What���s your earliest memory of money?

Up until 2011, money was just a thing that existed to buy whatever we wanted. My siblings and I grew up sheltered. Nobody counted the spoons of milk in your tea. We took family trips; our first international trip was in 2009, followed by another in 2011. Even when we didn’t travel, my parents would buy things from the US and the UK and bring them down.

My dad bought two brand-new cars around that period, one for my mum and a bigger one for the family. We moved from a two-bedroom flat to our own three-bedroom bungalow with a compound. 

Then, around 2011 or 2012, everything started going downhill.

What happened?

I was 13 and in secondary school. Suddenly, I noticed our school fees started being delayed. I went from never knowing people could be sent out of school for fees to almost missing the final grace periods before midterms. 

My dad knew the principal, so he���d tell my siblings and me to “Go and meet the principal, I���ve already spoken to him.” I remember the principal used to have this exasperated expression on his face like, “These people have come again.”

When I graduated from secondary school in 2014 at 16, my dad had to pull my two younger sisters out of the school and put them in a more affordable one. That was when I realised we seemed to be having a problem with money in the family.

Did you ever find out what caused the sudden shift?

As I got older, I learned that my dad was a civil servant in a paramilitary agency. Around 2009, he had been posted to a state where the governor was really into what they were doing, so they were getting grants and funding from international organisations. Money was flowing. In fact, my mum said he used to leave ���10k in his pockets and send the clothes to the dry cleaner. Imagine ���10k in 2009. 

My mum begged him to invest in a particular piece of property back then, but he felt like, “God has favoured us, the money will keep coming in.” Then, around 2011, he was framed at work and put under investigation. 

He was at home for two years while that process was going on. My mum tried her hand at several small businesses during this period. By the time my dad was cleared and resumed work, he had accumulated so much debt that our family never recovered.

How did that experience shape your view on money?

I developed this thing where I did not like talking about money. Even to this day, I do not like hearing about financial troubles. I don’t like that statement, “I don’t have money.” 

Going from getting things I didn’t even ask for to asking for things I actually need, only to hear “no money,��� did something to my head. I���d rather not ask for anything if I know there’s a chance you won’t give to me.

It also gave me this philosophy: at some point in every person’s life, they will “touch money.” For somebody, it might be ���20 million; for another, it���s ���200 million. What you do at that moment determines your financial future forever.

When was the first time you earned your own money?

In university. I got into a federal university in November 2015 after waiting a year because my parents couldn’t afford the private university I was initially admitted to. Throughout my four years, my monthly allowance was ���15k. For the life of me, I don’t know how I managed to survive on that.

I did not like calling home for money because I didn’t know what I would hear. So I just made do. I wasn’t an extravagant person. I wore old clothes, walked everywhere, and managed until the next allowance came in.

However, by late 2019, in my final year, the ���15k allowance was now too little for my final-year expenses. I had been writing and editing for free for my school���s press association and department blogs, and a friend pointed out that I could actually earn from that.

She connected me with a guy who outsourced content writing gigs he got on Upwork and Fiverr. I wrote about 20 articles over three months; random things like recipes for cooking an octopus. In January 2020, he paid me a lump sum of ���100k.

How did that feel?

I was so happy. The only money hitting my account before then was ���15k, or maybe ���5k if I asked my cousins. The only other time a high amount hit my account was when my dad sent money for school fees. Seeing ���100k that was my own was such a good feeling. I put it straight into Piggyvest.

Throughout 2020, during COVID, I was at home writing and getting paid ���30k, ���40k here and there. My mum was so proud seeing me make money online instead of just scrolling on my phone.

By the time I had to go for the NYSC orientation camp in 2021, I had over ���200k in my savings. That helped me not to worry too much when my dad gave me only ���10k for camp. Also, I met someone in camp who regularly bought me food and other things I needed.

But by the last week of camp, I started doing Father Christmas. I randomly bought things for people and only realised after we left that I had spent about ���70k in one week. I felt bad about that, so I decided to lock ���120k in an agro-partnership investment that someone advertised on WhatsApp. I was supposed to get back ���200k (a ���80k profit) in a year.

That ���supposed to��� sounds ominous

I didn���t get my money o. I was supposed to get it in February or March 2022, and I kept counting down to when I���d receive it. The day came, and I waited. Nothing came. I went online and started hearing that the company had gone down. 

Later, they sent an email saying they suffered crop loss. I was devastated. I sent an email asking them to forget about the profit and just give me my capital back, but I didn���t hear back from them.��

Anyway, back to my service year. I was posted to a medical lab for my Primary Place of Assignment (PPA). NYSC paid ���33k/month, and my PPA paid ���16k. I served in my home state, so I lived with my parents and commuted to work. Transport to my PPA was just about ���700 daily.

The writing gigs dried up around this time because the guy stopped writing and became a tech content creator reviewing phone gadgets. But I did a few small gigs on the side. By the time I finished NYSC in 2022, I had saved ���160k. I used about ���120k of it to buy a laptop so I could practice data analysis.

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This is the best opportunity to join the convergence of Africa���s best builders.
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How did data analysis enter the picture?

Someone had organised a 3-week youth empowerment training in my CDS group during NYSC, where I learned data analysis.

After NYSC, I spent about six months sending applications for anything and everything while living on a ���10k-a-month data stipend from dad. I didn���t like having to depend on my dad for data. I would have been in a better financial state if not for the failed investment, but there I was, asking for data money. 

Thankfully, in September 2022, I finally got a job with a bank. The job was in Lagos, so I had to relocate and live with a family friend there.

What was the pay like?

I was on a ���60k/month intern salary for the first three months, then it got bumped to ���100k. Around this period, I entered into a different kind of financial trouble with loan sharks.

How did that happen?

Funny story. I needed to buy work clothes since I worked in a bank and had to dress the part. I had a budget of ���15k, and the family friend I lived with offered to take me to Yaba Market. However, instead of taking me to the roadside vendors, she took me inside the plaza. People started throwing clothes at me to try on. Before I knew it, the bill was ���45k.

I was too shy to say I couldn’t afford it or that my budget was ���15k, because she had taken time out of her day to bring me there. So I kept quiet. She paid the ���45k, I gave her my ���15k, and promised to send the remaining ���30k at the end of the month. This happened when I was still earning ���60k/month.

Meaning you owed half your salary

Exactly. When the salary came, I sent her ���30k. Because I had sent half of my salary, I was now consistently in a half-salary deficit. My other expenses, like transportation and buying food at the office, were high. So, to survive on the remaining half salary, I took a ���30k loan from a loan app.

When my next ���60k salary came, I paid back about ���36k with interest. Obviously, the remaining money wasn’t enough, so I took another loan. Even when my salary increased to ���100k, I was still stuck in the cycle. I eventually had to borrow ���60k from a friend to pay off the loan in full, then repaid my friend ���20k per month for three months. It took seven solid months to clean up a mistake that started with ���30k worth of clothes.

That was a wild ride

It was. In May 2023, the bank made me a full staff member, and my salary increased to ���236k/month.

By this time, the family friend I was staying with was already asking when I was leaving. I had already spent nine months there, instead of the agreed six. I had to start house hunting. I really had no financial intelligence or literacy because tell me why I screamed whenever agents showed me apartments costing ���350k – ���400k/year. That price point was perfectly fine for my income since it was even less than my three-month salary, but I didn���t know that.

My dad eventually mentioned my housing stress to a friend, and the man got me an apartment in Lekki Phase 1 for ���850k/year and paid the rent. That was my second biggest money mistake after the loan issue.

Why do you say so?

Lekki Phase 1 increased my cost of living. There were no small kiosks, and I had to buy from supermarkets all the time. Even though I earned ���236k, I couldn’t save. I���d put ���100k in Piggyvest, and before the month ended, I���d take it out again.

After staying just one year, I had an issue with my landlady and had to pack out with no notice in April 2024. 

Where did you move to?

I found another apartment in Lekki for ���1.4 million. I only had ���500k saved, so I borrowed ���400k from my mum and the remaining ���500k from friends.

Around this time, my salary was increased slightly to ���265k/month, but I spent the first four months paying off my friends. The only person I couldn’t pay off was my mother. Just as I finished paying my friends back by January 2025, my company stopped a salary deduction policy they used to take from entry-level staff. Suddenly, my salary went from ���265k to ���460k/month.

Finally, some room to breathe!

You���d think so, right? But instead of saving, I went on a massive spending spree.

I realised I had been wearing worn-out, torn shoes and the same old clothes for years because I didn���t have money. I must have spent a little over ���1.2 million on clothes and shoes in the first half of 2025 alone. Buying those things was my way of cheering myself up for all the stress I���d endured in Lagos.

Then, around June 2025, another problem came. We heard that our building was in court and that we were illegal occupants who needed to evacuate. Apparently, the caretaker had gotten the notice since March/April and hadn���t said anything. For the third time, I had to move out again hurriedly.

Again?!

I was devastated. I kept wondering if someone had decided somewhere that I had to be giving all my money to landlords and agents every single year.

My rent was due in August 2025, and I only had ���700k saved. All the apartments I saw were charging around ���2 million. I made another questionable decision. I took out a ���1 million employee loan from the bank so I���d have at least ���1.7 million.

Eventually, through a friend���s church group chat, I luckily found a self-contained apartment for a little over ���1 million without going through agents. If I had known I���d get a place for that price, I wouldn’t have taken the loan. I could have waited for my August salary, and my savings would have hit ���900k. I would have only needed about ���100k more.

So, what did you do with the extra cash?

I put ���700k back into the loan immediately, but I still had to pay the interest, which was accruing daily. In October and November, when work paid appraisal bonuses and 13th month, I borrowed ���100k each from three colleagues interest-free, cleared the bank loan, and then paid my colleagues back over two months. By December 2025, I had finished paying everybody and was completely debt-free.

I entered January 2026 with ���300k cash in my account; the first time in four years I entered a new year without debt.

Love it for you. What does your monthly income look like these days?

I got promoted in March 2026, and my salary is now ���747k/month.

Also, back in November 2024 ��� after a frustrating role change at work where my manager moved me out of my preferred data analysis track ��� I decided to enrol in an MSc Master’s programme at a federal university. I paid the ���30k application fee with money borrowed from my sister, paid my ���2m worth of tuition and other expenses in instalments, and, as we speak, my postgraduate fees are 100% paid. I���m finishing the degree later this year.

What kind of life does your income afford you?

I’m comfortable. I’ve actually never really been a big spender; I���ve just not been a good manager of money.

My biggest expense is food because I can order it on a whim. It is usually my most impulsive expense, and then occasionally clothes and stuff like that. Temu had me in a chokehold for a while, but I’ve cured my Temu addiction. I don’t do that anymore.

Let’s break down these expenses for a typical month

Beyond the black tax budget, my dad still calls for one-off requests, and he never calls for small money. It is usually around ���100k. At the end of July, he asked for ���180k, and I gave it to him.

What does your savings portfolio look like right now?

It���s about ���1.3 million in Piggyvest, but most of it will go toward my ���750k rent renewal due in September. I also have ���200k locked in stocks.

It feels embarrassing compared to my current income, but I remind myself that I paid for an entire Master’s degree, bought a laptop, survived loan sharks, and moved houses three times entirely on my own.

How would you describe your relationship with money?

I���ve stopped letting other people���s choices dictate my finances. No one can make money decisions for me anymore. I���ve been down that road ��� taking ���45k worth of clothes out of shyness and moving to Lekki because someone else paid the rent. I was making decisions based on other people, but I was the one paying the price.

Recently, I saw a mini-flat in my preferred area with a total package of ���3.2 million (���2.4 million rent). Old me would have collected a ���2 million loan to take it. But I had a long back-and-forth with ChatGPT asking if it was a good financial decision. I eventually decided it was better to stay where I can afford.

My father made financial mistakes, but he already had children, school fees, and rent to pay, so he couldn’t bounce back. I made my mistakes early in my career, literally my first three years. I’ve paid the price, I’ve learned, and it’s only going to get better from here.

Is there an ideal amount of money that you think you should be earning right now?

I don���t have a specific amount in mind, but I���d like to have more than one source of income. Because I’m still building my safety net, if anything were to happen to my job today, I would be in serious soup. I have no safety net at home.

So I want to have more diversified sources of income. That’s my next goal. After this degree, I plan to focus on building more income streams. I also want to become more disciplined in how I manage my money. I’m good at creating budgets; I want to become as good at sticking to them and having multiple income streams, so I won’t fear losing my job and going under like my dad.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

6.5. I have been through financial ups and downs, mostly caused by myself, and I have somehow been able to survive. Each month is better than the one before. I’m still carrying the wounds of previous bad decisions, but I’m getting better. If those first three years of my career were the price I needed to pay to have a better 20-something years ahead, then so be it.

Find all the past Naira Life stories��here.

What���s your earliest memory of money?

Around the time I was in primary four, my mother ran a big restaurant in the North, right opposite major banks and close to a government house.

I used to go into the banks to deliver lunchboxes to customers and collect money. I was so tiny that I had to tap the top of the counter so the bankers would know I had arrived. My mum also had a deep freezer. I would take sachets of water, put them in a cooler and sell outside the shop for ���5 per sachet. The whole bag cost ���15, so whatever profit I made was mine to keep for snacks.

My dad ran a large building material business. That was where I learned sales. I was always so shocked by his pricing strategy.

How so?

My dad could tell a customer that he bought a sheet of zinc for ���100 and was selling it to them at ���110. But then, I���d look at his records and see he actually bought that zinc for ���50.

I asked him about it one time, “Is it that you are lying to these people?”

He responded, “You wouldn’t call it a lie. It’s more like business now. It’s sales.”

He explained that if you tell customers you bought it for ���50 and want to sell it for ���100 or ���150, they won’t buy. But if you tell them you bought it for ���100 and are selling for ���150, when they bargain down to ���120 or ���130, you’re not at a loss.

So, on my dad���s side, it was more about actually learning how to do business than about touching the money. But on my mum���s side, I saw the money and touched it.

What did all of this mean for your family financially? 

