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.
Since 2019, we’ve been telling important stories about how Nigerians navigate money: how they earn, spend and save the naira. 2025 was just as revealing.
This year, we spoke to people across different income levels, backgrounds and careers, offering new insights and sparking vital conversations that drove millions of Nigerians to take a closer look at their finances and potential income opportunities.
As the year comes to an end, let’s take a look back at the 10 #NairaLife stories our audience loved the most and just couldn’t get enough of.
This 22-year-old’s #NairaLife started with a desire to earn enough money to put herself in a school abroad. Seven years later, her priorities have changed. Now, she’s a uni dropout turned cybersecurity engineer making ₦5m+ monthly. Her new mantra? “I’ll never be poor.”
In less than three years, this 28-year-old’s earning power has increased from ₦125k to over ₦9m/month. However, she struggles with financial management and hasn’t built systems to protect her money. She hopes that changes soon.
In 2019, this 22-year-old student was knee-deep in financial uncertainty. Six years later, she lacks nothing, courtesy of an older lover. Now, she’s ready for another change, starting with her spending habits and taking an intentional go at financial independence.
This writer started chasing gigs in 2019. Five years later, she discovered writing platforms and turned her finances around. These days, her sights are set on three things: Making more from her books, exploring other income opportunities and providing for her family without buckling under the pressure of black tax.
The 33-year-old in this #NairaLife had a rocky start building his savings and investment muscle. But he’s finally gotten the hang of it, thanks to a crazy income jump from ₦600k to $5k. Now, he’s pursuing a $2m net worth. Tough? Yes, but he might know how to get there.
The 28-year-old in this #NairaLife has mastered multiplying her income and living below her means. Between 2021 and 2022, she increased her income by over 1000% and has built a ₦50m+ net worth. Now, she’s on a sabbatical, hoping to master another skill: cutting down her expenses even more.
This 28-year-old’s #NairaLife took a 180-degree turn after he found freelance work in 2021. In four years, he’s gone from earning ₦150k to ₦7m/month. His side gigs pay him far more than his full-time job, but he’s sticking with the 9-5 life for the long term. Why?
In 2024, the 22-year-old in this #NairaLife left a promising income potential in social media influencing to focus on other career opportunities. A year later, her bet is paying off, and she now earns ₦2m from working two jobs. Her next goal? $100k in savings and investments by 2030.
The 31-year-old in this #NairaLife has lived the perfect example of a grass-to-grace story. She’s overcome environmental limitations through sheer grit and a bit of luck. However, her improved financial standing hasn’t been as transformative as she’d like, and she wants to fix that—by spending more.
The 30-year-old in this #NairaLife struck gold with digital marketing in 2019 and began making significant money in 2022. It’s 2025, and she’s at her most liquid yet with a $7k/month income and a $30k portfolio. But she won’t rest until she can provide everything her child needs.
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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 began to have a strong desire to make money when I was 11 or 12 years old. It was largely due to my family’s financial situation. I didn’t know what having money meant, but I knew what poverty looked like, and I wanted better.
Tell me more about your family’s financial situation
I was raised by a single mother who didn’t make a lot of money as a civil servant, so things were difficult. While my friends attended private school and received toys, I attended public school and managed food.
I noticed this difference in our quality of life pretty early, so I often thought about making money. The first time I was able to do so was at 15 years old.
What did you do?
I taught primary school students. I was still in secondary school at the time — either SS1 or SS2 — but I’d work as a holiday lesson teacher for makeshift schools in the area for ₦4k/ month.
I also made money running errands for people, mostly in the ₦20 or ₦50 change they told me to keep. There was also an estate beside my street where I’d go to help rich people bathe and walk their dogs for little money here and there. When the dogs had puppies, I helped the owners market and sell them on an online marketplace and earn between ₦2k – ₦4k in commissions.
I finished secondary school in 2016 and returned to teaching at schools. The first job I got paid ₦8k/month, but I worked there for only two months. I was more of an errand boy and cleaner than a teacher. I moved on to another school that was supposed to pay me ₦12k/month. I didn’t last one month there because the middle-aged proprietor began to move funny.
How so?
The man was making some “funny” sexual advances. I ignored him until he started asking me to wait behind after others had left. Ah, I resigned immediately.
Next, I worked as a cleaner at a school for ₦15k/month. I worked there for three months before I got an admission offer to the university. This was still 2016.
Did you also try to make money in uni?
I had to. I didn’t have a specific allowance from home. Sometimes I’d get ₦2k per week, other times ₦5k or even ₦1k if I collected food stuff. Money wasn’t consistent, so I needed to find ways to support myself. I did that by rearing rabbits.
Rabbits?
Yes. I love animals. I bought one rabbit, which I reared at home before I got into uni. She gave birth to six kits. Three died, and I took the remaining three with me to school when I resumed. That drew attention to me, and I became the guy who bred rabbits.
Gradually, people started to find me whenever they wanted to buy rabbits. I’d help arrange the purchase from a farm and earn commission. Over time, I expanded my operations and used any extra money that came my way to buy a few more rabbits and build a cage. That way, I could breed my own rabbits, sell them, and make a higher profit. I was selling them as pets, not for meat, but I was still making good money.
“Good” might be a stretch because I’m talking like ₦3k/week, but for someone who often trekked an hour to school because of transport fare, it was good enough for me to survive.
You mentioned you were selling the rabbits as pets, not meat. Is there a difference?
Yes. To sell rabbits for human consumption, you need to sell in large quantities to be able to meet clients’ demands. That’s big man business, which I didn’t have the capacity for. I only had like 7 or 8 rabbit kits a month. So, selling them as pets was the way to go for me.
People hardly bought rabbits as pets, but I had a strategy that allowed me to sell them at a premium price. I’d create content about how rabbits were quieter, cheaper to feed and maintain than dogs. I also spread the word that my rabbits were trained. Rabbits aren’t easy to train, but since mine were often in my room, they got used to being around humans.
I’d make videos to show how I could call them to come to me. The rabbits came because they knew I probably had food, but to people, it showed that the rabbits were trained and could listen to commands. So, while others could sell a rabbit for ₦1500 or ₦2k, I could sell mine for as much as ₦5k or ₦8k. Guys even bought them to gift their girlfriends. Business was good.
However, as I was getting money, everything went back into the business. I had to expand and feed the rabbits, and it became difficult to maintain. Then, a bag of rabbit food was ₦3k. Imagine a struggling student buying bags of food every week for rabbits.
So, even though the business grew very fast in just a year, it fell off just as fast. The final blow came when I was in 200 level.
What happened?
There was an outbreak of the RHD virus that unfortunately affected my rabbits. I had 8 breeding does at the time and I lost them one by one. I tried different remedies, even asked the person I got them from, but nothing worked.
So, whenever I noticed one got sick, I’d ask my roommate to put it down, so at least we could eat. I eventually sold off the remaining three for about ₦26k and the cage for ₦1k. I was able to make that much from the rabbit sale because one of them was an imported Angora rabbit I’d bought for ₦30k. I eventually sold it off for ₦20k. That’s how I stopped the business.
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Phew. Sorry about that. What did you do next?
I briefly worked as a hostel agent and reposted pictures and videos of available hostels from another agent.
The first day I went for a physical inspection myself, I realised there are some jobs that need you to be mentally and physically fit. I went down with malaria after one inspection waka and decided the business wasn’t for me. ₦4k in commission was the only money I made from that stint.
During this period, forex had started to gain ground in my city. Someone I knew from another hostel did a giveaway, which I participated in but didn’t win. Then I entered his DM and was like, “Omo, this giveaway you did. I’m broke o. I really needed the money.”
He asked me to come to his office to see him. I did, and he told me how I could start a forex business.
He explained that I could raise money from people, invest it on their behalf, and collect a percentage of the profit. He gave me ₦4k to start. With that ₦4k, I designed a flyer and started posting about the forex opportunity.
To be clear, were you trading forex?
No, I was just the middleman. I worked with a trader who traded the money for about two weeks before paying out the profit. The profit margin on investments was around 20% – 30% bi-weekly, and my cut was typically 5% or 10% of the total investment + profit, depending on my agreement with the investor (the person whose money I was taking).
For instance, if someone invested ₦1m and we earned ₦1.4m after two weeks, I’d only return ₦1.2m or ₦1.3m and keep the balance. Fortunately for me, people trusted me, and it was easy to convince them to give me their money.
In the first month, I rallied five people who invested between ₦400k and ₦3m. By the end of that month, I had earned ₦1m in commissions. To give you a full picture of how crazy that was, I’d never had up to ₦80k cash at once at that time in my life.
When I saw that ₦1m, I went to the bank and withdrew ₦200k. Then, I took it home, poured the money on my bed and slept on it. I had never seen that amount in cash before. The next day, I packed the money again and deposited it back into my account.
That’s wild. How did this sudden windfall impact your lifestyle?
Omo, I didn’t handle money well, and I think that was natural. I mean, I went from struggling to survive to making my first million. It was a big change.
