Times are tough for everyone. But for people whose friends earn more or have a higher purchasing power, social anxiety is always a thing. This is definitely not fun. In this article, 5 Nigerians talk about what it means to be the ‘broke friend’ and everything that comes with it.
Dayo, 26
My friend buys me expensive gifts all the time. When it’s my turn, I can’t match his gifts. He swears it’s the thought that counts, but that hardly makes me feel better about myself.
Not being able to afford the spontaneity that comes with having money sucks. Recently, a friend hit me up to ask why I haven’t bought the bone straight wig, and I was like “Sis, I’m broke.” Later, she asked me to buy her a pair of shoes for Christmas, and I was lost again.
My friends are probably tired of my “I’m broke” song. We have conversations about it sometimes, but those things make me sad, and I hate that they have to happen in the first place. I’m currently trying to skill and level up. Hopefully, it happens soon.
XI, 27
After graduating from university, I was the first person in my friend group to get a job, although it was a dead job. Some months later, others got better jobs that paid twice or thrice of what I earned. Not long after, I quit my job and went for my masters. When I was done, I got another dead job. That was when I first noticed that there’s been a shift in our friendship. It was the subtle things at first — I was the one making an effort to catch up. After that, I found out that my friends had started leaving me out of stuff.
One night, I went to a joint close to where I lived and met my friends hanging out without me. The spot was only 5 minutes away from my house. Also, none of them attended my wedding — they all had convenient excuses. I knew we were over when someone in the group unwittingly told me that they had been talking about me when I wasn’t there.
Sylvia, 23
I started a business 5 months ago, and I’m still trying to find my feet. My friends, on the other hand, have good jobs or nice businesses. Of course, there’s a disparity between our incomes. What this means for me is that I have to think like a million times before I do anything with them.
We haven’t seen each other in a while, even though we live in the same town. There was a time we were trying to catch up and planning a staycation at a fancy place. We didn’t conclude on the details, so I figured that we’d suspended our plans. Then I saw pictures of them online at the location. I was very hurt because I didn’t tell them I couldn’t afford it. At the same time, I can’t blame them. Nobody wants a party pooper.
Leila, 22
I have a lot of rich friends because of the school I attended. But I’m not rich. It’s a struggle hanging out with them because I can’t do the things they do. Or even bring my phone out to take pictures. The one that bothers me the most is that I can’t invite them over to my house. I sleep in the same room as my mum with pots and pans and everything we own in one corner of the room. They’ve asked to visit me many times, but I always find a way to get myself out of the situation. I live in perpetual fear that one of them will show up one day.
I love them, but they can be mean sometimes. During the peak of the “Don’t rush” challenge, they passed videos of people around, mocking their houses and everything. And these locations are much glamorous than mine. It was an eye-opening experience for me. Moving out of the house and getting my own place will help my anxiety. And I hope it happens soon.
SG, 25
I work at a low-paying job, and it seems my friends are doing better than me. I still remember the day my best friend told me about her salary and how it made me feel. She was in the middle of negotiating for a raise, and it was about 5x what I was earning. Being the broke friend means that I have to be flaky and not show up for stuff my friends invite to. I’m the queen of excuses, but I don’t think the bulk of them understand why. Only one of them knows the full gist. I don’t talk about my finances with the others because I struggle with sharing my problems with people. I prefer not to be anyone’s charity case.
Do people call you a troublemaker or not? Actually, do you think you’re a troublemaker? We know you will lie, so why don’t you take this quiz and let’s see what your word is worth?
Shall we?
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
The actress in this #NairaLife has 99 problems. The biggest one? Not knowing her next payday and figuring out how best to manage this situation.
What’s your oldest memory of money?
It was walking in on my mum and her salesgirl counting money when I was 11. Out of curiosity, I asked my mum what bank she was keeping her money in. And she was like: “This is everything I have. I don’t have money in the bank.”
I looked at her and the wads of cash on the floor, wondering how that was all the money she had. For context, I have four siblings and that money didn’t look like it was enough to take care of all of us. I was in so much shock. Ask me what I did the following day.
What did you do the following day?
I went to look for a job.
Wait, but you were 11.
I felt the onus was on me to help my mum get more money to take care of me and my siblings. So, I got into a bus and went to the busiest part of town. I entered the first shop I saw and told them I’d like to work for them. The boss liked me the moment she saw me and offered me a job as a salesgirl. The pay was ₦3,000 per month. But I only spent a few hours there.
What happened?
My parents had been looking for me the whole day. The next thing was that a car parked in front of the shop and my mum and a neighbour came out. They bundled me into the car. As we were leaving, the boss was like, “Aww, you would have made a good salesgirl.” She gave me ₦2,500 for my troubles. My mum was livid. I don’t remember if I got a beating, but I probably did.
This is an interesting first work experience. Did you have any idea your parents were, maybe, struggling before this event?
Not really. I knew my dad had fallen on tough times, but my mum took over as the breadwinner. We went to private schools, although I was on a scholarship. We never ran out of food. Our Christmas clothes came in August or September. In my head, there was no way the money I saw on the floor could be everything we had. But my mum doesn’t lie.
I began to understand the toll carrying the weight of the family must be having on her, so I tried not to be a burden. It developed into a lingering desire to help her save money.
Is there a memory of this that particularly stuck?
My plan was to go to uni in the US, and I actually got a partially-funded scholarship. When I realised how much I would still have to pay, I decided that I wasn’t going to put her through it. So, I opted for a Nigerian university.
Oof.
Another time, I had run out of my allowance — ₦10,000 per semester — and food in school. But it didn’t cross my mind to call my mum. I was like, “Who knows if she even has money? I should be able to bear this drought.” I was hungry for a week, and it culminated into a stomach ulcer I’m still treating today.
Eish. I’m sorry. But how far did ₦10,000 take you per semester?