We were an okay family. I���m the last of five children, and my mum made sure I went to a private primary school. In fact, I was the only one of my siblings to attend a private primary school because my mum was so intentional about my education. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment, and my mum was such a fashionista that if her children came out, you would know they were out. Money wasn’t really a problem for us growing up.

Then, around 2010 or 2011, my dad���s business suffered a major crash. We became a one-income household, with my mum���s restaurant business holding everything together while paying off the outstanding bills of the failed business.

My dad left for the East in 2012, and my mum stayed behind briefly because her business was doing well. By then, she had expanded into commercial catering and consulting for restaurants. Two of my brothers were still in school, so my mum had one of my sisters stay behind with them. 

But my dad kept pushing for the family to join him, so my elder sister and I went to the East that same year. I was 12 years old and supposed to make the transition from JSS3 to SS1.

What was that move like for you and your sister?

Jesus Christ. It was a completely new world. 

My dad was crashing with his younger sister, who had a chin-chin production company. They would make us wake up at 5:00 a.m. to start mixing flour by hand. Then we���d start frying over clay ovens, and we wouldn’t eat breakfast until noon. Sometimes, it was the chin-chin we made that we ate.

When it rained, the town was so bad that the water reached our knees; we were literally swimming. My sister got a job that paid her ���5,000, but her first salary went straight into buying drugs because she got sick. I wasn���t even going to school. My mum usually sent us money, but since my sister and I couldn���t cook for just the two of us because of the other people in the house, we mostly ate street food and snacks, which wasn���t healthy. 

This went on for about six months until my mum eventually sent money for us to rent a one-bedroom flat. She also had to leave her business in the north to come take care of us because my sister and I were dying and looking malnourished.

What did your mum’s moving to the East mean for her finances?

We lived in a very rural area in the East, where no one was eating at restaurants. She tried making soup for people to buy, tried going into red oil, and tried importing melon, but nothing worked. Still, she used her last card to put me in the best school she could find.

In 2018, when I was 17, I wrote JAMB and scored 290. My mum wanted me to attend a private university or study abroad. She even tried setting up a Coca-Cola wholesale partnership to finance my schooling, but in July 2018, she suddenly passed away.

I’m so sorry

Her death was a massive shock. 

My siblings were living in different places, trying to survive, and it was just my dad and me left at home. I couldn’t even take my post-UTME because we were burying her, so my JAMB score became useless.

I had to find a job teaching nursery school, earning ���6,000 a month, so I could buy a JAMB form for 2019. But I would go to school to teach and just start crying. I didn’t even know I was grieving; I just kept going till I couldn’t take it anymore.

I stopped going to work and bed-rotted for about three to four months, and the 2019 JAMB form passed. I didn’t even know that time had passed. I stopped going to church, stopped talking to my dad, and cut myself off from my siblings. My dad kept calling them to come and carry me before I died, but my sister couldn’t because she was in school trying to see herself through.

How long were you in that state?

Almost the whole of 2019. 

In September, my brother came home and suggested I learn digital marketing. So, I went on Facebook and said I was learning digital marketing, even though I didn’t even know what it was. I wrote in a notebook with a blue pen whatever free courses my brother sent me that I understood, and with a red pen whatever I didn’t understand, to research later at cybercaf辿s. 

I also went back to teaching, now making ���7,500 monthly.

How did learning digital marketing go?

Interesting story.

In January 2020, a lady posted on Facebook asking what people wanted to achieve, and I commented that I wanted to learn digital marketing. A man replied, telling me to add graphic design and that my life would change in five years. He offered to sponsor my learning.

I thought he was a scammer or wanted to use me for rituals, so I kept ignoring him, but he kept reaching out. He eventually connected me with his assistant, a woman, because he felt I���d trust a woman more. This man eventually paid ���500,000 so I could learn digital marketing and graphic design at an institute for one year. He also sent me monthly stipends for transport. I couldn���t believe it.

By late 2020, I got my first social media management gig. It was free, but she gave me ���5,000 monthly for data, and my sister sent me an Infinix phone. In January 2021, another influencer hired me for ���30,000 per month, but she fired me after one month because her sales had decreased. She said my work was just to put picture, copy caption and paste.

I accepted in good faith because I knew I was not yet a good social media manager. So, I used my salary to buy data, paid ���2,000 for a course, and dedicated three months to learning properly. I also stopped teaching at this time.

TechCabal is bringing 7,000 founders, investors, operators, creators, and talent from across Africa and beyond to at the National Theatre in Lagos on October 28 & 29.
This is the best opportunity to join the convergence of Africa���s best builders.
If you are seeking investors, enterprise partners, cofounders, or your next employer, while hearing directly from some of the continent’s boldest builders. Moonshot is the perfect place to be.

What happened after those three months of learning?

My next client paid me ���50,000/month to manage her clothing brand on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. This time, I was like, ���If I don���t do a good job here, then this social media is not for me.��� Thankfully, I did a great job. We constantly sold out the clothes, and her followers grew. 

Around that time, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a pretty woman selling good Ankara dresses for ���2,500. Remembering my dad’s business lessons, I told her, “Give me these clothes. I’ll take your pictures and post them for ���5,000. Any amount I sell is not your business.”

I started posting her pictures, and it was an immediate hit. I also got some Facebook influencers to post the dresses. At some point, I was shipping packages to Lagos, Abuja, Kano, London, and Canada, moving over 300 pieces a month. That���s ���2,500 in profit across 300 places.

Mad o

I was such a big girl, until everything crashed within five months.

I got the lady who produced the dresses to sell them to me for between ���1,500 and ���2,000, and ran a discount sale where people could buy three dresses for ���7,500. People went wild, buying multiple pieces to resell. 

I sold over 1,000 pieces in one week, bringing in over ���2.7 million in revenue. My profit was supposed to be ���1 million, while the remaining ���1.7 million was for the production lady, who lived in Bayelsa. I first sent her a ���750k deposit, plus another ���250k a few days later. I���ve never seen the lady before, but that���s how we ran the business. 

Once I got orders, I paid her a deposit, and then the balance after she delivered. It had gone smoothly several times up until that point. I even rented a shop for ���180k and spent another ���350k setting it up because I imagined I���d need a store to handle all the orders.

Unfortunately for me, this Bayelsa woman disappeared after receiving the deposit. She stopped answering my calls.

Ah. What did you do?

If I had known how crazy things would get, I would have been honest with the customers immediately after the woman disappeared. Maybe they would have helped me find her. But I was 21 and terrified. 

I started by telling people orders were delayed due to the volume. Later, I said it was because the store wasn���t ready. I was hoping to find another tailor to make the dresses. Many people couldn���t wait, so I used the profit to start processing refunds.

I eventually found a tailor, but she insisted on sewing at ���5,000 per dress, far higher than my other arrangement. She also insisted on getting paid in full. I needed about 200 dresses, which would cost me ���1 million. By this time, I had used all the money I had on refunds. So, I cleared out my ���250k savings, borrowed ���300k from a friend and ���150k from my siblings. Then I borrowed ���50k here and there from different people just to complete the money and pay the tailor. 

But my problems didn���t end there.

What happened?

The tailor delivered rags. They were so poor quality, I couldn’t even give them to a mad person to wear.

I got dragged on Facebook for two weeks straight by customers and even people who used to admire me. It was a terrible season. I started borrowing what I could to refund people again. At one point, I was over ���1 million in debt. I was depressed all over again, and my dad started calling my siblings. This was towards the end of 2021.

How were you able to settle the debt?

In January 2022, my sister convinced me to follow her to the North, where she lived. There, I started juggling multiple social media management gigs at once, including a Canadian client paying me $100 monthly. The dollar was ���500 at the time. Every amount I earned went towards settling debts.

The hardest debt was the ���300k loan. The girl put a bounty on my head, posted me on Facebook, and insulted my sister whenever she called. She also charged ���10k/month in interest on the loan, and by the time I was able to pay her off in mid-2022, the debt had risen to ���410,000. My sister and her colleague contributed and helped me clear the debt.

Phew. You were finally debt-free

Finally! It took me about a year to settle everything.

In August, I pitched to a tech community to manage their social media, and they sponsored my trip to Lagos for an event where I was a speaker. When I got to Lagos, I stayed with family, freelancing and volunteering for the community.

In May 2023, I got a job as Head of Marketing at an edtech startup, earning ���250,000 monthly. But surviving in Lagos was hard. I was waking up at 4:00 a.m. and coming back at 11:00 p.m. because of traffic, literally eating dinner on the road. 

Three months into the job, I decided to resign, but I needed to save at least ���1 million before doing so. Thankfully, I���d already started saving most of my salary since my second month there. My siblings also gave me money sometimes. By October, I reached my ���1 million goal and resigned.

What was the plan?

To freelance. I slept at home for one month first. Then, I bought a phone for ���500k and a laptop for ���250k and started hunting for gigs.

I got a consistent ���100k/month gig almost immediately. By January 2024, I decided ���100k wasn���t cutting it and started looking for more clients. Some came, but income wasn���t consistent. By June, I decided to return to Facebook and carry it on my head. I started posting regularly again, and clients began to come in.

In November 2024, a client paid me ���50k for a content calendar ��� I didn���t even know it was possible to get paid for that. I had told her ���25k, but she insisted I undercharged myself and doubled my ask. I made another calendar for her the following month. Also in December, I launched a simple ���2,000 PDF digital product teaching people how to use social media for business, and I made ���34k that month.

In January 2025, that content calendar client paid me ���700k for a three-month brand management contract and referred her friend, who paid another ���700k. Another pharmacist client paid me ���900k for a six-month contract for her brand and ���300k for her personal LinkedIn brand. 

By this time, I couldn���t handle all the pages myself, so I started hiring people. In February 2025, we did ���1.250 million in a single month, and we have grown even more since then.

Energy! What does your income look like these days?

I currently run three setups. I have my personal work, where I manage social media for retainer clients and brands. Then I have two businesses. One provides services like page revamps, customisation, and video editing. The other provides digital products, e-books, classes, and clarity sessions.

My personal income, after paying my team of graphic designers, social media managers, and my finance manager, averages ���1.5 million monthly. In good months, it goes up to ���2 million or more.

What kind of life does your income afford you now?

Anything I want. I have a housekeeper, and I’m always ordering food. I make sure I am okay, doing the things that give me joy. I go to the cinema at least twice a week because I like it a lot. I take skincare very seriously, so I get my facials, pedicures, manicures, and nails done regularly.

My sister says I’m the best gifter because I love gifting the people I love. I use the pro version of every subscription. It���s very freeing.

Love it for you. Can you do a breakdown of your typical monthly expenses?

This was what August looked like:

How do you approach saving and financial goals?

I live below my means. I don’t play with upskilling. It has brought me where I am today. I don’t want to be just a social media manager anymore. I want to go deep into product and brand storytelling, tech storytelling, and tech UGC.

One of my big goals is to study abroad in France. The university I want costs 贈9,000 per year, and I plan to go by 2028. I also want to save ���50 million in liquid cash before I leave Nigeria. I���m currently at 40% of that goal. Living in the East with my dad ��� I left Lagos sometime last year to have more time for myself ��� keeps me grounded and my overhead low. 

Also, I don���t have the time now, but by January, I hope to visit two countries per month until I leave Nigeria.

I think your journey so far has been impressive. Do you ever think about it?

Oh yes, and it feels surreal and unbelievable. People pay me to tell them how I got jobs or became successful, and I tell them you have to do the work; it doesn’t happen by chance.

I���ve built a team where I can decide not to work for a week, and everything runs smoothly. I don’t feel like I’ve “arrived” yet. I still want to make ���5 million monthly in profit, but I can pat myself on the back. 

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1 to 10?

6. I���m grateful for how far I���ve come, but I can’t just fly to Kenya, stay in a very nice hotel for one week, and come back as if nothing happened. I want to be a digital nomad, so the remaining 4 points will come when I start travelling.

Find all the past Naira Life stories��here.

What���s your earliest memory of money?

Money was important to me since primary school because of snacks. I could get tired of school food and want to get meat pie outside. I remember a lady who sold meat pies for ���50 back then, and they had actual, huge chunks of meat inside.

My parents gave us snack money, but sometimes I saved mine for two or three days just to buy that meat pie, or to get ice cream after school. The ice cream guys on bicycles had Jamil Yoghurt or Fan Milk for around ���30, while the cheaper ones, basically ice block and colour, were ���10 or ���20.

How much would your parents give you?

I can���t remember the exact figure; maybe ���20 or ���30. My older sisters got more because they were in higher classes. But we always had lunch boxes from home too, so we weren’t lacking.

What was growing up like financially?

I���m the fifth of six children. My dad worked at an oil company, so things were good. One thing he never compromised on was school fees. He made sure everyone���s fees were paid promptly, so no one was ever chased out of school. My mum worked in community health.

I wouldn’t say I was born with a silver spoon, but we had the necessities: shelter, food, and clothes. Getting new Christmas clothes every year was a big deal, and we always had that.

When was the first time you did something to earn money?

In secondary school, I was heavily into video games, mostly fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Dragon Ball. People at the game centre would bet on my games, and if I won, I���d get a percentage of the win. I also entered small gaming tournaments. Winning could fetch up to ���1,000, which was a lot of money when one hour of gameplay cost just ���50.

I finished secondary school in 2009 and stayed home for two years while trying to get uni admission. During that time, I did basic computer training and learned safety procedures under a safety officer. My boss was an HSE officer who trained people for rig work and worked with companies like Shell.

I worked with him informally, learning CPR and how different fire extinguishers worked. I���d go to schools and hotels, market fire extinguisher refills, and collect the cans. My boss got his cut, and the profit margin was mine.

What was the pay like?

I earned around ���50k monthly. It was big money for someone who had just finished secondary school. The transport fare to the office was like ���50, and I could even walk there if I wanted. Since I didn’t have real responsibilities, I spent most of the money on clothes, gadgets, and video games.

I left in 2011 after I was admitted to the university and moved to another state. 

Did you make money while in university?

