Tife Oni, Author at Zikoko!

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.

Put your money to work with as little as ₦5,000. Invest Naija’s SEC-registered Money Market Fund delivers quarterly income, liquidity, capital preservation, and returns that beat savings and fixed deposits. Start here.

What’s your earliest memory of money?

This is probably not my earliest experience with money, but I remember how I used to get ₦100 daily for snacks in secondary school. Then I switched to a boarding school in SS 3, and only got access to cash on Sundays.

The school didn’t allow students to spend money during the weekdays, so getting my ₦500 – ₦1k bursary allowance every Sunday was my only opportunity to buy what I needed.

What about the first time you worked for money?

This was also in secondary school, but wasn’t exactly “work”. I’ve always liked fashion, and my parents allowed me to explore my interest. So, I started learning fashion design during the holidays in JSS 3.

My lawyer dad lived and worked in a different state, so whenever I spent school holidays with him, I continued my fashion design training in a different institute. I went to about three places in total. The practicals usually involved sewing simple designs and clothes, and I sold some to family. I mostly wore the rest of the clothes I made, though.

I got into business proper when I entered the university.

Tell me about that

I started a scarf business in 2023 when I was in 200/300 level. The business idea didn’t come out of necessity; my mum convinced me to try a business.

I received a ₦5k/week pocket money from home, and my parents still paid for my food, gas and school printing needs. So, I didn’t really need extra money.

My mum, though, is a businesswoman and she thought it’d be good for me, too. Also, I love scarves. I thought, “If I’m going to do this, it might as well be with something I like.”

I told my dad about my idea, and he gave me ₦100k to start. I can’t remember how much stock the money got me, but it was a lot. I got everything from crinkle scarves to jersey scarves, pashminas, and scarf accessories.

You were all set for business

I was, and business was good at first. My customers were fellow students, and my school is in a predominantly northern state, so sales were lucrative. I could buy a jersey scarf for ₦2500 and sell it for ₦3500.

The problem started when I needed to replace the items I sold. Almost every time I called my supplier for a replacement, she said that the price had increased by ₦500.

I also didn’t keep proper financial records or separate my profit from the business capital. I was just spending the money small small; ₦500 here, ₦1k there. I held on to the business for a year before stopping in 2024.

Did you try another business?

I didn’t, but by then, I’d found a different hustle: social media management and content creation.

Let me backtrack a bit. In 2023, I joined my school’s Google Developer Students community and volunteered on the media team for an event they held. I connected with several tech people in that community and became interested in opportunities in the industry, specifically front-end development. I like design, and the idea of coding something that could turn beautiful appealed to me.

I applied for a free training program, but the problem was that they taught us both front-end and back-end development together. The HTML and CSS part of the training was fine, but I got confused when we reached Python Programming. At some point, the training organisers brought out another option for just front-end development, and I joined, thinking I could start afresh. Then I heard the criteria were that prospective learners needed to know how to use the React programming language. I didn’t know that either, so I gave up.

Then I turned to Udemy courses and YouTube tutorials. But that was so stressful. Imagine watching tutorials and coding for hours, only to get a result different from what you just watched. I kept trying for about six months, but it became difficult to juggle it with schoolwork. So, I paused my learning efforts.

However, I maintained my participation in the Google community, and towards the end of 2023, I applied to be a core member of the management team. I got in, and my role was to help with content for the social media platforms. Interestingly, around the same time, I got another role to lead the social media team of another tech community in school.

Did you have any experience with social media management at this point?

Not exactly, which is why it was surprising that I got those roles. To be fair, I’d started creating random content on Instagram and TikTok, so I guess the community took it to mean I could lead a social media team.

I also had some knowledge from a beginner social media management course I took a while back. I didn’t know things like content strategy, but at least I knew the different platforms, and together with my team from both communities, we made it work. Wherever we attended events, we’d post summaries on LinkedIn and share the links on our WhatsApp statuses.

We also had different content types for different days of the week. For instance, we’d do motivational posts on Mondays, tips on Thursdays, spotlight people on Fridays, and so on.

These were volunteer roles, right?

Yes. I didn’t get paid for either, but it was valuable experience, and I learnt I was good at social media management. I also applied what I had learned to my personal social media pages and created better content.

By March 2024, I started applying for social media management jobs and internships. I wanted to experience working with an actual organisation and gain outside-school experience. I got a couple of rejections and unsuccessful interviews, which were understandable, as I was essentially a self-taught social media manager. But whenever an interview went badly, I went back to read up on the things I missed. I also learned how to perform better in interviews and maintain confidence.

My efforts paid off. In May, I landed a social media manager role with a book club. My job was to handle Instagram and TikTok, co-handle YouTube with another social media manager and manage the WhatsApp community.

How much was the pay?

₦30k/month. Honestly, I was happy because I wasn’t even looking for pay. I wanted something to validate my skill and was prepared for an unpaid internship.

Besides managing the social media platforms and communities, I often created short videos for the book club. Since I didn’t have an iPhone, I’d use my roommate’s phone to record the videos and send them to the book club’s video editor.

While at this job, I also managed schoolwork, two community leadership positions, a few other student communities, and my scarf business (which I stopped around the end of 2024).

How did you manage all these?

I like working in an overstimulated environment. I don’t know how to explain it, but I always want my brain to be active.

In July 2024, I added another content creation role to my list of responsibilities. I’d seen the vacancy on one of the communities I’m part of, and I applied with a portfolio of videos I’d created for my personal page. The portfolio was just a Google Drive where I dumped the links of every video I shared online. The job paid ₦50k, and I had to show up at the office once or twice weekly to shoot videos.

When I first started, I had to borrow my friend’s iPhone to shoot videos. I eventually gathered ₦100k to buy an iPhone XR (it cost about ₦250k, and my dad paid the rest), but there was a lot of back and forth I had to do in the beginning, so that I could create good videos.

I worked there until January 2025, when my employer let me go because they wanted someone who didn’t have to divide their time with school. I’d also left the book club a month earlier because I wanted something bigger.

So, you didn’t have any paying jobs at this time?

I was doing several stints at different places. I’m not sure there was a point when I had just one job or none at all.

Back in September, I had a one-month stint with someone who was supposed to pay me ₦100k/month to manage several social media accounts and create video moodboards to guide the video editor. I say “supposed” because I didn’t get any salary.

After I completed the first month and didn’t see any money, I asked, and they said they paid salaries at the end of the following month. This meant I wouldn’t get my September salary until the end of October. Funny enough, they’d noted this in the employment contract, but I somehow overlooked it. Anyway, I just told them I wasn’t doing again.

When I left the book club in December, I tweeted about manifesting a new job and got two jobs from that post. Around the same time, someone else also referred me to another job. I resumed all three jobs in January. Two were social media management roles, and one was for video editing.

Mad o. I’m still trying to wrap my head around why and how you do multiple gigs at once

Haha. Like I said, I just like being active. It’s not like I need the money for survival. I’m just building the life I want. I can manage multiple roles at once, so I do them.

There are sometimes downsides to doing so many things simultaneously, though. For instance, I only spent about five months altogether at the three jobs I started in January. I was getting overworked, and the pay wasn’t great.

The video editing one paid me ₦50k/month to edit one YouTube video and four shorts weekly. I still designed thumbnails and carousels. One of the social media management roles paid ₦70k/month, and I was also something like a virtual assistant. I left that one in the same January.

The third job paid me ₦80k/month to manage three platforms, but I did far more than what I was employed to do. Also, the communication process was draining. I’d need something urgently, and no one would respond. By May, I’d left all of them.

Phew. How many jobs are you juggling these days?

I’m currently working two jobs: a ₦150k/month social media management role I started in May and a ₦75k/month video editing role I started in June. Also, I often get paid for influencing on my personal page. Most of this “pay” is PR packages, but I did get a ₦200k gig sometime in March.

Additionally, I offer training sessions based on request. The last one I held was a content creation class for six people, and I charged ₦50k per person. I still need to figure out a proper structure for these classes, so I’m not pushing them aggressively yet. Maybe next year.

Then I maintain my social media team lead role at one of my tech communities in school, but I’ve mostly scaled down my community volunteering.

I should mention that I still get a weekly allowance from my parents, which has increased to ₦8k weekly.

What kind of lifestyle does your income afford you?

I typically don’t spend from my income; most of my money goes into savings. Now that I earn ₦225k, I save about ₦150k and divide the rest across app subscriptions, data and maybe takeout when I feel lazy to cook. I don’t really spend money like that.

Let’s break down these expenses in a typical month

I don’t have a fixed amount for food and transportation because I spend as I go. My transport costs are typically for when I need to move around school, and that’s just about ₦100 a day.

I hired a virtual assistant in June because I needed help with work due to a class I had at the time. She’s quite efficient, and I plan to increase her pay. The only thing keeping me from doing that now is that I still struggle with delegating tasks, so she doesn’t do so much.

How would you describe your relationship with money?

I think I save a lot because I don’t have a big spending need at the moment. Again, I don’t need to earn to survive or pay school fees or anything like that. I’m just earning money because I have a skill and can’t just leave it lying around.

I currently have about ₦730k saved up. It’d be more than that, but I dipped into my savings a few times between December and June to buy a Redmi tab and content creation tools like tripods (mini and normal size), LED lights, and a microphone. The tab cost me about ₦320k (including a keyboard and stylus pen), and the others cost about ₦104k in total.

I haven’t explored investing yet, but I might do so soon.

Do you think digital creation is an income source you’ll continue to explore after school?

I think I will, but I’m a little conflicted. I’m a law student, and by the time I graduate, I’ll have to give up all my jobs to focus on law school. I’ll probably return to creative work, but I want to practice law, too.

I also plan to restart my business soon, and my savings will be handy when I’m ready. I think I’ve learned from my early business mistakes, and I know better now, so I have a better shot.

Is there an ideal amount you think you should be earning?

I don’t earn badly, but considering my experience and how much I put into work, ₦700k – ₦1m monthly should be a decent amount. That said, I’m not actively job-hunting just to increase my income. I’m open to opportunities to increase my income, but I’m no longer just taking any job for the sake of it.

I have much more clarity on what I do and how to charge for my work. I’m no longer taking jobs where I have to manage multiple platforms, and if I have to, I should get paid well for that level of work.

I get that. Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

Travel. I want to travel and see places, but I can’t afford that now. However, I’m doing well for my age, so I don’t want to rush myself. I have time to grow into that level.

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

Right now, it’s a 5. Around the beginning of the year, all my multiple jobs brought my income to around ₦500k, so ₦225k feels like a downgrade now.

However, I have two more gigs lined up for September, so my income should reach the ₦650k mark by the end of the month. That’s good, I guess.

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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When 20-year-old Layla* created a YouTube channel in January 2025, it was going to be a side hustle for the occasional extra cash. Instead, she found early success — really fast. Seven months in, she’s steadily raking millions monthly from her faceless YouTube channel. Here’s how she did it.

As Told To Boluwatife

My YouTube “career” started as a barely-thought-out idea. I use “career” loosely because I’m nowhere close to being an expert. I’m a 400-level medical student who just wanted a side hustle. Somehow, I got monetised in three months, made ₦6m in the following three and now earn at least ₦1m/month.