Well, not far. But I was making money on the side. In my second year, I saved up and bought a computer for ₦20,000 or ₦30,000. I started typing projects and assignments for students in my school at ₦30 to ₦50 per page. I made an extra ₦10,000 – ₦15,000 per month from this.
Lit.
I was also writing movie scripts. I loved watching movies when I was a kid. My plan was to study Theatre Arts, but my folks wanted me in science.
Marketers held sway in Nollywood at the time, so I would get their numbers from movie jackets and pitch a script to them. Then I would travel to Lagos to give them a copy of the script and get my money. I got ₦16,000 from the first script I sold. I only sold a couple more because of the stress and risks involved. The last one I wrote in school sold for ₦60,000, but I don’t remember if I received full payment.
Nigerians, man. What did you do after?
A few weeks after I wrote my final exams in 2007, I travelled to Lagos to audition for a movie role. Unfortunately, I got the wrong info and the audition had been done days before I showed up. But the producer liked how I spoke and asked if I would be interested in coming on another show as a resource person of sorts — to do some of the heavy weightlifting behind the scenes. I was supposed to be paid ₦15,000 every month, but I wasn’t paid a dime during the four months I spent with them.
Ah!
A week after I quit, they sent me an offer letter stating that they would pay me what they owed and increase my salary to ₦30,000 in addition to some other benefits if I came back. I was done with them. I didn’t go back.
Energy!
They had no respect for the value I brought to them, so I kept it moving. I auditioned for a couple more roles until I landed a part in a TV show. This one was ₦6,000 per episode, and I appeared in six episodes. They didn’t want to pay either until I went back to fight them.
LMAO. Run me my coins.
Right? Oh, between the first job and the TV show, I did two stage plays in quick succession. Both were ₦50,000 gigs. I was paid in full for one and got half payment for the other.
I did theatre for three years after that. The show paid me ₦3,000 per week when I started. It increased to ₦5,000, then ₦15,000 by the time I left. But also, I was working 6 days a week and there were tons of rehearsals.
When did you leave the theatre company?
2010 or thereabout. In 2011, I applied to a film school in the US but pulled out at the last minute. You’re going to ask me why, aren’t you?
I am.
I couldn’t raise the money I needed on time. About ₦1.5m. By the time I had the money, the school had resumed for like a week or two. I applied for an express interview at the embassy. The woman who interviewed me was like, “I can approve this thing. But I promise you, the immigration officers at the airport will wonder why you’re coming two weeks after school has resumed. And they won’t let you in because they won’t believe that’s what you came for.”
Omo, I looked at the risks and was like “Nah.” I worked hard for that money. I wasn’t going to lose it.
Fair enough
I went back to vigorously auditioning for roles. A movie here. A TV show there. Each job was between ₦30,000 and ₦50,000. Later in 2012, I did this stage play for a month and got ₦70,000 from it. A week after it wrapped up, I got a call from someone high up in the industry. They had seen my performance and liked it. They were in the organising committee of a festival in the UK and wanted to know if I would be interested in being one of the entertainers representing the country.
That sounds huge.
It was. It was a big festival. I could hardly contain my excitement. I got the contract and found out that I was going to be paid ₦750,000 to travel out of the country. That wasn’t all.
Oh?
I also won a £3000 grant to fund a project I was working on. This was an entirely different thing. It just happened at the same time. Also, I made extra cash in the UK.
How?
I travelled with some food supplies. Fortunately, I found a Nigerian lady near our hotel who allowed me to cook at her house. When the Nigerians I travelled with saw what I was doing, they were interested and everyone started paying me £3- £5 to cook for them. I made an extra £5000 from that alone. I returned to Nigeria with about ₦2.5m in my account.
Mad oh. I wonder how this income affected your relationship with money?
It didn’t. You have to know that earning is not a constant in this line of work, so you need to plan around whatever you get. I came back from the UK, and two weeks later, I was doing a ₦15,000 job.
Brutal.
Also, most of the ₦2.5m went into funding projects and paying black tax. And then, I was back to regular programming. By the time I got married later in 2012, I’d done a few more projects — indie films, stage plays, TV shows. Our first child came in 2015.
Did anything change?
My husband is a filmmaker. I’m an actress. Both of us don’t have a regular stream of income. I was better with money, so I started taking care of our finances.
We also started working together, building our production company. But the thing was, with a child in the mix, I had to become stricter with how money moved in our relationship and work, and it was tricky. As a filmmaker, he would think about the creative bits of work. I was the producer, so I always thought about how to squeeze out more money from whatever we were working on. We had lots of clashes.
Phew. You were still acting in other projects, right?
Yes, but those gigs had become even more irregular. Because of my husband and our company, people thought I was sorted. Whatever came in had to be planned in a way that it would last until something else came up.
Intense. Tell me, how do you build a production company in Nollywood?
You have to be creative, which is more difficult than it sounds. You need funds to actualise whatever you’re creating. So I’m constantly sourcing for funds.
In 2015, we thought of this big project and started working on it. I made calls to a couple of friends I made at film festivals I attended over the years. I got one of them to co-produce the movie with us. The budget was ₦15m, and each company brought 50%. The movie went to the cinema and was well-received. It did more than ₦20M at the box office.
How does money move in that space?
The producer gets a distributor to take the film to the cinemas. When a cinema accepts the film, you get date and time slots. The cinema takes 50% of whatever the film makes in the first week. But as it stays longer, the more percentage the people involved in the production and distribution get. At the end, the producers get 1/3 of what remains after tax and after everyone involved has taken their cuts. With that film, we got ₦7.5m.
This is only the box office, though. When the movie leaves the cinema, you sell to channels, flight, and other avenues. Over the years, it’s turned in a profit.
Interesting. What’s happened since that time?
We’ve done about three cinema films. We made a loss of about ₦7m on one because there was no money for ads.