It wasn’t steady because I’ve never been much of a business person, but I did side hustles when opportunities came up. I used to buy graphic tees and resell them to guys. When Dashiki shirts started trending, I bought them for cheap from a seller around school and took them back home to Port Harcourt on order.

I also bought charm bracelets from Amazon, swapped updated video games for a fee, and sold downloaded PC games to guys in the hostel from time to time.

That said, I didn���t really need cash at uni because my dad was transferred to the same state where I schooled, and his house was close to campus. I lived with him, and he gave me ���2,000 a day for transport, plus pocket money on the side. Since I ate at home and didn’t have off-campus rent, I practically had zero expenses.

TechCabal is bringing 7,000 founders, investors, operators, creators, and talent from across Africa and beyond to at the National Theatre in Lagos on October 28 & 29.
This is the best opportunity to join the convergence of Africa���s best builders.
If you are seeking investors, enterprise partners, cofounders, or your next employer, while hearing directly from some of the continent’s boldest builders. Moonshot is the perfect place to be.

What happened after graduation?

I graduated in July 2015 and went for NYSC in Abuja. My Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) was at a government agency. They paid a stipend of ���5,000 in addition to the ���19,800 federal allowance. My job involved compiling data on national issues from all 36 states and summarising it into reports sent directly to the President.

I stayed close to the office so I could walk to work, which saved transport costs. Abuja was great; good roads, nice parks, and accessible malls.

Did you stay back in Abuja after service?

No, the agency complained about a lack of funds, so they couldn’t retain us. In 2017, I returned to Port Harcourt and went back to the safety firm where I had worked after secondary school. My salary was raised to ���100k/month, along with a promised office phone and laptop that I never received.

I stayed for about five months, worked briefly at a fuel station my sister managed, and then spent the rest of 2018 preparing for my master’s degree.

How did you fund your master’s degree?

My dad deeply valued education. When I expressed interest in a master’s, he backed it and released the funds before he passed away in 2018. I also secured a 50% scholarship. In January 2019, I left Nigeria for Cyprus.

I���m sorry about your dad. 

Thank you. It���s life. It happened.

How did you handle your finances while abroad?

Shortly after arriving in Cyprus, friends introduced me to cryptocurrency. I bought one Ethereum coin for ���80,000 (around $170���$200 at the time).

When COVID hit in early 2020, the entire market crashed, and my Ethereum dipped to $114. Friends told me to sell, but I decided to hold. By 2021, when the crypto market boomed, my single Ethereum token rose to $4,000. When it started fluctuating between $3,800 and $4,000, I converted it to USDT to lock in the profit.

But you weren���t spending the crypto, right?

I wasn���t. To make extra money, I did some odd jobs. I worked on a bee farm where the owner paid 300 TL (Turkish Lira) a day, fed us well, and gave us fresh honey. Normal odd jobs paid around 60 – 80 TL per day for hard labour. I also did farm clearing, moved restaurant equipment, and chopped firewood for an elderly neighbour who paid 50 TL for 20 minutes of work.

I wasn’t purely surviving on odd jobs, though. Before leaving Nigeria, my family made a joint investment of ���10 million into a bitumen company (everyone contributed equal shares of about ���2 million; my contribution came from what my dad left me). My share returned $300 monthly. But during COVID, financial policies shifted, the dollar skyrocketed, and the investment payouts froze.

Thankfully, things weren���t really expensive in Cyprus. The TL equivalent of ���10k could last me for a week. I also had some money left over from my dad���s master���s funds. I completed the degree in 2021.

What came next?

I tried to move to Australia on a work visa. An agent asked us to come to Nigeria for biometrics, so my roommate and I flew to Lagos and paid over ���300k. Then the agent started giving endless excuses, and by then, our Cyprus student visas had expired, so we couldn’t go back. 

Phew. So, what did you do?

In 2022, after a few months of staying at home doing nothing, I withdrew ���1.550 million from my crypto profits (almost the entire amount) and bought a car to run an e-hailing cab service.

Initially, I made over ���20k daily after covering fuel. Over time, I built a network of private offline clients. I picked up remote call-centre workers between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., did airport drops for ���20k, and handled inter-state trips.

By 2023, fuel and maintenance prices had skyrocketed. Engine oil went from ���6,000 to ���14,000. Nigerian roads cause heavy wear and tear, and I was constantly fixing something. I decided it didn���t make financial sense to drive full-time regularly. So, I cut back my hours and focused more on private clients. My daily income dropped to around ���15k, but I was still making good money and was very comfortable.

How long did you run this e-hailing business?

Until February 2025, when my car was stolen.

I had parked near a church to answer a phone call about a driving gig. I left the car parked behind some school buses and went inside to wait for my friends. When we came out, the car was gone. My tracking subscription had expired, so I couldn’t trace it.

Oh my. I imagine you must have felt terrible

I did. That car was my business and my main source of income, so losing it just like that was a huge blow. But I still joined my friends for karaoke that same Sunday evening. 

Skrim. Was the plan to sing your pain away?

Well, the car was gone, and we already had plans to go out that day. Sundays were my only time off and my only opportunity to hang out with my friends. That day just turned out to be an unfortunate Sunday.

So, yes, we still went out. They were all trying to console me, but I just figured the car was gone. Later, my friend, who worked at the church, reported what had happened to the church management. They involved the police, but nothing came of it. A few weeks later, around the end of March, the head pastor gave me ���1 million as support. 

I spent most of that money trying to fix a family Sienna car to see if I could work with it, but it���s currently parked at a mechanic shop with gearbox issues.

What did you do after?

Around the time my car was stolen, my uncle called me about a potential government job in another state, so I spent five months living with my sister there. The job eventually didn’t work out, so I returned to Port Harcourt in August 2025.

Back home, I focused on building a faceless YouTube gaming channel. I���ve always been something of a gamer, and I figured I could try to make money from it.

How did that go?

It took me a while to hit 1,000 subscribers, but when I did and qualified for monetisation two months ago, I faced multiple ID verification issues. I eventually linked a friend’s AdSense account to get approved.

Just recently, the post office called me to pick up my physical Google AdSense code. But the exact day I brought the code home, my laptop battery died. The battery model isn’t available in Nigeria, so the code remains unread, and my $62 channel earnings are stuck until I get a working PC.

Sigh. How do you make money now?

I assist my sister by marketing her organic cosmetics and supplements on social media for a commission, earning around ���10k or more per month. I also clip music on another YouTube channel of mine, which earns about $60- $80 (approx. ���90k) monthly after taxes, alongside occasional side gigs. For instance, I recently helped administer online exams for an institution. I just do whatever brings money. 

I���ve been applying for various opportunities, but jobs in Nigeria are time-consuming and pay poorly. Recently, I applied for remote call-centre expert roles with foreign companies, but I didn’t get the job because they wanted someone with an upbeat American accent and tone, which I don’t have. With many remote jobs, once you state you are Nigerian, it becomes much harder to get hired, even if you’re qualified.

I���m also looking into AI video making and animation. People recommend AI, but no one talks about the expensive subscription plans. If your prompts fail, your money goes down the drain. Still, I want to learn it because I can already generate AI voices and images, and I want to master video creation next.

Currently, my monthly income sits around ���100k.

What kind of life does that afford you?

Life? Ah. I���ve become an introvert by force. Living in Port Harcourt is expensive now. We are on Band A electricity, where ���1,000 only gives 4 units of power. So, in a week, electricity can cost around ���15k. That���s like ���60k per month just for power.

Wild. Do you live alone?

I live with a friend, and we share the expenses, but he contributes more than I do. If I were to break down my share of the monthly expenses, it would be:

Power: ���30,000 (my share)

Internet: ���10,000 (my share of a three-way MTN Fibre split with our neighbour)

Food: Varies, but takes up the bulk of the remaining funds. My flatmate contributes more to the food.

Our rent jumped from ���800,000 to ���2.2 million last year, so my share is now ���1.1 million.

Mad. I thought they only did that in Lagos. Do you have a safety net?

It���s down to about ���2 million. Half of that is from cryptocurrency I���ve invested in over the years, and the other half is savings from what I earned driving cabs. With my laptop broken and rent coming soon, this cushion is going to go down again, which is really worrying. I���m just trying to get back on my feet. 

How would you describe your relationship with money?

It���s toxic. When I have money, unexpected issues pop up, or I spend on wants because I can afford them. But my current financial state has forced me to prioritise needs over luxury.

Do you have any money regrets?

I don’t like to live my life in regrets. Whatever is in the past is past, and unless I own a time machine, I can’t go back to change it. What if going back in time to change something caused me to die, and I wouldn’t be here to give you this story? As long as I’m here right now, I still have a story to write. Whatever will be, will be.

Is there an ideal amount you think you should be earning?

���1 million a month. It���s a realistic target if my hard work pays off.

What is one thing you want right now but can’t afford?

A high-performance laptop for video editing and AI content creation, like an HP Onyx, which will cost around ���750k, or an Alienware, around ���1 million.

Have you ever considered where you���d have been today if your car hadn���t been stolen?

I���d probably still be driving private clients at night and focused on growing my YouTube during the day. At least, I���d be earning enough from driving to sponsor YouTube content creation.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

2. Going from having $4,000 in crypto and an active daily cash flow to where I am today is a massive drop.

Losing my car set me back significantly, but I haven’t gone all the way back to level zero. It���s like playing a game where your data gets corrupted; instead of dropping from level seven to level zero, an auto-save brings you back to level four. It���s just a setback, and if I get the right equipment and opportunities, I know how to get back up there.

Find all the past Naira Life stories��here.

What is your earliest memory of money?

I knew money was very integral as early as Primary 2. My parents were always involved in different ajo contributions to pay school fees and sort out any substantial expenses. I remember often wondering why life was always this stressful. It wasn’t that the contributions were difficult for them to run, but everybody in the house knew about it. We attended schools above my parents’ pay grade, so they were always gathering money from one ajo to another.

That shaped my orientation: you need money to enjoy the good things in life. From the days when all I had was ���5, I just always kept money in different parts of the house.

Why were you stashing money as a child?

I just wanted to keep money like my parents. My mum would literally tie money into the edge of her scarf and tell me to go and give the woman organising the ajo. The woman would untie it and send the empty scarf back with me.

I didn’t have any substantial need, so I���d just keep mine in a drawer. At the end of the day, I���d give it to my elder sister or just look at my mum and dash her. That exact money habit followed me right into adulthood. Up until now, I still keep my money in different places. I don’t ever want to be caught unfresh or stranded.

What was growing up like financially?

We were pretty comfortable. My mum had a store where she sold foodstuffs and provisions, and my dad was a mechanic. Apart from that, my dad had his hands in a lot of things. He had a pig farm, poultry, reared and sold cows, and sold cars.

So, it wasn���t like we were struggling. I���d say the ajo contributions helped because they always planned them carefully. My elder sister attended a secondary school that was more expensive than my primary school, so they always scheduled their payout for when she needed to pay fees. 

We ate three square meals comfortably, wore good clothes, and paid our school fees on time. My dad has always had a car. I could go home and say I need to pay for something in school without worrying about whether they could pay for it.

When was the first time you worked to earn money?

After secondary school in 2015. While waiting for admission, I worked in my mum’s friend’s store. She sold drinks wholesale and retail. It was a very stressful job. Sometimes we closed as late as 9 p.m., and I was earning either ���6,000 or ���10,000 a month. I can���t remember for sure.

Do you remember what you spent your salary on?

I just kept it in a part of my wardrobe because I didn’t have a bank account. Whenever anybody in the house needed quick cash, they came to me. When my eldest sister was going for NYSC, she just said, ���Please borrow me money.” I had close to ���20k at the time and gave her the whole thing. 

I worked at the store for a year and don���t think I ever spent my salary on myself. I was just the quick fix for everybody. Nobody returned it, and I didn’t ask either. I was just giving them.

What came after that?

In 2016, I got into the polytechnic for my OND. I was getting a ���10,000 monthly allowance from my dad. Since the polytechnic was in the same city where we lived, my mum would pack stew, fish, and foodstuffs from home, so I was able to live on ���10,000.

In 2018, I moved into the university. A friend introduced me to a baker who did surprise packages. We didn’t have dispatch riders in my city then, so that was my job: delivering boxes of doughnuts or cakes. She paid me between ���800 and ���1,500 per job plus transport, and sometimes, the people I delivered to would tip me extra. I did that for eight months until she relocated. 

After that, I mostly focused on school. At some point the following year, my allowance increased to ���13k. My elder sister also started sending me ���5,000 once every two months. I���ve never been a big spender, so I was comfortable living on my allowance alone.

In 300 level, I stayed off-campus and worked as a kitchen assistant for a caterer. The gigs weren���t regular and only came when she had big orders or events which she couldn���t handle on her own. I usually worked for her once or twice a month, and she paid me ���3,000 to ���4,000 per gig. 

In addition to the payment, she gave me meals and extra foodstuffs left over from the event. I worked with her on and off throughout my time in uni, and even till now, whenever I have the time.

When did you graduate from uni?

I graduated in 2023. My NYSC Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) was at a private school in Lagos. They paid me an extra ���25k/month on top of the ���33k government allawee.

While I was still in uni, I discovered savings apps and often saved any extra money there. I continued this during my service year and also joined a ���10,000 monthly ajo contribution (we were four in the group). But family emergencies, specifically my immediate younger sister, took most of my money that year. 

Thieves robbed my younger sister and took her phone and other belongings. The experience left her suicidal. So, when it was my turn to collect my ���40k ajo payout, I sent it all to her. I told her ���15k was a gift and ���25k was a loan to return when she was balanced. Till tomorrow, she hasn’t returned my money, and I haven���t pursued it. Besides that, I was regularly sending her ���4,000 to ���5,000 monthly because she was an undergrad and often needed money. 

So, yeah, I didn���t really do anything for myself with the money I earned during my service year. Not that I would have wanted to. I believe family is family, so I should be able to support when needed.

Interesting. What did life look like after service?

I moved back home to my city and got a teaching job at a private school in September 2024. My starting salary was ���75k/month. I was also earning an extra ���20k – ���25k per month from private lessons. 

