working. By 2020, I befriended one of my Facebook clients, and she also convinced me to stop. We became friends after she realised I wasn’t who I was pretending to be. I think she changed me. She said she didn’t want me to do yahoo anymore and even gave me $200.

    When I added that money to some money I’d saved up, it was up to ₦200k. I decided to use it to start a wholesale provisions business. 

    Tell me how that went

    I got a shop and made small sales here and there. But I really wanted to get a car. My major distributor was in a neighbouring state, and I always paid money to pick up the goods at the park. I figured that a car would allow me to drive down myself, cut out delivery costs and even buy more goods.

    I joined a cooperative so I could borrow money to buy the car, but that wasn’t a good idea.

    What happened? 

    First, I decided to get the car through my aunt. She said her husband knew much about cars, so I thought I was in good hands. Her husband initially told me the second-hand 1999 Toyota Camry would cost ₦1m. So, I took a ₦1m loan from the cooperative. But I got there and learned the car cost ₦150k more — the middleman was trying to add his own profit, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to borrow the balance from my aunt. 

    My biggest problem was that the car had issues. I didn’t know much about cars, so I didn’t notice until I started using the car. It was always one problem or the other, and I was just spending money repairing and repairing. I couldn’t even use it for the reason I bought it.

    Remember I still had the loan to pay off? The car was supposed to bring more profit to my business so I could repay the loan. But the car’s problems forced me to sell it off after seven months. Problem number two.

    People didn’t want to buy it?

    They didn’t want to o. I wanted to sell it for ₦1.150m so I could get the money I paid back, but people kept pricing it at ₦500k. I eventually sold it at ₦800k.

    I couldn’t use the whole amount to repay the loan  — which was almost ₦1.3m plus interest — because my wife gave birth around that time, and there were a lot of expenses. I also had to put some of the money into my business to restock the shop.

    Only half of that money from the car made it back to the cooperative. I had to repay the loan small small using both profit and capital from my business. It almost caused an issue with my aunty because she stood as guarantor for me and the cooperative people were on her neck, and she was on mine.

    It took me two years to repay the loan, but my business was totally run down by that time. To top it all off, my wife had given birth to another baby.

    Damn. So what did you do next?

    I started looking for money again. My search took me to an online chat platform where people post jobs. That’s how I saw one promising to pay up to ₦100k/month to work in a hair factory in Lagos. So I packed my bags, left my family in Delta state and moved to Lagos in 2023.

    Did you know anyone in Lagos?

    An uncle, but I didn’t know where he lived. I could’ve asked my dad for the address, but I wanted to struggle on my own. You know, so I’d be able to say I made it without relying on anyone.

    Anyway, the job wasn’t what I imagined. It wasn’t a fixed monthly pay job; the factory paid workers based on the number of tasks we completed daily. I’d work from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. to make ₦700 – ₦800. They then recorded how much we made per day to determine the salary at the end of the month.

    They created a bank account for me to receive my salary, but I didn’t even wait for the first salary. I just stopped showing up at the factory after a few weeks.

    Just like that?

    Just like that o. The work was stressful, and I couldn’t cope. While I worked at the factory, I lived in a shared apartment provided for the workers. It wasn’t free o. Each person paid ₦2k every month to live there. I also paid, even though I didn’t stay there for up to a month.

    I made friends with a fellow worker before I left the factory. He was also a bricklayer, and he lived in Ogun state. So, when I left the factory, I began working and squatting with him. I don’t even know if squatting is correct. He didn’t have a house, and we lived on the streets.

    How did that work?

    We hung around looking for bricklaying jobs during the day and slept in front of shops at night. We used mats and our clothes as mattresses. Sometimes, we slept inside a church, mosque or whatever uncompleted building we worked at. We always woke up by 5 a.m., so we’d leave before people came. Of course, people occasionally chased us away. It was dangerous too. Ritual killing was rampant in Ogun state at that time, but thankfully, they didn’t get us.

