How To Make Money As a Student in Nigeria
Being a student is a memorable stage of life and having stable and sufficient finance during this period can help you as a student to perform better academically and maintain good health by eating the required foods that can help your memory and improve your overall health standard.
The idea of earning extra money as a student is not bad because of the above benefits. However, as a student, you have limited time to do other things besides your academic activities. For this reason, choosing a way of making money as a student must be done with so many things in considerations such as the time available, the nature of your school campus, the hostels’ locations, and the largeness of the campus as well as the number of students. These calculations will help you to project the potential number of customers and the possible amount of money you could be making if you decide to work part-time.
Before deciding to work part-time as a student, it is very important you take some time to study and understand your course timetable and the credit units. If your course requires much of your time, then you have to put it into consideration when considering the part-time job suitable for you. For instance, law students, engineering students, medical students, and other professional courses may have little time available for them to work part-time when compared to social science students.
There are over thirty-two jobs available in Nigeria for any student to do part-time. These jobs are for students who need money at the moment to support their education. Some jobs such as blogging or vlogger may not be suitable for a student who needs money at that moment to support his/her education because such jobs can take several months or years before yielding significant income and a student may not have such patience to invest time and money to something that wouldn’t give an immediate return of income within few months.
Below are realistic jobs available for you as a student in Nigeria:
- Write Books
Become an author by writing books and selling them to book shops for a cash return. This is the most common job that can take less of your time and provide a continuous return of income until you graduate and even after your graduation.
You can decide to write novels or textbooks on certain subjects for primary school and secondary school students. Though it may not be licensed, any student of primary school and secondary school can decide to buy your book in addition to the approved ones.
If you are a good writer, you may write some interesting novels that can pick the interest of the primary and secondary school governing body and your novel may be approved for classroom teaching. This implies that you can become a millionaire before your graduation because your novel will become mandatory to the students offering literature in English.
Besides the above chance, your books can be selling at a normal quantity per month if you have good market outreach and the money realized can cover some of your school expenses.
- Sell Past Questions and Answers
You can decide to add value to your course mates and junior students by writing a solution booklet covering most of the previous course questions and their answers. Some students will be willing to buy such material to aid their studies.
Past questions and answers are one way to make instant money at the beginning of every semester. If you can clearly solve past questions of a particular course whether for your course mates or for junior students, you stand a good chance of earning money to support your education.
This option is so good that you only need to work during holidays to write the booklets and only sell them when the school resumes.
- Become a Photographer
Becoming a photographer is another way to make money as a student in Nigeria. It is a part-time profession you will enjoy because you only do it in your leisure time and when events are taking place within and outside the campus.
You can equally decide to be making instant passports for students during the registration period. Besides that, you can start making picture enlargements for students. There are many options available for you as a photographer.
Photographing also helps you to manage your time effectively by deciding when to go for printing and when to distribute the pictures. This part-time job can offer you any amount of money depending on far and wide you can cover with it.
- Write scripts for movie industries
If you are an art student, writing may not be a difficult task. You can decide to be writing scripts for the movie industries outside the campus. There are movies industries looking for scripts to boost their movie productions, writing interesting scripts and selling it to the industries will not only give you enough money to support your education, but it will also equally prove your talent in the field of writing and market you for employability after your graduation.
- Become an online freelancer
Becoming a freelancer means taking online contracts such as article writing, email marketer, and social media manager. You can receive a specific amount of money from every contract you take and delivered to the client.
This is a job option for those interested in earning online while working with computers. Those you can make good money as a freelancer, it will require you to build some level of trust and popularity in many freelancing websites before gaining more jobs from clients.
- Work for established blogs
While it is not advisable to start a blog as a student, you can apply to established blogs to work part-time as an author. Being an author in an established blog means you will be paid at the end of every month according to the number of blog posts you published in the month.
It is a lucrative way of making money as a student and will help you to occupy all your free time working on the blog as an author.
Search online for popular blogs publishing topics relating to your field of study, be very sure you have a lot to say regarding the topics covered by the blog, then go ahead and contact the blog administrators using the contact us page. In your email (contact us page form), specify the reason you want to work as an author for the blog and specify the topics you will like to be publishing on the blog.
You may not get instant reply from the first five blogs you sent the email that should not discourage you rather keeping on sending email to other similar blogs using the contact us page and you will certainly get some that are very interested. Discuss the good price for each blog post you publish and get the job offer to assist your schooling financially.