Some people say that money can’t change them, but I believe it’s because they haven’t seen the amount that’ll change them. Money changed me, and I didn’t quickly realise that I was losing my head.
I started making money from forex, and suddenly I couldn’t cook again. Me, who used to cook palm oil rice and slice onions inside tomato paste to make stew, suddenly realised I wasn’t eating healthy. So, I started ordering food.
I went from eating chicken once in a blue moon to three times a day. Now, I can’t bring myself to eat chicken anymore because that’s all I ate when I started making money, and I’m tired of it.
My lifestyle completely changed. I bought my first iPhone, an 11 Pro Max. Also, I started going to the club, buying expensive stuff and hanging out with friends.
You were balling
I was. People kept investing in the forex business, and I continued to make money. This was around 2019. I even registered my brand as a proper business, employed a graphic designer and social media manager to create content for me. I think I paid the designer ₦15k/month.
It was a structured setup, and I made money. At some point, I had up to ₦9m and was even considering buying a car. Then, you could get a small Toyota car for like ₦1.5m. I didn’t go through with the purchase because I couldn’t drive and didn’t really need a car.
Interestingly, the period when I finally attempted to get a car was when the business came crashing down. This was in January 2021.
It turned out that the people trading the money weren’t legitimate forex traders. It was a Ponzi scheme, and they ran away with ₦6 billion of people’s money, including mine and my investors.
Damn. I imagine your investors tried to recover their money from you
Of course. I nearly died during that period. Interestingly, I had just returned from a vacation and only had ₦32k in my account when everything went to shit. Investors wanted to kill me with calls. Some turned to the police.
One time, I had just returned home from settling police officers after one arrest when a police van from a different station came to pick me up. I became a celebrity; the police were just looking for me. I couldn’t stay at my hostel either because of the guys who wanted to beat the hell out of me and burgle my apartment. I had to stay at a friend’s place.
How did you get out of that situation?
My saving grace was that I’d made my investors sign an MOU. In the document, I’d set up the contract so that they were essentially agreeing to recover only 5% of their initial investment in the event of a crash. I’d done that after a smaller crash had happened to limit my exposure and how much I had to pay back. Many people didn’t read the fine print of the MOU and simply signed it.
So, when that wahala started, I created a group with all 19 investors affected and showed them evidence of what had happened. I’d been clear from day one that I wasn’t the trader; just a middleman. Fortunately for me, most of the people who invested heavy amounts of money chose to let it go. It was the ones who invested little money that wanted to take my life. One of the guys who arrested me invested ₦10k. I eventually returned his 5% as ₦500 data.
I sha found a way to return most people’s 5%. Some of them argued that the agreement wasn’t legal because there was no lawyer present when they signed it. It was a lot of back and forth, but that’s how that era ended.
I lost everything and went right back to being completely broke.
Phew. Out of curiosity, did you invest in any safety net when you were making money?
Hmm. I invested in myself alone. I consider that period the biggest mistake I’ve made, but also not exactly a mistake. There is some money you make in life that only comes with lessons. People say, “opportunity comes but once,” but that’s only helpful when the opportunity comes to someone prepared and mature.
Imagine that kind of opportunity coming when I was barely 19 and with the limited exposure I had. I was bound to make mistakes, and I don’t regret it. I’d make the same mistakes again if the situation repeated itself with the same level of knowledge I had then.
Omo, I lived the life then. Land of ₦1k, I didn’t buy. Instead, I invested in myself aggressively. I went on multiple vacations, started looking good, and bought whatever I wanted. I even bought diamond earrings for the girl I was dating at the time. On her birthday, I used a car to deliver gifts to her. Me too, I know I made mad idan moves. Giveaway dey cry.
I’m screaming. How did you cope with the lifestyle changes that came with losing everything?
It was tough. A few weeks after the forex incident, I travelled out of my school area to stay with a family friend for about a week. I just needed a place to survive. That visit unexpectedly provided me with a lifeline.
When I had money, I’d developed an interest in drones and had bought one for ₦40k just to practice with. When I visited the family friend, I decided to do what I knew how to do: be a middleman. But this time, for drones. So, I got prices from a vendor and began posting drones for sale.
My first sale came with a ₦35k profit. When I closed that deal, I said to myself, “Okay. Maybe there’s something here.” That’s how I started selling drones. I also took on a few drone event coverage gigs and got someone to operate the drone while we shared the ₦15k – ₦30k coverage cost.
Over time, I made enough money to upgrade my drone, which cost approximately ₦500k, then later to a more expensive one. In 2022, I upgraded my business registration to include my drone sales and event coverage business. It’s still my primary source of income today.
I also earn random money from real estate commissions on the side, as I served my NYSC year with a real estate company between June 2024 and 2025. However, it’s not consistent. I don’t market it a lot because I don’t want to take attention away from my major hustle, which is selling drones.
What’s your income like these days?
My income is wildly unpredictable. I run a business, and can’t determine when people will buy. I can make ₦300k this month, ₦1m the next and absolutely nothing for the next couple of months.
In March 2023, I made ₦2m in one month. The next time I made money from drones that year was in December, and I made only ₦40k. That’s how it is. I’m not selling fish. Drones are expensive, and I tend to only make a good profit when people buy expensive ones. I might only make ₦20k on a ₦200k drone, but I can make over ₦200k from a ₦3m drone. Unfortunately, those deals only come occasionally.
Besides the drones, I take on various random jobs to earn money. I can take on a video editing gig today and help someone buy a pet tomorrow for little money here and there. Even if it’s ₦10k or ₦15k, just bring.
I get it
I’m also on the lookout for remote cybersecurity internships. I studied a professional diploma course in cybersecurity during my NYSC year after a Twitter contact told me about a scholarship opportunity. The scholarship allowed me to pay $15/month instead of $30 for the one-year program. I was interested in tech and mostly curious about the field, so I joined.
The only problem now is that landing my internship might mean rearranging my life. I’m not based in Lagos, and most of the opportunities I’ve found require moving there. It’s crazy because these internships don’t want to pay more than ₦50k/month.
Even crazier, I’m seeing jobs requiring three years of experience offering ₦250k – ₦300k. That’s not nearly enough to justify a move to Lagos. So, my goal is foreign remote jobs that pay in dollars.
How would you describe your relationship with money now?
I’ve seen money, so it doesn’t freak me out anymore. It’s safe to say I can’t make the mistake I made when I was touching forex money. However, money determines my mood. I’m happy when I have money and sad when I don’t.
That said, I think I’m in a better place. I’m not where I want to be, but I can manage my life with what I earn. I may not like chicken anymore, but I can afford it. I don’t spend carelessly, but I still make sure to buy things that make me happy.
I also try to save in a way that my savings can “save” me when I’m not making sales. I don’t have a specific figure I save each month, nor do I lock away money. What’s the point of locking it just to enter debt when I urgently need it? So, I just do what I can.
What do your savings look like now?
I don’t think it’s up to ₦1m. My dog has been ill for a few weeks, and I’ve been spending a lot of money on his health. I also recently got some perfumes and am preparing for December oblee and expenses. So, that’ll most likely eat into my savings.
Let’s break down your typical monthly expenses
This depends largely on how much money I make each month. I can spend carelessly when I have money, and be extremely prudent when I’m broke. But here’s a decent average:
What do future plans look like for you?
I hope to have a strong and steady business. I would hate to be working a nine-to-five job. If I have to, it has to be remote work. I just want a stable life with a supportive partner and to be able to afford the basic good things of life. Yearly vacations wouldn’t be bad, either.
Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?
A power bike. I ride my friend’s own and would really love to own mine soon. I might need around ₦3.5m to ₦4m for that. I can’t even save towards it because expenses keep coming to take away whatever money I manage to keep aside.
I can relate. How about the last thing you bought that made you happy?
I bought my perfume collection a few weeks ago, and my total spend was slightly above ₦200k. I liked that I was able to afford what I wanted.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
5. I’m grateful that I can live a good life to a certain extent. However, I don’t have a stable income, and I’m unable to make long-term plans as a result.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
In 2020, Lekan* (31) thought he’d finally made it, until the pandemic left him broke overnight. In this story, he recounts his gritty climb back to financial independence. Spoiler alert: it was marked by long hours, smart investing, and a few strokes of luck.
As Told To Boluwatife
In early 2020, right before the lockdown, I thought I had finally made it.
In January, after about four years of working as a photographer/graphic designer for multiple employers, I transitioned into freelancing full-time, travelling across Nigeria for gigs and taking home what felt like a substantial income.
The final push to venture out on my own came after my 9-to-5 job cut my salary from ₦120k to ₦80k for no apparent reason. I realised I could make my salary in three days just from shooting portraits. I was already taking on photography gigs on the side and knew I could make more money if I dedicated more time to it.
My bet paid off. By February, only about a month after I quit, I had almost ₦1 million sitting in my account.