My thought process shifted after that. I had to decide if I wanted to keep funding films that may likely not make money or become a content producer for TV stations. I got the first TV commission in 2016, and they gave us ₦4m to produce a show for them.
Sweet. And your earnings, how has it changed between 2015 and now?
Let’s say I make between ₦500k and ₦1m in a month where everything works. But it’s still irregular. What has been consistent is the inconsistency of my income. And what hasn’t changed is the way I budget.
Tell me about that.
When our second child came in 2018, I realised that things had become more real. I started making a two-month budget instead of a one-month budget. We try to limit our expenses to ₦800k within a two-month period. But it’s not set in stone.
There’s a separate plan for rent. We pay about ₦8m in rent for the house and other properties we run business in. I find out that by the second quarter of each year, I’ve saved up rent for the following year.
This is actually refreshing. Do you know how much you have in savings?
About ₦8-₦9m. I know it won’t be liquid for long; we’re always putting money into funding projects.
Ah, I see. What about investments?
We bought some real estate two years ago. 5 plots of land, and each one cost ₦1.2m. There is a sixth plot that we got for ₦2.5m. We’ve always heavily invested in our work. We’re also in the money markets, but we don’t have a lot in it — about $5000 in stocks. Then there’s one ₦700k in mutual funds.
Most of our investment is tied to work, and that’s not very helpful if I really want to work around our irregular income. It sounds better to invest in something outside the scope of work.
What’s stopping you from doing that?
Finding someone to trust or understanding the business I’m going into. With the film business, no one can bullshit me. It’s smarter to invest in what I know.
Fair enough. How would you say that your experiences have shaped your perspective about money?
I have a lot of respect for money. And I have a lot of anxiety about it. I’m always planning stuff around money and making budgets even when I don’t have to. One of my goals this year is to work on the anxiety bit. I just want to relax.
How much do you think you’d need to earn to get rid of the anxiety?
The thing is, it’s not about the amount. It’s about how often they come. If the income is as regular as I’d like, then I won’t have to worry so much about money.
I’m curious, do you have a retirement plan?
It’s funny, I don’t. I should definitely start working on that this year.
What’s something you want right now but can’t afford?
A holiday. I will have to go with my family, and it will run into a couple of millions, which I don’t have right now.
What about something you bought recently that kinda improved the quality of your life?
I was going to say the new production office we opened, but it didn’t really improve the quality of my lifet. It just gave me more things to worry about. Apart from that, nothing. Such a shame.
Lmao. That’s all right. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?
5. It’s neither here nor there. Income is still not regular even after all the years in the industry — I probably won’t hack this. But if I get this major gig I’m expecting soon, this number can move to a 7 or an 8.
Are you a scaredy-cat or a daredevil? Wait, don’t answer that. Take this quiz instead and find your answers. Remember, Zikoko quizzes are always accurate.
Job satisfaction should be a big deal. However, a lot of Nigerians are in jobs they don’t like very much. More often than not, this is a consequence of how much work they’re expected to do for little pay. This is something a lot of people relate to, so we asked 9 young Nigerians to talk about their experiences.
Mide, 25
I was offered a business development role at a company in 2019. They sold me this crazy idea that I’d be paid a commission on every new deal I got for them, but I’d start with a basic salary of ₦100k. This was supposed to be increased at the end of the first month. On my first day, my boss told me to draft a contract because they knew I studied law. I was like: “Wetin dey occur?” Anyway, I did it. From that day, they added legal work to my day-to-day tasks.
It took three weeks before I got my offer letter. When they eventually sent it to me, my salary had changed to ₦80k. I brought it up and they said the company had fallen into hard times. They, however, promised to give me a raise within three months. At the end of the month, I was paid ₦60k, instead of the ₦80k that was in my offer letter. Yet I was made to take on roles I wasn’t hired for — legal compliance, operations, and business development. And my workdays included weekends. Throughout the time I spent with the company, the raise they talked about never came. When my supervisor started taking credits for the deals I brought in, I realised that they were only using me. It only took me four months but I did the right thing for myself. I quit.
Alice, 24
I applied to a front desk representative job in July 2019, and they offered me ₦30k. I should have guessed what I was in for when he asked me if I could interview people and how good I was with social media. Anyway, I took the job and started working immediately.
I found myself handling all the social media accounts for the company. I was also my boss’s personal assistant and office assistant — there was always an errand to run. The working hours were 8 am – 5 pm, but I had to be at work by 7 am. My boss was very toxic and liked to remind me that he was doing me a favour. Before I accepted the job, we agreed that my salary would be increased to ₦50k after my 3-month probation period. Six months later, this hadn’t happened. When I reminded him about the deal and requested a pay raise, he fired me.
Oyinkan, 25
I work as a Quality Control Analyst for a manufacturing company. It’s supposed to be a lucrative gig, but my gross salary is ₦45k. By the time pension and tax are deducted, I’m left with ₦39k. I work from Monday to Saturday, and there’s hardly any break. After my first year, I asked for leave but the HR guy called me aside and told me that the management wouldn’t approve it. He advised me to take the leave bonus instead or risk losing both.
I don’t mind the work but I need a break. If the pay was good, the long hours would probably be worth it. There was a time I fell ill and had to leave work to go to the hospital. The doctor said I had chronic fatigue and advised me to take a day off. She even wrote me a note to that effect. When I showed them the note at work, the response was “You don’t look sick. What work are you even doing that you have fatigue?” Oh, they deducted 2-days worth of work from my salary even though I showed up on both days.
It’s difficult to find a new job because there’s no time to attend interviews or take tests. I’m perpetually tired and fantasize about my workplace blowing up every single night. The guy that I supposedly work with earns over ₦1 million every month because he’s an expatriate. But I do all the work. He only remembers his lab coat when NAFDAC is coming.