How I Started

In late 2024, I started considering doing something extra besides my regular school schedule. This “ginger” came from reading Naira Life stories about other medical students making money from side hustles. I wasn’t the best person at tech or business, but their stories challenged me, and I began searching for options that could work for me.

I found one on Facebook.

One day, while doomscrolling on the app — yes, I’m that Gen Z who still uses Facebook unapologetically — I found a video of someone talking about creating on YouTube. Over the next two months, Facebook’s algorithm recommended similar videos. I also joined a YouTubers’ community where creators discussed their channels, content and growth.

In January 2025, I decided to try YouTube content myself. While I hadn’t decided on a niche, I knew I wanted a faceless channel. I love to talk, but showing my face or doing voiceovers required filming and editing, and medical school wouldn’t give me that time.

I already knew how to edit videos with CapCut, and many people online were creating storytelling-type content. They’d script, then create images and voice-overs with AI, edit the clips, and post. I could do that with CapCut.

The first niche I tried out was motivational storytelling. My first video had 81 views in two days, which wasn’t a flop. But most of the views came from Indians, which was bad. Participating in the YouTuber community taught me that channels with predominantly Indian and Nigerian viewers made less money than those with viewers from countries like the US, UK, and Australia.

I hadn’t even told anyone I’d created a channel because I wanted the YouTube algorithm to do its thing. See, I’d learned that, as a creator, you don’t want your audience to be your family members or friends.

The algorithm brings your audience to you if you use the right keywords and hashtags and provide value. It’s better that way because you have an engaged audience. So, I didn’t need to beg people around me to view my content to boost my numbers. Everything I’d seen from the community pointed to one thing: It’s better to trust the algorithm and optimise for an audience from the right countries.

In other words, I had to try another niche. I abandoned that channel, took a break and opened another one in February.

Trying Out A Different Content Direction

For the new channel, I explored other genres of storytelling. I studied different content types: billionaire stories, family stories, and even stories about black people.

I settled on revenge stories.

Writing comes easily to me, and I felt like I wouldn’t have problems finding revenge plots to write about.

After picking out the niche, I began to research. I used tools like TubeBuddy and vidIQ to research popular keywords and hashtags for revenge stories on YouTube. Then, I studied similar creators to observe their style, patterns, how they created their videos, posting schedules, everything.

I didn’t focus on big channels. This group already has an established audience, so they don’t need to do much to get views. Instead, I focused on medium-sized channels and creators with between 1000 and 10,000 subscribers.

The idea wasn’t to copy them. I just needed to figure out why people watched their content. And I did. I noticed that a big part of the “draw” came from their thumbnails and titles, so I implemented that in my own content.

My first video did 600 views in about four days. It was so wild to me. I didn’t tell anyone about my channel, yet 600 people I didn’t know were watching and commenting. It was a confirmation that I was on the right track.

I was writing my professional exams around this time, but I made time to post at least once daily. Scripting the stories was the most taxing part, but editing was straightforward. I’d just create AI images for the footage and have CapCut read the script with the AI voice.

Sometimes, it was difficult to keep to my schedule, but my views kept increasing daily, and the progress was consistent. I had no choice but to be consistent.

ALSO READ: 55 Ways To Make Money Online, Offline and from Home as a Nigerian

Getting Monetised

I started the channel in February, and by the first week in May, I had reached the 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours threshold to get monetised. Reaching the watch hour threshold was very easy; it was the subscriber condition that even took me that long. I know people who spent years trying to hit the monetisation milestone, and I got there in less than three months.

Monetisation wasn’t entirely seamless, though. YouTubers get paid through Google Adsense, and to set up my account, I needed to verify my identity. I didn’t have a government ID, and apparently, YouTube doesn’t recognise NIN slips. I heard some people who tried to verify with NIN had their accounts banned, so I didn’t even try it.

I tried to get a voter’s card, but the INEC office I visited told me they only print cards during election season. The workers there even laughed at me and said, “Even if you go to Abuja, you won’t get anything.” I still wonder what the staff do when there are no elections.

In the end, I used my dad’s driver’s license to verify my account so I wouldn’t miss the 20-day deadline YouTube gave for the verification. So, technically, it’s his channel; the money only enters my account.

This is how I make money: YouTube pays based on the number of people who watch my videos. They determine this via two metrics: CPM, which is what advertisers pay, and RPM, which is what YouTube pays after removing their cut. I think YouTube collects 45%, but they don’t show how they split this on the backend.

After YouTube monetised my channel, I noticed I could see my earnings update daily. I remember seeing that I made $20 (about ₦30k) in one day and excitedly estimating I’d make about ₦900k by the end of May.

The thing about YouTube payments being dependent on views is that, you can’t exactly estimate how much you’ll actually make. By the end of May, I made over ₦1.5m.

It was surreal. I told my mum, “Put some respect on my name. You can’t be telling me to wash plates. I earn six figures now.”

In June, I made ₦1.7m, and then around ₦2.8m in July. It’s safe to say a minimum of ₦1m is the baseline, and I’ve never done anything to promote my channel. I just research keywords, write my stories, and post them at least once a day. Some of my videos now do over 200,000 views.

Future Plans

YouTube is very much in my future. I’m considering starting a new channel in addition to this one, most likely with my face. My challenge with that is, no matter the niche I choose, my audience will most likely be Nigerian because of my face and voice.

It might be depressing to compare how much lower the income from that channel will be, especially since I’m used to earning from American viewers, but I may just do it for the love of yapping.

I’ll be in medical school until 2029 — I’m already so over it — so it’ll take a lot of deliberate effort to create content around my schedule, but I honestly love it.

No matter how stressed I get from presenting patients and collecting unnecessary insults, it all just melts away when I pick up my phone to edit. Even when I get creative blocks, I only need to see what others are doing or log on to YouTube Studio for content inspiration.

It also doesn’t hurt that YouTube pays well. I’ve gone from being overly frugal to spontaneously treating myself to things I enjoy. I hang out with friends more, and I treat my family too. I still save more than I spend, though. I currently have about ₦2.9m in savings and am also working towards building a dollar savings portfolio.

I also want to get into investments, but the more I read about options, the more confused I get. I’m also a bit of a scaredy-cat. I’ll literally cry if I put my money in anything and it crashes.

Right now, I’m taking things one day at a time, and I like my progress. I love what I do, and I know what my future career path looks like. I’ll most likely end up working in media or as an on-air personality while having my YouTube channels on the side.

I can say for sure, though: A hospital is nowhere in the future I envision.

*Subject’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

NEXT READ: How I Built a £100K Stock Market Portfolio 2 Years After Moving to the UK

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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.

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

How long have you been with your partner?

We started dating in 2013 and got married in 2021. That’s 12 years in total.

How did you meet?

We were in the same faculty at uni, and I used to see her around. She was my spec: slim and dark skin. I liked her, but I didn’t approach her. Instead, I asked a friend who stayed in her hostel to send me her Twitter handle. I started following her, but didn’t initiate a conversation until a few weeks later.

She already knew I liked her at this point because I’d already told mutual friends, and they kept hinting at it. One time, during a general course lecture, Fiyin sat beside my friend, and I sat beside them. I started telling the guy about my feelings for her, you know, just to make him aware. The guy literally tapped her, pointed to me and said, “My guy likes you.” I just bent my head.

I’m screaming

Fiyin complained about my many “hints” to a mutual friend. Thankfully, the friend encouraged her not to cancel me just yet. I finally reached out to her on Twitter and asked for her BBM pin (BlackBerrys were still trending in 2012), and we started chatting.

We got along pretty quickly. We’d go for walks in the faculty, and she’d laugh at my dry jokes. All my friends loved her. It was great. I formally asked her out a few months later in 2013, just to make things official. We were both in 300 level at this time.

Here for the undergraduate love. What was your financial situation, though?

We both lived on pocket money. I got mine from my dad, but it wasn’t stable. Sometimes he’d send ₦5k, other days, he’d send ₦20k. Fiyin got pocket money from both her mum and dad. I’m not sure how much, though.

That said, we didn’t pressure each other to buy stuff or go on dates. Fiyin wasn’t billing me or anything like that. I did go all out on her birthdays, though. For her last birthday in uni, I bought a huge card for ₦1,500 and got all her friends to write on it. I also bought her a cake for ₦5k and a pair of flat shoes for ₦5k.

We graduated in 2014 and served the NYSC year in neighbouring states. It wasn’t long-distance, though, because she always visited on the weekends. I was sharing an apartment with a cousin then, so Fiyin would just stay over.

Who paid for these trips?

Fiyin paid for them herself. It took me about a year to land my first real job after NYSC. To be honest, the delay was because of me. I was very picky about where I wanted to work. I eventually picked a contract role at a telecoms company for ₦97k/month in 2016. I was on that salary for about four years. At one point, it even reduced to ₦85k.

My relationship with Fiyin was going great, but I didn’t feel financially stable enough to progress beyond dating. Fiyin wasn’t pressuring me either. Plus, our incomes were similar. Between 2016 and 2018, she earned ₦60k. Then she got a bank job and moved to around ₦90k.

Our financial situation started to improve in 2019. I got a permanent role at my job, and my salary increased to ₦437k. Fiyin also got a promotion and a salary bump to ₦195k. By 2021, when we finally felt ready for marriage, we earned ₦600k and ₦256k, respectively.

How did you both handle wedding expenses?

It was a joint effort, but I took on more of the expenses since I earned more. Before the wedding, I lived with my parents, which helped me save a whole lot. I was just investing my money in mutual funds and Risevest.

We also got a lot of financial support from friends. Our wedding cost us about ₦14m, but only ₦4m of that amount was our own money. It was surprising because we didn’t even actively ask people for support.

Then we got our three-bedroom apartment for ₦2.850m (₦2m/year without the agent fees). Interestingly, we only got the place two weeks before our wedding and didn’t move in until a few weeks after, because, between 2020 and 2021, Fiyin lived with me in my parents’ house. Her own parents left the country, so she had to stay with me. My parents are liberal, and they didn’t have a problem with that. So, there was a point after our wedding when we had to return to my parents’ house because our apartment wasn’t ready.

Back to the present day. How do you both run your home’s finances?

Our rent has doubled since then — it’s now ₦4m — but our income has also increased. Fiyin joined my workplace in 2023 and now earns ₦1.2m/month, while I earn ₦1.7m. We also have a child now.

I pay rent, and Fiyin pays the ₦600k/year service charge. Once salary enters, we immediately take out our savings — ₦1m for me and ₦500k – ₦700k for her — convert them to dollars immediately and leave them in a Risevest account.

Then we use the rest to sort out bills and home expenses. Sometimes I pay when we go shopping, and other times she pays. I fuel the car, she fuels the car too. We just handle everything together.

What kind of money conversations do you both have?

We often discuss personal development. For instance, when Fiyin worked at the bank, I noticed she couldn’t keep up with her savings because she didn’t earn much. So, I started helping her apply for roles in my company because I knew they’d pay her more. It took a couple of tries, but she eventually got in, and our finances and savings have improved jointly.

Speaking of savings, we also discuss our plans for saving and investing. We’re both prudent savers, so it’s easy for us to be on the same page. I should also mention that we’re in the middle of a Canada relocation process, and our joint savings played a big role in making that happen.