For the first time, I wasn’t thinking about survival. I was thinking about growth. So, I took a huge chunk of the money and bought a drone.
Then the world shut down.
I’d just returned from a work trip when the government announced it would be locking down some states because of COVID. I’d heard about the virus going around in China, but I didn’t know it had hit home so quickly.
At first, I wasn’t worried. I had ₦200k left and thought the lockdown would only last a few weeks. That was a stupid error on my part. I had no idea how much the lockdown would affect the creative economy.
Everything came to a standstill, even after the lockdown was eventually lifted.
No events.
No travel.
My gigs evaporated overnight.
By May, I was down to my last ₦500, surviving on one meal a day and trying not to panic. Noodles and garri became my go-to food options.
At this point, I was living alone in Kwara, far from my parents, who were in Lagos. I’d moved there because of my 9-to-5 job and a desire to be independent. I didn’t know how to start asking them for money again. Besides, my parents were also dealing with the effects of the pandemic on their finances.
So, I tried to survive on my own, waiting for the next gig to come.
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The Breaking Point
My breaking point came in June. I woke up to the sound of my cleaner sweeping the floor. It was the end of the month, and her ₦8,000 salary was due. I didn’t have it.
That was the day I broke down and cried. It hit me that I was truly broke; I had no backup plan, no savings, and no idea where my next meal would come from.
Later that day, I got a call from an old client. He worked at a really big firm, and I’d shot a project for him the previous year. He told me he was visiting my city and asked to meet. I scraped together transport money and went.
We talked for hours. I told him how I wanted to “make it on my own” instead of moving back to Lagos. He listened quietly, then said something that stuck with me:
“Lekan, the easiest way to make money is to be close to where the money is. The most money you can find in Nigeria is in Lagos. The closer you are to the money, the higher your chance of finding opportunities.”
He told me Nigeria was too unstable for entrepreneurs and encouraged me to return home and find a job. At least, my parents had a house, and I could figure things out while I looked for opportunities.
Before I left, he gave me ₦10,000 for transport. That small act of kindness became the bridge between my breakdown and my comeback.
I took his advice and started looking for a job. Two months later, I’d found one and was back in Lagos.
I Decided I Would Never Go Broke Again
My new job was also in photography and paid ₦250k/month. I made myself a promise: I’d never go broke again to the point where I don’t know where my next meal would come from.
My strategy to fulfil that promise was to work till I dropped and network hard enough to find as much work as possible. Rather than spend my free time after work playing video games or partying, I spent it working on side gigs.
Luckily, my 9-to-5 was remote, and I only had to go to the office when we had shoots. When I wasn’t at the office, I filled my time by shooting for other people, taking on graphic design gigs, and seizing any opportunity that came my way. Most of the time, I earned the equivalent of my salary from these gigs.
This strategy allowed me to live 100% off my side gigs and save the entirety of my salary. I clocked into dollar investments around that period, so I saved all my money in dollars through an investment platform, using their real estate and fixed assets options. Then, the exchange rate was about ₦450 to $1 and after converting my salary, I was saving around $500 monthly.
For about a year and a half, I grinded every day and didn’t touch a single kobo of my salary. I worked up to 18 hours a day, slept for only four hours, and just kept going. My body suffered, and I even developed high blood pressure that I still manage today, but I kept stacking money. I was addicted to seeing the figures in my investment app go up.
By 2022, I had saved over $8,000.
My First Lucky Break: Arbitrage
That same year, I started paying close attention to the dollar-naira exchange rate. I had noticed how quickly the naira fluctuated in that period — one week ₦580, the next ₦620, then back again. I thought I could make some money from it if I made close enough predictions.
I had this bureau de change guy whom I called almost every day to check the rates and compare with the rates I saw online. I started to notice a pattern that implied the rates were about to fall again: ridiculous differences between the buy and sell rates.
I’ll paint a scenario using 2022 rates: If the dollar moves from ₦500+ to ₦700, more people want to buy dollars. However, if it drops to ₦620, most people start to sell off their dollars because it appears the dollar is losing value.
The bureau de change guy also doesn’t want to hold on to more dollars, so if you try to sell to him, he’ll offer to buy at a ridiculous price. The Central Bank can say the dollar is ₦620, but he says he’ll buy a dollar at ₦550.
But then, if you want to buy dollar from him, he’ll tell you ₦680. Why? Because he’d bought those dollars when they were more valuable, and he doesn’t want to lose money.
So, whenever I called my bureau de change guy and saw a ridiculous difference in the buy and sell rates, I predicted there would be another fluctuation. So, I started making some crazy moves.
I did the opposite of what everyone else was doing. Instead of holding onto dollars when the value increased, I’d take out my savings, convert it all to naira and then wait for it to dip over the next couple of days. Then buy the dollars back to make some profit.
Those moves were risky gambles, but I thought, “the worst thing that can happen is that I’ll lose some value. I won’t lose the whole thing.” I did that at least once every two or three months, whenever the exchange rate started its thing.
I made small gains here and there, as well as a few losses. Sometimes I didn’t even make anything. But the thing about arbitrage is, you need a lot of capital to make a substantial profit.
So, in mid-2022, I sensed a massive fluctuation coming and withdrew all my savings of just under $10k and converted it to naira. I’m not sure how much the dollar had risen to then, but it dropped back down by about ₦100 a few days later, and I bought the dollars back.
I made almost $1k in profit from that move; $1k without doing anything major. That was my first proper money from arbitrage.
I did it a few more times, but I don’t think I made up to that amount again. I also didn’t have really crazy losses. The most I lost on a move was ₦400k.
My Second Lucky Break Came From the Government
In late 2022, I decided to pursue a master’s degree abroad. Most of my friends were moving abroad, and I didn’t want to be left behind. The master’s was my opportunity to do that and also take a chance on myself.
I had the money and didn’t need to worry about working multiple jobs to afford tuition. I applied to a school, got in and used my savings to pay tuition.
The tuition wasn’t in dollars, so I converted my savings to naira — it was ₦8.5 million — and used Form A to pay my fees. Form A was the Federal Government’s allocation that allowed citizens to pay for tuition abroad at official exchange rates; you didn’t have to pay the black market rate.
After I paid my fees, I think I had about ₦1 million left. I still needed to hustle for proof of funds, so I started talking to family and friends. While doing that, I realised I didn’t know much about what relocating to that country entailed.
Apparently, if I didn’t find a job willing to sponsor my visa within two years after my master’s program, I’d have to leave. Additionally, job sponsorships were becoming increasingly difficult to find.
The math didn’t make sense to me. I was paying so much money for tuition, and it didn’t even guarantee me a place in the country. It felt like too much of a gamble. Around the same time, I landed a new job that paid almost three times my salary. It felt like a sign from God to stay put. My fiancée also wasn’t ready to move with me as she didn’t have the necessary funds. I considered all that and decided to cancel the relocation thing and take the new job.
Next, I looked into the school and tried to see if they’d give me my money back. I called them, provided a lengthy explanation as to why I wouldn’t be attending anymore, and asked if I could receive a refund. To my surprise, they agreed.
Now, this was in 2023, and I paid my fees around 2022. During the six months between when I paid and when they refunded me, the exchange rate had almost doubled. By the time I received the naira equivalent of my tuition (approximately $19,000), it had increased to nearly ₦15 million.
Essentially, I “put in” ₦8.5 million and grew it to ₦15 million in six months. That one decision not to relocate unintentionally became my second big break.
After that, I still made small arbitrage moves occasionally, but I stopped risking too much. I had more to lose, so I converted currencies strategically while holding on to my core savings.
Present Day: I Can Finally Breathe
My approach to making money, saving and investing has changed. I still work a 9-to-5 job, and my monthly salary has grown to ₦1 million. I don’t work myself to the ground anymore, trying to live off side gigs.
I now save around 35–40% of my monthly income. I’ve stopped taking risky arbitrage bets. I could gamble like that because I was single. Now that I’m married with a child, I need to think about tomorrow differently.
That said, on the investment side, I’m now long on the naira. I noticed in 2024 that some policy changes meant money markets were returning almost 27% on investments steadily. So, I converted all my forex to naira funds instead. I just had faith that the ROI on money markets would be much more than whatever the naira devaluation would be. The naira has also been stable for a while.
Today, I have approximately ₦25 million invested in naira funds. I use a Nigerian bank’s fund manager for this, and make 18% per annum. It was 27% when I first started, so it’s dropped, but it’s still solid and safe. I also have an additional $5,000 in dollar investments that bring me just under 6% per annum. That’s a total portfolio of around $23k.
My finances have been stable for the most part, and it feels like I can finally breathe. Sometime last year, I went on my first real vacation. I felt like I had too much money saved up, so I took out close to $9,000 and took a trip across 10 countries. It was good to see the world after working 18-hour days for almost 3 years.
Sometimes, I remember that day in 2020 when I woke up crying because of ₦8000, and it feels like an entirely different life. I no longer feel that intense pressure. Even if I lose my job today, as long as I don’t do anything foolish, I can survive and pay my rent for at least three years.