Since I lived at home and my dad often dropped me off at work, I wasn’t spending much. I dropped ���15k at home for upkeep, paid my tithe, and saved the rest. I wasn���t even saving as much as I was supposed to because I often spent more than ���15k on my family. 

My mum could just be like, ���Oh, please borrow me this amount,��� and I���d give her without asking or expecting to get it back. I really hate asking people for money back ��� not sure why ��� so that usually just went like that.

In November, my youngest sister (I have two younger siblings) was admitted to a state university, and my parents needed close to ���500k to cover the fees. My dad���s finances were bad at the time, and he was overthinking how to raise the money. 

I had an investment in his farm; a small pig I bought that grew really big. I wanted to sell the pig to buy a laptop, but instead I sold it for ���170k and gave the money to my dad. I also emptied my savings and gave him the money so my sister could go to school.

Phew. That���s a considerable sacrifice

And it didn���t stop there. In May this year, my mum called me to say that strange people were calling her phone, saying a whole lot of nonsense about paying back money. I traced the requests to a particular bank app. I downloaded the app and saw an overdue loan of ���373k. My immediate younger sister had been using my mum’s account to take loans, and it was accruing daily interest. 

Oh wow. And your mum didn���t know?

She had no idea. She wouldn���t have even borrowed from a loan app because she���s an executive in a cooperative. My sister had taken the loan with her account, then transferred the money to her account without anyone���s knowledge.

My mum was so upset. She just kept crying and couldn���t sleep. The loan guys kept calling, and the interest increased daily. I had to do something. I raised ���173k from all my bank accounts, but because I was determined not to touch my core savings, I told my mum we should take a ���200k loan in my name from her cooperative to clear the balance. 

To be honest, I was so angry. I had never taken a loan in my life. I don’t even know how to spend money on myself, but family emergencies always manage to sweep away whatever I gather.

Where was your sister in all this?

My parents called her home to talk about it. When she came, I was shouting, calling her wicked, but my parents were only concerned with making peace. They kept telling me to “Calm down, we don’t want to make her feel bad, so she doesn’t start overthinking.”

I had discovered the debt on a Tuesday. I started repaying the following day, and on Friday, we took the cooperative money and cleared most of it. There was still a little money left on the debt, which I planned to pay on Monday after collecting my lesson money. My sister came home that Friday evening and left on Monday morning. Before leaving, she had downloaded another app on my mum’s account, taken another ���60k loan (to repay ���80k), and transferred the ���60k to herself.

You say?

See. When I caught it in the transaction history, I was mad. Mad is an understatement. I started screaming, and she was lying and denying it. She left that day, and by the next day, nobody could reach her. 

My parents got scared and started pointing accusing fingers at me, saying things like, “How much is the money sef? Now we can’t reach her!” I became the person at fault because I shouted at her. We eventually got in touch with her, but I know she did that on purpose. 

Did she ever acknowledge what she did?

I can���t even ask her because my parents don���t want me to pressure her. They kept saying, ���Don���t worry. She���ll pay.��� The only thing I could do was insist on not paying the second loan.

She came back home in July carrying a new fashion bag, wearing new slippers, and holding a new laptop. I asked her where she got the money for a laptop, and she said she bought it on credit.

I went to my mum to ask her to confirm how she planned to repay me for the cooperative loan, and she got defensive. She said, “Is it because the girl got a new laptop?” 

Hmmm. How did that make you feel?

It made me realise I was just a fool. I���ve been working for two years. I teach, conduct private lessons and still do kitchen assistant gigs from time to time. I don’t eat out much, I’m on a one-meal-a-day diet, and apart from buying a phone and a laptop for work, I have nothing to show for my labour. I took a ���200k loan that I am single-handedly repaying with interest, and the person who took it is walking free.

I really feel stupid. Maybe it���s because I don���t know how to spend my own money. At the end of the day, someone will always come up with one need, and I���ll be dropping money. Maybe I���m actually stupid. But one thing I’ve come to realise is I really can���t say no to family when it comes to money. I just can���t do it.

Let���s talk about your current income

My main teaching salary is now ���122k/month. Private lessons bring in around ���50k monthly, and the kitchen assistant gigs bring in about ���15k to ���20k per job. So, in a good month, I make around ���180k to ���200k in total.

Here is where the money goes every month:

My investments are mostly company shares. My entire savings and investment portfolio across my bank accounts, savings, and shares is worth about ���300,000 right now.

How would you describe your relationship with money?

Fragile. I totally understand the workings of money; I know how to save, I know about investments, shares, everything. Getting to do those things is not my problem. My problem is saying no to people when it comes to money.

I know that I���m being used and cheated. I know that the way I stick my neck out for people, nobody will do that for me. My elder siblings don’t care; they literally told me it’s not my business and asked why I put my head there. But it still doesn’t stop me from doing it. I am the only one the younger ones come to, and again, I just cannot say no.

Why do you think it’s so hard for you to say no?

Because if I tell someone no, I���ll worry about the outcome of my “no.” If my sister asks for ���10k and I say I don’t have it, the next thing is I’ll be worrying: “Is this person eating? What will this person eat?”

Even if I have ���100k I���ve saved small small to spend on myself, a family emergency can take it away, and I won’t even get it back. I really don’t know how people manage to say no to family requests.

Is there any chance this will change?

I don’t know when I’ll get to a point where I don’t care about anybody again. I know that what will eventually put me in a position to say no will be something very small and insignificant to people, but that will be the height of it all for me because I am not comfortable with it. I am not. I am still drowning in debt from a loan that had no business with me.

My goal right now is to move out of the house by the middle of next year. I feel like if I am not close to them, I’ll feel detached from this saviour complex. To get an apartment in my city and furnish it, I need at least ���800,000. If I can get a job paying ���500,000, I can address black tax without feeling stuck and eventually move out of my city entirely.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1 to 10?

6. No matter how hard it gets, I work hard, and I can always afford whatever I want if I really set my mind to save for it.

It’s not a 10 because I am not happy about my inability to say no. I���m not happy that I can’t say no to things I should, and that I’m constantly setting myself up while others walk free.

Find all the past Naira Life stories��here.

TechCabal is bringing 7,000 founders, investors, operators, creators, and talent from across Africa and beyond to at the National Theatre in Lagos on October 28 & 29.
This is the best opportunity to join the convergence of Africa���s best builders.
If you are seeking investors, enterprise partners, cofounders, or your next employer, while hearing directly from some of the continent’s boldest builders. Moonshot is the perfect place to be.

Your money deserves more. Grow it with Yield by Credit Direct and earn up to 21% p.a.
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What���s your earliest memory of money?

It was in primary six. I passed the entrance exam for King���s College, but I couldn���t go because of money. My best friend didn���t pass, but his parents paid his way through. Meanwhile, my parents had to put me in a cheaper day school.

I���m the first of five children. My dad was going through a rough patch with his business at the time ��� he imported female shoes in Balogun Market, Lagos ��� and they told me they couldn’t justify paying expensive boarding fees for one child while others were behind me.

That was when I realised money was very important.

What was the financial situation at home like growing up?

I���d say middle class, but my mum was a primary school teacher, and my dad���s business often experienced rough patches. 

When I was in primary six, my school organised a ���35k excursion to Ghana. I was so excited to travel outside the country, but my parents couldn’t afford it. To save money, my siblings and I went to the private school where my mum taught because staff children received substantial fee discounts. My mum started working at the school before I was even born, and I schooled there from creche all the way through their secondary school.

My dad���s business eventually went bankrupt in 2016 due to shifts in import and border policies. My mum had to shoulder the responsibilities for a long time while my dad kept borrowing from others to support us. He eventually had to get into farming. 

Things were really tough for us.

When was the first time you did something to earn money?

In 2019, when I got into the university. My school fees were ���70k, but paying them was a massive struggle for my parents. They even had to borrow half of it for my first year. Seeing them struggle made me realise I was 18 and needed to take care of myself.

My parents didn’t want to hear that I was doing any work in school; they were resilient and wanted to provide everything. But I did it quietly. I joined a book club where I reviewed books, earning between ���2,500 and ���5,000 per blog post. I also started running errands for senior students, writing their lecture notes, term papers, and printing assignments. The highest I made was around ���10k per paper or note.

These hustles didn���t consistently bring in money. Students could go broke and decide to do their assignments themselves. And after writing a few reviews, the book club owner began suggesting it was a voluntary role with no specific payment.  

Were you getting pocket money from home?

Yes, but it wasn���t regular. My parents sent between ���10k and ���15k weekly, or if I needed textbooks. I inflated textbook prices a few times so I could have a little extra to survive. If it cost ���4,000, I���d tell them ���10k. 

My financial situation made me very frugal. Everything I did in uni was delayed gratification. I declined invitations to eateries or parties with friends because I knew I couldn’t afford to spend unnecessarily. Sometimes, I even cooked up lies to get out of events. For instance, if it were a night event, I���d say I get cold easily and couldn���t stay out.

When COVID hit in 2020, my parents didn’t want me to return to Lagos because of the high cost of transportation, so I went to stay with my uncle, who lived in the same state as my university. The ASUU strike followed after the lockdown, so I ended up staying at my uncle���s from April 2020 till January 2021.

For a while, I was comfortable staying home all day watching Big Brother Naija, but by August, I realised I couldn’t keep doing that.

So, what did you do?

My uncle was a manager at a large bakery. I asked to work there too, but he said I couldn���t keep up with the large-scale production. Instead, he helped me get a job at a smaller bakery.

I worked in the store, removing fresh bread from the oven pans, letting it air out, packaging it, and tying it. My salary was ���15k per month.

Since I lived with my uncle, who fed me, I saved almost all of my salary. I���d just buy biscuits for his kids or recharge cable TV for the house to show I was earning something. I also randomly got credit alerts from relatives and family friends back in Lagos who were concerned that I couldn���t return home for the lockdown. My uncle also often dashed me the change whenever he sent me on errands. I saved all those, too.

By the time school resumed in 2021, I had saved over ���150k. The bakery even paid me double my last salary because they appreciated my work. From that money, I paid ���70k for a single off-campus room and bought basic furniture: a mattress, a fan, a table, a chair, and hangers.

How did you make money when you went back to school?

Towards the end of 200 level, I started positioning myself in student politics. I got close to a senior who was the departmental president, helping him as a campaign manager and mobilising people. When big figures and celebrities came for convocation, being close to student politicians meant making small change here and there.

This senior also connected me to his friends, and I���d run errands for them to the VC’s office, get documents, write their assignments, and take carryover tests for them since I was offering those courses. The lowest I received from them was ���7k, but mostly ���10k upwards.

By 300-level, I became secretary-general of my department. When my senior mentor graduated and joined politics as an SA to the governor, he made me his virtual assistant (VA). He���d pay me ���15k to ���20k every other week, plus data allowances, to write his speeches and press releases and manage his schedule.

In my final year, I contested and became departmental president, overseeing 1,500 students. Between departmental dues, corporate event sponsorships, and political activities, I was averaging about ���50k per week, around ���150k to ���200k per month.

By the time I graduated in March 2024, I had saved almost ���500k.

What came after uni?

While I was waiting for NYSC clearance, my VA boss increased my pay to ���40k per month. In some months, he paid me ���60k. I also joined a media house as a student intern writer, earning ���20k monthly.

I returned home to Lagos in June 2024 and immediately took a job as an administrator at a private school owned by a church member. I was paid ���50k monthly, which was revised to ���70k in September. Plus, the students��� parents would give me tips of up to ���30k monthly because I was friendly at the front desk.

My internship at the media house ended in October, leaving me with only the VA and administrator jobs. I left the school in April 2025 when I left for NYSC. After the orientation camp, I got posted to a media company in Lagos as a reporter.

What was the pay like?

The media company paid ���20k/month, but as a reporter, I was often sent to cover events and usually made anywhere from ���25k to ���50k per event. In a good month, the events could push my salary up to ���100k. I was also receiving ���77k/month allawee from the government. 

Around the same time, my VA boss left the governor’s office and founded his own tech startup, so he increased my pay to ���100k per month, bringing my total income from all three sources to about ���277k. 

I was also still saving religiously. I diversified into mutual funds and stocks to earn better returns on my savings. In 2025, my total savings reached ���1 million for the first time.

Whoops! Did you have a plan for it?

Sort of. While in the NYSC camp, a real estate firm advertised land investments to corps members. I consulted my dad, took a leap of faith and signed up for a 150 sq. metre agro-residential plot in Ogun State, costing ���737,500. It had a flexible 24-month payment plan, but I aggressively channelled every extra income I got into it and finished paying it off in full this August.

The plan is to farm on it. My dad has more farming knowledge, so after the firm allocates my plot to me in September, we���ll do a bit of subsistence farming to get food for the house before eventually building on it.

What���s your current monthly income?

I finished serving in March 2026. The media company put an embargo on retaining corps members years ago, but I got retained as a full-time journalist in April 2026, earning ���250k/month.

In addition to my 9-to-5, I have the ���100k VA role and a writing/SEO publishing side hustle with a colleague who has a blog. That one brings me an extra ���100k/month. I also get invited to events in my main role as a journalist, and that brings me at least ���50k extra. 

So altogether, my average monthly income is ���500k.

Your monthly expenses? 

I live with my parents in Lagos, but I support the home. Here���s the breakdown:

What do your savings and investment portfolios look like right now?

I have three. First, there���s the emergency savings account, which I try not to touch. It���s currently approximately ���750k. I had more than this, but I dipped into it in July to support my parents with ���1 million when we changed apartments.

Secondly, I have my regular savings, currently ���500k. I keep it in my mutual funds account. 

Then, I have my stock market investments, currently worth ���200k, which mostly consist of Nigerian equities. I suppose I can also count the land in Ogun State as part of my real estate portfolio.

Of course. How would you describe your relationship with money?

I���m very frugal. My siblings and friends call me stingy, but someone who has passed through the childhood I did would understand. So, when people call me stingy, I accept it with my full chest. Yes, I’m stingy. At least that made me my first million.