Oh. Tell me more about the relocation bit

We went through the Express Entry route and got Permanent Residency early this year. We didn’t actually think japa would happen so soon. We had it in mind, and I had done IELTS and WES, but it wasn’t exactly top of mind until someone told my wife about a category-based selection for people who worked in transport.

My wife works in finance, and transport is under finance. She had experience interacting with suppliers and other transport guys, so we entered the Entry Pool with that and got the Invitation to Apply (ITA) in a month. It was quite shocking.

Anyway, we travelled in July for a soft landing, spent a month, and are now back to prepare to relocate fully next year.

Congrats! What’s “soft landing,” though?

So, when you get your Permanent Residency (PR), Canada gives you a specific number of days to land in the country, or else they’ll revoke the PR status. A “Soft landing” is when you travel within that period to complete the necessary documentation, get the PR card, open bank accounts, and spend some money to increase your credit score before you’re actually ready to relocate.

So, that’s what we did. I honestly can’t remember all we spent on the whole process because it was a lot of random bills. However, I can estimate we spent around ₦5m for the applications and WES evaluations and gathered 34,000 CAD (around ₦38m) for our proof of funds. We dipped into the proof of funds for the soft landing trip and spent about $5,000 on the trip and other expenses, including a $1,000 gift to the relative we lived with for the month we spent there.

All this came from your joint savings?

Yes. Everything.

Safe to say it was a case of “opportunity meets preparation”?

It was exactly that.

Nice. You both seem to run like a well-oiled engine. Do you even have money-related conflicts?

Haha. Not really. There’s the occasional complaint when I borrow money from Fiyin and don’t return it quickly or at all. It’s more banter than conflict sha.

Do you still have a safety net? Considering you’re using your savings for the proof of funds

Well, we’re still saving. We’re moving for good next year, so we’ll still save our salaries, leave allowances and bonuses, and sell our cars and some property in our house to top up what we already have.

I estimate we’ll travel to Canada with at least $65k. That should keep us afloat in case there are any delays in finding jobs. I applied for some jobs (and got some rejections) while we were in Canada just to get a sense of how they worked. I intend to begin serious applications about three or four months before our move. I’m positive we’ll find something before we move.

Rooting for you. What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?

I’m not greedy; I just want us to have a $5m net worth. If we have that in S&P 500 stocks and consistently receive 14% returns, that’s about $700k in yearly interest, which is essentially extra money. We won’t even need that much to survive in a year.

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

*Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.

NEXT READ: The Mechanic Cohabiting With His Common Law Partner on a ₦70k/Month Income

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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.

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What’s your earliest memory of money?

In Primary 5, I was sent home for not paying school fees and was only allowed to return after my dad begged. I think he settled with the school authorities to pay half first and the rest later. That was the first time I realised how important money was.

That incident wasn’t a one-off. Throughout secondary school, I continued to experience cases of delayed fee payments.

What was the financial situation like at home?

Things were somewhat stable when my dad had a 9-5 job at a newspaper. Then, he left to start his own business around the time I started to get sent out of school. I know he tried several businesses — textiles, fashion, tiles and making art pieces — but the money wasn’t great, so we lived off my mum’s nursing income.

We went from three meals a day to two, and then one. Sometimes, I wouldn’t get money to buy food at school. That’s when it clicked that “Omo, e don dey red.” I mean, we were surviving, but barely.

When was the first time you worked for money?

That’s after secondary school. I graduated in 2011 and spent almost five years trying to get admission into the university.

In my first year at home, I started going to a prevarsity programme. Someone introduced it to my mum, and it was supposed to prepare students for A-levels, which we could use to study abroad or gain direct entry into a Nigerian university. I met people richer than me in that institution, and I started thinking about making money.

At that point, my mum sold female hair accessories, so I offered to sell some of them at school to make small profit here and there. For instance, if one hair clip was ₦800, I’d sell it at ₦1k and keep the ₦200 difference. Sometimes, I kept the full ₦1k and didn’t return my mum’s capital. It was wrong, but I was a stubborn child. I wanted to use the money to show off in school.

Was the business lucrative?

It was fairly lucrative. At first, I felt a little weird selling female stuff. People also looked at me weird. However, I decided I couldn’t be ashamed of whatever I put my hands into. If I didn’t sell, I wouldn’t make money. So, I just did it, and with time, people warmed up to me. They saw I was just being industrious. Also, I sold what they needed.

I sold the hair accessories for a few months until my mum stopped selling them. Then, I decided to sell jewellery. I bought necklaces and other pieces from the Hausa sellers in the market and resold them in school for a small profit. I can’t remember how much I was making, but I know it wasn’t serious money. It was just enough to buy food for myself and my friends, watch football at viewing centres, cut my hair, and cover other small expenses.

I did that for about a year and stopped when I realised I wasn’t doing well in school. At this point, I had failed twice in the prevarsity. It was supposed to be a nine-month to one-year program, but I’d already spent two years. Most people I knew had gotten their A-levels and gone on to Russia, Ukraine, and other countries for their studies. I was ashamed, so I left the school to try a pre-degree somewhere else. This was in 2013.

I guess this attempt wasn’t successful

It wasn’t. In 2014, I abandoned pre-degree and A-levels and started taking JAMB lessons. I wasn’t trying anything for money at this point because I just wanted to enter uni.

Also, the financial toll of trying different programs to get into uni started telling on my mum. She had to pay my fees and those of my siblings who were still in secondary school. On top of that, she had to return to school herself for added certification to get promoted. So, everywhere was tight.

I passed JAMB that year, but didn’t get into uni. I tried again in 2015, and my efforts were finally successful.

Phew. Finally

Finally o. In my first year, I met a fashion designer in school. He didn’t actually make clothes; he’d design the outfit, measure the person, buy the materials, then give it to a tailor to sew. He essentially made money from the designs and from buying the materials.

I sort of “interned” with him to learn how he ran the business. He told me I needed to start by making designs for myself, and potential clients would reach out when they saw what they liked. So, out of the ₦5k – ₦10k allowance I received from home and the occasional urgent ₦2k from my aunt, I’d squeeze out money to design two or three shirts for myself.

It worked. People started asking about my shirts, and I told them I could make some for them too. That’s how it became a business. I’d mix different materials like jeans, ankara and plain shirts and sell between ₦8k – ₦15k. I typically made ₦1k – ₦2k profit on each.

How long did this business last?

I did it throughout my time in uni. It was a regular source of income and it really helped me survive in school. In fact, in my final year, the business earned me first ₦100k after I got a mini-contract to design varsity jackets for final-year celebrations. That money went towards settling my final year project.

After I finished uni in 2019, I had two options: go full-on into fashion or attend a media school. I chose fashion and tried to learn how to sew with some fashion designers in my area, but they didn’t take me seriously. I didn’t learn much, so I decided to just go to media school instead.

Why was media school the alternative?

I had seen the poster somewhere, and participants were supposed to learn about radio and TV presentation. Growing up, I loved listening to the radio and watching football. One time, in 300 level, I heard a presenter talking about sports on the radio, and I remember thinking, “I can learn this thing.” So, the interest kinda grew from there.

Also, I’ve always been quite creative. I wrote poetry in school and attended all the poetry events in the city. Media school felt like the right next step. Also, I’d prayed about it and felt God leading me in that direction.

That said, I still needed money to enrol. The school charged ₦80k for the five-six month-long training, and I didn’t have that.

So, how did you go about it?

I approached someone I’d met from my poetry days and told him I wanted to work with him. He had a tech business, where he taught children how to code with Scratch. He agreed to take me on, showed me the ropes, and I started teaching the kids for ₦20k/month.

I agreed with the media school to pay the training fee in installments and only attend classes on the weekends or during my off days. Four months into the training, COVID hit and everywhere closed down. I had to stop working at the tech business, but my media training continued online.

The owner of the media school had an online radio station, and as part of my training, he got me to come on board as the sports presenter. Every day, I recorded a 10-minute sports show and sent it to him, then he edited it and put it online. I wasn’t getting paid for this, but it was an opportunity to perfect my craft.

How did you survive this period without an income then?

I’d returned to live with my parents after graduating from uni, so I was just eating at home. I also got small ₦10k or data gifts here and there from participating in poetry and short story competitions on WhatsApp groups.

Instagram Lives were also pretty popular during COVID, and since I was active in these WhatsApp groups and they knew I was a radio presenter, they often asked me to host the live sessions. This typically came with some payment too. That’s how I survived that period.

In June 2020, I saw a job advert for a sports presenter for a radio station. I applied and got the job.

Whoosh! What was the pay?

At first, my employer said ₦50k/month. But after the first month, they reduced it to ₦25k.

Ah. Why?

Radio stations typically make money from adverts. My employer was an online radio station, and they struggled with landing adverts, so no money.

The ₦25k was small, but I didn’t mind. I was doing what I loved. I worked there until January 2021, when I went for NYSC. For my service year, my dad connected me with someone who got me a teller job at a bank. I made ₦50k/month from that, plus the ₦33k from NYSC.

A few months into my service year, the owner of the media school I trained at called and told me about a brand that wanted to do an entertainment show on the radio. The show was to be on an indigenous radio station in the state I served in, and was to last for six months. They were willing to pay ₦80k/month. Of course, I jumped at it.

My broadcast schedule was mostly Wednesday evenings, so I was able to juggle the show with my job at the bank. I even started volunteering at another radio station, hosting their sports show thrice a week. They didn’t pay me; I just did it for the love of the game.

Let’s not forget the three income sources

Haha yes. The money coming from those made it possible to explore the sports journalism thing. I lived on the income from NYSC and the entertainment show, while I saved my salary from the bank. Sometimes I touched the savings sha.

At the end of service year in 2022, I had about ₦300k in savings. I used ₦100k to buy a phone and invested the rest in crypto because a friend convinced me to do it. I didn’t understand anything about crypto, but I went ahead to put my money in Cardano and Shiba Inu. Instead of the money to be “going up”, it was just going down.

Yikes

I wanted to remove my money, but my friend told me to wait for the crypto to bounce back. He even told me my crypto could be worth $100k in two months if I just played the long-term game. In summary, I lost everything in six months.

Sorry about that

Thanks. I returned to my home state and started living with my cousin. From there, I applied to another radio station and got a job as a sports presenter for ₦50k/month.

I had minimal responsibilities — I only had to contribute for food expenses and pay for cable TV because of my job — but I was always broke by the middle of the month. To save transport costs, I’d sometimes sleep at the office or trek for a bit before taking public transport. I wasn’t able to save at all.

Things started to look up in 2023 when I got two recurring gigs to write sports articles. The first one paid ₦90k/month, and the other paid ₦4k per article, which I later negotiated to ₦7k. I typically did three articles weekly for the latter. In a month, I was making around ₦180k from the writing gigs.

Not bad at all

The pay was good, but towards the end of 2023, it became difficult to juggle all of the jobs. I also took on occasional football commentary gigs where I’d travel to work at live football games. Those gigs came at least twice a month and brought me ₦50k per game.

I was doing a whole lot. So, I decided to let go of my job at the radio. They’d refused to increase my salary and the job took almost all my time. I focused my energy on the commentary and writing gigs. At least, those ones brought me about ₦280k/month.

What were your expenses like at this time?

I was definitely spending more money. As my income increased, I started sending money home to my parents and siblings. I had a girlfriend — who’s now my fiancée — and it wasn’t difficult to get her stuff anymore. I also started saving ₦50k monthly for my own apartment and another ₦50k for my wedding fund.