    Back to working with this friend. I mixed cement and whatever else he told me to do for ₦3500/day. Money only came when we found a site to work on, so we went from place to place between Lagos and Ogun to find construction work. On some days we didn’t find work, I’d only eat biscuits and drink water.

    One day, I woke up and realised I couldn’t continue. The job was too stressful, and the money I made went into trying to survive. I still had a wife and two children back home to provide for.

    True

    I returned to the platform that introduced me to the factory job and found an advert for a security guard at a company on Lagos Island. This was in November 2023. My initial salary was ₦24k/month, but my employers started removing ₦1k after a month for uniform. 

    I knew ₦23k wouldn’t do anything, so I found another security job that pays ₦40k/month in December. I still do both jobs today. My first job increased my salary to ₦30k early this year, so my income has grown to ₦70k/month.

    How do you manage working two security jobs?

    Security jobs allow workers to work one day on and the next day off, and I’ve arranged it so that I’m always at one of the jobs.

    I work from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. the next day, then move to the second job and resume at just a little after 6 a.m., too. Both workplaces are close to each other, so it works. 

    However, this arrangement means I work 24/7. I try to catch some sleep at night by sharing short four-hour sleep rotations with my colleagues while on duty at night. If one person is sleeping, someone else is awake. The work is stressful, but who will feed me if I rest? 

    Also, I don’t have a house, so there’s nowhere to “go home” to. I move from one job to another with my few things and make wherever I am my home. I haven’t even been able to visit my family since I moved to Lagos.

    I was just about to ask about your family. How do you support them financially?

    It’s just my children now. My wife left me in March this year and said she couldn’t take care of the children. Mind you, I sent her ₦25k – ₦30k monthly when I started working and paid the children’s school fees. I also took care of my family when I had my provisions business. But I guess that wasn’t enough.

    So, she dropped my first child with my father and took the second one. I reduced the monthly allowance to ₦10k since I had to send my dad at least ₦20k/month for my first child and pay school fees. 

    However, last month, my ex-wife went to collect my first child. My mum passed away in 2020, and my father remarried. So, my ex-wife’s justification was that my stepmother mistreated my child, which I don’t believe. That wouldn’t have been possible with my father living in the same house. 

    Also, it meant I had to change the child’s school again and get uniforms. I didn’t support that, but she just did her own. I’ve told her I won’t increase her allowance since she made that decision alone. I’m still sending ₦10k. 

    What do these expenses typically look like in a good month?

    NairaLife #291 monthly expenses

    I’ve reduced my dad’s allowance because my first child no longer lives with him. I hardly spend on transport fare since I walk back and forth between both workplaces. I also carry an electrical plate around to cook and save money on food. 

    I hold what’s left to see road, even though it hardly does anything with how things have gotten expensive. I also just started a ₦500 daily ajo contribution to save for emergencies, and I make the money I use for the ajo from tips I get while on duty.

    Do the tips come often?

    It’s just sometimes, like once a week. This security job is not easy. Nigerians look down on security guards so much. I’ve gotten several insults from people. 

    One of my workplaces is a club, and one time, a popular celebrity visited and dashed money to the hostesses, valets and bouncers. I told him, “Ah oga. Security sef dey here o,” and he replied, “Abi security dey craze? Who be security?” 

    It touched me, but I didn’t take it to heart. I know the job I do, so I’ll only take it as motivation to move forward in life and earn better.

    Is there an ideal amount of money you’d like to earn?

    If I can get two jobs and each pay ₦70k – ₦80k, it’d make sense. Ideally, I want to leave this security work and do business. I can’t sell provisions here because getting a shop space on the Island is so expensive, so my only option is to drive e-hailing cabs. 

    I pray to find someone who can give me a car on hire-purchase. At least, I can also sleep in the car at night and look for where to bathe in the mornings. And if I make enough money to rent an apartment, it’ll be even better. I just really need money in my life as soon as possible. This isn’t life I’m living.

    I hope it works out soon. How would you rate your financial happiness?

    5/10. I’m still homeless, but at least I’m no longer sleeping on the streets.

    If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

    Yes, I want to do a Naira Life!

    Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

    Subscribe to the newsletter here.

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