13 Business Ideas for Students in Nigeria
I’m sure you know at least one student making a lot of money from his or her business, and you would want to be like that student. While in school, I started my first-ever business, which made me over 50k monthly. Hey! Before you say that’s small, this was in 2015, and you know the worth of 50k back then.
As a student, you can explore many business ideas and make a lot of money even while studying. To ensure that whatever idea you’re getting here is workable, I took to my Facebook account to seek the opinions of students who have done business and those who did it while in school. I also had an intensive discussion with them to know how you can start these businesses.
The beauty of most of these businesses is that they are not capital-intensive. In fact, you can start with at least 5,000 naira for some of them and make more than 100,000 naira monthly. For example, business name registration, which Kanabe Ola Anoghenah stated has “Almost 70% pure profit” if you can venture into it.
Also, most of these business ideas will not come in the way of your study – which means you can dedicate only a little time to pursuing them as a side hustle. So, what are these low-budget, lucrative, and quick-turnover business ideas for students in Nigeria?
13 Business Ideas for Students in Nigeria
1. Academic Paraphrasing and Plagiarism Assistance Specialist
Alternatively, you could assist students in making changes to their projects when lecturers make corrections that they are struggling to handle.
Again, this business idea requires someone with a good understanding of research. You can even meet up with your lecturers to assist them in their articles.
Hey! There’s no harm in trying. Eliminate shame and make that move. If they say no, never take it to heart – they didn’t say no to you as a whole but, perhaps, have no need for the idea you propose. Dust yourself off and move to the next lecturer.
Ahamefula King Jæsper, commenting on my post on my Facebook account, revealed that he made over 100,000 naira doing this exact thing for MSc students.
In his words:
“5 months ago, I made over 100k a month by helping MSc students paraphrase their project defence materials to make them authentic and unique. I think students, too, can learn this simple act of paraphrasing and plagiarism checks. Lecturers are getting smarter every fvxking day. And the easiest part of this is that I did this from my home with just my phone and laptop if my phone becomes too heavy to carry.”
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2. Fashion Accessories Trader
Business ideas are everywhere, but you must think well enough to see them. One business idea for students in Nigeria you can consider venturing into is reselling fashion accessories. Alochukwu Emmanuel Obiabunmo did this business in his fourth year as a student at UniZik. He explained how it worked.
“In my fourth year in school, UNIZIK, I started selling ties, cufflinks, tie pins, and bangles in my fellowship. I did it after fellowship closed. I made a lot of sales. I started it with about 30k.”
The sole aim of business is profit; hence, I inquired from him to know how profitable this business can be. He said, “It was not a very big business. I made roughly 20-35k monthly. But it was settling little bills for me.”
3. Clothes Reseller – Dropshipping
One lucrative business idea that is very popular among students in Nigeria is the clothes business. This should not surprise you because clothes are something every human wears. It’s like you’re fulfilling a basic human need.
But, this business idea can be expensive. You don’t want to start a business with just one piece of cloth. However, there’s a solution. You can start your cloth business with even a warehouse full of clothes by simply using the dropshipping model.
Responding to my question on Facebook about business ideas for students in Nigeria, Wale Balogun said, “I just sold round neck shirts only… I mostly got them from Jiji or AliExpress.”
This model used by Wale is known as dropshipping. It simply requires having a picture of the cloth you want to sell on your phone and showing it to an interested buyer. Once the person likes it and pays for the cloth, you order the cloth online. Alternatively, you can go around to find boutiques that can allow you to snap pictures of their clothes, and you can begin to resell at a higher price than the original price.
This might also be another method, as explained by Amaluzor Chidiebere, “Years back when I was still in school, I started selling nightwear, started doing surprised birthday packages. I started all this with 22,500 then.”
4. Writing Essays, Coursework, and Projects
You can start a writing business for your fellow students, offering to write their assignments and projects/seminars. This is a very lucrative business, and you can charge up to N50,000 per project or N3,000 per assignment, depending on how difficult the work is.
Bassey Oduma is one of the people who have been doing this for years as a student and has made over 200,000 naira from it. Explaining how the business works for students, he commented thus:
“I help students with their essays, coursework, and projects. I also assist intending students in searching for admission information, as well as writing their SOPs and personal statements. I write children’s literature for publishers. The only investment here is data, an Android phone, and a laptop. A single project can fetch me about 200k, though it’s not always regular. Students can do such.”
5. CAC Registration
There are lots of business ideas you can start right now as a student and make more than 100,000 in the next 30 days without having to leave your school hostel or room. People are making millions from this same business. For instance, imagine starting a business with a profit margin of almost 70%. That’s, if you charge someone to help them register their business for 25,000 naira, you can spend just 12,000 to register the business—that’s a profit of 13,000. If you can get 10 people in 30 days, that’s 130,000 naira pure profit.
According to Adeboye Jeremiah Obafemi, he makes millions from this skill even as a student. “Students can render the service of CAC registration and make not only 50k but much more. I am a student too, yet I make millions in this. This skill actually helps me pay for my tuition fees (of three different schools all at a go), and I’m able to build a team around it,” he said.
6. Forex Trading
Isaiah Ansa made over $70 in less than 30 minutes from trading in the forex market. You too can learn this skill. However, like other businesses, forex trading is volatile—it’s open to huge risks just as the profit is glamorous.
Here from someone doing it:
“One of the things I know, though it may not sound like a business, is Forex Trading… This is one of the things that if understood/studied properly, one will definitely live off it for the rest of his or her life… It sounds scary, but I once used a $50 live account and made over $70 in less than 30 mins… No doubt, it’s a gold mine. But I’ll advise people to also study the risks attached to trading before venturing into it.”