Tobi, 27
A law firm hired me to take charge of their social media. The pay was actually low — ₦70k gross, ₦63k net— but it was Ibadan, and I thought I could do with it. After I started, they told me that I had to handle the socials for their two sister companies. It didn’t end here: they bought a camera, and I became the official photographer too. They kept giving me work that was unrelated to the company and expected me to do them without asking questions. There’s something else I found unacceptable: we couldn’t go home if the boss was still in the office, even if we had nothing to do.
I knew it was time to leave when they restructured the office and moved me to the reception. I didn’t sign up for that, so I left. They didn’t even hire a new person to fill my post. They just gave the responsibilities to one of the guys that were working there already.
Tokunbo, 23
Last year, I was in a tough spot, and I reached out to a friend. The company where her fiance worked was looking from a designer, and she asked me to apply for the job. I did, and I got it. The pay was ₦30k, but I took it because it came with a laptop and I could work from school.
I thought I wouldn’t do a lot since I wasn’t paid a lot. I was wrong. When schools closed because of the pandemic, they asked me to come to Lagos and put me in the company’s apartment. My cost of living skyrocketed, the workload got higher, but my salary remained the same. While I was there, I singlehandedly designed three live apps, four websites, 10 credit cards, redesigned the company’s logo, designed banners, books and directed an ad campaign and much more on a ₦30k salary. I left after nine months. But here’s the thing, my contract states that I can’t add the work I did for them to my portfolio. And for the one or two I can use, I have to ask for their permission first.
Tolulope, 23
When I started working at this company, I was the HR Generalist and was put on a ₦150k salary. But the more I spent there, the more I got roles that weren’t part of my job description. I became the receptionist, customer relations officer, and worked in business development.
To be honest, I blame myself. I always had something to say in meetings when they asked for ideas. Then my boss would go “Customer service, work with Tolu on this project.” I didn’t learn my lesson until I was dragged into every department. When the work became too much, and I got frustrated, I took it up with the Deputy Managing Director. The only thing baba said was “You’re really good, let them steal your brain.”
At the next meeting, he made me the team lead for admin/HR. I was so happy. Then I asked for a follow-up meeting to discuss a raise, but they were like “Oh, you’re still relatively new, so we can’t give you a raise at the moment.” The raise never came until they made most of the staff redundant when the pandemic first hit. And they still owe me three months salary.
Dotun, 27
I joined a social/market research consulting firm as an intern in October 2017 and was offered ₦50k. After six months, my pay was increased to ₦75k. In July 2018, I started working as a project lead for Ghana and Nigeria, training field teams. I also did some work for international research agencies, which brought close to $100k for the company. But no, they didn’t think to increase my salary.
Out of frustration, I asked for a raise in December 2018, but they didn’t get to it until 2019. And that was only because I dropped hints of resigning. The raise was only ₦30k, by the way. My salary has been ₦105k since that time. They promised that things would get better in 2020, but the coronavirus has provided a perfect decoy for the company to not increase salaries. At this point, I shouldn’t be earning anything less than ₦250k, but here we are. Sometimes, I feel like I played myself. I refused offers in the banking industry and shipping companies because of the passion I have for research.
Chidera, 24
I work as an admin officer/secretary at a construction company in Abuja. I’ve been here for over a year, and my salary has been ₦55k. When I joined the company, the deal was that I’d be confirmed in six months and receive a raise. But whenever bring it up now, it’s always something about how the company doesn’t have enough money. This doesn’t make sense because I see all the receipts. I see the big deals the company gets and the exorbitant expenses my boss incurs. They can definitely pay me more. They just don’t want to.
Jude 26
I got a job as a legal practitioner at a Law Firm in Enugu State in 2016. They offered me a ₦20k basic salary, accommodation, and appearance fees every time I went to court. I worked from 8 am to 6 pm on Mondays to Fridays, and 9 am to 5 pm on Saturdays. At the end of each day, the firm would gather all the lawyers for a briefing that usually ran into the night.
It was tedious. I went to court almost every day. And I was also required to turn in at least 100 pages of solid legal drafting. It was a lot of late nights and early mornings. Luckily, I spent only 62 days at the job. I got a better offer from a different law firm. There wasn’t a lot to think about — I packed my stuff, said my goodbyes and didn’t back.
Well, if you know you’re evil but have perfected the art of playing the angel to cover your dark side, you shouldn’t bother taking this quiz. Or maybe you should.
The idea of lifelong friendships sounds nice, but it doesn’t always happen. Friends fall out or drift apart all the time for myriads of reasons. For some people, it happens because their friend got married and decided that they didn’t want to be friends anymore. This is a lot more common than you’d think, so we spoke to six people who have had this experience.
Emerald
We were childhood friends and kept in touch over the years. At some point, people thought we were twins. I was the chief bridesmaid at her wedding. That was also the day we stopped being friends, although I didn’t know it at the time. She blocked me on social media a few weeks after her wedding. Then she stopped picking my calls.
We didn’t talk for months until I ran into her at her mum’s house. I noticed she was acting weird, as though she was afraid someone would see us together. But I needed answers too, so I kept drilling her. She eventually came clean and said her marriage is her topmost priority and I don’t fit in it. Apparently, her husband had told her to cut me off because I’m a “bitter feminist” who can’t keep a man.
Ellina
I have a couple of friends who have pulled this move on me. They got married and decided that it was best for them if we stopped being friends. One said that it would be crazy to keep up with her unmarried friends because some of us are not good examples for her to follow. Another one was like her husband asked her to change her number. When I asked her if her husband did the same thing, she didn’t respond. I took that as a no.
I don’t even know why it bothers me so much. Some of my friends laugh at me for finding it weird. Every time, they go “you will understand when you’re married.” I don’t know what’s in it to understand. At some point, I thought something might be wrong with me. Now, it has made it hard for me to become close to a new friend. There’s no knowing what will happen in the future when they get married, and I’d really like to protect myself.
