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?
When I was around 8 or 10, I stole Christmas lights. Scratch that, I “took” them from my mum’s shop. This was around Christmas, and my school wanted us to bring random stuff. So, I thought, “Let me just take this thing.”
My mum’s salesgirl told her, and when my mum asked me if I’d paid, I said I did. Well, she already knew I didn’t, and the lie pissed her off. She beat me silly.
Yikes. Do you remember how much the lights cost?
They were about ₦400 or ₦500. I remember thinking that the money wasn’t big enough for that level of beating.
It wasn’t like we were struggling or anything. My dad worked with one of the foremost NGOs in the country, and my mum worked with the state government. My dad’s job took him to different states and countries, and I sometimes went on these trips with him.
One of the fondest things I remember from my childhood was breakfast time. You know how a family typically shares a can of sardines? For us, each person had a can of sardines. I didn’t taste NASCO cornflakes until I became an adult. It was always Kellogg’s. Now, I consider these things a luxury, but they felt pretty standard then.
When was the first time you worked to earn money?
2013. I was fresh out of university, interning at a broadcasting company, when I decided to try my hand at business.
My business idea was to buy earrings and fashion accessories from Jumia and resell them for a profit. My mum loaned me ₦20k to buy a few items to start, but I don’t think I made one naira profit from that business. In hindsight, it was either a stupid business idea or I was just a bad business person.
I sold some items, didn’t get paid for some, dashed some to people and wore the rest. The business was dead on arrival. My mum dragged me for her money for years because I never repaid her. Any small thing, “You’re not creditworthy.”
I’m honestly not sure why I thought to try a business; I’d been terrible with money at uni. I had at least one big money-related issue almost every year.
Now you have to do a story time
My money “scandals” were usually about me using money that wasn’t mine, giving it out, or getting scammed. One time, I used people’s money to pay some children’s JAMB fees.
The JAMB fee wahala happened when I held my department’s money. We were contributing money for something, and I used the money to help a group of kids sort out JAMB registration. The department money was about ₦70k, and I figured I’d gather my ₦10k weekly pocket money to repay them when needed.
However, I couldn’t save the money back because one expense or another kept coming up, and by the time they needed it, I didn’t have anything. I had to start running up and down to look for money. It was a whole thing.
Another time in 200 level, someone gave me some earrings to sell for her. When it became time for her to collect her money, I didn’t have her money or the goods. She later brought the police to arrest me.
You say?
See, I don’t even know how it happened. The thing was, I just kept dashing people the earrings. Someone would come and say, “I love these earrings,” and I’d go, “Oh, you can have one. I’ll pay for it.” That’s how everything finished, and I didn’t see money to pay back. When she arrested me, they called my dad, and he paid the money and bailed me out. My dad was so mad. I think he beat me sef.
Besides my money issues. I lived above my means a lot in school. ₦10k/week wasn’t measly for a student in 2008 – 2013, but after I spent money on food and gave the rest out, I’d be broke before Friday. My mum always said I had my dad’s spending habits. My dad is a terrible spender, while my mum is the house’s “manager”. When my dad has money, the whole world knows. He just spends. So, I guess I got that through genetics.
Back to the internship. Was it paid?
It wasn’t. I got it through an uncle, and it was more like, “Go to this place, ask for this person, and they’ll put you somewhere.”
I started by running errands, and then I moved on to reading the news on the radio and TV. I worked there without a salary for about two years. Then, in 2015, I attended a three-month training with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria — my parents paid the ₦120k-ish fee.
After I completed it, I returned to work and asked them to start paying me a salary or I’d leave. They agreed, but rather than a proper salary, they paid me a ₦17,500/month production fee for the programs I produced on the radio.
Around this period, I also got random voiceover gigs for a presidential candidate’s campaign. It was election season, so the gigs came a few times. Payment wasn’t a specific amount, though. Sometimes, they’d pay ₦100k. Other times ₦200k or ₦500k.
Nice. What did you do with this windfall?
For the first time in my life, I saved everything I made. It grew to ₦3.5m, and then I got scammed. Maybe I shouldn’t say scammed because it was an adult situation that I walked into. I wanted to buy a radio station license, and my uncle told me he could help. That’s how I gave him the money, and it disappeared.