In January 2024, I landed a sports producer role at a TV channel and had to move to Lagos. I stayed with a family friend for four months before I gathered enough money to rent an apartment. I got my place for ₦650k/year (₦1m when you include the initial agent fees) and spent an extra ₦500k for a fridge, bed frame, kitchen cabinet, fan and a few other things. I still don’t have all the furniture I need.

How much did the new job pay?

₦250k/month. I still kept my two content writing gigs and occasional football commentary gigs, so those typically brought my monthly income to around ₦600k.

Towards the end of 2024, the multiple jobs started to take a toll on me again. One of the writing jobs started a daily meeting thing, and my TV job also required my full attention. I couldn’t make mistakes because it’d show on TV and be really obvious. Travelling for football matches across the country for the commentary also took so much time.

So, I left the commentary gigs first, and in February this year, I left the ₦90k writing job to reduce my workload. Funny enough, the second writing job just told me in July that they needed to restructure, so they wouldn’t need my services anymore after this August.

Ah. So you’re down to one job?

Yes o. It’s just my 9-5 now; my only income is my ₦250k salary. Well, I’m expecting my last ₦90k – ₦100k from the writing job at the end of the month, but that’s it. In case you have a job, I’m seriously looking.

Phew. How does it feel to go from multiple income sources to one?

Honestly, it’s scary. I’m getting married in a few weeks. You feel like you have what it takes for the next phase, or at least something to manage, and suddenly everything just changes.

I’m scared, but I can’t afford to process my emotions or drop the ball. I’m already sending out CVs everywhere and searching for the next opportunity.

I’ve also made many lifestyle changes. I used to eat out a lot, but I cook more now and only eat once a day. My food expenses have dropped from ₦70k to ₦40k. I now calculate everything I spend on transportation to the last kobo. I’ve also stopped going out for no reason.

Let’s break down these expenses for a typical month

This is based on my current strict budgeting

You mentioned a wedding fund. How’s that looking?

My fiancée and I both save jointly for the fund. We estimated we’d need ₦3m for the wedding, and we’ve reached that amount. We’re already spending out of it to pay the wedding bills, too. I think we’ve spent about ₦1.5m.

Out of curiosity, do you think you’d still spend the full ₦3m on the wedding? Considering your new financial situation

That’s an interesting question. I don’t think I have much of a choice, really. My fiancée’s family lives in a much farther state and we’ll need to travel there. Just one person’s round-trip flight costs ₦200k.

The wedding is already happening. We already planned to spend this amount, and we have to go on. Instead of dwelling on the wedding expenses, I’d rather dwell on how to make more money legally.

How much do you think you should ideally be earning right now?

Considering my experience in radio, digital content and TV, I should ideally earn around ₦700k – ₦1m. But if you have a job paying ₦250k or ₦400k, I’ll collect.

How would you describe your relationship with money?

I really don’t know. I just know I get scared when my account drops to ₦50k, which usually happens before the 17th of the month. Now, I don’t even have up to ₦30k, but I don’t have time to be scared. I’m just leaving everything to God.

As for my financial lifestyle, I think I live below my means. Even before I lost these jobs, I didn’t spend money on things just because other people did. I don’t try to impress others. I just do what I can.

Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

A car. It’ll probably cost me at least ₦12m, and I don’t have that.

Is there anything you’d like to be better at financially?

I want to be better at investing. I’m 30 now, and I want to be financially independent by the time I reach 35 – 40. I don’t want to be fully reliant on a 9-5 job at that age.

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

7. I’m grateful for where God has brought me, but I also want more.

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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No one expects that the people they trust, love, and consider family could be the ones to stab them in the back. But the harsh reality is, sometimes the biggest betrayals come from those closest to us.

We spoke to five Nigerians who lost money to loved ones they trusted. From the mum who lost her life savings to her daughter to the woman whose boyfriend made her fund an imaginary business, their stories show what happens when trust turns toxic.

**“My daughter emptied my account and gave all my money to her boyfriend” — Nike*, 64**

I’m typically very cautious of my bank account and everything money-related because I always have plenty of money in my savings. My grown children send monthly allowances to me and my husband, so I hardly touch whatever I make from my tailoring business. My siblings also know how careful I am with money, so they always keep money they don’t want to touch with me.

To show the extent of how cautious I am with money, I take two buses to the only bank in my area to deposit or withdraw money as little as ₦5k. I can use a POS agent, but I don’t trust people like that. I’ve heard too many stories of fake alerts and 419 POS agents who can save your ATM card details to steal your money. I didn’t want to hear long story. The only person I trusted was my lastborn daughter.

She’s a uni student who lives in the hostel, but we’re still in the same city, so whenever I had to go to the bank, she followed me. I don’t know how to read too well, so my daughter helped me with the forms. She was like my handbag. Even my husband didn’t know my banking details or how much I had saved, but my daughter knew everything. She had my ATM card and would transfer money through a POS agent when I needed money. That was the only method I was comfortable with because I only had to meet the agent and collect money.

Around January 2024, I went to the bank to complain because I hadn’t gotten SMS alerts for about three months. This time, I went alone because my daughter wasn’t around. In fact, I’d been asking her to follow me to the bank since I noticed the issue, but she always gave one excuse or another. It turned out she did that on purpose.

When I got to the bank, I met the biggest shock of my life. All the money was gone. ₦2.2m of my siblings’ money and ₦1.1m of my own savings. ₦3m gone in three months. I thought they were joking. I even accused them of trying to scam me until they printed out my account statement and showed me transfers from my bank app to my daughter’s account number.

I started shaking immediately. I didn’t even have a bank app. I called my daughter, and when she heard I was in the bank, she ended the call and refused to pick up my calls. It took two weeks for her elder siblings to trace her in school. When they eventually found her, she confessed that she’d put the bank app with my details on my phone. It wasn’t the first time she stole from me. Wherever she was at home, she’d transfer to herself and delete the alert from my phone.

When she decided to “go big,” she totally removed SMS alerts and took all the money. When we asked her why, she claimed she was under a spell. Later, she confessed that her boyfriend needed a loan for his business and that he’d pay it back. It’s been over a year, and till today, we haven’t seen the boyfriend anywhere. It’s as if he disappeared. My daughter claims she doesn’t know where he is, but I don’t believe her. Her siblings want me to arrest her so the police can make her confess, but what if she gets harmed? She’s still my daughter.

I was heartbroken and sick for weeks after finding out — I’m still heartbroken — but I can’t throw my child away. It really pained me, and I still cry when I think about it. I can’t believe she could do that to me. My other children repaid the ₦2m debt to my siblings, but my relationship with my daughter isn’t the same anymore. I keep wondering where I went wrong in training her.

**“My friend sold me stolen iPhones” — Ayo*, 27**

My friend is a phone and gadget vendor at Computer Village, Ikeja, and I’ve trusted him for all my gadget needs for over six years. Sometimes, I didn’t even visit his store physically. I’d just tell him what I needed, send the money and have him deliver the item to me.

In February, a colleague wanted to buy UK-used iPhones for himself and his wife, and I convinced him to let me buy them from my friend. I bragged so much about my friend and claimed he was the only trustworthy person in Computer Village.

The phones cost ₦1.6m, and my colleague sent part of the money through me. This happened because my colleague had transfer limit issues after paying ₦1m, and I helped him pay the ₦600k balance. He repaid me the next day. I helped deliver the phones, and everyone was happy. My friend even gave me ₦50k to appreciate me bringing him business.

Less than a month later, wahala started. Apparently, my friend sold them stolen phones, and the owners tracked them down to my colleague. The police picked him up, and when they couldn’t find the seller (my friend), they picked me up too. They decided that since I was involved in the payment transaction, I must’ve planned it with my friend to sell stolen phones.

I narrowly escaped prison by settling the police with ₦250k and agreeing to repay my colleague his ₦1.6m by paying in instalments over one year. I’ve paid almost half of the money and still have a long way to go. I’m still trying to trace my friend, but other vendors in his area said he also scammed some other people, and they suspect he did that to japa.

I never imagined he’d do something like this to me. This is someone I once sent ₦2.5m for my laptop, and he sent it, all without me stepping out of my house. We’ve done bigger deals than ₦1.6m, and I trusted him for over six years. I guess you can’t completely know someone.

**“I lost ₦1m to an investment that my brother convinced me to join” — Fred*, 33**

In 2017, I had a windfall after my mum sold my late father’s house and shared the money with me, my siblings, and a few family members. My share of the money was ₦1.5m, and I wanted to invest it somewhere so I wouldn’t spend it anyhow.

I confided in my immediate elder brother, and he sold me dreams of a crypto project he was working on with a friend. I didn’t really understand the technicalities, but I trusted my brother. He claimed I’d get 20% interest monthly, even more if I kept the interest in the crypto and let my money compound.

So, I gave him ₦1m to invest in his project. He shared updates for the first two months and told me my money was growing. But six months later, he said the project crashed. I almost went mad, but I had no reason to doubt my brother. He was even hospitalised during that period because he fainted after claiming he also lost almost ₦5m.

Years passed, and I pushed the incident to the back of my mind. Then, in 2023, my brother jokingly admitted to lying about the crash. The revelation came out because we were laughing over our experiences with bad investments one day, and he talked about buying acres of land from a scammer in 2017. When I pointed out that it was the same year as the “crypto crash”, he admitted that the crypto didn’t crash; he’d just taken my money to “stabilise” because he’d lost so much from the bad land purchase.

I was so angry to hear that, and the whole thing turned into a huge fight. I didn’t talk to him for almost two years until my mum threatened to kill herself if we didn’t settle our fight. We’re on limited talking terms now, but I can’t truly forgive my brother for what he did.

**“My ex-bestfriend lied that her mum needed money for surgery” — Patricia*, 28**

Prior to 2023, Joy* and I had been best friends since university, and we shared everything. There was nothing we didn’t know about each other — or so I thought.

In 2023, Joy came to me and begged me for ₦600k, claiming that her mum urgently needed it for eye surgery. I knew her mum had eye problems and the doctor had recommended surgery, but I didn’t know her mum had agreed to it. I was earning just a little over ₦150k/month from my social media management job at the time and had only ₦80k in savings, but I was ready to borrow money to help my friend.

Joy had come through for me multiple times when we were in uni, and we’d had reasons to lend each other money over the years. It wasn’t strange for her to come to me with a money need. So, I borrowed ₦600k from my bank and gave it to her.

After I gave her the money, I kept asking Joy when the surgery would happen, but she kept giving me excuses. At some point, she was like, “Is it because you borrowed me money that you’re following up like this? Don’t worry, I’ll find your money.” I ended up apologising, insisting I didn’t mean it that way. Around that same period, Joy got a new iPhone. She claimed it was a gift from a sugar daddy who wanted to date her. I even encouraged her to return the phone if she didn’t want anything to do with the man. I didn’t know it was my money she used to buy the phone.

I only realised the truth three months later when Joy’s mum called me because she couldn’t reach Joy. After promising to make sure Joy called her, I asked if she’d finally gotten a date for eye surgery. The woman was like, “Which surgery? I told you people I’m not doing surgery.”

