How to Make Money Online in Nigeria 2021 – 19 Realistic Ways

Since most of us live our lives on our smartphone, it makes sense that making money online in Nigeria seems like a great option to earn a few extra bucks.

It is.

It might be the end of the month, maybe you’re short on rent or you have some debt to repay.  Or you are just really broke at the moment and payday is some weeks away. 

We’ve all been there, whether it’s needing some extra income to get by or to improve our current conditions.

If you need to come up with some money in the next few days, the options in this list might help you. However, if you’re looking to pay off large debts and you don’t have much time, then your solution might likely not be on this list.

If your debt isn’t large and you have time on your hands. Then this list has some great options for you.

Everything in this list has been vetted as a legit way to make money online in Nigeria.

Whether it’s a freelance gig, an investment opportunity or a way to sell your skills.

We’ve examined the different options on how to make money online in Nigeria so you don’t have to. 

Related: Best Online Investment Platforms in Nigeria in 2020

How to Make Money Online in Nigeria in 19 Awesome ways

• Sell Products Online and Make Money
• Start a Dropshipping Store to Make Money Online
• Start Freelancing to Make Money Online in Nigeria
• Make Money by Investing in Bitcoin and Other Cryptos
• Teach English Online
• Start Blogging to Make Money Online
• Earn Money Online as a Youtube Vlogger
• Get Paid for Publishing a Book Online
• Do Data entry Jobs for Some Change
• Offer Professional Services Online as a Consultant
• Take Paid Online Surveys
• Test Apps and websites
• Invest in Foreign and Local Stocks/Shares
• Become a Transcriber
• Create an online course
• Sell your design online to Make Some Money
• Resell your unused gift card
• Become a Virtual Assistant
• Monetize your Knowledge and Skills via a Paid Webinar

#1. Sell Products Online and Make Money

It’s so easy to sell online these days, even in Nigeria. Anything that can be delivered from Point A to Point B can be sold online. Selling online is a great way to make money online in Nigeria.

The hard part of selling online has to do with choosing what to sell. You can start with things that interest you. If you love beauty and fashion, you could start selling clothes or beauty products. If you love gadgets you can decide to start selling phones or phone accessories. Try not to start selling too many different products. Don’t sell phones and clothes together.

 In Nigeria, you can sell through an e-commerce Platform like Jumia or Konga. However, they take a heavy commission of your sales and you have to compete with a lot of other merchants doing the same thing as you.

You can stand out by having your own online store that you can send customers to via social media and google.

You can start your online store with an easily customisable all-round e-commerce platform like Shopify. You can also create a Flutterwave online store for free. You can also create product and payment links that you can send to customers with Paystack. 

 You can also sell digital products like ebooks to customers with these online selling platforms in Nigeria.

#2. Start a Dropshipping Store to Make Money Online

Dropshipping is another great option for you to make money online in Nigeria. Dropshipping is the same thing as selling products online, the only difference is you don’t have to buy and stock the products before you can sell them.

With your dropshipping online store, whenever a customer orders products, your store orders the product from a third-party supplier. The supplier then ships the product directly to your customer. You don’t see the product nor do you deliver it.

You can start a Dropshipping business with Spocket. The products on the Spocket platform are sourced individually from vetted US and EU suppliers from around the world. Spocket also makes it possible for your customers to receive fast shipping wherever they might be.

#3. Start Freelancing to Make Money Online in Nigeria

If you have digital skills and want to make money online in Nigeria, then you can offer them to people looking for them online. A lot of people earn thousands of dollars by selling their skills and services online.

You can get freelance work as a writer, web designer/developer, digital marketer, graphic designer and even as a project manager. If you have top notch excel skills, there are a lot of tasks you can do online and be compensated well.

You can make money online in Nigeria by getting freelance work on legitimate websites that offer professional clients. Websites like Fiverr, Upwork, Flexjobs and Freelancer can help you monetize your skills.

#4. Make Money by Investing in Bitcoin and Other Cryptos

It is not advisable to have all your money in Naira, due to high inflation rates and bank issues. That’s why you should consider diversifying your cash assets into cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that are decentralised and can be traded instantly and are unaffected by economic recessions.