Wait. Disappeared how?
Let me explain. I was living with this uncle/family friend at the time. He was one of the people who started the broadcast organisation I worked with, and he’d got me in. He knew about the industry, and I had a lifelong dream of running a radio station for girls.
I didn’t have plans for how to get a building or other things. I just had that money and thought, “Let me start with the license first.” My uncle promised to help with it, so I gave him the money. I never saw the money again, and didn’t get the license either.
I don’t think he ever intended to get me a license because I later discovered the real cost was about ₦15m. He probably needed the money and just came up with an excuse to get it.
But did you ask him for your money?
I asked about the license after some weeks when I didn’t get any update, and he just looked at me like, “License ko, license ni.” Like, “What is this one saying?” The situation was like, since I was living with him and he was providing for me, what else did I need?
I told my parents about the situation, but everyone kept quiet. No one addressed the situation, as if we all just pretended it didn’t happen. By this time, I was around 22 and already dreamed of becoming Nigeria’s youngest radio station owner.
I really felt cheated. This was money I’d made and kept for a particular reason, but I couldn’t even ask about it. He’s still a very close friend of my family to this day.
That’s wild
After this, I went for NYSC and served in the military. This was still 2015. I worked in the public relations department, and they paid ₦5k every other month in addition to the ₦19800 allawee from NYSC. I say “every other month” because there were some months the military didn’t pay us.
Service year was a struggle. I went from earning north of ₦100k from voiceovers to managing ₦24800 monthly. Thankfully, the military provided accommodation, but I had to juggle my income around transportation, food and other expenses.
After NYSC, I worked at an FMCG company for one year. My job was to go around offering discounts to people and getting them to sign up as vendors with the company. My salary was ₦40k/month, and I left in 2017 after they fired everybody.
Fired everybody?
See, it’s a long story. The place was very problematic; people came to physical blows one day. So, they fired everyone and asked people who wanted to continue working to reapply. I didn’t reapply.
At this point, I’d gone back to live with my uncle, and he put me in another TV station. There, I produced shows and presented programs for a stipend at the end of the month. Sometimes, ₦20k. Other times, ₦25k.
I didn’t really take the job seriously because of the no-salary situation. I was processing my admission for a master’s degree in a different state, so I was always travelling.
I was also job-hunting, and a few months into the TV station job, I got a job with a politician. I was on his public relations team, and he paid me ₦70k/month, then increased it to ₦80k after three months. I worked with him for six months and stopped when I had to relocate for my master’s program in 2018.
How were you funding your studies?
My parents paid the fees and my house rent, plus a ₦20k monthly allowance. I also started writing news stories for an online platform for ₦40k/month. I worked there for two years until COVID hit, and my employer said they didn’t have money to pay me anymore.
I was still doing my master’s program then — I didn’t finish that program until 2022/2023 because of the pandemic and numerous strikes, but that’s another story. Anyway, when my writing job turned out the way it did, I decided to sell perfume oils because I needed money.
Was this business better than your first attempt at selling stuff?
It was. The lockdown wasn’t too serious in my area, so I could move around and sell to people. A friend also introduced me to a China import group, so I bought the goods from there at a better price.
I can’t remember exactly how much I was making from the business. However, I also joined a ₦20k/month ajo group, and my monthly profits usually covered my contribution, and I had enough left to survive for the month. I did that business for about a year.
During this period, I did a number of random things for money. I managed a coworking space for ₦40k/month for three months, and I did some ghostwriting and editing here and there for the occasional ₦10k – ₦20k.
In 2021, I applied to an energy company and got hired as the southwest manager. Essentially, I manage the business in the southwest region of the country. My salary was ₦200k/month, and it felt like an answered prayer. I mean, I was coming from ₦40k.
A very welcome income boost
A much-needed one at that. My parents had stopped paying my rent and allowance since 2020, so I was fending for myself. ₦200k was a lot of money. For context, rent was ₦220k/year, and my living expenses weren’t so high because where I lived was relatively affordable.
I had a lot more disposable income and could afford food, clothes and anything else I wanted. I sort of returned to my 2013 self, where I was giving out and spending money just because I had it.