I don’t spend on frivolities. In fact, I hate it. I live in Lagos, but I don’t go to the cinema. I wait for movies to be out for download. I don’t buy clothes anyhow; I have one main colour, black, because if you wear black, you can wear it multiple times without people noticing. I���d rather spend on my personal development than on buying new shoes. That doesn���t stop me from looking smart.

If someone asks for money for non-essentials, I won’t give it. I don���t give in to begging or any emotional tricks. My parents know me. Once I���ve supported the home with my ���150k monthly budget, they know nothing can take money out of my pocket again. But when it’s an emergency, like when my dad was ill some time ago, or having to give them ���1 million for rent, I step up.

Does your approach to money affect your relationship with people?

I don’t have many friends. I keep a very small, close circle.

I don’t have a girlfriend because having one means spending money, no matter how you look at it. My only relationship in university ended partly because the girl was too materialistic. Being the kind of person I am, I was not going to throw money around anyhow. So we had to break up. I told myself it was better to save the money than spend it on a girl, especially when I wasn’t ready to get married.

I���m seeing someone right now, but we are not official yet because I want to know where it’s headed and whether it’ll lead to marriage.

My friends know me. I refuse to go to places where I foresee having to spend money. But since NYSC, I���ve started coming out more often. As a journalist, my work is outside 24/7, so I���ve started scheduling meetups and doing one or two things I couldn���t do due to a lack of funds while in school.

Is there an ideal amount of money you think you should be earning monthly?

Of course. I���m looking forward to earning at least ���2 million monthly.

I want to settle down at a young age, so I’m planning towards that. Earning at that level will give me the cushion to build a family, level up my investments, and sustain the life I’m building without constantly worrying about financial setbacks.

Is there anything you want right now but can���t afford?

A car. 

My dad and friends spoke against it, seeing it as a liability, but I don’t see it that way because I can use it for e-hailing cabs on the side or carry paying passengers when going to the Island to cover fuel costs and add to my income. A small used Toyota Corolla costs around ���5.5 million to ���6 million.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1 to 10?

8. Coming from a family where it was difficult to pay my ���70k school fees, to becoming a landowner at 25, working three jobs, saving millions, and supporting my parents with rent; I���m proud of how far I���ve come. 

But there���s still room for improvement. I know I can achieve more.

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What���s your earliest memory of money?

My first core money memory was in 2017. I was starting 100-level at a university seven hours away from home, and my dad gave me ���20k to buy things in preparation.

I didn���t want to carry all the cash to the market, so I left ���5k at home and left with ���15k. I planned to buy what I needed and deposit some of the money into my new bank account.

On my way, a driver stopped to ask me for directions. Then he asked where I was heading and offered me a ride. That was how I entered a “one-chance” car. I don���t know how it happened, but by the time he dropped me off, the ���15k was gone. Only my phone was left with me.

Yikes. Glad you weren���t hurt. Did you tell your dad?

I had to, even though I was really disappointed in myself. As the first child, I felt I should���ve made better decisions. It was the first time my parents gave me ���big��� money, so I should���ve managed it better. I also shouldn’t have been in a stranger���s car. It was a whole lot of things I didn���t do well.

My dad took it better than I did. He eventually gave me ���10k, but that experience made me extremely careful with money. I never forgot it.

What was growing up like financially?

We were sort of average middle-class. My dad was a senior non-academic staff member at a university, and my mum was a primary school teacher. Between 2007 and 2012, my dad also ran a fish pond.

They were comfortable enough to send me to a good school and pay fees early. I didn���t always have everything I wanted, but I remember I had a laptop when my mates had phones. So, we never lacked the basics, and we could afford extras here and there. However, I didn���t handle money directly because I took food flasks to primary and secondary school.

Because I never had direct access to cash, I didn’t really know how to manage it until I got to university.

How did you handle money in uni?

I had a ���20k/month allowance. My school was in a small village, and every five days, I���d go to the village market. I could buy five yam tubers for ���1,000, split them with a roommate, and they would last a whole month. So ���20k was sufficient as pocket money, but I started to want to make extra money for the things my parents wouldn’t buy for me.

In the second semester of 100 level, I started turning old jean trousers into denim skirts and distressing them to make them look cool. I started with my own jeans, then I became popular in the hostel. People brought their jeans to me, and I charged about ���600 per skirt. 

Where did the idea for the skirts come from?

I already knew how to sew. I���d learned during the long JSS 3 holiday. My mum wanted me to learn a skill rather than just stay at home. The first choice would���ve been to learn how to use the computer, but I already knew how. So, we decided on sewing.

As for how the idea for the skirts came about, I just wanted to make cool things for myself. People liked them too, and it became an unofficial business. Beyond the skirts, I also started sewing regular clothes for people. I didn���t make much ��� I think the most I charged was ���9,000 throughout my time in uni ��� but I had at least three jobs each week.

By 200 level, I added makeup. I was self-taught and often practised on myself. When people started asking me to do theirs as well, I charged them ���2,000 to do it. This, along with the sewing, was my main hustle in school. 

I also tried Ponzi schemes. I invested ���13k in Loom in 2019 and cashed out ���109k, though I lost more than half of it trying to keep the scheme going. I think, at the end of the whole thing, I made only ���50k from it. 

But beyond that, my makeup and sewing hustles were really profitable. I don���t think I was ever broke in school.

What were you doing with all that money?

I had a strict savings and budget system in uni. Whenever my dad sent my ���20k allowance, I���d immediately segment it: buy non-perishable provisions in bulk, budget feeding money for market runs (about ���4,000 per trip), and pinch wherever possible so I���d never have to ask him for extra. In 300 level, my uncle started matching my dad’s allowance, which gave me even more room.

I discovered a savings app around that time and used it religiously. There were months when I���d manage to save ���8,000 from my ���20k allowance. By 2020, I had close to $100 in dollar savings and ���50k in regular savings on the app. I saved so much that I could take  ���30k at the end of 100 level to buy a phone, and when it was stolen the next year, I bought another one. I even lived off-campus with a friend and easily paid my ���50k half of the rent by myself.

I graduated from uni in 2021.

What came next?

NYSC. My school had some clearance delays, and I got called up to serve in late 2022.

My service year just flew by. I didn���t do anything financially remarkable, and I regret that. My Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) was at a clinic in Abuja, and they paid corps members a ���30k stipend every three months. I also had the ���33k monthly allawee from the government.

I stayed with a friend, so I didn���t need to pay rent. But I completely lost my savings momentum that year. I was just existing and spending money in the moment. I remember waiting for allawee to drop a couple of times because I was already broke. I also wasn���t sewing as much because I was living with someone, so that income source dried up somewhat.

When service ended in October 2023, I was idle, with about ���20k in my account, and feeling depressed about my trajectory. It felt like I���d lost all my edge from uni. My dad called and was like, ���What are you doing there? Come home.��� 

Did you go?

I did. He also told me to apply for a graduate trainee role at a bank. I���d never heard about the bank, but I agreed. I sent my CV to the person he asked me to contact. I applied in March 2024. 

While waiting to hear back from them, I applied to a few other jobs. That was my first introduction to the ���labour market.��� Before then, I didn���t think the 9-to-5 life was for me. I just assumed I���d do business and not use my degree at all.

Thankfully, I wasn���t in the market for long. I got the bank job and resumed in September 2024. Things started to look bright again.

What was the pay like?

���280k/month. It almost felt too good to be true. Living at home in our small city, I didn’t even know what to do with that much money.

From my first salary, I spent ���150k enrolling my younger sister in makeup school, buying her products, and setting her up. I also started dropping ���30k at home for feeding every month.

In December 2024, we got 13th-month pay and welfare packages. By then, I was seriously asking myself what I could do with all that money. In the end, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to make up for lost time and reclaim the saving culture I���d abandoned during NYSC. 

Did you have a plan?

Yes. I learnt my co-workers had a ���200k/month ajo contribution group, and I decided to join. Since the amount was nearly my entire pay, I decided to partner with someone and contribute only ���100k.

The next ajo group was to start in January 2025, and I planned to join that. That same month, my bank reviewed salaries and added ���50k to my base salary, bringing it to ���330k. They also introduced a cost-of-living allowance of ���104k. Overnight, my monthly take-home jumped to ���434k. I could now afford the full ���200k ajo slot.

The group had five people (including me), and we did every two cycles in a year. So, every five months, I collected a ���1 million lump sum. In 2025, I collected ���2 million in total. 

What did you do with the money?

Nothing. I was too scared to spend it, so I dumped everything in my savings app. I was satisfied to see over ���30k in monthly interest drop into my account.

On top of the ajo, I was saving an extra ���100k monthly in the app. So, in total, I was saving ���300k every month while living on ���134k.

In December 2025, I got promoted from Executive Trainee (ET) to Executive Assistant (EA). With salary reviews and my new level, my current monthly package is ���700k net.

Since I earn more, I now run two ajo groups simultaneously. The first is my regular ���200k month for a ���1 million payout. The second is ���250k monthly for a ���1.250 million payout. Both groups operate the two-cycle-in-a-year system.

Plus, I put ���50k directly into savings every month. That means out of my ���700k salary, I save ���500k monthly and live on ���200k. I got into mutual funds this year, so now I reinvest the lump sum payouts into my mutual fund account. That gives me around 16.5% interest monthly. My direct monthly savings still go to my savings app.

Out of curiosity, is there a reason you don���t save directly into these channels monthly instead of waiting to gather lump sums from the ajo contributions?

It���s all about the lump sum effect and leverage.

If I put ���250k into a savings app every month, it takes months to build up a substantial balance that earns real compound interest. But with the ajo group, I always position myself to collect my payout early in the cycle. For instance, I���ve taken the first slot twice this year.

Instead of waiting five months to save ���1.250 million gradually, I get the full amount on day one. I take that entire block of cash and dump it straight into my mutual funds app immediately. That gives me a head start on compounding. The interest generated on ���1.250 million, starting from month one, is significantly higher than if I were dropping ���250k each month.

I see your point. What���s your portfolio like now?

Let me break it down:

• My regular savings app: ���4.5 million (Including���1.5 million in cash gifts I received from my boyfriend between last year and now).
• Mutual funds: ���3.250 million (Was ���3.5 million, but I withdrew ���250k last month for my mum’s hospital care)
• Other micro-investments: ���120k in two investment apps. Then another ���50k in a savings app.

That���s approximately ���7.9 million in total. Also, I should have mentioned this when talking about my income. In addition to my salary, I receive tips from bank customers ranging from ���50k to ���200k monthly. That���s how I even raised ���260k in July to buy a laptop, without touching my main savings. 

A ���7.9 million portfolio in less than two years is pretty impressive. How does that feel?

It feels really good. Like I���ve been given a second chance to behave better with money, and I���m doing well. I mean, being able to do this with my salary is priceless. I just need to work, and the money is coming to me. My job really changed my life.

Also, I���ve done far more than I hoped to do when I started this ajo. My plan for 2025 was to save ���1.5 million, but I ended the year with over ���2.5 million. The salary increases helped, but I���m also saving far more than I thought I could. My goal for 2026 was ���5 million, and I surpassed it in May. I felt so proud of myself. 

Now, I want to see if I can get to ���10 million by the end of the year. I have one more million to collect before ajo closes this year. So I���ll probably use November and December���s salaries, plus any allowances that come in, to try to reach my ���10 million goal.

I believe it���s possible. I still live with my parents, so I���m able to manage costs. My job is about 10 minutes from my house, and I don���t spend up to ���30k on transport monthly.

Speaking of, let���s break down your typical monthly expenses

How would you describe your relationship with money?

I think I’m frugal. My friends have said I am, so I guess that���s the truth. I’m trying to work on that, though. It’s crazy to be saving ���500k out of ���700k. I started because I wanted to make myself proud. 

Plus, I really believe I let myself down. If I���d maintained the momentum I had from uni, I would have done a lot more for myself. I could have set up a fashion business or explored other things. So, I just wanted to lock in and save a lot of money. But I’m trying to come out of that frugal mindset.

Is there a reason why?

I need to live a little. I see people who earn less than me look a lot better, and I wonder if I���m doing too much. What if something happens and I don���t even get to use the money I���ve gathered?

However, when I think like that, I also remember another reason I need a safety net. I would like to leave this country one day, and I don���t have anywhere to borrow from to fund that. Since I can save now, I might as well do it. 

Also, my parents are ageing, and as the firstborn, I want to be the safety net. When my mum fell ill recently, I moved her to one of the best private hospitals in our city without blinking because I knew I could just click withdraw on my savings app. I didn���t end up spending much, but if I needed to, I wouldn���t have had to run helter-skelter. 

Another thing is that I want to build an emergency fund before actually investing properly to grow wealth. ���10 million feels like a great number for an emergency fund. Once I hit that, I can comfortably invest without being too scared of losing money. I haven���t done enough research to know what investment channel to try yet, but I���m considering stocks.

I sense a struggle between wanting to live a little and growing wealth. Have you considered how to balance both?

Yeah. I���m considering dropping one of the ajo contributions next year. I���ll still save reasonably, but I plan to be a bit more flexible. So, instead of waiting all year to buy a wig, I can save for three months and buy a decent unit. Or be able to buy nice work clothes and buy food without overthinking it. 

I would also like to travel to maybe Benin and Togo. I really want to go to Rwanda and Qatar, but that might be doing too much. Or maybe not. At least, I���ve surpassed my savings goals. Maybe I can treat myself a little.

Girl, yes. Is there an ideal amount of money you think you should be earning monthly?

Many of my friends earn over ���1 million/month, and I���d like to earn that as well. I���m applying for other roles because in banking, when you change jobs, you get a step higher. So, I���d like to earn in the ���1 million range as an Assistant Banking Officer (ABO).

Is there anything you want right now but can���t afford?

Nothing really. I live in a small city, so I don���t need a car right now. It also doesn���t make sense to live away from home at the moment. I���d like to upgrade my iPhone, but it���s not that deep. If I had the money, I probably wouldn���t buy it.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

7. I���m not yet where I want to be globally. I���d like to leave Nigeria, but I can���t afford the experiences I want yet. Things like riding bikes in green parks or visiting big libraries aren’t accessible in my immediate environment. The most I can do for fun right now is go to the cinema once a month and spend ���7k. Maybe that���s another reason I’m keeping so much money. Nothing else to spend it on.