I’m glad I made those early sacrifices and risks. They set me up for where I am today.
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?
Sometime between primary and junior secondary school, I had a small wallet in my room where I kept money. I also had foreign currency, as my uncle, who lived abroad, visited and gave me a few $1 bills.
Anyway, we had some maintenance staff in the house one day for deep cleaning, and by the time they finished and we returned home, the money was gone. I told my mum, but we couldn’t pinpoint who did it. So, we had to let it go.
That’s wild. What was money like growing up?
We were comfortable. My dad worked with the government, and my mum owned a business. This isn’t a yardstick for our financial situation, but I remember thinking my parents were really important because church associations often held meetings at our house.
Now I know it wasn’t a big deal, but I thought at the time that it was an indicator of how comfortable we were. I had everything I needed, though. That counts for something.
It does. When was the first time you made money?
2020. I was in my second year in uni and had built a decent Instagram following — less than 5000 at the time — and my pictures often did well. I also have clear skin, so a skincare brand reached out to me to offer a brand partnership.
They paid me ₦50k to create content for their skincare products three times a month for three months. It was my first paycheck, right in the middle of COVID, and I was pretty excited. I didn’t know it was possible to make money that way. I thought, “This is interesting. I can keep doing this.”
Did you?
Oh, yes. I started curating my social media pages, created a media kit and reached out to brands. I honestly can’t remember what my next brand deal was, but as my page grew, I gradually got more deals.
In addition to my content creation income, I also received an allowance from home. There was no set amount, but I have a lot of siblings, whom I called when I needed money. My mum also gave me money when I visited home on weekends.
By 300 level, I had an established social media presence and a recurring brand partnership model. It involved negotiating with different brands and getting a ₦250k – ₦300k three-month contract. Some of these brands renewed the contracts after the original arrangement had elapsed, and I earned around ₦250k every three months up until my final year.
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Was that good money for you?
It was good enough money. My expenses were mostly skincare, food, and other random things. I was alright.
But I began to lose interest in content creation in my final year. There was pressure to post and compare myself with others. I didn’t have a healthy relationship with social media, and I grew tired of dedicating all my time to growing the page and creating content. I wanted to do other things.
So, I deactivated my account. People told me not to delete because I had 100k followers and might need the account in the future. However, after several months of deactivation and considerable thought, I took the plunge and permanently deleted it. This was in 2024, a year after I graduated from uni.
That was a huge step. How did it feel?
Like a lot of weight off my shoulders. When I still held on to the account, it always felt like there was a bucket of ice water over my head, and I didn’t know when it’d pour on me. I was so relieved.
I wasn’t prepared to have that kind of account and that kind of following. I mean, I had put in a lot of effort to grow the page, but it stopped serving me, and I had to let go.
What about the income it brought you?
I never really made crazy money from influencing. I think the most I made was ₦250k for three posts. I also had my regular ₦250k every three months skincare contracts and occasional PR packages. It was fun while it lasted.
Did you have another income source besides influencing at this point?
Oh yes. After I graduated in 2023, NYSC came next, and my Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) was a media company that paid me ₦250k/month to handle their social media. I also had the ₦33k monthly stipend from NYSC, so my income was pretty stable when I deleted my account.
I worked at the media company for about a year. By the time I left in late 2024, my salary had grown to ₦262k. My next job — which is my current job — was in social media too, but more like digital marketing. I started that in February 2025, and my salary is ₦300k. For most of the year, I supplemented my income with contract social media management gigs. I had several one to three-month stints that paid me between ₦150k and ₦350k extra almost every month.
However, I’ve scaled back on the contract gigs because I picked up an extra full-time job with a US-based company in October. The role pays me $1,200 monthly for content and community management. Depending on the exchange rate, that comes down to approximately ₦1.7m, bringing my total monthly income to about ₦2m.
Nice. How would you describe your relationship with money now?
I’m in my financial girl era. I’ve been learning more about money and financial education throughout the year, and I think it’s showing.
For context, I spend a lot of money. I don’t like the idea of wasting anything, including my time. So, if I use my time to earn money, I’m going to spend it. When I was influencing, I could earn ₦250k, set aside ₦100k and use the remaining ₦150k as free game to do whatever I wanted.
I still have that same mindset. I’m just 22. I don’t want to be stingy or hold money to the extent that I can’t enjoy it. What if I die tomorrow? What would happen to the money? Let me enjoy it now. Plus, I don’t have any bills at the moment. I live with my family, so I don’t pay rent or other bills. My siblings are trying to get me to chip in for fuel, though. I’m avoiding that for as long as I can.
Haha. I can’t even fault that
That said, while I’m focused on enjoying my money, I’m also trying to strike a balance. Yes, enjoy the money, but also save, invest and plan for the future.
Before I got the US job, I didn’t have a fixed amount of money that I set aside for savings. I just did slightly above 50%. In the months when my earnings from the contract gigs increased my income to about ₦850k, I saved between ₦500k and ₦600k, spread across a savings app and a real estate investment plan. I’m a moderate risk-taker; I don’t take on too much.
However, I’ve now created a strategy based on my new income stream. I’ll split the $1200 into two. Half goes into my real estate investments; I also want to test stocks. The other half goes to my savings spread across a dollar savings account and an account I have with an asset management company. Then, I’ll use my ₦300k Nigerian salary to ball.
Sounds like a plan. What does your savings and investment portfolio look like right now?
I’m starting from scratch again because I recently spent my savings on a ₦2.1m MacBook and some cute designer bags. Funny story about the bags: I bought them online, but they lost the shipment and refunded me the money. When they eventually found it, I had to pay again, but this time the exchange rate had gone up. I had to pay ₦500k for what initially cost me ₦300k.
Yikes
Anyway, I only started saving again in the last three months, and I’ve been doing at least ₦500k monthly. I’ll start my new investment strategy soon, though.
My big goal is to have $100k in savings and investments by 2030. It’s one of the two big financial goals I want to achieve within the next 10 years. The second goal is to own a house (or put a down payment on one) in the UK.
This is the first time I’m actually saying this out loud, but I think it’s doable. I usually get what I want because I plan towards it and work hard for it. My income growth is proof of that. This shouldn’t be any different.
Speaking of your income, what has this growth meant for you in this little time?
The first obvious change is that I can afford more things. It’s nice to be able to get nice things for my friends and siblings without thinking too much about it. I live within my means, and spending my money comes easily to me.
Also, ₦300k to ₦2m is a lot of growth, but I think it’s something I deserve. I know other people in this situation may feel out of depth and think, “Maybe I don’t deserve this.” But me? I deserve it. I’m fine with earning this, and I claim more for myself. I want to make even more money.
Inject it. What’s an ideal amount of money you think you should be earning right now?
Given my current career stage, I should be earning between $3k – $5k monthly.
Do you ever feel like you’re missing a possible income source from influencing?
I don’t think so. I still don’t regret deleting my account. I’ve toyed with the idea of creating a new one, but I haven’t gotten around to actually doing it.
Besides, I still create content, just in a more professional manner. I write on my LinkedIn, Substack, and I have a YouTube channel. I don’t create content regularly for the latter; it happens like once a year. I approach content creation as a means to build a digital archive for myself, rather than for other people.
If I ever return to “influencing,” I’d have to focus and keep my mind grounded so that my content serves both myself and others.
Let’s talk about where your money goes every month
Each month is different since my income was all over the place all year. Plus, I’ve not actually started making the ₦2m. So, I’ll break down my expenses from last month, when I earned ₦1m (salary + contract gigs).
Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?
I would like to travel. I can afford that, but money can’t solve every problem you have. I can’t travel alone right now because of my upbringing and the fact that I’m a “young Nigerian woman who just finished uni.” So, I can’t really do that right now.
I’m in my great lock-in era, though. By the time I achieve all I want by 2035, we’ll see what happens then. While I wait for that, I intend to start small: travelling around Nigeria and other African countries next year.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
7. My perfect life would have been getting born into generational wealth, so all of this wouldn’t matter to me. But I’m not, so I think I’m doing well with the resources and opportunities I’ve had.
That said, I still don’t know what it’s like to pay hard-hitting bills, such as rent and all those other expenses. I feel like by the time I experience that and learn about the toll it can take on my finances and planning, I’ll have a better idea of how finances really work.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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.
Everyone’s financial journey is different; Piggyvest gives you the tools to plan, save, and invest, so you can create your own money story. Start now with as low as ₦1,000!
What’s your earliest memory of money?
I started becoming conscious of it around the age of 10 or 11. My dad’s import-export business fell into issues, and my serial entrepreneur mum took over as breadwinner. So, we rarely had enough, and my earliest memories of money were of having to manage it.
How much “managing” did you have to do?
I didn’t get sent out of school for not paying my fees, but I remember having to heavily pad my school list. That way, even when my parents cut down the number of items they could buy, I’d have the basics.