I still work at the same company, and my salary has grown to at least ₦550k/month. I usually get more than that from logistics allowances and random bonuses, sometimes close to ₦1m, but my basic salary is ₦550k.
How has your income growth over the years impacted how you think about money?
It hasn’t really made my financial planning or habits better. I just know there’s money in the world, and you’ll be fine if you increase your earnings. But that financial planning part? I haven’t gotten the hang of it. Every month, I try to stick to a budget, but I rarely succeed.
I don’t think I live above my means, though. Maybe I’ve overstretched my means. I don’t eat out daily anymore, and I try to be conscious of my spending. That said, my guilty pleasure is travel. I just want to be out of the country every time.
I’d describe myself as a broke babe living rich. I’m always in one country or the other, but it’s not like I have money. People see my travel posts on WhatsApp and automatically assume I’m rich. Meanwhile, I’m scraping money together to fund my trips.
How often do you travel?
I travel every month. Most of these trips are to Nigerian states, and then I can do some in neighbouring African countries. I make sure to do at least one big trip yearly, usually to London.
I budget for my London trips, but I don’t budget for the rest. I just go whenever the money I have is enough to go somewhere. Even my London budget sometimes comes together erratically. I can throw ₦150k in my savings app this month and ₦200k when next I have money.
Sometimes when I want to travel and the money isn’t enough, I can pull out whatever I’ve saved for house rent and use it to travel. That sounds horrible, but I believe in using my money to do what I want to do.
Interesting. I was going to ask about your relationship with money, but you might have answered already
Haha. My relationship with money is horrible. It’s a “I make money, I see money, I use it” situation. I’m not a savings person, but I’m trying to become better at savings and investments.
I’ve tried to save money every month this year. So, I can say I’m getting better. It was much worse before. If I wasn’t spending money, I was giving it out or lending it to people. I just believe money shouldn’t be lying around. If I or someone else needs it, I should be able to let it go.
I currently have about ₦7m in bad debt, and I don’t think I’ll get my money back. In fact, I’m servicing a ₦1.2m loan I took on behalf of someone who doesn’t have the money to pay back. So, the bank removes ₦118k from my account monthly. I’ve decided I’ll no longer lend anyone money I can’t let go of.
Let’s break down your typical monthly expenses
I use an investment platform, and the ₦20k monthly usually goes into dollars and stocks. Sometimes, if I have extra money, I also put it there. I currently have $300 in my dollar account and ₦130k in Nigerian stocks. Everyone’s talking about planning for retirement, so this is my way of gradually building something I can fall back on in the future.
I have about $500 in loose cash around my house; I like to keep it because of my frequent travels. Then I have about ₦165k in a savings app. I don’t have much of a savings portfolio because I always use it to travel. Also, my rent is now ₦800k/year, but I really don’t actively save monthly for it. I just handle rent based on vibes and Inshallah.
Black tax isn’t in my budget because there’s no specific amount. I send my parents about ₦20k or ₦30k every other month. They have money; they don’t need mine. However, I have a constant battle with my mum over her insistence that I pay them a monthly salary. We fight every month, but I don’t plan to yield.
Is there a reason why you don’t want to?
They earn way more than I do. My dad earns over ₦5m, and my mum probably makes at least ₦200k daily from her supermarket. They also have a pig farm that brings them money. They don’t need my ₦30k monthly for anything. My dad has no problem with it; it’s just my mum. She nags every month, and we don’t talk for a few days or weeks, then we move on and resume again the next month.
Skrim. Is there an ideal amount you think you should be earning right now?
My income is relatively fair for my industry, but an ideal monthly income would be ₦5m. I could easily make that if I took my voiceovers seriously. I still get gigs like once in three months, and I charge at least $300 for them. If I put in more work, I could make as much as $1k monthly from voiceovers.
How about something you want right now but can’t afford?
I’d like to change my car, but the one I want — a 2024 Toyota Camry — costs about ₦22m when I priced it last year.
What’s one thing you’d wish to be better at, concerning your finances?
I want to be better at making money. Then, I want to be better at putting away money monthly. Not like ₦10k or ₦20k, but to comfortably set aside ₦500k towards my future.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
5. I don’t struggle to meet my basic needs, but I know I can do better.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
Find all the past Naira Life stories here.
