Are you looking for how to make money as a Nigerian student?
Being a student can be challenging but being broke can make it worse.
Would you like to know how to earn money legitimately as a student without it affecting your academics?
I bet you would! And I’m sure that by the end of this article, ‘Sapa’ has got nothing on you (winks). You’d say I told you so!
There are various ways that you can comfortably earn good money as a student, without stress, and we’ll be talking about some of them in this article.
How to Make Money as a Nigerian Student
As a Nigerian student, you can make money in the following ways;
Writing
This is one of the most undermined but lucrative sources of making money. One of the perks of writing is its flexibility as you can write from anywhere, even on your bed.
You can easily pick up your writing materials and type or scribble on the go… voila!
Writing is very broad but you can simply choose a niche and start writing to start earning. You could delve into content writing, script writing, story writing, academic writing, and writing for blogs, journals, magazines or even newspapers.
There’s also copywriting, CV writing and revamping, email copywriting, and research paper writing, to mention but a few.
During my undergraduate days as a student at a Nigerian University, writing saved my fragile tummy from the pangs of hunger innumerable times as I used to write projects for my peers for good money. Some platforms to land writing jobs are Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr. etc.
Just find a niche, get courses on it to enable you to understand the nitty-gritty of it, and that will set you on the right track to writing your way to success! Even if you missed my play on words, don’t miss the message…
Scholarships
If you’re a lover of ‘Awoof money’, I’m sure you must be grinning from ear to ear now because scholarships are the easiest way to make free money that’s yours.
There are lots of scholarship opportunities in Nigeria that are rewarded with good cash gifts.
However, there’s a catch!
You have to have good academic grades to be a beneficiary of this scheme but the criteria differ depending on the requirements of the scholarship bodies.
It all depends on your academic standing whereas some scholarships are indigene-based and is for indigenes of a certain state or locality.
These are some scholarships you should look out for as a Nigerian student hoping to cash out from scholarship opportunities;
Lagos State Scholarship Board: This is a scholarship sponsored by the Lagos State Government for the indigenes of Lagos State.
It is in two categories which include scholarships and bursaries and while the beneficiaries of the scholarship receive the sum of two hundred thousand naira per session till their year of graduation, the latter receives the sum of fifty thousand naira till their year of graduation.
Also, while the scholarship is dependent on academic standing the bursary is based on indigeneship.
Federal Scholarship Board: This is a federal government-sponsored scholarship for all university students who meet the academic criteria required.
It awards the sum of two hundred thousand naira to the beneficiary per session till graduation.
Other scholarships to look out for are Stanbic IBTC Scholarship, Total Scholarship, Seplat JV Scholarship, Jagal Foundation Scholarship, Goke Dele Foundation Scholarship, Alex and Grace Izinyon Foundation Scholarship, Ruth Titilayo Endowment Fund, etc.
It is noteworthy that some of these scholarships are owned by petroleum companies or private individuals.
Learn a Skill
Skills or ‘Handwork’ as the layman calls it very essential. It is therefore advisable to acquire a handy skill be it physical or a digital skill.
Physical skills like hairdressing, tailoring, carpentry and furniture making, make-up, etc. Digital skills like web designing, UI/UX design, digital marketing, product designing, and data analysis, to mention but a few.
These skills are lifelong assets as you’ll always be able to utilize them anytime once you already know. Financial constraints cannot even be a barrier to learning any skills be it physical or online as the world is now a global village.
There are various learning resources online and instructive video courses on YouTube for free where one can learn these skills with consistency and dedication.
Besides, government and private individuals sometimes organizes skills acquisition programs for the youth and unemployed people and also set them up with tools or seed funding at the end of the learning period. An example is the government’s Npower for graduates.
So if you’ve been contemplating on acquiring a skill, here’s the friendly nudge you need…
Grants
These are funding from investors who seek to fund a business venture or start-up that they deem to be scalable, lucrative or worth funding.
Do you have a business idea or start-up that is scalable? Have you analyzed the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) to see if it is scalable?
Is funding your major obstacle?
Worry no more!
You can search for grant openings from platforms like Opportunity Desk, Opportunities for Africans, Youthop, etc to search for grant opportunities to get the funding you need for your business or startup.
You can also apply for the Tony Elumelu grant funding for startups.
Entrepreneurship
You might have a flair for trading or rendering services. Utilize the social media platforms to shoot your business into the public’s eye.
You don’t have to have a shop or a big outlet to start taking in good money from the goods you sell or the services you render. Learn how to aggressively market your products (aggressiveness in zeal please…lol!).
On Facebook, you can create reels of your products and post them using popular hashtags to get them to a far reach, post in groups, and even upload pictures of your goods on Facebook marketplace as well as the price and description.
You can open a WhatsApp business account and upload pictures and details of your goods on the catalogue, join platforms that can help you reach a wider audience to market your goods, create bonuses, promos, referral contests and other incentives and freebies to get new customers while retaining existing customers.
Instagram is also a great place to advertise one’s business to a good audience. If you want to promote your business without going through this stress, you can hire a social media manager to manage your online presence for your business and can employ the services of a web designer to create a website for your business where they can place their orders directly.
However, it is important to make informed decisions based on the strength of the business.
It is noteworthy that patience, dedication and consistency are key as the figures might not be encouraging initially but with time, you can be the next Elon Musk!
I hope it was a good read.
Get the money-counting machines ready! It’s Making Money O’Clock!
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