I carried this habit to uni as well. My pocket money stayed at ₦10k/month throughout my time in school. For context, I was in uni between 2014 and 2019.
₦10k was nothing to write home about, so I often had to lie to get extra money. Thankfully, I studied pharmacy, and we always had to buy one textbook or another. So, I could say I needed ₦30k for a ₦10k textbook.
It wasn’t the nicest thing to do, but I had almost no choice. I couldn’t do runs or other bad things to make money. Maybe it was my mother’s prayers.
When was the first time you worked for money?
I had stints renting out my storybooks in primary school for ₦50 – ₦100. I also sold Parago sweets for a bit in secondary school when classmates kept begging me to give them mine. I was like, “Don’t beg me. Just buy it.” So, people bought, and I started buying to resell in school for ₦50 profit.
However, my first proper income was in 300 level. I really loved taking pictures and writing about my everyday life. My inspiration was Linda Ikeji’s story – how she became rich from blogging, and I thought, “Maybe I can start doing this too.”
I had a hand-me-down phone. Those types of phones that your elder sibling finishes using before passing them down to you. I used the phone to take pictures and write stories about my daily activities. At first, I only posted my content on my family’s group chat. However, my brother encouraged me to share it online and on my WhatsApp status as well. So, I did that.
One day, a contact reached out, saying she’d love for me to write for an entertainment blog she was starting. I planned to do it for free because I honestly didn’t feel confident enough in my writing. But she offered a ₦10k/month pay plus data. I was like, “Ah. So I can make money from this?”
Haha. Almost every writer’s rite of passage
Besides writing, I handled the blog’s Instagram page. I just knew Instagram was a place to post pictures, write captions and put hashtags. Social media management was a new terrain, and I really didn’t know what to do. But I’m quite solution-oriented; once you give me something, I must find a way to make it work.
So, I did some research and learnt from online business coaches. I worked with her for six months, then she stopped the blog.
However, I didn’t stay unemployed for long. One of the online business coaches I followed had a thing where she allowed people to pitch their services and share opportunities in her comment section on certain days.
It was from there that I met a client who was looking for someone who could write their Instagram captions. I didn’t even know this was a thing. They paid ₦2500 per caption, and sometimes I’d write two captions a day. I did this for three months, and it further opened my eyes to the fact that there was money to be made in this social media thing. So, I kept pitching people.
I DM’ed small businesses offering to manage their social media pages. Now that I think about it, I was severely undercharging. I’d tell them ₦15k, they’d price me to ₦10k, and I’d collect it. I was stuck at ₦10k for almost two years. I didn’t charge higher out of fear that people would refuse to pay more than that.
Then, in 2018, I made my first “big money”.
Tell me about that
People were always asking me about my hair, so I started a natural hair blog. I thought it’d be a way to make my Linda Ikeji blogger dreams come true.
While I didn’t make money directly from the blog, it helped me get in the eyesight of my next client — a diaspora-based Nigerian who wanted me to write articles for their mental health platform. The articles were SEO-focused; they provided me with keywords, and I wrote based on those. They paid ₦75k per article, and I worked on two articles monthly.
The contract lasted three months, and oh my God, I felt so rich that period. Unfortunately, I mismanaged the money. Suddenly, cooking became irritating. I visited restaurants, bought food for friends, and just flexed all the money. It felt good to have my own money, but I didn’t manage it well.
I didn’t get another gig in uni after this one. I was now in my final year, so I just focused on graduating.
What came next after uni?
An internship was supposed to come next, but while I waited to land a placement, I took on a locum role at a pharmacy. My salary was ₦40k, but I almost never received the full amount because my employer deducted money for various reasons, from punishment for lateness to the cost of expired or lost drugs. I didn’t mind because I lived with my parents and had no expenses.
I worked there for seven months before I got a proper one-year internship at a community pharmacy in 2020. For most people in the pharmacy space, community pharmacies are the last option, but I actually preferred them. I could actually impact people directly. Plus, I didn’t want to work at a hospital because I can’t stand the smell.
Please don’t ask why a pharmacist can’t stand a hospital. I studied the course purely for materialistic reasons. My mum sold me the dream of pharmacists driving cars and having money.
Haha. Real. What was the pay at the internship like?
My salary was ₦75k/month. Sometimes it went up to ₦85k because of my initiative to market drugs and drive sales. I had noticed some products weren’t moving, so I put my digital skills to use.
Our target audience was older people, and since this category uses WhatsApp frequently, I started a broadcast messaging campaign to our customers, highlighting the different products. I also shared health and wellness tips on specific days. It worked. Sales were consistently good while I worked at the pharmacy.
I completed my internship in September 2021, and NYSC was supposed to come next. While I waited for the call-up letter, I started applying to social media management jobs on LinkedIn.
You weren’t planning on practising pharmacy?
I wasn’t. I know most people strive for financial freedom, but location freedom was at the top of my list. I wanted the freedom of working remotely. Also, I’m not sure why, but I just felt cutting off transport costs would equal more money for me.
One of the roles I applied for was a social media associate role at a social enterprise I really admired. They didn’t get back to me for about a month, so I thought I didn’t get it, only for me to receive an interview invitation as I was rounding up NYSC orientation camp.
During the interview, they asked about my salary expectations, and I said ₦250k. My sister had told me to give that figure, and I followed her advice even though I thought it was a lot to ask for.
The interviewer said, “Hmm? What did you say?”
I repeated the amount with confidence, even though I was shaking.
Then she said, “Hmm. Okay.”
Ah. Please tell me you got the job
I honestly thought that was the end. However, to my surprise, I received a congratulatory email to proceed to the next interview stage less than one hour after the call. To cut the long story short, I got the job in December, and they gave me the ₦250k. But that was the gross pay; my net salary came down to around ₦188k after deductions.
I was still excited sha. I had a pension, HMO and all the other corporate things. It was my first big girl job and the first time I had all those benefits, so it was a big deal. On top of all that, it was fully remote.
Love to see it. How did you juggle the job with NYSC?
I was posted to a university for NYSC, and interestingly, they were on strike for almost the entirety of my service year. So, I didn’t work there. I just collected my ₦33k allawee.
I also got another ₦120k/month social media management job during my NYSC year. I had updated my LinkedIn to reflect my new role and was a bit more active on the platform when the client reached out to offer me the gig. I should’ve asked to be paid in dollars, since it was a US-based company, but I didn’t know better. Plus, I didn’t even have the facilities to collect payment in dollars, so there’s that.
So, I had two income sources (plus allawee) during service year, bringing my monthly income to around ₦340k. I was balling.
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How long did you manage both jobs?
I stayed at both for a little over a year. I left my 9-5 in early 2023 because it felt like the right time to leave. I was tired of social media management and, to make it worse, I was juggling two demanding SMM jobs. I felt like I was dying inside.
So, I left my regular 9-5 first, and left the other in mid-2023. I transitioned to a media company, where I served as a project manager. The job came with a pay cut to ₦150k/month, and I think emotions played a role in my accepting the offer. My employer was a celebrity I admired and wanted to work with, so I didn’t negotiate.
Also, I took the job to explore something outside social media, but guess what? I ended up doing social media management there, too.
I’m screaming. How come?
I was employed to manage a film project, and after its completion, my employer continued to pay me as usual. I felt guilty about collecting a salary without working. So, when I noticed their social media wasn’t doing so great, I took it upon myself to manage the page.
The page grew in a relatively short time, and my employer decided to start pitching to companies that we could also handle their brand and social media. Of course, this extra work came to my desk because they saw I was doing a good job.
That’s how I became the brand and marketing person managing the portfolios of different brands. At one point, we had five brands on retainer. I did that for a few months before I started to think, “I can actually do this on my own.”
I’d essentially created a new income source for the company, but my pay was nothing compared to how much I was bringing in. So, even though I was scared, I quit my job in September 2024 to start freelancing.
Did you have any immediate plans?
I honestly didn’t. I had no plan or clients, but I was tired of 9-to-5 and wanted to try freelancing.
Fortunately, I got my first client almost immediately. Someone I’d worked with referred me to an international organisation for a four-month project. The project paid ₦250k/month to lead the marketing for their film project.
While this was happening, I was showing up on social media. I thought it was important for people to know what I did, since referrals have been the primary means of success in my life’s journey. So, I was working on my skills, getting better at LinkedIn and sharing my findings across my channels: WhatsApp status, Instagram and LinkedIn. I even did videos sometimes.
One day, a friend asked, “You do LinkedIn optimisation right? A client needs it for their MBA. What are your rates?” I didn’t have any rates. I was just learning LinkedIn for myself.
I asked someone active on LinkedIn how much he’d likely charge to optimise someone’s profile. He said “₦10k” and it immediately gave me PTSD from my ₦10k days. There was no way I was returning to charging ₦10k for services.
So, what did you do?
Thank God for ChatGPT. I asked it to provide me with three different optimisation packages, with the least expensive package costing ₦100k. It helped with the big, big English, which I carried to Canva and designed into a proper rate card.