That said, I���m proud of my discipline. My job genuinely changed my life, and I���m no longer moving by happenstance. I���ve locked in financially, and even when I decide to spend more tomorrow, it will be a deliberate, calculated choice.

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What is your earliest memory of money?

There were the typical memories of cash gifts from older relatives, which I gave to my mum. But the most profound memory was realising that we didn���t have money. 

Our financial situation started becoming clear around the time I got into secondary school. I attended a church���s private school for my primary education, and I assumed I’d naturally progress to the private secondary schools my mates moved on to. But we couldn���t afford the fees. 

I eventually went to a lesser-known school that my mum couldn���t afford either. At least once or twice every term, I was called out for owing school fees. In JSS 2, I had to move to the school where my mum taught.

On top of that, my mum was always asking our well-off relatives and her friends for money or taking things on credit from vendors. Going to my cousins’ houses became uncomfortable because we all knew that every visit meant my mum was about to beg for money.

I notice you keep mentioning just your mum

Yes. My mum is a single parent. All I know is that my dad never wanted to be in the picture, so my mum raised my sister and me.

Beyond the school fees, things were so tight that we sometimes couldn’t feed ourselves. We would sit around the table waiting for a family friend or relative to answer my mum���s call so we could buy food. My heart would beat so fast whenever I was walking home from school because I wasn���t sure if there was food at home. 

One day, a teacher at school asked me in front of the class if I was the poorest child in the school because my hair was undone and I didn’t have lunch. I was so embarrassed.

Sigh. That���s terrible

The annoying thing was that even though relatives often helped us, it hardly showed up in our lives. I know that my uncles sent around ���500k or more several times to help, but the money would disappear within weeks. My mum was always coming up with vague business plans that never materialised. It was a constant cycle of getting money, losing it, and going right back to begging. 

Maybe I���m being overly judgmental, but I still feel that she made too many bad decisions. I was always so angry like, ���What are you even thinking? Why will you do things like this?���

Even the school she moved me to, she still couldn���t pay the fees. I was known for never paying school fees. School staff always looked at me somehow. Everyone knew that, ���Small thing now, your mummy will come and beg.���

Phew. That must���ve been a lot for you. How did all of that financial stress affect you?

I was constantly embarrassed. In SS1, I finally told my mum to move me to a different school, or I���d run away. She moved me, but the whole situation had made me too scared to form close relationships or make deep connections with people. I constantly felt like I didn’t belong. It was really traumatic.

It also made me want to make my own money very early, and gave me a deep scarcity mindset at the same time. On the one hand, I desperately wanted money; on the other, I felt it wasn’t available to me. Like a ���Can I even have money?��� feeling.

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When did you first act on this desire to make money?

At 14. This was in 2018, and I���d just graduated from secondary school. I didn’t go straight to university ��� actually, I didn���t want to go. I was so exhausted from constantly being bullied in secondary school, and I just needed a break.

Also, my mum kept talking about “having faith” to send me to a private university. That���s another thing about her. She was very religious and never planned for things, only choosing to believe that things would ���work out���. Of course, that meant begging people for money. 

When she brought up the private uni matter, I wanted to scream. The same person who couldn���t afford secondary school was open to such a crazy idea.

Anyway, I got a job as a teaching assistant/minder at a school run by our church. I worked there for a year, earning ���20k/month. For the first two months, I saved half of my salary to buy a cheap phone. Then, for most of the year I worked there, I saved the remaining half in my mum���s account. I didn���t have a bank account, and I was saving towards my university admission. 

I saved about ���80k in total, but at the end of the year, I found out the money was gone. I was supposed to pay acceptance fees and other expenses of about ���100k+.

What do you mean the money was gone?

My mum had used it. When I asked her for it, she said, ���I had to sort things out. I didn���t use it to buy clothes or shoes. It���s not my fault. Everything is expensive.���

Then she started making me feel guilty because, of course, I ate from the food she bought with it; I just didn���t know it was my money. 

I couldn���t even process the anger. I just let it go. She later went behind my back to borrow money from a church member ��� which she never paid back ��� to cover the uni fees.

How did you navigate finances in uni?

I gained admission in late 2019, but I was home for a while after the lockdown hit in 2020, followed by ASUU strikes.

I started writing online during the lockdown and became active on Facebook. Around this time, I saw a Facebook post from a movie director looking for script synopses. I sent in a story idea, expecting a quick payout. Instead, he asked me to develop the full script. I spent a whole year writing and developing it with him. He ended up paying me ���70k. 

I���m sure it was clear to the man that I was a novice. He was supposed to pay me ���150k, but I didn���t complain or say anything when he paid me less than half of the amount. I was probably unwise, but also just excited for something I wrote to be developed and put onscreen. I was actively trying to become a script writer, so I didn���t mind. I even wrote comedy skit scripts for people online for free. 

By 2022, my pastor paid for me to take a graphic design class, and someone gifted me a laptop. I started freelancing, making ���1,500 to ���2,000 per design.

Were you able to build a steady income from freelancing?

Not really. I lacked the business sense, a trait I definitely inherited from my mum. I didn’t know how to market myself online or retain high-paying clients.

In early 2023, my laptop completely broke down. This matters because later that year, I tried ghostwriting web novels for someone online. So I wrote a nearly 100,000-word story on my phone. He paid me ���6,000 for the initial outline, but after I delivered the final draft, he blocked me without paying my balance.

Omo. How were you handling living expenses in school then?

I was mostly surviving day-to-day. Pocket money wasn���t consistent, and I could go days without eating. Also, I don���t think I was as enterprising in school as I should have been. I wanted money, but I couldn���t make the moves to earn it. I often felt stuck, making excuses like ���my laptop and phone are bad,��� and I couldn���t do anything to change my situation.  

A small ray of hope shone later that year. In 300 level, I won a government scholarship that was to pay me ���250k per session. Tuition was ���45k, so I could easily pay my fees and have extra.

Oh nice

However, government disbursements take forever. The money didn’t hit my account until April 2024. While waiting, I took a writing job in January 2024 that paid ���60k/month. My job was to write two articles daily and post on social media. But my phone kept overheating and turning off mid-work. As a result, I often didn���t meet my deliverables.

As if that wasn���t stressful enough, my mum kept planning my salary before it even arrived. I wanted to use most of my salary to fix my laptop, but she���d constantly tell me to ���relax��� and wait for the scholarship money. Of course, she said that because she���d already planned my salary for household expenses.

Honestly, the whole thing was my fault. I didn���t take my destiny into my own hands. I should���ve said, ���No. This is what I���ll do with my money. I���ll fix my laptop and do other things I want.��� 

But I didn���t. 

I eventually had to quit the job after three months, because I had to manage the same phone for school, and it was affecting my studies. I didn���t want anything to affect my grades in any way, which is probably why I wasn���t money-minded then. I regret it now, sha.

When the scholarship money eventually came in, it went to rent and other household needs. That was the pattern for the rest of my time in uni. The scholarship covered my fees, and I helped out at home. There was one time my mum started borrowing from loan apps, and I had to step in. See, let me not even get into that.

Fair enough. What came next after graduating from uni?

I graduated in late 2025 and decided to stop treating content as a side hustle and take LinkedIn seriously. I started learning more about content and applying for jobs.

In January 2026, I got my first job as a content marketing associate at a tech startup. My salary was ���180k/month. A few days later, I got another job as a social media manager for an individual professional for ���80k/month. Both were remote jobs. For the latter, I had to go to my employer���s house and shoot content periodically. Technically, my salary was ���50k, since I was paying someone ���30k to help me edit the videos, as I didn���t really know how.

In the same January, I got a third job ��� this one is more of a recurring gig ��� as the Instagram handler for a Nigerian living abroad. The job was on an as-needed basis, so she paid me ���25k/post. Sometimes I did three in a month, sometimes I did zero. That January, I made about ���300k from all three jobs.

Not bad. Do you still do all three jobs now?

Hmm. Not exactly. I got fired from my content marketing job in April. They merged the role with product marketing, and I wasn���t delivering as expected. 

Damn. I���m so sorry

Thank you. I was really heartbroken. I was so attached to the startup and really liked it there. I started questioning my skills and wondering if I was good enough. I think another thing that affected me at the job was our power situation. We���d go days without light, and I���d be looking for where to charge. Sometimes I���d just burst into tears because I was so scared I was messing up my life.

Anyway, after getting fired, I spent the next two months recovering. I also started editing videos at the ���80k job myself, so I kept the whole pay. In June, I began posting more on LinkedIn and sending cold emails. One of those emails led to a one-time ���100k content and communications gig with a startup.

Then, towards the end of July, I got three part-time roles with three different early-stage startups.

Mad mad. Can you break that down for me?

So, if I add these three new ones to my ���80k social media management gig from early in the year, I have:

Communications officer: ���180k/month

Programmes staff: ���150k/month

Community manager: ���100k/month

Social media management: ���80k/month

Altogether, that���s ���510k monthly. There���s still the ���25k-per-post gig, but it���s very irregular, so I���m not counting that.

Out of curiosity, does your mum still ���plan��� your income?

She definitely has expectations because she knows how much I earn. It���s kind of difficult to hide it because of where we live. We stay in a small flat, and since I take my interviews at home, she hears everything. 

Recently, she asked my sister and me to contribute ���125k each toward our house rent. I���ll pay it, but I plan to be an adult and set firm boundaries. We’ve had arguments because she constantly demands more, but I told her point-blank that once I leave for NYSC later this year, my monthly contribution to her will be capped at ���50k.

How did she react to that?

She cried and shouted, but omo, that ship has sailed. My current jobs are contracts, and I need to find a permanent one and save money. I can���t be earning this amount and not be able to do anything with it.

I���m building my life now. Besides, she still earns a salary, and she isn���t feeding anyone. I can���t let any black tax pressure ruin my future or return me to how bad things were in my childhood.

Let���s break down your typical monthly expenses

I���ll use my projected expenses for this month as an example since I only started earning this much:

What does your savings portfolio look like?

It���s practically zero right now. Everything I saved between January and May 2026 went into my uni clearance and convocation expenses, which cost me about ���180k. Then I loaned my mum ���45k, which she hasn���t repaid.

I���m starting from scratch this month. My immediate goal is to save ���200k to buy a portable power station for backup power.

How would you describe your relationship with money?

It���s getting better. I actively look for ways to make money, and I don’t feel the need to spend it all. I���m also a bit better at budgeting now than I was before. 

Do you think you still have the scarcity mindset?

Kind of. I���m constantly thinking, ���After this job, what next?��� I even find myself applying to jobs on impulse, just because I don���t ever want to depend on one person or get stranded. So, there���s a constant fear. But I���m working on it, and God is helping me.

What���s an ideal income you think you should be earning right now?

���2m/month. It would mean I can sort out my family’s needs without stress. But what I really want is a stable job. I���ve moved around too much.

What���s something you want right now but can���t afford?

My own apartment. I plan to work towards that during my service year. I can���t return to live with my mum if I want to set boundaries around my money.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

6. I���m grateful for where I am. I���m still worried about the status of my jobs, but I plan to change my trajectory by interacting with my life as it is. By that, I mean understanding that my position is different and moving accordingly.

For instance, I often wished as a child that I were one of those kids whose parents had a nice house and generators. But the truth is that I���m not. So, I���ve decided to take life by the horns and work for my future.

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What is your earliest memory of money?

When I was six years old, my parents began giving my younger sister and me ���50 or ���100 each daily during school holidays. Then my older aunt, who was around 13 or 14, would encourage us to save it. She kept a notebook where she logged our daily savings. At the end of every holiday, we would show our parents how much we saved, and they���d encourage us to buy something substantial, like a dress or birthday gifts for our siblings.

On some days, my parents would claim they didn’t have money just to teach us that the daily allowances weren’t guaranteed, but we didn���t mind since we weren’t even spending the money. Eventually, they bought us piggy banks, and we took over saving the money ourselves.

What was your family���s financial situation like growing up?

My dad is a lecturer at a higher institution, and my mum is a trader. Growing up, I thought we were rich. It was only when I got older that I realised we weren���t. My parents did their best to shield us from financial strain. They always told us, ���If you need anything, ask us. Don���t buy it yourself.���

I could ask my dad for something, and he���d say, ���not today. I don���t have money now,��� but he���d still go ahead and do it. I was always assured that my parents would eventually get me whatever I needed (and even random wants). That built a lot of trust, and perhaps the notion that we were rich.

When did you realise you weren’t actually rich?

As I got older, I started paying attention to my parents��� conversations. As a child, your wants are trivial. I could ask for something worth ���10k, which didn’t stretch my parents a lot. But over time, I began hearing them discuss household expenses and how there wasn’t enough money for certain major things.

At one point, my dad started a building project, and it took a massive toll on our household finances. My mum had to carry us through that period. Hearing “there’s no money for this” repeatedly made me realise we weren���t as comfortable as I thought.

When was the first time you did something to earn money?

My parents usually gave us small chores for tiny rewards, but the first significant time I worked for money was when I was 13. It was 2019, and I had just entered the polytechnic. My dad wanted me to learn how to do research projects, so he gave me his student���s project to type on the computer and paid me ���8,000 for it. 

He guided me through formatting the title page, preliminaries, abstract, and chapters, all the way to the appendix. I remember finishing and thinking, “Ha, this was so hard. I should have charged this man more.” 

But ���8,000 was the biggest amount of money I had ever earned at that point. I think I gave it to my mum to save, and later used it to buy novels and gifts.

Wait, you got into the polytechnic at 13? How did that happen?

I’ve always been academically fast. In primary four, a new government school opened that allowed pupils to resume JSS 1 before writing the Primary School Leaving Examination, instead of waiting a year. So, I skipped primary five, moved straight into JSS 1, wrote the exam there, and passed.