7. Become a Voice Over Artist
This business idea is for students with an alluring voice. If you think you have a very nice voice, then becoming a voice-over artist might just be the next big business idea for you as a student. As explained by Joy Yusuf, it doesn’t require much capital. Although she started this business when she graduated, she wished she had started earlier during her school days.
“Voiceover is a lucrative business that doesn’t need much capital to start. You learn other skills by doing it: audio editing, copywriting, acting, negotiation, proposal writing, scriptwriting… I started when I graduated. I wish I had started while in school.” ~ ~ Joy Yusuf.
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8. Story Writing and Content for Businesses
Let’s assume that you’re good at writing. Do you know that there are platforms that can pay you to write for them? Listverse and WritersWeekly.com are just a few of such platforms. And just before you think that this isn’t possible, hear what Elizabeth has to say:
“Students can write stories and content for businesses. It’s easy and doesn’t take a lot to do. Currently earning a living from doing that. I wish I had started during my school days.” ~ Oluwakewa Elizabeth
9. Reselling Food Stock
Food is a basic essential, and every student must eat to survive. So, wouldn’t it be a good business idea if you could become the number one food stock seller in your department, school, and neighbourhood? Many people are doing this business, but, of course, you need to ensure that the items are kept in a safe place.
If you live with someone, you need to ensure that the person is trustworthy and not someone who will consume or sell them without your notice.
While at the University of Lagos, Ayodele Oluwatosyn did the business. She shared her experience thus: “Back then in UniLag, I started selling pure water and other food items in my hostel, making my daily income from it. I restock my pure water twice a week.”
10. Bake and Sell Pastries, Small Chops
This business idea for students is quite popular. However, just because someone is selling clothes doesn’t mean that you cannot sell pastries, small chops, and cakes as a student.
To be very profitable in this, ensure something distinguishes your kind of cakes and pastries from those sold. I remember when I was in school, there was this woman whose buns we loved buying because her buns were very tasty and didn’t always have a lot of oil.
Sharing her view on this, Princess Neche Loveth said, “As an undergraduate, I baked pastries, cakes, small chops, also delved into room decoration, surprises, and still did private classes for individuals who wanted to learn the business while combining it with my studies. Baking is a very lucrative business because there are many things you can learn, produce, and sell. You could venture into just pastries production (meat pie, chin chin, doughnut, etc.) to sell to students and make your cool cash.”
11. Ebook Creation and Monetisation
Being a student doesn’t mean you can’t make money! Ebooks offer a great opportunity. What are you passionate about? Studying? Cooking? Coding? Write an ebook sharing your knowledge and helping others.
With each sale, you earn money. Analyze your results to see what works and improve your strategy.
12. Sell Skincare Products
This idea comes from Ifiokimoh Akpan, who suggests selling skin protection soap on campus. He claims it can generate substantial profits of 80k monthly or even more.
“As a student, you can sell skin protection soap on campus and make a substantial profit of 80k monthly or even more. The soap is very good, effective, and affordable.” ~ Ifiokimoh Akpan
13. SEO Content Writing
Learning SEO content writing can be a lucrative career path for students. During their final year, Oluwadamilola earned close to 100,000 Naira per month by writing blog articles.
“Students can learn SEO content writing and use LinkedIn to get good gigs. During my final year in school, I was comfortably earning close to 100k by doing mere research and creating blog articles, all with Google Docs.” ~David Oduse Oluwadamilola.
FAQs: Business Ideas for Students in Nigeria
What Is the Best Business to Do as a Student in Nigeria?
Here are some: CAC Registration agent, selling cloth accessories, writing assistant, forex trading, food stock reseller, ebook creation, and monetization. Note that the best business idea will depend on your uniqueness, such as your strength and passion. Also, the location of your school matters in choosing the best business to do as a student. Lastly, you don’t want to start any business that will interrupt your studies.
What Can a Student Sell in School to Make Money in Nigeria?
You can sell clothes in the form of dropshipping, sell your assignments, sell your knowledge on how to do a particular thing, or resell things other people have after getting an approval form from the owner to resell it. Assuming someone you know has something that others need, you can opt to sell it for the person and get paid a percentage. This is known as affiliate marketing.
What Business Can I Start With 5K as a Student?
You can start reselling other people’s products like an affiliate with less than 5k. Alternatively, you can use that 5k to write a book and publish it on Amazon KDP. The 5k would be used to buy data to help you research the book and use Canva to design a free cover for the book. Also, you can start teaching people something you know very well using social media. If you can bake a cake, you can teach other people how to do it.
What Business Can I Start on Campus?
How about you sell something? Or you teach your classmates how to do something you are really good at? Students love to look fashionable on a budget; you can start selling fashionable outfits at a lower cost. This could be shoes, palms, clothes, jewelry, etc. Alternatively, you can opt to look toward the path of internet businesses like learning social media management, web design, graphic design, or even teaching people online what you know how to do best.
What Business Can I Start With 20K as a Student in Nigeria?
You have two good options: internet businesses such as learning copywriting, social media management, Amazon KDP, affiliate marketing, and many other businesses or using that 20k to buy food stocks to resell. You can also buy fashion accessories like ties, cufflinks, tie pins, and bangles.
What Business Can I Start With 40K as a Student?
You can buy things not very expensive using the 40k and resell them at a higher cost to make a profit. For example, there are some footwear that is really trending; you could focus on buying them to resell to students. Aba is a good place to source for such products.
Final Thought
With the availability of the internet today and smartphones, you can confidently earn even more than your lecturers while still a student. Whichever of these proven business ideas you decide to adopt, you can leverage the internet to reach even more people.
Most importantly, don’t be ashamed. Choose a business idea that you know you have a passion for or can withstand the challenge because every problem has its own unique obstacle.