The client liked it, even though she priced me too much. She wanted the ₦200k package for ₦100k. We eventually agreed that she’d bring two more clients who would pay ₦100k, too. That’s how I got ₦300k sharp sharp for something I could do within one or two hours.
After that gig, the client referred me to more people, and those ones referred me too. In two weeks, I made ₦1m from LinkedIn optimisation.
This same LinkedIn optimisation?
See, the English in my offerings was plenty. Besides creating profile banners, optimising their headlines and all the other updates, the most expensive package also included ready-made content for one month. They didn’t even have to worry about posting. I created the content and scheduled it. So, there was a lot of value.
The content idea helped me get several returning clients. They were like, “This is great. How much would it cost you to just manage my LinkedIn?” So, I slapped a price on it. Again, my lowest price was ₦100k.
I started the LinkedIn hustle in September 2024, and by December, I had four steady clients. I also got a client who paid me in dollars — $500/month to manage her Instagram and LinkedIn.
In October, my former boss reached out for help managing her personal brand on LinkedIn and Instagram. I knew she had money, so I charged ₦350k. She haggled a bit, and we settled on ₦250k/month to post twice weekly on both platforms.
You were on a roll
I was. However, the goal was to make sure all these clients stayed long-term. They’d all come towards the end of the year, and I didn’t want a three-month arrangement where they’d disappear again. I actually prayed on December 31st for my clients to follow me into the new year.
Fortunately, they did. I’m proud to say I’m even considering registering a company. Between December 2024 and now, I’ve onboarded four more clients, whom I manage their entire personal brand. As a result, my services have expanded beyond LinkedIn. If they want to start a podcast or website, I charge separately to handle the PR, arrange interview rounds, and all that.
Amazing. What’s your income like these days?
I earn at least ₦1.5 million per month from my naira clients and $600/month from my dollar-paying clients. This is my main job now; I don’t have a 9-to-5 anymore, so you could say I’m a full-time freelancer.
However, I’m looking at turning it into a creative business, specifically a personal branding agency. Personal branding brings me the most money, so I intend to position my agency to handle branding for C-level executives, founders and entrepreneurs with more than 10 years of experience in the industry.
Setting up a proper business will also allow me to hire some help to assist with the work. It’s a lot now, and I need to get assistance, especially because I plan to increase my rates in the new year.
What kind of lifestyle does your income afford you?
I can afford most of the things I need. Thankfully, I still live with my parents, so I don’t have rent expenses. What typically takes my money are subscriptions (all them Canva, ChatGPT, iCloud and the rest), data, gym subscriptions, cab rides and savings.
Let’s break that down into a typical month
How would you describe your relationship with money?
It’s still an ongoing thing. I grew up with a sense of scarcity, and I’m just now getting used to making money. I’m not proud of it, but I didn’t start saving until late 2024. Because I grew up with scarcity, I thought, “Now that I have money, I need to get everything I want before it goes.” I felt I could always make money since I provided value. So, I spent anyhow. However, I now realise the importance of savings and investments.
Was there any shift that influenced this mindset change?
Yes o. I realised Tinubu was likely to win the 2027 election, and it struck me that I had to prepare. It’s not 2027 yet, and the price of everything is increasing. What happens when he gets four more years? I decided it was time to save some money, so I could sleep better at night.
Right now, I save all my dollar income in an investment app. I use their real estate investment option, and I’ve been doing that for about three months. My investment portfolio is now worth $1800, and I have over ₦4m saved.
You mentioned planning to register a company. Do you have a timeline in mind?
I’ve actually registered it. It cost me ₦47k to register a limited company. I’m trying to get a tax identification number now, and I paid ₦15k for that. I just hired two interns whom I’ll be paying ₦70k each monthly. I want to test our arrangement over the next few months, establish a structure, and pursue more international clients before formally launching my business in January 2026.
Rooting for you. Is there an ideal amount you think you should be earning?
When I made my first ₦1m, I told myself that’s the least amount of money I wanted to make in 2025. Now, I’ve surpassed that, and I know I can double that in 2026. So, $2k/month wouldn’t be bad. That would mean my business is making at least $5k.
Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?
A car.
I feel like this is everyone’s problem these days, and it’s so crazy how unaffordable a car has become
It’s so crazy. I spend a fortune on cabs, and it’s so stressful. I might need around ₦15m to get a regular small car.
What was the last thing you bought that made you happy?
I didn’t exactly buy this, but I contributed ₦1m to my church building project in April, and it made me so happy. I’d never given that amount before, and I loved that I could do it at once.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
6. I now see what’s possible with my finances, and I know I can double or triple what I currently earn in a year. I’m still a beginner in this money thing, but I’m on the right track. I want to be able to boast of a $20k investment portfolio by 2027.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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?
My dad’s a pastor, and from when I was 5 or 6, I’d join the ushers to put the offering baskets together and arrange everything. The church was my earliest memory of seeing so much cash in one place.
Are the rumours of pastors’ kids growing up poor true?
We weren’t rich, but we were okay. I didn’t miss out on anything. My mum was a teacher, and I attended good schools. I’d say we were a pretty average family.
When was the first time you did something to earn money?
2015. I was in 100 level, and my roommate said he knew a shipping platform where we could import shoes to Nigeria. There were about four students in our room, and he convinced us to put money together to buy a batch, sell it, and split the profit.
I contributed about ₦10k or ₦20k, but didn’t see any profit. We had about 8-10 shoes in our first (and only) batch, and managed to sell only one. We eventually shared the shoes among ourselves. Unfortunately, we didn’t buy my size, so I didn’t even get anything.
TBH, that would pain me more than not making a profit
Right? That part was painful. The money, not so much. I just attributed it to loose cash. To be fair, I regularly got pocket money from home, so I always had something in my account.
I could get ₦30k today, another ₦20k in the middle of the month, and then ₦30k again in a few weeks. I never even had to ask for money in 100 level. Pocket money in subsequent years wasn’t so random, but I was still comfortable.
Must be nice. Did you try another business after the shoe fail?
I tried to run one or two showbiz events in school and make money from ticketing, but most of them didn’t pass the idea stage. The one I managed to host ended up in a loss because students preferred free events or wouldn’t come at all. After this happened, I just left the events idea alone.
I also played the keyboard and occasionally made some money playing it in church. The pastor could just say, “Oh. You’ve done well today. Take this envelope,” and I’d find ₦10k or ₦15k inside. But this money only came once in a while, so I lived on pocket money throughout my time in school.
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What did you do after school?
So, my set finished in 2021, but I had an extra year, which meant I had some business in school until I officially left in 2023.
During the wait, I paid ₦30k for a three-month community management and paid advertising course, which came with a post-training internship. I did the three-month internship at a digital marketing/advisory startup and got paid ₦15k/month.
They retained me after the internship ended and increased my salary to ₦40k. At this point, I lived with a family friend because the job had taken me to a different state. I didn’t have a lot of expenses, but my salary was barely enough. However, I feel like the job gave my career a solid foundation. The skills I acquired helped me land my next job and still help me today.
Tell me about that next job
I was hired as a sales development representative at a health tech company in 2023 for ₦120k/month.
The job was like a career pivot; I previously worked in community management and paid ads. However, my previous role had also introduced me to sales — mainly because of the paid ads — so I wasn’t exactly a newbie.
I worked there from 2023 to mid-2025. In that time, I switched to sales operations and received a few salary bumps. By the time I left the job in May 2025, my salary had grown to ₦224k/month.
I moved on to my current job — sales development rep at a tech company, where I earn ₦700k/month.
That’s a nice jump. How did that feel?
It felt good initially, but I now want more. I think it’s a case of me now realising the value of the work I do. Also, I had to relocate to Lagos because of the job and now live alone, so my expenses have increased as I’m now financially responsible for myself.
That said, the income growth has given me some leverage. I wouldn’t say I’m comfortable, but at least I can plan towards the things I want and get them for myself.
Speaking of relocation, what were the moving costs like?
Fortunately, I had savings from a three-month cold-calling gig I did earlier in the year for a foreign company, which paid €250/month (around ₦450k after conversion).
So, when it was time to move, I had over ₦1m and used it to get my ₦800k/year self-contained apartment. Of course, I still had to pay about ₦500k more for the agent and all the other extra fees.
Also, I had to make some heavy purchases in the months following the move because I made the foolish decision of moving to Lagos with only my clothes. I wanted to come and start a “new life” in Lagos, forgetting I needed things like curtains and a mattress. Omo.
Let me guess, you discovered they were expensive?
Very expensive. I must’ve spent ₦2m – ₦3m on basic furniture, cooking utensils and a workstation. I don’t even want to calculate each of them because the figures will just annoy me. I still need things like an inverter, sound bar and air conditioner, but those will come later. They aren’t really pressing needs right now.
How has your income growth impacted your lifestyle?
There hasn’t been much change. I’m a very calm person. I don’t do too much, and I’m careful about spending my money.