Adiaha
We were such great friends in university. She graduated before I did, but we always found a way to be in touch. We had similar interests and getting married soon after uni wasn’t one of them. She wanted to be a fashion designer and had plans to go to a fashion school. But what happened? She finished NYSC and got married. That was the beginning of the end of our relationship. It took a week before she replied my congratulatory message. After that, she cut me off totally without a word. When I called her, she declined my calls.
I guess I’m the wild, crazy, and adventurous friend and there was no space for me in her life once she got married. I don’t even feel bad about it. She’s not who I want in my life anymore.
Halimah
I met this guy through a mutual friend who tried to hook us up. At the time, I was interested in someone else, so I didn’t give it a chance. But we became friends. When he got married in 2019, he invited me to his wedding, but I declined the invitation. I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to attend. Besides, northerners don’t take too kindly to girls who are friends with men. However, we remained in touch after the wedding.
One day, I missed a call from an unknown number. When I returned the call, a lady picked it up and told me that someone had probably used her phone to call me. I didn’t think too much about it until a few days later when I ran into our mutual friend. She told me the guy had called me and I didn’t pick. To cut it short, he’d used his wife’s phone to call me for some reason. His wife was the lady I had spoken to a few days back.
I called him to get a sense of what was happening, but I found out that he had blocked my number. I sent him texts on Facebook too, and if he got them, he never replied. He pretty much ghosted me. I was upset by the whole situation. If he had told me that his wife wasn’t cool with us being friends, I would have been okay with it. But he just stopped talking to me.
Tola
I had this friend I made in my third year at uni, and she blended in with my group of friends. We lived close to each other, and that made us somewhat close. I wouldn’t say we were best friends, but we were great.
When she wanted to get married, she invited our group for the wedding. All seven of us. Three people made it to the wedding. Others, including myself, couldn’t — I had just left NYSC Camp and was sorting out my PPA. Three days after the wedding, she left the WhatsApp group chat. We added her back, but she left again. She changed her number too. None of us has spoken to her since that time. I think she was mad that most of us didn’t attend her wedding. At first, I dealt with my guilt for not attending. But after a while, it didn’t make sense anymore. So, I decided to let her go and move on.
Uyo
This girl and I were close when we were in university. I mean, we shared everything and used to sleep in each other’s room. Well, she didn’t even tell me that she was getting married — I heard that from someone else. I called her, and she confirmed it. Then she went: “Ehn, Aso-Ebi is ₦15k if you want to come. ₦25k if you want the gele.”
Sha, I went to her wedding. I also sent her a goodwill message after the ceremony, and she didn’t bother to reply. When I heard that she had given birth, I sent her another congratulatory message. She didn’t reply that one too. It’s weird. Most people think I’m awesome, so it’s not like I’m bad vibes or anything.
Recently, one of our mutual friends told me that she felt I was too erratic and that she had outgrown me. We move.
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.
This #NairaLife is the story of a medical student stuck in a loop that is the Nigerian education system. One day, he got some information that changed his life forever, and he went from being a dependent to a provider. This is how it all happened.
Let’s start with the first time you worked for money.
2009. I used to help my cousin out at her tutorial centre which she’d just built into a school. I was 16 at the time and still in senior secondary school, so I only had time during the long vacations. She paid me ₦4,000 every month for my troubles.
Do you remember what you did with your earnings?
The memory is faint now, but some of the money must have gone into buying stuff I needed for school. There were also the times my mum would ask me to loan her money. Of course, she never returned it.
Don’t we all have that story. What did you do next?
University. I was admitted to study biochemistry in 2011 though I wanted medicine and surgery. I lived in the same town as my parents, so they didn’t put me on a big allowance. They sent me to school with foodstuff and sent ₦2,000 occasionally. I could come home whenever I wanted, and they knew this.
I still wanted to study medicine, so I tried again in 2012. Another no. When I tried again in 2013, I changed my institution of choice to Kogi State University. There I was offered a course I didn’t want, and I rejected it.
I decided to let medicine go, until an uncle asked me why I wasn’t studying it. He convinced me to give it another try and even paid for my JAMB exam. I got it this time. I was already in 300 level, but I transferred to the college of medicine and started again at 100 level.
Omo. What did your parents think about this?
They were fine with it. The only problem was that things were rough at home at the time. My tuition was ₦80,000, and my father couldn’t raise the money. The loan he applied for at his cooperative was not approved. For a minute, it felt like I was going to lose my admission. But my dad got the money and it worked out.
The real problem was that the college of medicine had their own issues too.
What issues?
The college was struggling with accreditation. There were people who had been in school for six years but were still stuck in 300 level. The thing about medicine is that if a class writes a professional exam this year, the next class must wait till the following year before they can write the same exam. But we weren’t writing these exams, so nothing was moving.
The provost of the college called my class and candidly told us that we had a long way to go. We were supposed to write our first professional exam in 2017, but he said the earliest that could happen was 2019. That was two automatic extra years.
Nigeria.
Sometime in 2016, some senior students protested against the recurring accreditation issues or increase in school fees — I’m not sure anymore. The college didn’t take kindly to that. Apparently, “Medical students don’t protest”. They sent all of us home indefinitely.
Mad oh. What was it like being stuck at home?
Omo. I was almost 23 years, and school had no end in sight. My dad took it the hardest. He was so terrified because he was close to retirement, and he worried that he wouldn’t be able to afford my tuition, which had increased to over ₦200,000. I felt like I had made a mistake. My classmates in biochemistry graduated that year. That could have been me
Sorry, man. Must have been tough.
It was. I knew I had to figure out a way to start earning. I remembered a guy I met on NairaLand in 2013 when I was considering Kogi State University. We became friends and remained in touch, although I didn’t get into the university. There was a time he showed me his earnings during a conversation, and my immediate reaction was, “Ah, Yahoo Boy”. He explained that he made his money from freelancing and tried to sell it to me. But I was like, “If you’re earning in dollars, you’re a Yahoo Boy.”