You can start investing and trading by either day trading or by holding and buying. Trading bitcoin means you will look to buy bitcoin at a low price and sell at a higher price. While holding and buying crypto involves buying crypto with the view that the value will significantly go up and you can sell it and make a profit. 

You can start investing or trading cryptocurrency by signing up to a free digital wallet on Paxful or through Remitano. You can also use Kraken, a safe platform for buying, storing and selling cryptocurrencies.

#5. Teach English Online

The demand for teaching English as a second language is quite massive. A 2016 study by China Youth Daily,  discovered that nearly 70 percent of parents in China report that their children started learning English before five years old, because of how Chinese parents are intent on giving their children an early advantage. So the need for qualified English teachers is constantly growing.

There are many websites that you can use to remotely teach English to other people. Some prominent ones are Preply, and italki.

#6. Start Blogging to Make Money Online

Yes, blogging is still a lucrative way of making money online in Nigeria. There are multiple ways of earning from your blog. You can monetize your blog via display ads, sponsored posts, your own products like ebooks and even courses.

Well run blogs in Nigeria can make between N40,000 to N3 million per month. There are thousands of blogs on the internet, if you want yours to make money, your blog will have to stand out and this can take a bit of time.

To start a blog is fairly easy, you can build your blog with WordPress, over 30% of websites on the internet are built using WordPress. You can build a WordPress blog by buying a hosting plan and a domain name on Hostgator. They are a top recommended website host.

You also have to build an email list as you gain traffic to your blog, you can build an email list with Convertkit. It is easy to connect to your WordPress blog.

#7. Earn Money Online as a Youtube Vlogger

Like Blogging, vlogging is also a great way to make money online in Nigeria. You can choose to vlog about your personal life or about an interest you have.

Youtube is still the best place to start a vlog that you can earn money from. This Youtube Handbook will help understand everything you need to know about Youtube and how to start making money from your Vlog.

#8. Get Paid for Publishing a Book Online

If you’re good at writing or think you can become a good writer. Then you should consider publishing a book online. There are a couple of platforms that make book online publishing fairly easy.

Amazon, the world’s  leading online publishing platform controls more than 60 percent of the entire online publishing industry. Amazon has a very diverse global audience you can leverage by publishing with them. 

However, you must consider if the target audience for your book is on Amazon and if it will do well on Amazon. If not you should consider other online book publishing platforms like Lulu and Okadabook. 

Lulu is a top self-publishing platform for people who want to share their expertise by publishing a book. While Okadabook is a fast and free online publishing platform in Nigeria for monetizing books. Whenever your book is published or read by anyone, you get paid by Okadabooks.

#9. Do Data entry Jobs for Some Change

The great thing about data entry jobs is the flexibility of working from wherever you are. Data entry jobs are perfect for stay at home moms and for students who are looking to make money online in Nigeria.

You can earn extra money online in Nigeria by taking up data entry jobs during the week or even weekends.

Data entry jobs usually involve taking hard-copy information, like house addresses, or survey responses, and inputting (typing)  it into a computer program. Data entry jobs also involve scanning documents as well as transcribing audio and video files.

You don’t need any certification or any specialised training to do a data entry job, you just need to be able to read English well and type on a computer. You can find online data entry jobs where you can earn decent money from Flexjobs and Inboxdollars. Other trusted places for legitimate data entry jobs are Microworker, Fiverr and Clickworker.

#10. Offer Professional Services Online as a Consultant

One way to make money online in Nigeria quickly is to start selling services online.

You offer a skill or knowledge that you have to people looking for them online.

If you have a 9-5 day job that involves financial analysis, editing video or audio or managing your company’s social media.

You can offer those same services to clients who are looking for them online using legitimate sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.com.You can also decide to offer your skillset to online clients by having your own personal or business website where you show a portfolio.

You can easily connect to an internet audience by using Leadpages. It allows you to easily build a website, close sales, and collect leads. You can also use wordpress.

You can also advertise via content marketing and through social media by talking about your expertise, just remember to keep it social and fun.

#11. Take Paid Online Surveys

You won’t get rich from taking online surveys but they can offer an easy way for you to make money online in Nigeria in your spare time. The best sites for getting legitimate paid online surveys are those sites that companies use to gain an understanding of their customer base.