Once my salary comes in, I remove my tithe and internet cost, then divide the rest into three parts of ₦200k each: The first ₦200k goes to my savings, the second ₦200k is what I spend as living expenses, and I keep the rest as a cushion in case an emergency need comes up within the month.
I often spend out of this emergency fund before my next salary comes in, but I try to keep it as much as possible.
Let’s break that down for a typical month
I save on a savings app, and whenever I get my monthly interest, I use it to buy dollars on the app. I’m not sure if it’s a good strategy; I just do it. I currently have about ₦1.5m in my savings portfolio.
I’m curious. Do you have a goal for your savings?
I’m beginning to shift towards japa. I forgot to mention I spent about ₦1.2m on a postgraduate diploma (PGD) program I started at the beginning of the year. I should be done with that in a few months, and the current plan is to finish and try to go abroad for a full-blown MBA.
I’m not entirely sure how I’ll go about that yet, so there’s not a lot of clarity right now. I don’t want to think too much about it until I finish the PGD. I actually got admitted into a program abroad before I started the PGD, but I didn’t have enough money to provide proof of funds to get a visa, and it didn’t work out. So, I’ll just pray and figure out the steps one at a time. Who knows? Maybe God will shock me.
Maybe He will. How would you describe your relationship with money?
I live within my means, which is probably tied to my personality because I have colleagues in the same income bracket who are like social butterflies. They’re always out spending money.
In their defence, they’ve been in Lagos longer. I’m still very wary of the city. I feel like one wrong move can wreck me.
How so?
The city is crazy, and it’s a new location for me. If I lose my job or something happens to me, I don’t have enough funds to keep me for the next three months. I have limited support here, so I don’t have much cushion for me to do stupid things or spend anyhow.
Hmm. Makes sense. What’s an ideal amount you think you should be earning right now?
₦5m/month won’t be bad, and I think I’ll get there soon. A senior colleague at work just left the company, so a potential promotion might be in the works. Also, my friend wants to start a company and we’re working together on it. It’s still bootstrapped now, but things will look up soon.
What was the last thing you bought that made you happy?
My 32-inch TV. I like watching shows after a long day of work, and now I can do that without killing my eyes trying to watch on my laptop. I got the TV for ₦120k last month. It’s that cheap because someone linked me up with a factory.
Is there anything you’d like to be better at financially?
I need to earn more to explore stock investments and get to the point where money begins to work for me.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
5. I don’t feel so bad about my finances, but I don’t feel so good either. It’s just there.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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?
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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?
A little over six months. We started officially dating early this year.
“Offically”? Was it ever unofficial?
You could say that. Brian and I are coworkers, and for the first two or three months after we met in early 2024, we mostly just hooked up. It was an office fling; we didn’t really talk about it or try to hang out outside work at first.
But we got closer and discovered our similar tastes in music and books. We’d send each other books and read to each other over the phone. Brian was very easy to rant to and banter with. Towards mid-2024, we moved from hooking up at work to visiting each other at home to just enjoy each other’s company.
By the end of the year, Brian asked that we become exclusive. I’d already developed feelings then, but I turned him down.
Why?
I’m five years older, and I initially found it weird. I knew he was younger when we started fooling around, but the thrill of forbidden office romance didn’t allow the age thing to sink in my head. But when dating entered the picture, I had to think about it well.
I’ve always dated men a few years older than me or my age mate, so it was new territory. It took me a few months to wrestle with the idea and convince myself no one would beat me for dating someone I love just because he’s a few years younger than me. It’s not like I groomed him or anything.
So, I eventually agreed to see how it goes. It’s been over six months, and it’s been great. We haven’t told our friends, though, and we don’t act like a couple at work. Dating is against the rules. Plus, Brian is quite junior to me at work, so even if dating were allowed, it’d be weird to date a junior staff member openly.
Does this age and “seniority” gap at work also translate to income differences?
Yes, it does. But I don’t just mean salary; the difference in our salaries is a little over ₦100k. Brian’s career path is more lucrative, and I’m sure that, in a few years, he’ll probably earn more than I do.
I think our age difference is more pronounced in how we think about money and careers in the long term. We’re in very different stages of life. While I’ve been in the professional space for about seven years, Brian is just two years in. I’m not sure how to explain it, but we don’t treat work the same.
For example, my experience has helped me learn to deal with office politics with diplomacy, but Brian doesn’t have time for all that. He doesn’t understand that being careful not to step on toes or avoiding being unnecessarily argumentative doesn’t mean you’re unaware of your rights.
Also, I’m more financially stable. I like to track my expenses, plan for savings and emergency funds, and all that, but Brian is more, “We’ll figure it out as we go.” This might not be due to his age — God, I sound ancient — but I feel like as you grow older, you learn financial planning. Brian doesn’t have that foresight yet.
Hmmm. Has this ever led to conflict?
Not really. I actually just started noticing these differences about a month ago. Maybe it was me snapping out of the honeymoon phase. Don’t get me wrong; my feelings for him haven’t changed. Maybe it’s that thing where you stop seeing someone as a perfect angel and accept they actually have small commas like everyone else.
Back to your question: I’ve raised some of the differences I’ve noticed with Brian, and we’ve talked about them. It’s not like, “Oya, change how you do this today today.” It was more like trying to make him see that there are better ways to do certain things. There’s also a thin line between advising him to do certain things and trying to change him into what I expect him to be. I don’t want him to feel like I’m trying to influence him.
Thankfully, talking is our strength. We communicate our feelings and concerns really well, so there haven’t been any major misunderstandings.
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Interesting. What kind of money conversations do you both have?
It’s mostly me talking to him about the importance of saving and planning. He lives alone, and his salary hardly lasts a month between rent, living expenses and the occasional outing. Mine doesn’t do much either, but I put something aside for savings and investments before budgeting for expenses.
Do you both have a budget for romance, gifts and dates?
Not exactly. We hardly go on outdoor dates since we’re still keeping things lowkey. The last time we went out was about a month ago, and I paid because the date was my idea. We watched a movie at the cinema, and tickets, snacks and drinks cost me ₦25k.
We mostly do indoor dates, and Brian usually cooks or orders food. The most he has gifted me are free e-books and playlists. I randomly buy him cute things, like sunglasses and polo shirts.
I think this is another aspect of an age-gap relationship I didn’t prepare for. I’m used to receiving gifts from partners and them treating me to dates. I don’t expect Brian to do all that because of his current financial level, but sometimes I wish it were possible. I mean, I’m not dating for money, but I also miss being spoiled. Who doesn’t like to be taken care of?
I get it. You mentioned savings and investments earlier. What does your safety net look like?
It’s still very modest. I have ₦1.7m in total: ₦300k in emergency funds, ₦1m in savings and ₦400k in investments. I’m not sure I can rest until I have at least ₦10m in my portfolio.
How about Brian?
I forced him to save at least ₦20k monthly in his Piggyvest, and last I asked, he had about ₦80k in it. It’s nowhere near a safety net, but it’s a work in progress.
What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?
That future can’t be in Nigeria. Brian has been talking about japa a lot recently, and we’re hoping he’ll go through the work visa or permanent residency route. He’ll try the graduate study route if those don’t work out.
I’m not sure we can consider a future together if we’re still in Nigeria. Our culture is still very judgmental about the lady being older than the guy. So, beyond wanting to relocate for better opportunities, I think leaving Nigeria is necessary for us to be together.
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*Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.
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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?
Two events come to mind. When I was around 10, I started helping my dad keep stock records at his factory, and he paid me ₦20 or ₦50. I can’t remember how much exactly; I just know it was a very small amount of money.
The second event is also within the same period. My dad sat my brother and me down and gave us a book he titled “Be wise.” Then, he taught us about the Book of Proverbs and how to manage money. I think he saw how I was blowing money anyhow, and wanted me to be more intentional about how I spent. He talked a lot about saving. To be honest, I didn’t really care.
Ah. So his speech didn’t have any effect on your life?
Well, it did a little. At least, in secondary school, I saved for weeks to get my first phone: a Tecno L3 for ₦13500. I remember printing out the picture of the phone and putting it on my locker so I could see it when I woke up every day. I saved all my ₦1k/week pocket money and any extra money I got from relatives to get that phone.
Saving for the phone may have been an isolated event, though. After secondary school in 2014, I got a job working for my cousin. She was in a different state and needed someone to follow up on her clients for some training programs she organised. My job was basically to call the clients and schedule the training.
She paid me ₦10k/month and recharge card. I did that for three months and blew all the money on parties and other random things. See why my dad was trying to get me to make better financial choices?
Haha. I see. Speaking of, what was money like growing up? You mentioned your dad had a factory
Yeah. He made and supplied fragrance across the country. It was like our family business; my mum worked there, too. I was a nepo baby growing up. There was no stress about money or anything like that.
At some point after secondary school, things changed a bit. The insurgency in the north — apparently, northerners buy fragrance the most — and the fluctuating exchange rate affected business. My dad had to switch business models, and our living standards reduced slightly. But it was nothing major. We moved from about 17 cars (including personal and commercial) to about four.