When I confronted Joy, she tried to deny it until I threatened to tell her mum about it. Then she started begging me, claiming she really needed the phone for content and that she’d pay me back. I wasn’t ready for long stories. I seized the phone, and that’s how our friendship ended. Good riddance.

**“I funded my boyfriend’s ghost business for months” — Princess*, 38**

Kunle* and I dated for seven months in 2019, and from month one, he was carrying me along and giving me updates about his furniture import business. He even showed me documents and transactions. Foolishly, I thought, “Finally, here’s a man serious about business and sees a future with us.” That guy really put in effort to make his business look legit. I already had visions of us becoming a power couple.

So, when he told me he had issues with customs at the border four months into the relationship, I was only too ready to help. I “borrowed” him ₦550k to settle customs. That’s how the billing started; ₦200k here, ₦800k there. The funny thing is that he was paying me back, so I missed the red flags. His strategy was to pay me back the small amounts, so I’d trust him enough to give larger amounts when he asked.

When he finally ghosted me at the seven-month mark, he took my ₦2.2m along. Of course, the business turned out to be fake. I tried to find him but gave up after a few months. This will sound funny, but it wasn’t even the money that pained me; it was my pride. I always took pride in being street-smart, but one man used old tactics to scam me. I couldn’t even tell anyone.

*We’ve changed the subjects’ names for anonymity, and their responses have been slightly edited for clarity and grammar.

NEXT READ: I Was My Family’s Breadwinner. Then I Got Laid Off for Getting Pregnant

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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.

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

How long have you been with your partner?

Deola and I have lived together since 2020.

How did you meet?

She was learning sewing work with a tailor near my workshop. I noticed she wasn’t like the other girls there, who used to joke carelessly with men in the area. In fact, one of the other mechanics in my workshop always complained that Deola never answered him, even though he tried different styles to “toast” her.

She was just quiet, and that character made her fine in my eyes. So, I started to pursue her too.

But she was notorious for ignoring everyone. What made you sure she’d say yes?

I wasn’t sure o. But those other men just wanted to sleep with her, and I think women know when men only want that. Me, I wanted her to be my woman, not just a one-time thing. Instead of telling her straight that I liked her, I started by being friendly and buying her food.

An amala seller used to hawk amala in our area, and whenever she came, I’d ask Deola if she’d eaten. Sometimes, she’d say, “Yes,” because she didn’t want me to buy her food. But most times, she’d let me buy it. The food wasn’t cost sef — around ₦500 – ₦700 per plate. Small small, we started talking and that’s how we started seeing each other.

When did you start living together?

The lockdown happened a few weeks after we started seeing each other, but Deola didn’t have transport money to return to her parents’ house in a different state. She also had no family in Ibadan and didn’t want to live with her oga anymore. The oga was like a family friend, so Deola’s parents sent her to live there and learn tailoring work. But the oga was also giving her housemaid work and beating her anyhow.

So, when COVID came, I just told Deola to come and stay with me in my room and parlour. I would’ve given her money to travel, but I was also broke that period. We thought she’d just stay for some time while I gathered money to help her continue learning tailoring with someone else.

But even after I gave her ₦50k to start learning with another tailor later in the year, she still stayed back. It didn’t make sense for her to be looking for friends to live with again. Also, she was pregnant.

Oh.

Yes. So, we’ve just stayed together since then. We now have two children, and Deola has her own tailor shop.

So, you’re married?

We’ve not done wedding sha, but everybody knows she’s my wife and I’m her husband. Her parents also know me, and she’s the mother of my children. Wedding is long story, and I think it’s just a waste of money. It’s not until we buy clothes and feed people before we’ll accept that we’re married.

Right. Does Deola share the same sentiment?

She still wants to do a wedding, but that’s not my priority now. I’ll be the one to pay for it, abi? Maybe if I ever get plenty money in the future, I can consider it. But I still don’t think it’s necessary.

How do you both run your home’s finances?

My work is not always sure. Today, I can make ₦15k from one car, but tomorrow can come and I’ll not see anybody. So, I drop money for food every week. Sometimes ₦8k or ₦10k, and Deola will add her own money if it’s not enough.

We moved to a bigger one-bedroom apartment last year, and I pay the ₦250k/year rent. I do a ₦20k monthly ajo contribution to pay for that. I also pay the ₦50k/year rent for Deola’s shop and other small small bills at home.

My first child is in school, but let me tell you the truth, I don’t even know how much school fees are. I just drop like ₦10k or ₦15k every time Deola starts asking me for school fees. I know she still needs to add her money to complete it.

I’m lucky I have a woman like Deola. She’s always ready to support me. How would I have survived if she was always disturbing me to drop money? Sometimes she just buys things that we need at home without asking me.

What kind of money conversations do you both have?

When we talk about money, it’s usually about needs concerning the house or our children. Deola asks me for money too, usually to send to her parents or siblings, or to buy things in her shop. It’s not every time she asks, but when she does, I try my best to give her because I know she would’ve spent her own money first.

She also usually borrows me money to pay my monthly ajo when I’m broke. I try to pay back when I have money but it’s not all the time I do that. The economy is hard; there’s no money anywhere.

She doesn’t mind when you don’t pay back?

She complains, but I just use open eye to change the subject. Her complaints are usually about how the money is from her shop, and she needs to return it. I defend myself by pointing out that I pay her rent and pay for everything else. If I can’t borrow money from her once in a while, who should?

Sometimes, this borrowing money matter leads to fights, but after a few days, Deola does her best to make sure we start talking again. She’s usually the right one o. I know I should pay her back, but what will I do if there’s no money? If I don’t do the ajo, we won’t have money to pay rent.

How do you handle budgeting for romance and gifts in your relationship?

Ah. There’s no space for that one o. Let us even see money to eat and do important things first. Sometimes, if money is plenty in my hand, I can give her money to do her hair or buy shawarma. That one doesn’t pass ₦10k like once a month or once in two months.

Besides the ajo, do you both have other safety nets?

No. But I plan to rent an okada later in the year to make extra money whenever I don’t have customers like that in the workshop. I don’t need to gather money for that. I’ll just give the okada owner a percentage of whatever I make weekly.

What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?

It’ll be nice to become landlords in the future. At least we can make money from renting out rooms to tenants.

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

*Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.

NEXT READ: The Married Project Manager Handling 70% of the Bills on a ₦450k 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.

What’s your earliest memory of money?

I can’t recall an exact age, but I’m the first of four children, so I kind of understood the importance of money early on. Whenever our parents weren’t around, I’d want to play the big brother role, buying my siblings candy and biscuits to keep everyone happy.

I needed money for that, and one way I made money was by playing rubber band games — where you’d throw a rubber band to try to overlap or go further than the other person’s rubber band.

Ah. I remember those games

My friends and I would contribute ₦20 to play the game. If there were five of us, that was ₦100 in the pot. The winner took half of that, while the rest shared the remaining ₦50. That’s how I made small money here and there for snacks.

To be fair, my parents used to buy us snacks and give us pocket money, too. But like parents typically do, they didn’t allow us to take things they felt were detrimental to our health, like ice lollies and other sugary stuff. So, the extra money I made allowed me to buy things they disapproved of out of my own pocket.

What was the financial situation at home growing up?

We weren’t hungry, but I noticed differences in how others lived. For instance, my dad worked in a bank for 25 years, but it didn’t do much for our finances. A family friend worked in the same bank, and they had their own house and official car, while we lived in a rented apartment.

Around the time I was leaving secondary school, the CBN’s bank consolidation policy under Soludo cost my dad his job. My mum, who was a teacher, had to take up the financial burden. I also had to learn to fend for myself, especially when I got into uni in 2003.

How did you do that?

I studied Architecture, and there’s something we call “tracing.” After completing a design, we had to present them on tracing paper with ink for assessments. The paper was fragile and expensive, and many people struggled to trace their designs without making errors or tearing the paper.

I mastered tracing quickly and started charging ₦1k per sheet to help other students — both senior and junior colleagues. Each design usually required a minimum of 10-12 sheets, so sometimes I was making up to ₦20k and more from my clients.

So it was a lucrative gig?

It was. A lot of people came to me. Sometimes, I even contracted gigs out to other people when I had too much work on my hands.

I wasn’t receiving pocket money from home — most of what my siblings and I got was food — so the money came in handy for school needs and handouts. I also regularly sent money to my siblings, who were also in university, so they wouldn’t have to disturb our parents either.

I relied on that stream of income throughout my time in school, both in my undergraduate days and my master’s degree, which I started immediately after I completed my undergraduate in 2009. I didn’t see the point of returning home to wait for NYSC when I could just finish my studies. Also, I liked the course and knew I could make money (through the designs) from being in school, so I just stayed back.

How did you fund a postgraduate degree?

Tuition was more expensive, but it was possible to resume without paying tuition at my school. You just had to make sure you had paid by the time exams rolled around.

So, during the semester, I gathered the money by taking on more tracing work, dabbling in multi-level marketing and doing random gigs with friends for money. We even had a stint running a game house, where we charged people to play games. I also got a contract to design invitation cards for an FYB event one time.

To put it simply, I was in survival mode.

What came next after the master’s?

NYSC in 2012. I served at a state housing corporation that paid me ₦2k/month in addition to my ₦19,800 NYSC stipend. I also got a few tracing gigs. At this point, I’d grown beyond charging ₦1k/sheet. I charged for the whole design, usually keeping my rates between ₦20k and ₦50k.

I got a job with an architectural firm as soon as I finished NYSC in 2013. My pay was ₦30k/month. Imagine ₦30k as a master’s degree holder being the typical going rate in the industry. I worked there for about a year, but didn’t enjoy the environment. It was a one-man business, and the owner had a bad attitude.

After I left, I went freelance for a few months. I got a couple of design contracts, but the thing about freelancing is that sometimes you get jobs and other times you don’t. When I noticed my account kept depreciating, I returned to paid employment.

My next job paid ₦40k/month. This was in 2015, and I moved in with a friend who stayed closer to my office to cut down on transportation costs. With ₦40k, I could fend for myself, contribute to home expenses with my friend, save a little and travel for interviews.

Travel for interviews?

Yes. I didn’t live in Lagos, and most of the major architectural firms I wanted to work with were in the city. So, I consistently applied to the firms and travelled down for interviews. The transport costs gulped a lot of my savings, though. At some point, I started considering moving to Lagos so I wouldn’t have to spend so much.

I eventually landed a job in Lagos in mid-2015. It was an interior design company, and they paid me ₦50k/month to teach design and do some small designs on the side. It was a one-man business as well, so it was basically slavery. They just used me anyhow.

Skrim. How did you handle accommodation, though? You know, being in a new city

I moved in with another friend. Funny enough, this friend’s house was far from my workplace, so all my money went into transportation.

I changed jobs two more times in 2015. I was constantly looking for better opportunities, ready to move to whatever looked better. The first one was so toxic, I only spent two months there. It even almost ended in a police case because my employer refused to pay me my ₦80k salary.

The next job paid ₦114k/month, and I felt like I was finally living the life. It was big money for me. I started buying things online and managed to save up for my first apartment: a mini flat I rented at ₦350k/year. I paid ₦550k in the first year because of the agreement, agent fees and all those charges. I also started thinking of settling down, and I got married a year later.