LOL.
Sha, I reached out to him to take him up on his offer, and he sent a few links to get me started. I did a bit of research and opened an account on Fiverr. This was September 2016.
When did you get your first job?
Not long after I opened the account. It was a video script gig, and the client’s budget was $5. I had never written a script before, but I took it. I messed up the job. Understandably, the client was upset and left a bad review. 2/5 stars.
Ouch.
I went back to the internet and dug up everything I could find about scriptwriting. I got another job — another chance to learn. It wasn’t as bad as the first one, but there were some disputes about the quality of the work. I had a dry spell that lasted a few weeks until an animator contacted me to write a script for a project his client was working on. He also offered to pay $5. This was the first job that went smoothly, and I got my first 5-star review.
Lit.
I was interested in scriptwriting now, and I spent hours learning all the basics while applying for jobs to test my new knowledge. Every time I saw something interesting that I didn’t know how to do, I would apply for the job. If I got it, I would do it, make my mistakes, get bad reviews sometimes. But I was learning a great deal from all of them.
What was the review that hurt the most?
I can’t remember oh. There were quite a number of them. White people don’t have joy, I swear. I didn’t worry too much about them. I knew they wouldn’t matter in the long run. Within three months, I had gotten considerably better at scriptwriting.
In December 2016, I made a little over $600 from a series of gigs. A video script here, an ad copy there. This was about ₦200,000 at the time. I thought I wouldn’t make more than ₦30,000 a month when I started three months earlier. On many levels, that was my big break.
My heart is full. When did they ask you to return to school?
Oh, that. They asked us back in February 2017. They actually took their time and wasted ours because they knew if we returned to school, they would have to start dealing with their accreditation issues again. About four months later, the school told us that there was still no accreditation and that there was a backlog of classes who hadn’t written their professional exams, so we should go home again. They called it a holiday,
Ah.
There was no return date this time either. I was like, “I can’t lose on both sides.” I returned home and continued writing scripts. It was during that period I learned how to write movie scripts. That did numbers for my monthly earnings, It grew to at least $1,000 a month.
What was the average amount you made per job?
I’m not sure. It was a mix of small and big jobs. I was still taking the small $5 jobs because they improved the bottom line as well. But as I got more 5-star reviews, I increased my gig prices. From $5, I moved to $10, then $20. Now, a project’s budget must be at least $50 before I consider the job.
Nice.
I saved my first million before my 24th birthday in 2017. It was huge for me, man. At this time, I was already helping out at home. Oh, this reminds me of a story.
Tell me about it.
My dad needed some money — I don’t remember how much — and I gave it to him. I wasn’t ready for what came after. This man was so choked by emotion, he started to cry. He was like, he wasn’t sure things were going to change, and now, I was making it happen. It was a sweet experience.
Aww. I get what you mean.
Besides, I could afford anything I wanted. I didn’t live an extravagant life, but I knew I wasn’t in dire need of money. There’s a relief that comes with that sort of realisation.
I feel you. Did your school ever call you back?
Oh yeah. We spent the rest of 2017 at home. We returned in January 2018.
I’m curious about what this erratic calendar did to you.
It didn’t matter how I felt; I had to stick with it. My parents would be so disappointed if I dropped out. I toyed with the idea of transferring to the Philippines to continue school, but I feared what would happen if I stopped making money and couldn’t sponsor myself anymore. This might be one of my biggest regrets.
And oh, they sent us home again. It was an internal ASUU strike this time. School has been on and off since that time.
Bruh! Back to your hustle: how has your approach to getting jobs between 2016 and now?
I sent a lot of proposals when I started, but I stopped applying for jobs in 2017. These days, I let clients come to me to tell me about their projects. Then I create a custom offer for them. Marketing is key when you’re a freelancer.
Word. How do you know the kind of jobs to accept?
I don’t accept jobs I know I can’t do. I get tempted to accept them and outsource, but I don’t because I know whoever I give it to might fuck it up and mess up my review. Yes, I take those things seriously now.
Lmao. What do your earnings look like these days?
I didn’t pay a lot of attention to this until recently. I did a review of my monthly earnings, and I found out that I make at least $2,000 every month. While that seems impressive, I feel like I could do better. I’m one of the little earners in my circle — others make between $5,000 to $10,000.
$2,000 is about ₦900,000. Let’s break down your expenses.
Tell me about your miscellaneous expenses.
I don’t pay tithe, so I donate some money to people who I think might need it. I find a lot of donation links on Twitter. My parents don’t know about this because I tell them I pay my tithe to another church.
Speaking of your parents, what do they think about the income jump?
Haha. When I got my first job and told my mother about it, I didn’t leave out the part about the client being a white person. She heard that and went, “Eh, white man. Are you sure you’re not doing Yahoo Yahoo, this boy?” My father heard about it and forbade me from doing anything on the internet.
My church people too started talking and asking my parents if they knew what I was doing. It was hard to explain, but they’ve come around. My parents pray for me now.
Hallelujah. Let’s talk about your savings.
I’ve not been saving a lot since last year because I started to invest in properties. I did save ₦4.5 million last year. It’s sitting pretty in my Piggyvest account.
Lit. Tell me about your investments.
Here’s how it started: in 2018, my dad wanted to build a mini-flat so he could have something to bring in money when he retired. My mum roped me into the project. I spent about ₦2.5 million on that and didn’t get it back. In 2019, my dad told me about a land a cousin wanted to sell. He thought it was a good opportunity and asked that I buy it. A plot was ₦250k, and I wanted to buy one. But he talked me into buying four. That took ₦1 million.
That’s really interesting.