Then in SS 2, my dad suggested I write JAMB just to get a feel of the exam. I scored very well. He asked if I wanted to go to the university, and because I was tired of being bullied for being the youngest in my SS 2 class, I said yes. I wrote NECO, passed all my subjects, and applied to a university. They rejected me, though. They required candidates to be at least 16 years old, but I was 13. So, I applied to the polytechnic where my dad worked and was admitted.

Interesting. Did you do anything else for money while at the polytechnic?

Not immediately. I commuted from home, and my parents gave me transportation money. If I ran into my dad on campus, he���d give me money for snacks. It became frustrating because I wanted my own money, but I was 13 and didn’t know how to go about it.

I went on Google for answers, and my search led me to Wattpad. I started writing romance fiction on the platform. They didn���t pay me. I was just writing. 

Eventually, in ND 2, I heard about another platform called GoodNovel that paid writers. So, I joined and landed a non-exclusive contract with them. The arrangement was that they���d pay only when the writer hit a certain word count in a particular time frame. I think it was around 150,000 words, which meant I had to write 2,000 to 3,000 words every single day for months to meet their earnings requirements.

I got paid $100 once and abandoned the platform. The workload was too intense. 

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What did you do after walking away from the writing platform?

I started volunteering for a lot of things. I was a young child at a higher institution and didn���t have friends, so I felt I had to be doing something all the time. 

I volunteered for two mental health brands, working as a social media manager for one, and as a content writer at the other. I realised I wasn���t really good at content writing, so I asked my dad for ���3,000 to register for a content writing class. This was now 2021.

During the class, our tutor assigned content for us to write and published it under her name. That class helped me see that I could write practical articles, not just romance stories. It also opened my eyes to the possibilities of working remotely.

Even after the class ended, I kept researching and looking for opportunities. I finished my National Diploma around this time and moved on to the university in 2022. That same year, in 100 level, I noticed someone���s name under the ���author��� section of a post on a lifestyle platform. 

I was very curious about how to get published, so I got a contact from the website and pitched them. At the time, I didn���t even know what cold pitching was. I just told them I wanted to write for them, too. 

How did that go?

They said I would need to contribute 10 articles before my name could be published on their website. After that, I became a regular contributor, writing for their business and career categories. Sometimes I also did SEO. They didn���t pay, but I wasn���t in it for money.

That said, they started sending me occasional freelance writing gigs from other clients. I charged ���1 per word for 2,000- to 3,000-word articles. Over seven months, I got about six or seven gigs from them.

At the same time, a friend paid me ���5,000 monthly to manage the social media account for a mental health brand she was working with. The money only covered data, but again, I wasn’t focused on income. I spent my early career volunteering, and I always took the jobs seriously. People would ask me, ���This work you���re doing, how much are they even paying you?��� 

Me, I just liked bringing excellence into everything I did. I was also really curious. When I wasn���t working, I was on my laptop, learning everything from SEO to Canva. 

How long did you juggle the writing and social media management roles?

About seven months. Four months in, my friend hit a rough patch and stopped paying the ���5,000 allowance, but I worked for three more months anyway until I became completely burnt out. 

I was also writing academic research papers for my HOD for zero pay. Combining that with school, contributing articles for the lifestyle platform, and managing social media became overstimulating. So, I quit both the contributor duties and social media management to focus on the research papers and my studies.

The break was short-lived, though.

Why?

I found another job to do in 200 level. Someone posted a vacancy for a social media manager role, and I used my volunteer experience to build a CV and applied. I got the job, and my salary was ���40k monthly. This was 2023.

I worked there for a full year, managing a tech professional���s LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook pages daily. It was my first official, steady-paying corporate job. However, posting daily, engaging with comments in real time, and managing school work put so much pressure on me. I was also writing people���s projects and seminar papers. Those paid me ���20k/seminar and ���10k/project chapter.

By January 2024, I was overstimulated again. I struggled with leaving because it felt like I was betraying my boss. I���d never resigned from an official paying job before, and it felt weird. But I eventually had to leave. I was so overwhelmed.

I took another short break, and, in April 2024, I joined a non-profit community as a volunteer content marketer and program manager. 

I imagine this wasn���t a paid role?

It wasn���t at first, but as usual with me, I did the most there. I poured so much effort and worked so hard that the founder decided to start paying me ���20k/month. She didn’t pay the other volunteers, just me. The payment started from September and lasted through December 2024.

When I was heading into my final year, she suggested we pause so I could focus on my project. She wanted me to take on more roles, but she knew final-year students handled so much schoolwork and didn���t want to overwhelm me. I honestly didn���t think it was anything I couldn���t handle, but I agreed. Two months later, in February 2025, she recommended me for a social media manager role at a podcast brand paying ���85k/month.

In July, a LinkedIn contact reached out to me about another job opportunity. That’s how I got a full-time content marketing offer at a fintech company. To be honest, I was a bit scared. I hadn���t worked in content marketing before, but when I saw the job description, it was very similar to what I���d done all these years. I decided I���d take the job and work very hard to figure it out. 

The salary was ���100k, so my monthly income jumped from ���85k to ���185k instantly. This coincided with my writing my final exams and signing out of university.

Love it for you! Do you still juggle both jobs?

Actually, I have three now. I started my NYSC year in May 2026, and I work as a social media manager and content creator for a digital skills training brand. They pay me ���20k/month, and I get ���77k allawee from the government.

My salary at the fintech ��� I consider this my main job ��� has also increased. The first performance-based pay raise was in February, when they increased it to ���150k. Then, after completing a full year at the company, they increased it again to ���250k. My podcast job still pays ���85k. All together, that puts my core monthly income at ���432k.

On the side, I also sell personalised digital skill blueprints on social media.

Tell me more about that

It grew out of my passion for social impact. Whenever I go out to speak to people about digital skills and education, a lot of them ask me to teach them. I don���t have the capacity to teach one-on-one, so I suggest they take online courses. The problem with that is that many people often get overwhelmed and lose consistency. Some don’t even know where to start. I wanted to give them something tangible to fall back on so they could actually take action. So, I started creating the blueprints.

Instead of a generic, one-size-fits-all guide, someone clicks the link in my bio or reaches out to tell me the specific skill they want to learn, for instance, social media management. I build a step-by-step roadmap for them, complete with curated links to courses, blogs, and tools, explaining exactly how to master the skill from scratch.

I charge ���2,000 per blueprint, which brings in an extra ���10k- ���20k per month. Honestly, it���s a lot of work for ���2,000, but it���s definitely not about the money right now; it���s about impact and helping people bridge the gap between wanting a digital career and actually building one. There���s a huge demand for it, and once I have more capacity after NYSC, I���m definitely planning to scale it.

That���s so impressive. But how on earth do you manage all these jobs? 

I can���t remember a time since I was 15 when I wasn���t doing a bunch of things. For me, doing nothing and doing too much are the same thing, so I���d rather do too much. 

Also, I���d be too anxious to have nothing to do. It���s like, ���I need to do something,��� and if I���m doing something, I need to make sure I���m doing it well enough. I prefer the other end of the stick, where I���m doing a lot and making money. 

Back to how I manage the jobs, my NYSC PPA is an on-site job, but I don���t have a manager. I write the content, shoot, edit and post. So, I set aside days to go there and batch-create their content. I also teach video editing there, so whenever students come in, I teach them.

Since I batch-create, I don���t need to go there daily, but I do so because there���s constant electricity at the office. So whenever I���m not shooting or teaching, I sit there to do my two other remote jobs. 

My social media management duties for the podcast happen on my phone. It���s mostly posting and responding to comments, so I set time aside for that. When I finish, I go back to my content marketing job. As I said, it���s my main job and highest income stream, so I prioritise it above everything else.

I���m curious. Do your employers know you have other jobs?

They do, but no one really cares as long as I���m delivering my work. Sometimes meetings clash, and I can ask my team at the fintech to move them to the evening. They’re very understanding. 

I also sacrifice a lot of sleep. If I have deadlines, I work straight through the night after coming back from my PPA. I refuse to let my output slip on any job because I don’t want to give anyone a reason to doubt my competence.

On top of all this, I still create content for my social media and LinkedIn pages and write a newsletter.

I get your need to constantly be doing something, but do you think you HAVE to do this many things at once?

As I���ve grown older, and from watching older people around me and how they think about money, I realise that many people���s perception of earning is limited by their exposure. 

People who haven���t grasped the possibilities of the digital world have a limited view of money. I don���t want to live the kind of life where people just graduate, and the first thing on their minds is opening a perfume business or doing something small to make ends meet. This isn���t to talk down on small businesses, but I think life can be bigger than that.

You don’t always have to wait for a chance. You can actually do things to work towards those goals. So, all I���m doing now is for future me.

I want a financially secure future where I can make an impact on people and afford any level of education I want. Right now, when I pay for courses, people ask me why I do that. I want to be able to do what I want without having to explain to anybody.

Is there a particular net worth you���re aiming to reach to secure this future?

I don’t think there���s a specific figure right now, because I feel like my understanding of money grows as I earn it. 

For instance, before I started earning a consistent income, I thought earning ���100k monthly would help me achieve a lot. But I got there and realised it was a chicken change in Nigeria���s economy. The more money I make, the more pressure that comes with it. I just want a future where there���s no pressure or guilt about spending money. 

How would you describe your relationship with money today?

Anxious. I constantly question my spending, whether I���m giving away too much, saving enough, or investing properly.

Because I���m 20, I frequently worry about whether I am managing this level of income well or making mistakes. There’s also the constant fear of losing my jobs. Now that I cover all my personal expenses, the thought of losing my income and having to rely on my parents again gives me serious anxiety.

What do your typical monthly expenses look like?

I don���t pay rent because my NYSC PPA provided accommodation. Whenever I���m not there, I���m at my parents���. 

Currently, my total savings sit at around ���500k. It���s low because I recently had to draw from it to cover graduation expenses, move to a new state for NYSC, fund my health expenses, and pay half of a new ���250k laptop (my dad covered the other half). Now that I’m settled, I plan to rebuild my safety net. I also have about ���40k in stocks. I don’t have a specific savings goal right now; I just save consistently to maintain financial stability.

Is there an ideal amount of money you think you should be earning right now?

This is funny because if I add one more job to my table, I might drop dead. 

Haha. I mean, it doesn���t have to be an additional job

True. Ideally, I���d like to earn around ���1 million per month from a single, stable job rather than splitting myself across multiple roles.

I think one stable job might even help treat my anxiety. I���m constantly thinking about deliverables and deadlines, so that may be keeping me on edge. If I had one well-paying job, I���d have more time to work on my side hustle and scale my digital product. It would help give me more ownership of my time and money and contribute to my peace of mind. 

I don���t plan to wait for that one stable job, though. After my NYSC, I plan to focus heavily on personal branding and visibility on LinkedIn. I forgot to share this earlier, but I���ve been on and off Upwork since 2020. I couldn���t stay consistent because of everything I had to juggle. I plan to become more intentional and position myself for well-paying opportunities.

Rooting for you. Is there anything you want right now but can���t afford?

An international passport. I think I can afford this; I���ve just not budgeted for it. I think it���s about ���100k now. I also want to upgrade my phone for content, and that should cost about ���700k.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

6. I���m still very anxious about money. But I���m still growing in my financial journey. The first raise I got at work this year happened after I asked, and they approved it immediately. 

That experience taught me that anything is possible with money. You can earn ���400k this month and earn ���3 million next month. It���s possible. So, I���m still in my learning phase. There���s a lot of growing to do when it comes to earning and managing money, but I���ll figure it out.

Find all the past Naira Life stories��here.

What���s your earliest memory of money?

It was wanting a Supa Strikas comic in primary school.

My school had an arrangement with a Mr Biggs restaurant to bring us snacks once in a while. Because of that, I assumed everything in Mr Biggs was free.

One day, while waiting for snacks, I saw a Supa Strikas comic in a corner and tried to grab it. The lady at the counter stopped me: ���No, you have to pay for it.��� That was the exact moment it clicked that things aren���t free; you actually need money to buy stuff. 

Let me guess, you didn���t have money?

Nope. My parents dropped me off and picked me up from school, so there was no reason for me to have cash at hand. I think the comic was about ���50 at the time (around 1999 or early 2000s), and I had to beg my mum to buy it for me.

She gave me a condition. 

She ran a small shop on the side in addition to her full-time corporate job, and the condition was that I had to help out every Saturday morning until 1 p.m. I did that for four straight Saturdays before she finally bought the comic for me. 

What was your family���s financial situation like back then?

We were middle-class, not particularly rich, but not poor either. My dad worked at an FMCG company, and my mum worked at an insurance firm.

My parents were strict with money, though. They didn���t just get me things because I wanted them. For instance, when the console dropped, almost all my classmates had one, but when I asked, my mum refused and told me to focus on my studies. My dad was even stricter; if it wasn’t about education, you didn’t dare ask him for money.

But the thing was, I wanted money. I wanted to get things for myself without having to defend my reasons to my parents. This need led me to the first thing I did for money.

Tell me about it

I moved to a boarding school for JSS 1 and noticed I could make money from selling snacks. They weren���t allowed in the school, but of course, that never stopped anything. 

I became very good friends with one of the porters, and he���d buy me sweets from outside and bring them in. Then, I���d sell them to other students at double the price.

I became known as the guy who sold sweets. I felt like a secret agent making illicit deals. I spent every penny of that money on sweets and chin-chin. I was young, so I had no savings mindset; I was just spending frivolously. I stopped the business in JSS 3 when I almost got caught; contraband was a serious crime in school.

Did you try anything else for money in school?

In secondary school, no. The next time I tried to make money was in university. I got admitted in 2010, and by then, things had changed at home. My parents��� earning power dropped. I found out years later that they���d lost a substantial amount of money to bad investments.

In 100 level, my pocket money was ���5k/week, which was really small. I went from a boarding school where all my needs were covered to entering uni and realising my parents couldn���t afford to give me more than a certain amount. It was a lot to deal with. 

My self-confidence took a hit. As a law student, I couldn’t even afford ���1,000 to buy application forms for student chambers. I couldn’t afford to date or go out. My life was super boring. So, I decided to hustle. 