These companies use surveys to gather information and insight from people who take these surveys. You can make $20  to $50+ in cash and gift cards with sites like ySense, Swagbucks, Mobrog and Triaba.

#12. Test Apps and websites

You can make money online in Nigeria by giving your opinion on a website’s design or an app user experience. Your feedback will allow the owners of these websites and apps to make changes to these websites. So their users and customers can have a better experience.

Reviewing and beta-testing a site or app can help you earn some money. Some of the best places to find this sort of work are Userfeel, Test IO,  and even Playtestcloud.

#13. Invest in Foreign and Local Stocks/Shares

You can make an extra income on the side by investing in stocks, especially foreign stocks. Although this comes with a risk and requires some financial know how. 

When buying stocks it’s best to buy stocks of companies that would be around for a long time.

If you’re interested in investing in foreign stocks in Nigeria. You can start investing in shares in Nigeria through apps like Trove and Bamboo.

You can also check out our e-book on investing as a Nigeria.

#14. Become a Transcriber

Transcribing involves taking audio and video files, listening to them and converting them into text. The money you can make from transcription jobs can vary depending on your level of experience and the industry.

If you want to make money online via remote transcription jobs, you can sign up with sites that offer transcription jobs. Sites like Allegis Transcription and Scribie offer transcription jobs that you can do from anywhere. 

If you want to practice your transcription skills as you look for transcription jobs, you might want to check out this workbook. You can also use this software to make your transcribing easy for you.

#15. Create an online course

Online courses offer a great way to make money online in Nigeria. People charge $100 to nearly $20000 for their online course, depending on their topic.

You don’t need experience to teach an online course. As long as you have expertise in the topic you’re teaching as a course.

There are a bunch of platforms you can use to create an online course today. You can use Udemy, Outschool and Teachable to start creating your online course. You can also take this free training on how to create a 7-figure online course.

#16. Sell your design online to Make Some Money

If you have really good design ideas that can go on T-shirts, hoodies, masks and mugs. Then you should definitely sign up to Printivo. With the Printivo marketplace, you can upload your designs to be placed on different items on your choosing.

Anytime a customer comes on Printivo and makes use of your design or orders an item with your design on it, Printivo pays you 15% of the value of the item.

Now if a customer orders items with your design worth N100,000. You get N15,000. Not bad for just uploading your design yeah?

#17. Resell your unused gift cards

Do you have a bunch of gift cards that you don’t necessarily want to use to purchase from certain merchants? You don’t necessarily have to use those gift cards.

There are plenty of websites that you can sell your gift cards on and get cash in return. Even Though you’ll be selling the gift card for less than its worth, at least you’ll get cash in return.

You can make money online in Nigeria by selling your Amazon or Apple gift cards on websites like Cardtonic, Patricia and Cardnosh.

#18. Become a virtual assistant

Becoming a Virtual Assistant (VA) is one of the most realistic ways to make money online in Nigeria. Virtual assistants are people who provide administrative and technical assistance to companies.

Since the work VAs do is done online, they can work from anywhere. All you need to start work as a VA is a laptop, Internet and telephone. The sort of work virtual assistants does include customer support, content creation, website maintenance, email management and a host of other jobs.

You can find virtual assistant jobs on sites like Upwork and Flexjobs. You can also check out this complete guide on what skills, knowledge and characteristics make a great virtual assistant.

#19. Teach a class online via a Paid Webinar

If you’re an expert at a certain skill or have a particular knowledge that isn’t readily available. You can monetize your knowledge or skill via paid webinars.

You can make money online in Nigeria via paid webinars. All you need is to choose the right platform to host your webinars, promote your webinar effectively and always deliver quality content to your webinar attendees.

Some ideas for webinars can include; Cooking class, An Excel class, a weight loss program and even a design workshop. 

To host your webinars you can use platforms like Zoom and WebinarJam.

If you really want to know how to create a successful webinar, this guide will teach you the secrets to creating a successful webinar.

Time to Take Action

Now that you have this information, it is time for you to take action.

Nobody will eat for you, nobody will walk for you neither will anybody improve you other than yourself.

Take a leap today and you’ll definitely see light at the end of the tunnel.

If you’re interested in learning about investing as a Nigerian, check out this e-book.