I took land investments seriously last year. My cousin pitched the idea of buying lands in a state in the South West. We got on it and bought a plot of land for ₦1.2 million. I’ve spent an additional ₦5 million developing it.
Do you have any plans for it?
I don’t know at the moment. I’m leaning towards renting the apartment out, but my cousin wants me to live there. I wasn’t even ready to start building anything on it, but they said they could snatch the land away from me if there were no signs of it being developed. Omo, the first thing I did was to build a fence around it.
Lmao. Apart from these investments, what’s the biggest thing you’ve spent money on that required planning?
In 2019, I went to Dubai on vacation after I wrote my first professional medical exam. The total package was about ₦500,000. I clocked that I liked travelling and decided to do it more often. I’ve been to Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, Rwanda and Ethiopia between then and now.
Where do you see all of this in five years?
I’ll be out of Nigeria, hopefully. But if I’m still here, I hope to have grown my business into $20,000 per month. I’m not sure I will be a practising doctor. The way doctors are treated in this country doesn’t sit well with me.
Is there anything you want but can’t get right now?
I’d like to buy a car but I’m scared of the police. Also, my parents are worried about people thinking I make my money from cybercrime. Ah, they also believe that witches would kill me too.
I’m not even going to touch that. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?
7. I’ll be honest; I don’t worry about money these days, but earning more would be great. Sometimes, I wish I could be more spontaneous, like taking my friends out on vacation and paying for all of it.
I feel you. How’s school going, by the way?
I’m about to start my fourth year now. I wrote my first professional exam in 2019. I’ve spent more time out of school than in school between the time I became a medical student and now. But you see that ₦4.5 million savings I have in PiggyVest? That’s my japa money when all of this is over.
Hi there! we’re thinking about how much more value we can add to #NairaLife. But we need your help to do this. If you find this series useful and would like to help us improve it, we’d love to hear from you.
It’s safe to say that the culture of black tax has caught on. More than ever, young Nigerians are expected to support their families from whatever they earn. It’s a tricky situation to navigate, so we asked 8 Nigerians who’re paying a form of black tax to talk about their experiences.
Kathy, 25
My dad died in 2008, leaving behind a stay-at-home mum and five children. I’m the eldest child. My black tax situation started from my time at the university. I always sent something home from the allowance I got from the relatives I was living with. When I finished university and got a job, the black tax skyrocketed. I earn about ₦250k per month, and a good chunk of it goes to my family. What my mother makes from her shop couldn’t possibly sustain the family. See, I love my family but God, I resent them sometimes. I can’t save, invest, travel or buy things for myself because there’s always rent or school fees to pay.
Recently, I had to clear out my savings to help my mum get goods and pay for her shop rent. Don’t get me started on the loans I’m still paying off. My last sibling is still in SS1, so I’m not getting out of this any time soon. Things got so bad one time I contemplated suicide, and the ONLY thing that stopped me was “who will take care of my family?”
It’s fine, though. You know how they say John the Baptist was born to pave the way for Jesus? Yeah, I was born to take care of people. That is truly my mission in life. I even make jokes out of it now — I tell my close friends I’m short because I’m carrying my family on my head.
The idea of marriage and children doesn’t appeal to me anymore. It feels like another form of black tax. When my siblings have grown up and no longer need my help, I want to enjoy my life and do things I couldn’t do as a young adult. I will have deserved it.
Jinmi, 28
The universe has always set me up. First, I wasn’t born into a wealthy family. And when things began to look up, my dad passed away when I was 17. Then it was just me, my mum, and three siblings. My siblings had to stay out of school for some time to ensure I finished university. After that, it was all about me getting a great job and helping the family.
I got my first job in 2017. Since that time, I’ve got another job, and my salary has been reviewed several times. I currently earn above a quarter million naira, which is 3x what I started with. I’m earning more than most people my age, but my finances are in shambles. Most of my income goes into helping out the family.
There was a time I got paid, and I started making money transfers to each member of my family on the spot. When I was done, 60% of my salary was gone. Another time, I wanted to write a professional exam to improve my prospects of getting a better paying job. I could afford the exam, but my brother needed money for his tuition, and I had to give up the exam. Not that I regret it — they made the same sacrifices for me when I was in university. I would never abandon them, and nothing beats the joy of being able to help out. But the thing is, I’ve now realised that I might not get far in life if things don’t improve.
Dami, 23
I didn’t sign up for this. I was pushed out of the womb and became obligated as the first daughter to take care of everybody. When I started working at my first job, I was earning six-figures, and although my parents weren’t aware of the actual amount, they expected me to take up some responsibilities. My mother would make snide remarks when I didn’t pay or offer to pay for some household items. It was confusing at first. I had plans for myself, like getting my own place, purchasing gadgets for work, and at least flexing baby girl lifestyle. But I was getting things like “Your sister is going back to school, shey you won’t give her something? Or buy provisions” and I would be like “Am I the mother?”.
At first, they were thankful that I was helping out. Now it seems like one of the things they expect, and when it happens, they’re like “You’re being responsible. Oh cool. May God keep providing for you.” My mother makes decisions without informing me and expects me to pay for it. In December, she paid for something worth ₦100k+, and she casually told me what she did and how she’s sorry that I have to reimburse her, even though she knew I was still setting up my apartment.
I don’t think I’ll ever have a definite say on my finances as anything can come up from my family’s end. It doesn’t matter how important a MacBook is, my family will always come first. The smiles on their faces are satisfactory sometimes.
Deji, 30
I had just returned from NYSC in 2014 when my mum hit me with this: “Oh, you know you’re the first child. You can’t abandon the family. We’re barely surviving and need you.”
My family was the average Nigerian middle-class family in the early 90s, but things got hard in the 2010s, but I didn’t realise that the situation was so bad. I went into panic mode and aggressively searched for a job. And when I got one, I started helping out with a few things around the house. Now, I’ve taken over full responsibilities from my parents for more than five years. In that time, I’ve changed jobs and gotten promotions. But with every raise I got, my family needs also evolved.