- Become a house/hostel agent
House agents receive 10% of every money paid on the house rents and it is very compulsory and legal to make such payment. The job of the house/hostel agent is to move around to get information about empty apartments and houses that need people to rent them. The agent will now place a notice board in different public locations specifying that certain types of apartment are available for renting and the notice will contain the agent’s mobile phone number.
Anyone looking for an apartment to rent will see the notice and call the agent to see the apartment and see if it suits their expectations. Before an agent shows you the apartments you will pay an agent registration fee of N2000 or more depending on your city, major cities cost higher.
The agent will show the apartments to the ones that paid the registration fee and if later any of the apartment is rented out to the person, ten per cent of the money paid for the apartment will be given to the agent as an agent fee.
This is a very popular job in Nigeria that anyone can do. It will not cost you any money to start it and you can make good money from it if you are good at it.
- Open a mini-barbing Salon on Campus
Barbing salon is something the students cannot avoid because they need to barb their hair whenever it is necessary. As a student looking for a way to make money, you can provide such a service to them. You can be earning up to N1000/day if you can be barbing just five students a day at the rate of N200 which is the cheapest any barber can offer for barbing on campus.
If you have a good time schedule, you can maintain certain times every day for your barbing salon to be open for services. Students understand the busy schedules in the school and will possibly adjust to your time to come and barb their hair.
- Organize Tutorials for Students
New students are always confused and have little knowledge of the courses they are going to undertake. You can organize a tutorial for the new students at a price rate that can be affordable to many of them. This will make you get instant money. However, you can maintain the earning consistently by organizing regular tutorial for Jambites intending to enter higher institutions.
You can equally organize a tutorial for your course mates and specify a price for it.
- Become a part-time teacher
Most secondary schools and primary schools outside the campus need part-time teachers whose salary will not be high. If you are good in certain subjects, you can walk into any of the school and inform them of how you intend to work for them on part-time bases and then intention using the money to support your tertiary education.
This is a common job that most students do. Most schools appreciate it, because it lessens the burden of their regular teachers.
- Become a graphic designer
Graphic designing is a skill that is rare. You cannot easily see graphic designers on the campus except campuses with commercial printing press centres.
A graphic designer works with special computer software such as CorelDraw, Photoshop, illustrator, and lots more. It is a skill that will require you to spend some time with your computer designing certain graphics for banners, signposts, and billboards.
You can decide to be making advert signposts, banners, and billboards for campus fellowships, churches, schools, companies, and NGOs.
- Work at building sites
Another lucrative job for you as a student is to work in a building/construction sites. This is a tedious job and will require you to have god health statues however, it will help you to earn good money within a short time.
Though most students will not like to choose this option because it is an energy-consuming job, the job has the advantage of providing higher pay than other options. You could make about N4000 per day from working in a building site but it has to be a full-day job so consider using your weekends for such job.
- Campus laundry service
Laundry service is another work that can earn you regular money until you leave the campus. Some students may be so busy that washing their clothes may be difficult while some can’t just wash their clothes or would like them handled by a professional hand.
Run a professional laundry business on the campus to bridge the gap and provide that service to the students. You stand a chance of becoming popular in it even after graduation and equally have a chance of earning steady money until you graduate.
- Campus mini-market
Buying foodstuffs on campus may not be easy for most students. Some campus doesn’t have mini-markets where students buy what they want instead they have to go off-campus to buy food items. Consider your campus and look for an opportunity like this one and use it to establish a mini-market that can supply exactly what the students need at the right time.
- Become an event organizer
Organizing events such as wedding, birthday, anniversary, sendoff, and lots more may be a very difficult task for most people both on-campus and off-campus. You can choose to become a well-known event planner and organizer.
You will be responsible for cakes, drinks, MC, DJ, canopies, chairs, tables, and lots more. Your ability to put everything in order on every occasion will prove your ability as an event planner. From one event to another gradually you become popular within and outside the campus.
This job can give you more money than you could expect and help you connect to more people during events. It is a job that most female students like to do.
- Make video coverage for sale
You can decide to work for already established vloggers by producing videos suitable for their YouTube channels. You can either be paid per video or monthly.
You can also decide to be making videos of events and incidents for news industries around the city. This job option will be good if you have a good interest in making video coverage. It is just like working as a part-time journalist.
- Become a news reporter
Blogs such as lindaikejisblog.com, engineeringall.com, ogbongeblog.com, legit.ng, Nig-news.com, and lots more can pay you as a student if can write news or report news to their platform or information that could enable them to make quality blog posts for their platform.