Things were looking up

Yeah. I honestly thought I was doing great. That same 2016, I changed jobs again and moved to another architecture firm for ₦150k/month. With marriage came more responsibilities. We had a child quickly, and the bills started piling up.

I worked at that firm for over six years, and the pay increases were crawling at best. By 2022, my salary was ₦243k, and I was heavily dependent on loans to pay bills, rent, and school fees.

In all the six years I spent there, I never envisaged that it was possible to earn more or do better. I thought my career was permanently tied to architecture or real estate firms.

Then, towards the end of 2022, my life changed.

Tell me about it

So, I registered for a job fair on LinkedIn by chance, and they sent job openings to my inbox. One of them was a bank that needed architects for some development they were doing in the Rest of Africa.

I applied, and after a few weeks, they called and said they thought I was better suited for a project manager role. I didn’t even know what project managers in banks did, so I started researching. I spoke to project managers and took crash courses on YouTube.

In summary, I attended the interview and landed the job. That’s how my salary jumped to ₦605k in one job change.

Whoosh. How did that feel?

I mean, it was great. I didn’t know people could earn that much. That said, I mostly felt regret. I’d wasted so many years chasing passion in architecture, completely oblivious to the fact that there were better-paying opportunities out there.

I still work at the bank today, and in just three years, my salary has jumped to ₦1.3m because of a few salary reviews and one promotion — just three years. And I spent six years in one firm. I’ll be 40 in a few months, and I honestly don’t think I can forgive myself for not doing better with my finances and career sooner.

I could’ve saved myself the trouble of debt and squeezing myself here and there to provide a good life for my family.

I mean, things have changed now

Yeah. God has been good, and I acknowledge that. Besides my salary, I still get architectural design gigs on the side to supplement my income. I don’t have a fixed rate for these gigs; I just charge as I feel, based on the scope of work and what I think the client can afford. The last client paid me ₦1.5m. Another client can come, and I’ll charge them ₦6m.

I typically make between ₦500k and ₦1.2m extra from these gigs monthly. This figure can get up to ₦5m in a really good month. Yes, I’m happier and much more financially comfortable. At least, I’m not living off loans anymore.

Still, it could’ve been better, and I think the self-pressure is because of my age. In 10 years, I’ll be 50. There’s still a whole lot to do. My children need to go to university, and I need to plan for that. When I should’ve been using my younger years to chase money, I was doing passion.

Phew. How has your income growth impacted how you think about money?

It has shown me what is possible regarding income potential, especially when you work for people who appreciate your skills and experience.

More money has also helped me see life differently. When I earned ₦243k, I couldn’t even think of savings or investments. My only thoughts were how to survive and ensure my family didn’t starve. Now, it’s possible to plan my finances ahead. I also save and invest.

What do your savings and investments look like?

I apply the 50-30-20 rule: 50% to our needs, 30% for savings and investments, and the remaining 20% to flex and enjoy life. We don’t always spend 50% every month, and the balance sometimes goes back to savings. I also mostly save and invest whatever I make from my side gigs.

My savings and investment portfolio is spread out across different channels: ₦5.6m in treasury bills, ₦4m in a fixed deposit, ₦2.5m in money markets, ₦1.2m in bank shares, and $2k worth of S&P 500 shares. The bank shares should’ve doubled because I bought them at ₦26/share, and they’re almost ₦50/share now. It’s safe to say my total portfolio is over ₦15m.

I also have some plots of land that I bought for ₦9.5m a few years ago. Those are for my children when they need them in the future.

How about black tax commitments?

Thankfully, my younger siblings are all settled and doing extremely well in their respective fields. They even have more money than I do. I don’t think they’ve asked me for money since we left university. The most I pay in black tax is to show appreciation to my parents. I pay my mum a monthly allowance, and that’s minus other random gifts and purchases.

Let’s break down your typical monthly expenses

These expenses come out of the 50% my wife and I already apportioned to spending needs:

This doesn’t include my wife’s and children’s expenses (I have three kids now) because they’re in a class of their own. I call them my employers; my job is to go out, work and bring money for them. My salary goes into my wife’s account, and she manages the money. So, she takes what she needs and just gives me money for fuel and my haircuts.

The only income I manage is the one that comes from my side gigs, and that’s because I mostly channel the income to investments. Let my family hold my salary while I use this one to secure our future.

Is there a figure you’ll reach that’ll make you go, “Yes, we’re secured now”?

I’d feel secure if I had an investment that guaranteed me ₦5m to ₦7m in returns yearly. At least, that would mean I’d have roughly ₦550k to spend monthly, and I think that’s reasonable.

My family could live on that, and I wouldn’t constantly worry about bills. It’d give me the freedom to retire from paid employment and focus on my architectural design business or just explore other ideas.

Of course, to get that kind of return, I would have already invested hundreds of millions. I never reach that level yet.

Based on your current trajectory, how long do you estimate it might take you to get there?

All things being equal, 10-15 years. It’ll take a lot of effort and grit, but again, I can get there in months with God’s favour. One thing about Nigeria is that you can go to bed broke and wake up a millionaire. This country has multiple opportunities; it’s just our leaders messing it up. I mean, see how God changed my story in such a short time. I can just get one mad contract tomorrow and make all those millions I mentioned earlier.

On the career side, though, I’m targeting oil and gas and telecoms companies to probably increase my salary to ₦3m/month. On paper, I have 25 more years to work before Nigeria says I have to retire. But to be honest, I’m already tired of the 9-to-5 life. I won’t last that long.

How would you describe your relationship with money?

I‘m always very scared to spend money. I’ve had too many experiences with being broke. In fact, my heart starts to beat fast if my account gets a little low because anything can happen. My car can cough now, and the mechanic will say I should bring ₦500k.

So, I’m very conscious about how I spend. I want to give my family a good life, so I can’t afford to live lavishly. We have reasonable fun, but nothing too extreme. The only thing I think about is how to multiply my money legally.

Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

I’d like to change my car. Let me even buy something for myself that looks expensive. But what I want will cost at least ₦40m. Do you know what it means to spend ₦40m on a car and be entering potholes? AH. I can’t do that.

Unless I have like ₦300m in my account, I can’t bring out ₦40m to buy a car. Even if someone gave me the money, I’d first think of investing it rather than buying a car.

What was the last thing you bought that made you happy?

An Alienware laptop for my designs. It makes my job very easy and lets me put a premium on the service I render to clients. I got the laptop for ₦6.5m last year.

The price almost made me cry, but I was happy too. I’d tried to save up to buy it years before, but the naira devaluation kept increasing the price. I couldn’t buy it at ₦1.2m, but look at me now, I was able to buy it at ₦6.5m.

Love to see it. How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

7.5. My journey hasn’t been easy, but I picked up lessons along the way. I’m also glad I’ve been able to make my finances work since the turnaround in 2022. I’m seeing my money grow, and it’s a great feeling.

There’s always room for improvement, though. I’ve recorded impressive growth, but I’m not close to where I imagined I’d be at this age.

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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Gbemi*, 31, thought she could finally breathe a sigh of relief after a new job allowed her to fill in the financial gap left by her husband’s inconsistent income. However, this relief was unexpectedly cut short after she discovered she was pregnant.

In this story, she shares how pregnancy discrimination at work got her laid off, and how motherhood has led to uncertainty about her career options and financial future.

This is Gbemi’s story, as told to Boluwatife

I remember staring at the ₦200 pregnancy test strip as the second line appeared, and my world shifted on its axis.

I was unbelievably happy, but also terrified. There I was, holding the answer to five years of prayers and a silent struggle with unexplained infertility. I took the test right at the mall where I bought it — after so many negatives, I couldn’t risk letting hope balloon inside me by waiting until I got home. But for the first time ever, the strip told a different story.

I sank to the toilet floor, not caring that I was in a public bathroom; my legs couldn’t hold me up a second longer. The miracle I’d cried out for, begged for, had arrived at the worst possible time. Yes, my dreams were finally coming true, but it also meant my job was on the line.

Eight months earlier, I’d started work at a plastic factory, my first real on-site 9-to-5. Until then, I’d mostly done remote stints in operations, social media management and virtual assistance. But my husband’s income as a freelance consultant had become too inconsistent to plan our lives around.

He could make ₦1m one day, then go the next six months without a credit alert lighting up his phone. We needed steady income, so when the factory job came up in June 2023, I jumped at it. The ₦180k salary wasn’t life-changing, but it was consistent. We needed that.

On my first day of onboarding, after I introduced myself to my manager, he looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Do these people still hire women in this place?” I froze, watching him scratch his head and assess me from head to toe, as if he expected my body, not my mouth, to answer his question.

It took a few weeks, but I eventually discovered why he’d asked that. Management rarely allowed women to work on the manufacturing side because of the chemicals and the belief that we weren’t as “strong” as the men. Women, they claimed, also took more sick leaves, so they just hired fewer of us.

Although I didn’t work in manufacturing — I was in admin operations and accounts — the discrimination still found its way to the women in the office. My manager, especially, was notorious for grumbling about female staff who had to rush off a few minutes before closing to pick up their children from school. If it were up to him, he’d only work with men.

I was one of just two women under his authority, and I could feel him waiting for me to make a mistake so he’d have a reason to let me go.

So, even while I rejoiced at my miracle pregnancy in February 2024, I knew there was a big problem: my manager would never consider maternity leave. The company didn’t even have a policy for it.

My only option was to work till the exact day of my delivery and resume one day after giving birth. Anything else, and I knew I wouldn’t have a job to return to.

My husband and I had only just started to enjoy some stability with my income. By then, he wasn’t even getting consultant gigs anymore and was fully job-hunting. How would we survive without my job?

I tried to console myself with the fact that I had some time. I figured it would take at least six months for my belly to show, and by then, my husband would’ve hopefully found something.

It didn’t work like that. Firstly, I had all-day sickness — my symptoms refused to limit themselves to mornings — through the entire first trimester, and it showed in my work. I was constantly fighting headaches and nausea, surviving on nothing but crackers and water. I couldn’t focus and kept missing deadlines.

Secondly, my belly started to show at just three months. I didn’t think anyone would notice, but my hateful manager immediately did.

One afternoon, he called me into his office. “You’re pregnant. You didn’t plan to tell us?” The way he said it left no room for denial. I just nodded and smiled, bracing myself for him to sack me on the spot. He gave me a smile I can only describe as triumphant, and asked me to return to my desk.

He didn’t sack me that day or the day after — not even the week after. Two weeks later, when I’d forgotten our conversation, I resumed work to find an email from HR. The email said the company was “restructuring,” and my role was no longer “feasible” for their new direction. It was a “layoff,” but I was the only employee affected.

I walked out of the office that morning, my heart heavy with grief and questions. I was the breadwinner in my family, and suddenly I had no job, no income. My husband had been trying his best, but he hadn’t found anything, and we had a baby on the way.

The months that followed were a blur of uncertainty. I sent out application after application, but no one wanted to hire a pregnant woman. When we could no longer rely on urgent ₦10k handouts from friends and family, my husband took a security job for ₦80k/month. It was a huge downgrade, but we had no choice.

The financial strain and uncertainty intensified after the arrival of our daughter, but we were blessed with a lifeline: our church community. They rallied around us, showering us with diapers and baby clothes, as well as the occasional cash gift. For five months, we didn’t have to worry about buying diapers.