I mean, there were still cars. Let’s go back to the stint with your cousin
I did the job for three months and didn’t do anything again for money until 2016. By then, I was in 200 level at uni. Does this classify as working for money, though? That was when MMM and its cousins were popping, and I used most of my ₦60k allowance to get in on the action too.
I actually made a lot of money in those Ponzi schemes. Money flowed in, and I lavished it on clothes, food, outings, and my babe. She was in Ireland, and I’d regularly send her money in Bitcoin. I had no plan for the money, so I didn’t even take note of how much I was making and spending. After the schemes crashed that year, I still had about ₦200k. I spent that one, too.
In 2018, I started getting a little serious about money. I was in 400 level, and decided to try some businesses with my friends.
What kind of businesses?
The first one we tried was importing electronic shisha pens from China. I told my parents, and my religious mum wanted to lose her mind. But my dad said, “Abeg, let’s run this thing.” He gave me the initial capital I used to import the first set of goods.
The profit was high. Each pen cost ₦500 and we sold it at ₦5k – ₦8k. It would’ve been great, but we sold too many on credit and getting paid became a hassle. Plus, shisha doesn’t hit like weed does. It’s just like puffing flavoured smoke. So, the pens weren’t too popular. Overall, we had a lot of operational inefficiency, and the business didn’t kick off. We did it for six months.
The next business I tried was a total failure.
What happened?
I went to school in a state that isn’t as developed as Lagos, and my business idea was that people could pay me a percentage to get them gadgets from Lagos. The first client I got wanted an iPhone 6.
He gave me ₦40k, and I found someone willing to sell me the phone on an online marketplace. I paid the person and never saw the phone. Long story short, I had to pay off the ₦40k gbese. That’s how the business ended.
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Phew. Did you try another?
No abeg. After uni in 2019, I returned to Lagos and chilled for a bit. I felt NYSC was a waste of time, so I didn’t go immediately. Instead, I took advantage of Buhari’s N-Power scheme to learn mixology. I didn’t pay for it; they still paid me ₦10k/month. My dad also supported me with pocket money that year.
To finish the training, I did a three-week internship at a hotel. I suffered in that hotel, sha. Imagine standing for hours to fold towels. I just kept thinking, “So people actually do this?” It was really depressing. It took me going to NYSC camp in November and blowing all the money I’d gathered — about ₦100k — for me to leave that depressive state. So, if you’re ever in a shitty head space, the key to recovery may be to blow money away.
Skrim. Results may vary. What did you do after camp?
I didn’t want to return to the hotel, so I called my cousin and told her I wanted to do digital marketing. I first learned about digital marketing in university when I attended a seminar on the topic. I liked its flexibility, and I continued gathering bits of knowledge about it over the years.
So, when it came to looking for a PPA, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. My cousin helped me land a ₦25k/month social media management internship with a design agency. This was in addition to NYSC’s ₦19800 stipend and the ₦10k from N-Power. The N-Power payments lasted a year. After about two months, the NYSC stipend also increased to ₦33k, bringing my total income to almost ₦70k.
Was this good money?
It was. I didn’t have major expenses; I lived with my parents and drove to work. My dad also paid for fuel, so my life was chill.
Things changed when COVID hit. My job slashed my salary to ₦20k, and the lockdown affected my dad’s business. By then, he’d switched from producing fragrance to running event centres, and no one was going to events. No money entered that house during that period. Omo, I touched suffer. For the first time in my life, my brother and I had to contribute money to support the home’s expenses.
Thankfully, things looked up towards the end of 2020. I got my first big boy job as an account executive at a marketing agency.
How much was the pay?
₦150k/month. I deployed paid media ads for national and international brands. It was a huge deal, but it was also stressful. At least the money made up for the stress. My family’s situation had improved, so I didn’t have to pick up bills. I was just sending money on outings and food.
You were balling
Yes, and it gets better. My brother is an ethical hacker, and he managed to find a loophole in the betting system.
I can’t really break it down, but it involved depositing naira and withdrawing the higher dollar equivalent before converting again at the black market rate. The exchange rate meant we made far more than we put in. We also kept the money in USDT and Bitcoin. Essentially, we were betting without losing money. In a day, we could make up to ₦500k.
You say?
See, there was money. We balled for five months before the loophole closed. We’d go for long drives, stock the fridge with chocolate and do whatever we wanted. My brother was the brains of the operation, so he had a higher share of the loot. While he used his money to buy lands, I was just balling mine.
I had a girlfriend, and we could just wake up on a random day and decide to chill at hotels. I still saved a little sha. I had ₦1.2m saved when the operation finally crashed. Losing that income source pained me, but it is what it is. I also quit my job. This was in 2021.
Wait. Why did you quit?
The job stressed me too much. Agency work is a lot. My blood pressure consistently spiked, and it was too much for me. So, I quit and crashed at my friend’s place.
For about two months, my routine was to wake up, smoke, spend the day lying down on my friend’s couch, and eat noodles. After I got that out of my system, I turned to freelancing. I figured it’d give me more control over my time, and I could still do digital marketing without an agency breathing down my neck.
How did that go?
I had a good start. A friend I’d made at the agency called and offered me a gig. It was for a brand I’d worked with before, so the campaign went well. The downside to freelancing was the pay, which is based on the campaign budget.
For instance, the campaign budget could be ₦10m for a quarter. The agency takes 10%, which is ₦1m. Out of that ₦1m, my pay is 30%, which is ₦300k, and that’s it for the quarter. Sometimes the agency won’t even pay on time and pile up payments for months.
On a good month, I was averaging ₦75k – ₦100k/month. Other months, I was poor as they come. I had the time I wanted, but money? That was another story. After freelancing for about 10 months, I decided it was enough. I applied for my current job at a government-owned agency and got the role.
What was the role?
Digital communications manager. When I joined in 2022, my net salary was ₦350k with allowances as high as ₦100k/month. I just got promoted this year, and my net salary has increased to ₦460k. Allowances are an extra ₦140k-ish monthly, but it’s paid in bulk at the beginning of the year. This windfall is around ₦1.6m/year.
Not bad
I won’t even lie; I live a comfortable life. I mean, I still want far more than what I currently have. I want to drive a Mercedes-Benz and travel to Casablanca. But I have the basics. I live in a shared apartment and pay ₦450k for rent. My transportation costs aren’t too crazy.
I also don’t have any black tax nonsense. I still get financial support from my dad and brother. For instance, they just increased my house rent, and I’ll probably have to leave. I know I can rely on my dad and brother for support. He also readily sponsors my personal development plans.
I’m a part of the Toastmasters community, and my dad paid the initial ₦145k fee for me to join. He also sent me ₦100k for my birthday. My dad randomly sends money to my brother and me. We don’t ask, but he does it. Who am I to reject free money?
I understand like mad. How would you describe your relationship with money?
Very chaotic. I just know that money can never finish. If it does, I have people. I believe in borrowing money from friends to make considerably large purchases. So, instead of using 100% of my funds, I can borrow like 50%. That way, I don’t stretch my account too thin and can easily pay it back. I can’t spend my money and then start soaking garri. That’s nonsense.
I started this “strategy” when I was freelancing. When I noticed I could make money this month and make nothing the next, I borrowed. The money would help me guide until money came again. I also stretched the repayment plan so I could afford to repay without stress.
I don’t borrow often, only strategically, and my creditworthiness is very high. People know I always pay back, so they don’t have problems loaning me money. I recently borrowed ₦600k from a friend to buy an iPhone. I spaced the repayment into three months, and paying back was easy.
Interesting.
Also, still on my relationship with money, I’m the worst at keeping track of my expenses. I’ve tried, but it’s not working. So, I don’t overthink it. Once I’ve paid for a few necessary things, I lock my money in a separate account and keep it as a backup for rent or emergencies. It’s not really savings because I still take from it, if necessary.
What do these expenses look like in a typical month?
Tracking isn’t my strength, but I’ll try.
Is there anything you’d want to be better at regarding your finances?
I want to be better at managing it and having a tracking system so I know where my money is going.
Do you have any financial regrets?
Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten a 9-5 job. Freelancing would have given me more self-control because I’d know I don’t have a set amount of money coming every month.
Besides that, I don’t have any regrets. I’m comfortable. It can be a softer life, but I dey okay.
How much do you think would give you a softer life?
₦4.5m/month. I’m not necessarily expecting that from a salary. I’m thinking more in terms of starting my own business or joining the family business. I have a few ideas in mind, but I’ll wait for them to happen first before I share. But I definitely want to go into business. Let me have some free time and money to loaf around and allow the devil to use me small.
Screaming. Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?
A Toyota Camry. I haven’t even checked the price.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
7. I’m doing pretty well for myself. I don’t lack or want anything. I’m single, so no Nigerian babe to give me unnecessary expenses. I can be better, but I’m doing okay right now.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
