Money comes slowly: salary alerts, small profits, or transfers that take forever to land. But once in a while, there’s that one day when everything clicks. A deal lands, the hustle pays off, or life just surprises you. We asked five Nigerians to share the stories behind their biggest single-day earnings.
“I got sprayed up to ₦1 Million on my wedding day” — Bisi, 33
I earn a decent income. ₦500,000 a month. That’s about ₦25000 per day. So imagine my shock when, in one night, I counted almost ₦1 million.
It was my wedding day in 2023. I wasn’t thinking about money at all. My mind was on the little details: ensuring our coverage went according to plan, that my husband and I looked perfect in pictures, and that my makeup wouldn’t melt before the reception.
But once the party started, the entire hall turned into a rainstorm of naira and dollar notes. People sprayed from every direction — friends, aunties, uncles, even colleagues I hadn’t spoken to in months. My bridal train had one job: gather everything.
They moved around with bags and trays, scooping up cash as I danced. I remember laughing between songs, my dress heavy from movement.
Later that night, in the hotel room, my best friends and I sat cross-legged on the floor, counting the money. We found ₦700,000 in naira notes and $500 in dollar bills, mostly ones and fives. Altogether, it came to almost ₦1 million.
The following week, I made the bank deposit and laughed. Weddings are expensive, yes, but at least some of the money found its way back to me.
“I was in camp with no laptop, staring at a $350 opportunity. I took a leap of faith” — Ahmed, 25
I was broke when I left for NYSC camp in 2022 — the kind where you calculate every naira you spend because you know there’s no backup.
I was a designer on the Fiverr platform, but things had been slow for months. I hadn’t had an order in almost eight weeks. I still had a few returning clients, but they weren’t as consistent as I needed. When I checked my balance the week before camp, I had about ₦100,000 left — savings from my last few gigs.
That money had to cover everything: travel up north to Kebbi, all my camp essentials, and whatever I needed to survive for three weeks. By the time I got to camp, I had about ₦40,000 left. I needed to stay lowkey, spend as little as possible, and hopefully have enough left for transport back home.
The first week of camp went by in a blur of drills, lectures, and noise. Then, one Friday morning during Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED), I randomly opened my Fiverr account, and there it was: a new order.
An American client had sent a request for a photo manipulation project — one of my specialities. I quickly replied, quoted $350, and after a bit of back-and-forth, we agreed on the price.
I remember staring at the message for a full minute, my heart racing. But there was one big problem: I was in camp with no laptop.
On Fiverr, clients pay upfront. The platform holds the money until you deliver, and the client marks it complete. If you cancel, it messes with your ratings and visibility. I didn’t want to lose the order, but I also didn’t have the tools to get it done.
That night, I found a workaround. I switched from my seller account to the buyer side on Fiverr and found a designer in India with good reviews. I took a leap of faith, explained the concept, paid him $20 from my balance, and asked for a 24-hour delivery. He sent a clean and impressive output back the next day.
I spent a few extra hours reviewing the work, suggesting minor edits to match my usual style, and sent it off on the third day. The client loved it. Five stars. No revision requests.
When Fiverr released the money, I remember sitting on my bunk bed just grinning. $350 had landed while I was in camp. I hadn’t just made money; I’d learned something bigger: the power of delegation.
For the first time, I understood that I didn’t have to do everything myself to earn more. If I could find good hands and manage them well, I could take on more work, deliver faster, and still make a profit.
Related: The 10 Best Passive Income Ideas for Nigerians in 2025
“I didn’t plan to start a business, but by the end of the first day, I’d made ₦40,000”— Titi, 22
During the 2022 ASUU strike, my mum sent me to a tailoring shop to learn fashion design.
While I spent almost eight months there, I learned almost nothing. On most days, I ran errands, ironed finished clothes, or stoned dresses for customers. I barely touched a sewing machine. It felt like free labour disguised as training. My parents even bought me a sewing machine to encourage me, but after the strike, I knew I wasn’t going back. I couldn’t sew an attire from start to finish.
When school resumed, everyone around me was launching businesses. Since I had nothing going on, I decided to start one, too.
Tote bags were a popular trend on campus, featuring custom designs, quirky quotes, and aesthetically pleasing prints. Everyone had one, so I decided to launch a tote bag business.
Thanks to the tailoring shop, I knew my way around fabric markets. I watched YouTube tutorials, picked out catchy designs from Pinterest, and bought about 7 yards of denim for ₦5,000. In one week, I had 12 tote bags ready. I found a good printer to bring the designs to life.
I took bright photos and started posting everywhere: WhatsApp status, hostel groups, school chats, and WhatsApp TV ads. Each bag sold for ₦3,500. Friends, family, and coursemates showed up to support, and orders kept rolling in online.
By the end of the first day, I’d sold out all 12 and made ₦40,000. I remember staring at the total like, Wait, this is real?
That weekend, I went home to make another batch. The following week, I sold out again. It became a rhythm throughout that semester: sew, print, sell, repeat.
After that semester, I had to stop. Sales had dwindled— everyone on campus was suddenly selling tote bags, and the market got too crowded. That launch day ended up being my biggest cash-out before I finally closed shop.
“I claimed a $2000 crypto airdrop in one day” — Basit, 24
I spent most of 2024 grinding on Discord and Twitter, trying to stay visible in the Web3 communities. Every day, I joined project servers, dropped comments, completed testnets, basically trial versions of blockchain projects where users help test features, ran nodes, which means keeping a small part of the network active on my system, and posted updates. Most people said it was a waste of time, but I believed in one particular project.
Many people jumped in when it launched. Then, after a few weeks, most lost interest and moved on. But I didn’t.
I continued to test, provide feedback, and show up in the community. Some nights, I’d still be on Discord at 2 a.m., working on one on-chain task after another, telling myself , it’ll pay off.
Six months later, in December, it finally did. I woke up to Twitter going crazy — the project’s airdrop had gone live. I rushed to connect my wallet, half-expecting to see nothing. Then it showed: I was eligible. I could claim 100,000 units of the token.
That same day, I sold everything and made $2000. It felt surreal — this was my first crypto airdrop and the first time I’d made that much money from crypto in a single day.
People like to call it luck, but I know it wasn’t. I earned it. I showed up long after everyone stopped caring.
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“I ran a Christmas chicken hustle that paid me ₦75,000 in one day” — Gbenga, 35
I didn’t plan to sell chickens that Christmas. But work had been slow all year, and I needed quick money before the holidays. Then, one random day in December 2024, an idea clicked.
I approached a chicken vendor down my street and suggested a deal: he’d supply the birds, and I’d handle the marketing. I created a few simple flyers, designed some catchy posts, and started pushing them across Facebook and WhatsApp groups. The pitch was straightforward: “Order your Christmas chicken without leaving home.”
At the time, a whole chicken cost ₦18,000 to ₦20,000. But because I was buying directly from him at ₦15,000, I earned between ₦3,000 and ₦5,000 on each sale.
The first few days were slow. I sold maybe two or three birds a day. However, I continued posting, replying to every message, and sharing testimonials from satisfied customers to establish trust. Then, on Christmas Eve, everything changed.
From morning till afternoon, my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. Families, offices, churches — everyone wanted chickens. By the end of the day, I had sold 15 birds, bringing in almost ₦300,000 in revenue. My profit? ₦75,000 in one day.
By Boxing Day, the rush was over, but I didn’t care. That Christmas showed me that with the right idea and good timing, even a last-minute hustle can pay off well.