And then there was breastfeeding. Doctors sing the virtues of breastfeeding exclusively for six months, citing the numerous health benefits to the baby. For me, it wasn’t a choice; it was a necessity. We couldn’t buy baby food, so breastfeeding was the only option.

It’s been almost a year since our baby came, and our financial situation hasn’t improved much. My husband no longer does the security job — he was sacked for sleeping on duty — and freelancing is still as inconsistent as ever, even though the income trickles in more often now.

I haven’t returned to work because I haven’t found any, but honestly, I’m not looking as hard as I should be. I struggle with the idea of being away from my child. I want to earn an income and contribute to my home again, but where do I keep her?

Sometimes, in the quiet moments when I’m breastfeeding at night, I wonder if I didn’t have this child at the wrong time. I immediately banish the thought as soon as it comes, but it always finds a way to creep back in.

I looked forward to motherhood for so long, but I didn’t realise how much it would change me. It feels like I’ve lost what it takes to provide for myself and my family. The internet describes a phenomenon called “mummy brain,” where new mums struggle with focus. I think I have that. There’s this fog in my brain preventing me from taking decisive steps to better my life and career.

I’m scared and uncertain about the future. Will I ever find a job? What kind of job can I even get? Will I ever be financially free? Will my family ever leave the struggle phase?

I have to believe I’ll get through this, somehow. I’ll find a way to make it work. I’ll find a way to balance motherhood and a career, so I can make my own money and be the mother and wife I want to be.

It won’t be easy, and I don’t know where to start, but I have to rebuild. My story can’t end here.

*Name has been changed to protect the subject’s identity.

NEXT READ: I Took Loans to Sponsor My Sister’s Education. Now I’m Fighting Addiction and Resentment

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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.

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

How long have you been with your partner?

We dated for a year and have been married for five.

How did you meet?

We met at church. Moyo was the keyboardist, and I was a chorister. I can’t remember exactly when or how we started talking; it was just the usual friendly greetings you exchange with someone you work with on the same team. We saw each other on the weekends at rehearsals and during church service, but I didn’t register him in my brain as a romantic prospect.

Then, in 2019, the church organised a send-off for Moyo when he was moving to a different state for work. Moyo asked me to wait behind, saying he wanted to discuss something with me. The discussion turned out to be a love confession. I remember thinking, “So why didn’t you tell me since? Is it now that you’re relocating?”

I’m screaming. TBH, I get you

Right? We had the opportunity to explore a relationship while we were together in the same place. Now, you want to rope me into the wahala of long-distance. I told him I needed some time to think. But while I didn’t give him a response for three months, that didn’t discourage him. He kept checking in, updating me about his day and making sure we got to know each other.

At some point, I was like, this guy isn’t half bad. He’s handsome and obviously into me. Let’s try it out. So, I stopped doing shakara and agreed to a relationship.

Was navigating a long-distance relationship as tough as you expected?

It wasn’t, actually. It helped that I travelled to see Moyo at least once every month. Each trip cost at least ₦20k to and fro, and he paid for them. I was a corps member, and he had a proper job.

He also handled my hotel bills, food, and any outings we went on when I visited.

The long-distance situation didn’t last long. We got married a year after we started dating, and I moved in with him. It’s been five years, and we have a child now.

How do you both run the home’s finances?

It has mostly been a joint effort, but I’ve taken on at least 70% of the finances over the past year. I recently got a job that pushed my salary to ₦150k more than my husband’s — he earns ₦300k. On top of that, his office has been battling some financial and management issues. They’ve paid staff only 50% of their salary for almost a year.

The solution would’ve been to find another job, but he can’t leave till the end of the year for some legal reasons. So, his take-home pay has been around ₦150k for a while. Before, Moyo contributed 60% of our ₦1m rent, paid school fees and part of the bills, and gave me ₦60k monthly to contribute to the food expenses.

But I now handle 100% of the food bills, utilities and school fees while he tries to save whatever’s left of his salary after removing transportation. These savings go towards rent.

Is there a budget for dates and gifts?

There’s a limit to how much we can go out, especially with a toddler who believes he was created to gum body with me. So, the most we do regarding dates is family visits to restaurants or buying each other clothes. There’s no budget for that; it happens when we think about it. Money has been tight these days, so I can’t remember the last time we went out.

However, we always go all out for each other’s birthdays. We both like surprises, so you can find us saving secretly for months to surprise the other with cake, food and balloons on their birthday. I don’t think we even deliberately buy gifts; we focus more on the experience and making each other feel special.

I spent close to ₦100k on food, decorations and picture frames for his last birthday. I didn’t tell him how much I spent, though. He’d ask why I spent so much considering our current situation.

What kind of money conversations do you both have?

We’re always discussing bills, how much we should save to cover an expense, and what we can afford to buy at a particular time.

However, since his work issue started, Moyo has been touchy about money matters. If I make certain financial decisions (as small as buying fuel) without carrying him along, he’ll imply that it’s because I don’t have to ask him for money. On the other hand, if I tell him we need to buy fuel, he’ll imply I’m trying to make him feel bad about his finances when I know he’s broke. It gets exhausting sometimes.

Hmm. Have you talked to him about this?

I’ve complained about his new attitude several times, and every time, he apologises, promises to do better, and asks me to be a bit more patient with him. Still, nothing really changes. It has been the recurring cause of our fights for a while. Some of these fights got so intense that we had to involve his parents. Last month, I consciously decided to stop complaining because I sense he’s just insecure.

I’m not a man, but I can understand how hard it must be for a man to feel like he can’t provide, especially for someone like my husband, who can drop his last kobo on his family. So, I’m just learning to understand, be patient, and pray for things to get better soon.

Fingers crossed. You mentioned Moyo has savings. How about you?

His savings aren’t exactly savings because they’re primarily for rent. I try to save at least ₦20k monthly towards our emergency fund. We currently have about ₦200k in the account, and it’s our backup in case anything happens.

I’d love to save more, but between all the responsibilities on my neck — Abuja is crazily expensive — it’s a miracle I even have anything left.

What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?

I want us to own our home someday. With this economy, it feels like an impossible dream because how many years do we want to save before we can afford a house?

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

*Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.

NEXT READ: She’s 5 Years Older Than Her Boyfriend, and She Misses Being Spoiled

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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.

What’s your earliest memory of money?

When I was 8, my dad gave my brother and me our first allowance. I can’t remember how much, but it was enough for each of us to buy a carton of biscuits. My brother came up with the idea of spending the full amount on biscuits, and I was down.

We had snacks at home, but we had limited access to them. My mum only gave us one at a time to take to school, but the biscuits were ours to do whatever we wanted. My mum didn’t even care that we spent all the money on biscuits. It was like, “It’s your money. You have the freedom to do as you please.”

Speaking of, what did your parents do for money?

My dad was a big-shot executive at an FMCG company, and my mum ran a large-scale poultry farm. Growing up, things were super smooth. We had big cars, and I attended nice private schools. The only reason we didn’t travel for vacations was that my parents didn’t like air travel.

Our financial situation changed around 2011/2012 though. The classic story: My dad lost his job, which forced us to move to a new city and a new neighbourhood. While it wasn’t exactly a slum, the people were unexposed. I honestly believe moving to that area set us back and impacted our growth. We just couldn’t grow.

How do you mean?

So, my mum moved her poultry farm there and also started a school. But she had to reduce school fees to ₦10k because the parents in the area couldn’t fathom paying more than that. It was either ₦10k or they wouldn’t send their kids to school.

There was this general nonchalance about education. I was around 10, and I couldn’t play with the other kids because they didn’t speak English. My parents couldn’t even interact with the neighbours because everyone just had a mediocre sense of thinking. I don’t even know how to explain it. The rot in that area was deep, and I genuinely believe it affected our momentum.

Also, my dad never got his spark back after he lost his job. I don’t remember him having a stable job after that. He still provided, but it was usually through income made from selling his properties. My dad had multiple properties when he was wealthy, so he could sell one today, use the money for a year or two, then sell another if he needed money again. That’s how he sent me and my siblings to school.

When was the first time you worked for money?

After secondary school in 2018, but there’s a funny context to how I started thinking about making money. My older brother and I entered secondary school at the same time, and when we were in SS 3, my dad put forth a challenge: He’d send whoever had the best scores in JAMB and WAEC abroad to school.

I was so excited and studied so hard that I broke all the academic records in my school. My brother, on the other hand, failed so badly that his results couldn’t have gotten him into a Nigerian university. So, my dad sent him abroad instead.

Ah

I’m sure part of the reason was that he’s the first son. You know, standard misogyny. I was devastated. On top of that, I didn’t get an admission offer for my desired course, so I stayed home for an extra year. I decided I’d make enough money to send myself to school abroad if my dad couldn’t afford to send two children.

So, I scoured the internet for ways to make money online. I watched YouTube videos and started learning web development, creating websites and blogs. Writing was the first option that paid me, though. I got a writing gig that paid me ₦2k per article. I didn’t have a bank account, so they paid me in airtime.

I also started teaching at my mum’s school. She paid me ₦10k/month to teach junior secondary students. I mostly spent the money on lunch and data. I worked there until I got into uni in 2019.

Did you keep trying to make money in uni?

Oh yes. I got a ₦8k weekly allowance from home, but it never felt enough. Between transport costs and little purchases, the money always finished. I remember being so shocked when I saw ₦18k in someone’s account. It was like, how can someone have this kind of money in their account at once?

So, I was always thinking about ways to make money. Also, my plan to send myself abroad still fueled my money-making intentions. I once gave a friend ₦6k to gamble for me, but he lost it all. I even tried the Racksterli “double your money in two weeks “ scheme. I made some money from it, but I ended up getting scammed.

Omo. Sorry about that

Thanks. Besides trying different things for money, I also applied for international scholarships everywhere. I even applied to a school in China. I just wanted to achieve my goal.

Then 2020 came. The lockdown was a really transformative period for me. It was when I first got into crypto. The first one I tried was a platform called Electroneum. Their coin was called ETN, and you could rack up points by completing tasks on the app and cash out ETN as airtime. I was steadily cashing out airtime that period.

I also did a bit of crypto buying and selling for small profits here and there. One day, someone from my school posted on a group chat, asking people who had international passports and bank accounts to DM him for a gig that could pay as much as ₦200k. I had an international passport because of all my efforts to travel abroad, so I reached out to him.

What was the gig?

He wanted me to register on an app, purchase crypto (he gave me the money), and send it to him, then I’d keep the profit. I was confused, but I did it. We tried a couple of times, but it didn’t work because my debit card didn’t work for international transactions.

However, I eventually figured out what he wanted to do. It was crypto arbitrage. Here’s how it was supposed to work: There was a significant difference in dollar price at the bank rate and on the black market. If I could get dollars at the bank rate and sell on the black market, I could make money just appear. Crypto was one way to get dollars at the bank rate. I just needed to make the purchase as an international transaction with my Nigerian bank.

When I figured out the plan, I went to my friend and we did some calculations. If we bought $500 crypto, we could make ₦200k after selling it on Nigerian crypto exchange platforms. So, we decided to try it. But we had two problems.

What were these problems?

We didn’t have $500 capital, and we didn’t have a working card for international transactions.