One night, I got a call that my brother was terribly sick and had been placed on admission. I was a mess. The money I had on me was what I’d been saving to get the family a new spot. I spent more than ₦120k that night alone. Over the next few days, I kept paying for hospital stuff. My mum was also recovering from a stroke at the time, and my dad was conveniently out of town. It was a dark period. I contemplated disappearing on them so many times. I don’t know how I would have survived if my ex wasn’t there to support me.
I’m largely overwhelmed these days. Music and my occasional therapy help, but they don’t make the problems go away.
Dasola, 21
I’ve always been independent. I liked the idea of having my own money. When my family fell on tough times, I knew it was time to start taking care of myself. At first, it was just all about myself, but I realised that I needed to include my family too. So here we are.
But sometimes, they act like I’m not doing enough even though I’m the only one doing something. One time, I split my salary into two and gave my mum one half, and she said that it was too small. By the way, I’m in my second year of uni, and I’m paying my way through it myself.
I love them to bits, but I wish I could spend some money on myself without feeling guilty, or just be like girls my age who don’t have these responsibilities. I do crying therapy at least once every week. But when I see how happy they get when I do something for them, the situation doesn’t seem so bad.
Emeka
I was just out of secondary school when my parents lost their jobs. This halted my plans to study abroad. I decided to go to a federal university and my parents couldn’t cover my tuition. So I took it up to see myself through uni. I started making some money in university, but most of it went into paying black tax. There was a limitless amount of needs. After I graduated from uni, I realised that if I didn’t do anything, my siblings won’t go to school.
I’ve done everything to make sure they get an education — data analysis, project writing, advertising, and radio. I don’t want to be anybody’s wicked uncle. I will do my best to see them through university, and that’s it.
Also, they seem to think that I’m way better off than I am, so I’ve realised the need for boundaries. I refuse some of the things they ask from me. I don’t do ego trips. When I was at university, I lost my grandmother. Traditionally, my father was supposed to bury her with a cow or two. The reality at the time was that we couldn’t afford one, but my father tried to blackmail into buying one. I said no, and stood my ground. It caused some drama but everyone was fine eventually. I had to set boundaries or I’d just kill myself trying to meet up with their expectations.
Zia, 19
My family’s financial situation is shit, and I’m the first child. I’m in my third year at uni, and when I started freelancing in 100 level, everyone was happy because the money I was supposed to get from them could now be diverted elsewhere. Then it got worse. If I asked my parents for anything, their reply would be “aren’t you a working-class woman?” I’m still a teen. There is literally ‘teen’ in my age.
During the lockdown, I had to dip into my emergency funds more times than I can count. They come to me for anything we need at home, and nobody ever believes me when I say I don’t have money. Recently, my mother came into my room and asked: “they never pay you?” I told her that they hadn’t paid, although that was a lie. Then she went “when they pay you, you’re giving me ₦10k.” She didn’t even know how much the pay was, she just assumed that I could afford to cough up the money.
I’m making my peace with it. For the foreseeable future, I’m not getting out of it. I’m also setting limits. I love my family, but they don’t have limits.
Funmi, 27
I’m not even the first child. I’m the fifth out of eight kids, but I’m like the only child who currently has something going for her. Here’s the thing: I’m 27, a single mum, and deep in debt of black tax. I never run out of things to do for my parents or my siblings.
When I made my first ₦1M, I sent ₦500k to my dad to buy a vehicle for his transport business. My mum got an additional ₦200k loan to complete the payment. Guess what happened: the car he bought was so bad that it needed more than ₦1M to set it up. Guess who had to repay the loan my mum got? Me.
I believe I’m just here to pay bills and my mental health has taken a huge hit. To be honest, my daughter and the occasional sleeping pills are the only things getting me through this.
On Tuesday, January 12, 2021, the Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning presented the approved 2021 budget to the public via a virtual conference call. If you missed it, here are a few things we think you will be interested in.
1. How will Nigeria finance the budget deficit?
Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said that the ₦4.686T budget deficit will be financed by external and domestic borrowing, and the government will decide to go to the international capital markets to source for funds if the conditions are right.
The DG, Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha added that domestic funding of ₦2.343T will start from January 2021 as the government continues to monitor the trends in the International Capital Market and the probability of issuing a Eurobond.
2. What’s the government plan for funds from unclaimed dividends and dormant accounts they intend to “borrow”?
The finance minister reveals that they estimate funds in dormant accounts and unclaimed dividends to be up to ₦850B. The plan is to put the funds in a special trust fund where it will be available as special credit to the government. However, the owners of the money get their money back at any time.
3. Is inflation ever going down?
The DG of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, when answering a question on the feasibility of reducing inflation from 14.89% to 11.95% noted that the country has been through worse and bounced back, especially during the 2016-2017 recession when inflation rates hit over 18%. Therefore, the target to bring inflation down to 11.95% by the end of 2021. There will be active collaboration between fiscal and monetary policymakers to make it happen.
4. On the economic effect of another lockdown.
According to the finance minister, the federal government hopes that there won’t be a fresh lockdown. However, if the health challenge becomes too much to bear and the government has no other option, then it might be something to consider.
5. Will COVID-19 vaccines ever reach Nigeria?
Minister Zainab Ahmed confirms that the government is working on the type and quantity of vaccines to procure, and the ministry of finance and the ministry of health will meet within two weeks to finalise the amount that will go into getting these vaccines. She added that if the provisions in the budget are not enough for the vaccines, the government is ready to work on a supplementary budget to cover the cost of vaccines.
Nigeria expects to receive vaccine donations that will cover 20% of the population, although 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. The government will therefore procure the remaining 50% vaccine herd immunity requirement for the population.