A friend ran a photocopy business, so I’d bring students who wanted to print or photocopy to him for a cut. My commission was usually ���2,000 to ���3,000 every week.

I also did word-of-mouth marketing and distributed flyers for a popular on-campus laundry service to get a commission when people patronised the owner. The main problem was that my pay depended on the owner���s mood. We didn���t negotiate anything, so he paid whatever he liked, usually between ���5,000 and ���12,000 every two weeks. 

Thinking about it now, he was taking advantage of me, but as a broke uni student, that extra cash meant a lot.

意鞄艶油��is returning on August 22, 2026, in Lagos! Come learn from finance experts and industry leaders, and partake in unfiltered conversations about building wealth and diversifying your income stream in a country like Nigeria.��Real stories, expert advice you can actually use, and a community ready to build wealth together.��.

How long did you do both hustles for?

From 100 level to 400 level. I stopped in my final year to focus on passing my courses. The lecturers were terrifying and had a reputation for failing people. People carried over courses for years, and I didn���t want that. So, I cut off every distraction and survived solely on my pocket money again.

I graduated in 2015 and went to Law School. I survived the one year there on pocket money and extra cash my aunt occasionally gave me whenever I begged her.

What came after Law School?

Instead of going straight for NYSC, I deliberately looked for work because I desperately needed money.

I landed a legal internship at a bank paying ���35k/month. After two months, they increased my salary to ���55k/month. To me, that felt like I had finally arrived. Coming from a ���5k weekly allowance, ���55k felt huge in 2016.

By a stroke of luck, I was able to save the last two months��� salaries of my internship year. So by 2017, when I went to NYSC orientation camp, I had ���110k saved up. I blew the entire sum in those three weeks. 

Damn

I���m ashamed to say it too. But it was the first time I had that kind of spending power, so I was just spending. 

After camp, I moved on to my Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) at an insurance company. The job was a huge reality check. The company paid corps members ���20k/month, but my friends who got into big law firms as NYSC associates were earning six-figure salaries. I was living at home, so food and shelter were covered, but seeing that gap showed me how much money was actually out there.

I also tried to save during my NYSC year, but it didn���t end well.

What happened?

Someone advised me to save at least ���8k every month from my ���19,800 allawee, so I did. Six months in, I had saved ���48k. Then I got scammed.

Someone called me, pretending they had accidentally sent a code to my phone, and begged me to call it out. Na誰ve and trusting, I gave them the code. They emptied the entire ���48k. It doesn’t sound like much now, but back then, it was my entire world. I was devastated.

Phew. Sorry about that

Thank you. I completed my service in 2019 and decided not to stay at the insurance company. The place was toxic, and they paid peanuts.

I spent the next nine months unemployed, searching for jobs and volunteering at my mum’s shop while my friends kept their jobs at the law firms they served.

Eventually, in late 2019/early 2020, I got a Graduate Assistant (GA) job in the compliance department at another bank. My salary was ���180k/month. It was my first time earning a significant amount of money, and it felt good.

In 2021, they bumped it up to ���199k. The following year, I was promoted to Executive Trainee (ET), and my salary increased to ���212k. My pay remained at that level until I left the bank in 2023.

Why did you leave?

I returned to the insurance company I worked at before. They offered me a legal role for ���250k/month, and I naively took it because the pay was a bit higher and I assumed things would be better at the company. Someone should have really sat me down and explained how things actually work.

Within three months, I realised I���d made a mistake. The culture was still toxic, and people were backbiting and gossiping all over the place. It was not a nice experience at all. On top of that, my salary stayed stuck at ���250k until I left in 2025.

Where did you move to next?

I landed my current job as a corporate legal officer in the energy sector. My salary tripled overnight to ���750k/month.

Ooh. How did that feel?

Like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert. Sometimes I look at my account and ask, “Is this really me?” 

I don’t feel like I’ve arrived yet, but I know I’m no longer where I used to be. I���m finally out of the ghetto and can start building something.

Have there been any lifestyle changes?

I still live a fairly basic life. I finally moved out of my parents’ house last year and rented my own place for ���1.2 million/year.

Paying ���1.2m rent on a ���750k monthly salary wasn’t too difficult. I also bought myself a PS5 for ���510k early this year ��� something young me could never have dreamed of ��� and spent ���600k to upgrade my phone.

Besides these, there haven���t been any drastic changes. I know how long it took to reach a small semblance of soft life, so I���m not taking it for granted. At least I have more disposable income and can even save a little.

How do you handle savings now?

I actually only started three months ago. I was a bit wary because of my past trauma from losing my savings to a scam, but I finally started locking ���100k away every month on a savings app.

I lock it away so I can’t touch it, because if it’s accessible, a small voice in my head will convince me to spend it. Right now, my savings portfolio sits at ���300k. I know there���s so much more I can do, and I hope to develop a better savings mindset soon because I���m really not getting any younger. 

A friend is also currently guiding me on how to invest in mutual funds and treasury bills, and I hope to get started soon. The goal is to reach a level where I can live solely on the passive income generated by savings and investments. My friend���s monthly passive income is currently more than his salary, and I want to get there so I don���t have to touch my salary.

Speaking of, let���s break down your typical monthly expenses

How would you describe your relationship with money today?

I feel like I���ve been chasing money for a very long time, and it keeps running away from me. But right now, it���s getting tired. It���s slowing down, looking back at me, and saying: “You this boy, you’ve been chasing me for so long. Let me slow down and hear what you have to say.”

Skrim. Is there an ideal amount of money you think you should be earning?

At least ���1.2 million. This used to be an amount I could only dream of, but with my experience and knowledge of what my colleagues earn, I believe it���s possible to touch that income bracket. I don���t think it���s possible to settle down and be ���comfortable comfortable��� in Lagos without earning at least ���1 million.

What���s something you want right now but can���t afford yet?

A car. There���s a Toyota model I���ve been eyeing since my university days. It used to be cheap, but right now it costs around ���7.5 million. That’s my next major saving goal.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

7. It took a lot of effort to get here. I���m nowhere near where I started, but I’m not where I want to be yet. 

My motto right now is ���Almost there.��� I feel that clearly describes my situation. I���ve almost caught up with my goals. I just need to push a little more.

Out of curiosity, do you have a timeline for moving from ���Almost there��� to ���There���?

Before 35. So, I have four more years to make my dreams come true.

Find all the past Naira Life stories��here.

What���s your earliest memory of money?

I was in junior secondary school when I realised money could get me things I actually wanted. My parents didn���t give us money to school since we brought food with us. When I was JSS 2 or JSS 3, after a streak where I consistently came out first or second in class, my dad asked what I wanted as a reward. I told him I wanted a Mongoose bicycle. He bought it.

The bicycle cost ���50k or ���60k, which felt like such a huge amount of money to me. The experience made me realise that money was a thing that could give someone access to many other things.

What was the financial situation like at home growing up?

My dad was a petroleum engineer at an oil and gas company, and my mum ran our family business, supplying agricultural tools and industrial cleaning equipment to ports and factories. I���d say we were middle-class. We lived in an estate and were comfortable. 

However, things weren���t always steady financially. In 2015, when I was in JSS 3, my dad was laid off from work during a corporate reshuffling. Right before that happened, my parents had lost money to an importer who scammed them on a supply deal.

It was a tough period. My dad became very quiet and kept to himself. The weekend shopping trips to the mall stopped, and we cut back on things like cornflakes and branded chocolates. Thankfully, we didn’t have to change schools, but it shook us up a bit.

Was this the first time you did something to earn money?

Somewhat. During the long holiday right after JSS 3, I was often at the family business, helping my mum out at her office.

One Saturday, a customer came in while my mum was away, and I managed to sell them some tools. When my mum returned, I handed over the money, and she gave me about ���10k from the proceeds.

What did you do with the money?

I took my younger brother to a game house, we played PS4 games, and I spent the rest on sweets and snacks. I didn’t save a single kobo.

When did you start earning money consistently?

That was in uni. My first stint was in my first year in 2021. My lecturer assigned us Python and C++ projects, but many of my classmates struggled with them. I���d already learned programming languages from the STEM club in secondary school, so I had no issues. 

I offered to help, charging ���3k per student. It was a weekend assignment, and I did it for five classmates, making ���15k total. That was just a one-off service, though. I didn���t need to make it a thing. I regularly got between ���30k and ���40k in pocket money each month and always got food and provisions from home. My allowance was mostly for miscellaneous expenses like assignment printouts.

Then, in 2023, during my second year, I started working remotely for a friend’s agency. They handled research projects for master’s and PhD students. Whenever they got clients whose research work required data science projects or machine learning models, I would build them while my colleague handled the research writing.

How much did that pay?

Payment wasn’t fixed; it depended on the client���s budget and my negotiation. On average, I made between ���30k and ���100k per project. I worked there for a year and handled about five projects in that time.

In late 2024, during my final year, someone in a WhatsApp group chat posted an opening for a Junior AI Engineer at a US startup. I applied and got the role. The salary was ���250k/month.

Juggling the job and final year was extremely stressful. I would be in lectures, and Slack notifications would pop up about pending tasks or a broken feature in a production environment. Thankfully, my project supervisor was understanding about my schedule, and my academic performance stayed solid.

意鞄艶油��is returning on August 22, 2026, in Lagos! Come learn from finance experts and industry leaders, and partake in unfiltered conversations about building wealth and diversifying your income stream in a country like Nigeria.��Real stories, expert advice you can actually use, and a community ready to build wealth together.��.

How long did you stay in that role?

Six months. I left in April 2025 after a Twitter contact introduced me to a healthcare startup that needed AI engineers. They offered better pay and flexibility structured around two-week .

Depending on my performance per sprint, I earned between ���300k and ���600k per month. I left the job after three months because of office politics. The environment was taking a toll on me and making me doubt my potential. I didn’t even have a backup plan; I just quit to protect my mental health. I was done with uni at this point, but still sorting out my clearance.

What was your next move?

In August 2025, I got hired as an AI Engineer by an Indian company. The pay was pegged to Indian Rupees, converting to roughly ���300k to ���400k monthly.

However, this company also fumbled. There were talks of management mismanaging funds. We worked through the Christmas and New Year holidays, but salary payments stopped in December. I walked away in February 2026 when I got tired of the excuses and heard that some Indian employees had been waiting six months for their salaries. They still haven���t paid me.

Sigh. What have you been doing since February?

Freelancing. I get most of my clients from Twitter or via referrals. 

How has that been?

Honestly, it���s a struggle. With freelancing, there are days of joy and days when you get zero gigs and are just managing your life.

In a month, I can make between ���200k and ���300k. Sometimes, in a good month, it can stretch to around ���350k. There are also months when I make zero naira.

How do you cope during the dry spells?

My mum is my safety net. I still live near my university campus, and my mum pays my annual rent of ���250k and regularly sends me food. If I ever go broke or run into financial trouble, she steps in and helps me with cash.

For instance, I got into crypto futures trading early this year. I was considering different ways to make money, and everyone was talking about trading, so me too, I put my hand. I didn���t do any official training. I was just trading based on what I knew and learned online.

I had some wins, but instead of enjoying them, I greedily put the gains back into trading, trying to win more. Eventually, it���d go bust, and I���d lose money. At my worst, I lost between $300 and $500.

I was in that cycle for a few months before I eventually quit. The losses were becoming crazy, and the risk of wiping out your entire wallet on a margin call is too high. I don’t plan to trade again in this life. If I’m serious about money, I’d rather buy stocks and keep them. I���ve been researching the stock market and recently started investing, and it���s going much better. 

At least if you make losses in the stock market, they’re just paper losses. You���ve not actually lost that money until you decide to sell the stocks. You can even decide to buy the dip and wait for the stocks to improve. But in trading, there’s nothing like paper loss. Once the loss starts happening, you either exit the trade. If you don���t get out in time, it’s going to hit your margin call. So whatever balance was in your trading wallet might also be wiped out due to the margin call.

Right. How would you describe your relationship with money?

I���m an impulse spender. If I want something and I have the money, I buy it. If it���s slightly above my budget, I���m the type of person who could take a loan to buy it because I know I have my mum���s support to cover my bills.

Though, as I said, I���m becoming more interested in stocks these days because I want to be intentional about growing the money I have. I started with the random ���5k here and there in 2025, but after the crypto experience, I���ve become more serious with it. Now, I have about ���500k in two Nigerian stocks and close to ���1m in mutual funds.

I notice you didn���t mention savings

Yeah. I have nothing in savings. Once money enters my hand, I send about 50% to my mutual funds or stocks account and spend the rest. I don���t have much financial responsibility right now, so I don���t see a need to save. Maybe when I���m in my 30s and have a family, the pressure will increase, and my attitude to savings will change. But I���m still 23. Let me enjoy my 20s first.

What do your monthly running expenses look like currently?

After removing the 50% to investments:

What do the next few years look like for you? Is the plan to keep freelancing?

I hope to get back into 9-to-5, but there���s no strict timeline for now. If it comes, great. I���m just going with the flow right now.

Is there an ideal amount of money you think you should be earning right now?

If it���s a 9-to-5, an ideal monthly income would be between ���500k and ���1.5m.

What���s something you want right now but can���t afford?

To leave Nigeria. As an AI engineer, if I move to a developed country, I know my earning potential will skyrocket, and I won’t have to deal with police harassment. But the process is too expensive. Everyone should just get their PVC and vote for better governance.

How about the last thing you bought that made you happy?

An M4 MacBook Air I bought in December 2025. A vendor friend discounted it for me at ���1.5 million, down from the retail price of ���1.8 million to ���2 million. I funded it entirely from my freelancing income.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

5. I miss having a predictable fixed income. With a 9-to-5, you can plan your life around a fixed monthly income. Freelancing sometimes feels like living on borrowed time, because you can get a gig today and get nothing the next month. At least, I have my mum, and she rescues me sometimes.

Also, I feel like my stock investment is promising. I don’t have a fixed timeline, but my goal is to hit my first $10k. It���s possible. People have up to $100k and even more. Once I hit that first $10k, things will only get better.

Find all the past Naira Life stories��here.