Initially, we considered starting small with $50, but eventually, we convinced ourselves to raise money. I told an older friend about the idea, and he decided to invest in it. He gave me some bitcoin, which was worth about ₦800k at the time, and I was supposed to return it with a 30% interest after a few months. Unfortunately, we lost the money.

Yikes. How?

My friend and I were looking for a cheap place to buy crypto, and the regular platforms had a limit on how much we could buy per day. In our search for more options, we found a coursemate who promised to get us $1k worth of bitcoin for ₦400k. We gave him the money, and he disappeared.

It was funny because we were in the same class and would see each other after the lockdown. We eventually tracked him down to his state and discovered he’d spent the money on an iPhone and other things. We seized the phone, but only got ₦190k from selling it.

Long story short, I couldn’t repay my friend the full ₦800k. We told him the business crashed and returned 50% of his investment. He wasn’t happy, but he forgave me.

So, the business didn’t last a month?

We only told him it crashed; it didn’t actually crash. We had a setback because of the money we lost, and had to re-strategise. We agreed it had been foolish to borrow money to start large-scale, so we returned to the original plan of starting small.

At the same time, banks had started limiting international transactions, so we built something like a conglomerate of cards. We got friends and coursemates who had cards that could do international transactions to allow us to use their cards, and we gave them a share of the profit.

In the first month, we made about ₦100k in profit. In subsequent months, we made between ₦500k – ₦1m/month and my friend and I split the money 50-50. We continued even after school resumed, but towards 2022, more people started to get in on arbitrage, and we stopped making as much.

Plus, the government suspended international transactions on naira cards, which affected our business model. Despite the challenges, my friend still kept at it, but I wasn’t too keen anymore. I just contributed passively and made the odd ₦100k – ₦150k most months.

Why the change of heart?

I’d taken web development more seriously and started making money from it. The first major earning was from a 2022 hackathon I participated in and won $2k. It was crazy money.

At this point, I should mention I was terrible at handling money. While we were making arbitrage money, my friend was saving, but I was buying everything fancy that crossed my mind. When I won the $2k from the hackathon, I bought a MacBook for $700, a ₦19k fridge, gave my mum ₦50k and another ₦50k to my siblings. I also bought my parents’ phones, which cost me ₦140k. Then I bought myself an iPhone 11 Pro for ₦300k, a camera and an iPad. In conclusion, I spent all the $2k.

Wild

After the hackathon, I worked with the organisers for a few months and earned an extra $2k. When that contract ended, I decided to work with foreign companies instead of Nigerians since they were more likely to pay well for my skills.

So, I focused on upskilling. I was coding up to 12 hours every day, to the point that I felt school and exams were stopping me from coding as much as I wanted. I was also constantly applying for jobs and started learning cybersecurity on the side.

In 2023, I attended an event held by the organiser of a cybersecurity course I was taking. I participated in a CTF competition there and won the $200 prize. Beyond the money, it was validation that I really knew this tech thing. Also, I got a cybersecurity internship. I had actually flown to a different state for that event, and accepting the internship meant I’d need to leave school for six weeks to work.

I accepted the offer and reasoned I could decide whether to return to school after the internship ended.

Was it a paid internship?

It was unpaid, but I was doing it for the experience. Plus, I still had money. I was also working as a technical writer with a company in Europe, and they paid me $150 – $300 per article. I lived in a student hostel for the duration of the internship, and my pay covered the ₦600k rent, and I still had enough left to ball.

After the internship ended, the company offered to retain me, but I couldn’t take the offer. First, I didn’t have an NYSC certificate and didn’t plan to finish school. Second, they were offering ₦150k, which was bullshit.

Wait. You mentioned not planning to finish school. You had decided already?

Yeah, after the internship, I decided that I wasn’t returning to school. My parents weren’t thrilled, but it was nothing dramatic. At this point, I wasn’t collecting any money from them or disturbing for allowance. I was independent and able to make my own decisions.

I got a job from someone who wanted me to teach cybersecurity at his training school. He was a terrible boss, but he didn’t delay my ₦450k/month salary. I worked there for about three months before returning home to determine what I wanted to do next.

I was still applying to jobs and getting offers, but I was determined not to work for a Nigerian enterprise again. Two months of job-hunting later, I landed a super sweet position as a security consultant for a US company at $1300/month. They paid weekly, so it was about $300 weekly. This was in 2024.

Three months into the job, I realised I was being underpaid.

How so?

I got the job through a friend, and payment came through him. The pay was actually $900 weekly, but he was sending me $300-ish. We went back and forth on the matter, and later agreed he’d send me $500 weekly, bringing my income to $2k/month. I still work with the company, and that’s still my salary today.

Early this year, I took on a side job that pays $1200/month, so currently my fixed monthly income is $3200, which is about ₦4.9m. I still do freelance projects and other side gigs that often push my income to over ₦5m. It can be up to ₦6m or ₦7m in really good months. I still want to push more to ₦10m/month. To be honest, I’d be making that now if I didn’t reject so many offers for one reason or another.

What kind of life does your income afford you?

A super comfortable one. Right now, I’m looking at my super high-end laptop, which I got for about ₦3m. I spend my money on gadgets the most. I have the entire Apple suite: watch, laptop, phone, everything. I also travel sometimes.

The biggest thing money has given me is that I no longer think the same way. I think that money is unlimited, and I don’t relate to struggle or hardship. I smile when I hear the price of things because I can afford everything I want.

I’m super comfortable, and I’m still super young. In a year or two, I should most likely double my current earnings. If I were in the US, with my experience level, I could easily earn $150k/year. So, yeah, I’m very happy with where I’m at. I’m in the top percentage of Nigerians, and it feels good.

Have your spending and saving habits changed since you started earning more?

I’m somewhat better at saving. I’m not as aggressive as I should be, but it’s not too bad. I try to save $500 monthly and do a ₦550k ajo contribution monthly to pack ₦5.5m. I also have $5k in a real estate portfolio with my friend’s company that’s supposed to give me 20% returns yearly. I have $8k in my portfolio: $3k in savings and the rest in real estate. Nothing too serious.

How would you describe your relationship with money?

It’s sweet, but also bad. I say sweet because I don’t deny myself of anything. I work hard to reward myself. But it’s bad because I never have enough money after spending on what I want. It’s usually like ₦1m-ish left in my account. I want to get to a point where I have like ₦10m – ₦20m in my account.

Let’s break down your typical monthly expenses

My expenses typically vary from month to month. For instance, I don’t give my family money regularly, so they’re not dependent on me. But last month, I gave them about ₦200k. I also travel often to see my partner and friends, but it’s not every month. I last travelled in June, and flights cost me ₦600k. I might not travel again until September.

I’m most likely forgetting some expenses because tracking them is difficult for me. I get paid weekly, so putting all those expenses together is hard. But it’s something I’m working on.

I’m curious. How does it feel to have this much success at 22?

I feel like I’m kind of cheating the system. If I’d stayed in school and graduated, maybe I’d feel like I need to be responsible. But my classmates are still in school, so I feel like a child. Like what I’m making now is just extra, and I’m waiting for my life to finally start.

I feel like I can still afford to squander my money for a few more years. Or maybe until next year at least. I can start being responsible then. I sometimes feel like I’d be super comfortable going to zero and starting afresh again. I don’t know why I think that or where I got it from.

How has making money so early impacted how you think about money?

I feel like the world is at my feet and I can do whatever I want. I feel like I’ll always have money. You know that saying, “I’ll never be poor”? That’s how I feel. It’s such a strong conviction in my mind.

I sometimes get anxious, though. What if I lose my job or no one wants to hear from me again? I think the anxiety comes with the money. I didn’t use to get anxious like this when I was broke, but now the stakes are higher. I’m constantly thinking about how to make more money.

Interesting. Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

I want a car so bad. Actually, I’m just manifesting it; I want someone to dash me. The car I want would probably cost me around $10k – $15k.

Do you have any financial regrets?

I loan people money a lot, and sometimes, I regret it. I have almost $3k of my money in people’s hands, and I’m not sure I’ll get it back.

Is there anything you’d like to be better at financially?

My savings and investments are pretty slim, and I want to improve. I want to invest in stocks, but haven’t had time to study the market. Once I do, I’ll probably get into stocks.

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

6. There’s not a lot of structure around my money now, and I know I can do better.

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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What’s your earliest memory of money?

What about the first time you worked for money?

Tell me about that

You were all set for business

Did you try another business?

Did you have any experience with social media management at this point?

These were volunteer roles, right?

How much was the pay?

How did you manage all these?

So, you didn’t have any paying jobs at this time?

Mad o. I’m still trying to wrap my head around why and how you do multiple gigs at once

Phew. How many jobs are you juggling these days?

What kind of lifestyle does your income afford you?

Let’s break down these expenses in a typical month

How would you describe your relationship with money?

Do you think digital creation is an income source you’ll continue to explore after school?

Is there an ideal amount you think you should be earning?

I get that. Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

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

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As Told To Boluwatife

How I Started

Trying Out A Different Content Direction

Getting Monetised

Future Plans

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How long have you been with your partner?

How did you meet?

I’m screaming

Here for the undergraduate love. What was your financial situation, though?

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Who paid for these trips?

How did you both handle wedding expenses?

Back to the present day. How do you both run your home’s finances?

What kind of money conversations do you both have?

Oh. Tell me more about the relocation bit

Congrats! What’s “soft landing,” though?

All this came from your joint savings?

Safe to say it was a case of “opportunity meets preparation”?

Nice. You both seem to run like a well-oiled engine. Do you even have money-related conflicts?

Do you still have a safety net? Considering you’re using your savings for the proof of funds

Rooting for you. What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?

What’s your earliest memory of money?

What was the financial situation like at home?

When was the first time you worked for money?

Was the business lucrative?

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I guess this attempt wasn’t successful

Phew. Finally

How long did this business last?

Why was media school the alternative?

So, how did you go about it?

How did you survive this period without an income then?

Whoosh! What was the pay?

Ah. Why?

Let’s not forget the three income sources

Yikes

Sorry about that

Not bad at all

What were your expenses like at this time?

How much did the new job pay?

Ah. So you’re down to one job?

Phew. How does it feel to go from multiple income sources to one?

Let’s break down these expenses for a typical month

You mentioned a wedding fund. How’s that looking?

Out of curiosity, do you think you’d still spend the full ₦3m on the wedding? Considering your new financial situation

How much do you think you should ideally be earning right now?

How would you describe your relationship with money?

Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

Is there anything you’d like to be better at financially?

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

“My daughter emptied my account and gave all my money to her boyfriend” — Nike*, 64

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“My friend sold me stolen iPhones” — Ayo*, 27

“I lost ₦1m to an investment that my brother convinced me to join” — Fred*, 33

“My ex-bestfriend lied that her mum needed money for surgery” — Patricia*, 28

“I funded my boyfriend’s ghost business for months” — Princess*, 38

How long have you been with your partner?

How did you meet?

But she was notorious for ignoring everyone. What made you sure she’d say yes?

**“My daughter emptied my account and gave all my money to her boyfriend” — Nike*, 64**

**“My friend sold me stolen iPhones” — Ayo*, 27**

**“I lost ₦1m to an investment that my brother convinced me to join” — Fred*, 33**

**“My ex-bestfriend lied that her mum needed money for surgery” — Patricia*, 28**

**“I funded my boyfriend’s ghost business for months” — Princess*, 38**