To earn better you need to be writing news and be publishing on any of the platforms. However, you can still write or supply news to radio stations and TV stations within the city. You also try the newspaper industries as well. All of the above-mentioned platforms will pay you money for a regular supply of news and vita information.
- Market campus magazines and lecturers’ books
If the school lecturers have books and can be beneficial to the general public, you can become a vendor for bookshops outside the campus. You can also sell campus magazines and newspapers to the public outside the campus. This is a business that can be giving steady income if you get in touch with the right sellers and buyers outside the school.
- Become a campus MC at events
MCs make a good sum of money on every occasion both from the event organizers and the event attendees. It could be a good source of income as a student if you can be very good at it.
As MC, you will be required to make public announcements on every occasion you are paid to moderate, you will be in charge of moderating the event including allocating chairs to VIPs and lots more.
Most popular MCs do the work only when they are hired for a particular event therefore t is a suitable job for any student with such skill. You can earn the entire money for your school funding through MC work.
- Become a campus DJ
Campus DJ plays music in any campus activity. The work is not a steady job but can arise when the event calls. Besides playing music, you can extend the service to making remix in hip-hop music and Christian songs album and sell them on the campus with your DJ brand name. that is another way of promoting your DJ brand name.
- Become a brand promoter
New telecommunication companies, drinks and beverage companies, etc. find campus as a good placed to have unique adverts targeting the students to become potential customers. Some of these companies offer specific discounts to anyone willing to promote their products to the students on campus.
Partnering with such companies to uniquely promote their brands and get a percentage in every purchase from students or receive outright payment every month for promoting their products on the campus.
You can promote company product by pasting their billboards on strategic locations on the campus where students can see. You can organize free seminar to teach students about the product and convince them to buy. You can wear the product’s T-shirt, face cap, and use the product steady as a means of promotion. It is like becoming a representative of the product on the campus.
If this is done correctly you will be earning enough money from the sales you are making.
- Produce Soaps and detergents for students
This is a job option usually adopted by ladies. You can decide to start making detergents right inside your hostel and sell them to students and min-markets on the campus. This can become a lucrative part-time business that will not cost you much time to do and if you are able to produce quality soaps and detergents.
The disadvantage of this option is that you need to go and learn how to make detergents and soaps and that can take you time and money.
- Produce bleaches for students and laundry businesses on campus
If you have good skill in the handling chemicals and making quality bleach for fabrics, you can turn the campus to become your target customers by making quality bleach for the students and laundry services and well as the mini-markets within the campus.
In a steady and stable environment, bleach business can be yielding a steady monthly income for you as a student.
- Produce Disinfectants on campus
Having some skills as a student can go a long way to help you. For instance, making disinfectants similar to izzal, Dettol, and lots more can become a huge source of income for you. Students want cheap and quality products if you can provide quality disinfectants at an affordable price. Your brand can dominate the campus market and provide you with enough money to support your education.
- Produce snacks for students and eateries on campus
Having the baking skill and the ability to make snacks such as egg roll, meat pie, shortbreads, cakes, and lots more will help you as a student. Instead of the campus eateries depending on off-campus suppliers you can dominate the campus market by becoming a major supplier of particular snacks.
It will be another way of making good money as a student.
- Become a supplier to campus businesses
You can start supplying particular goods such as fresh bread directly to the bakeries outside the campus to the mini-markets on the campus.
Bakeries are always open early in the morning for business, you can book for the quantity of bread you need in the evening and come the following morning to carry the bread.
It is a business that can save you time and still give you a good profit. However, you will need good capital to start it. You may even need to have a car to be able to do the business effectively.
- Become a technician on campus
If you an engineering student with good background knowledge of technical works, you can start rendering technical services within and outside the campus. This is a good part-time job for as a student.
Some technical works are repairing refrigeration and air-conditions, car repair and maintenance, repair of blenders, mixers, electric fan, grinding machines, and lots more. A mini-shop within the campus can serve as your office where people can come and meet you whenever you are available.
- Become an electrician on campus
Just like the job of a technician, an electrician can become the major person handling all the electrical problems for the students on the campus. The repair of rechargeable lamps, repair of electric cooking stoves, repair of electric kettles and lots more can become an electrician job. Besides that, student electrician can help students ratify any electrical problem within their hostel space.
Your service as an electrician must go with a service fee and you can be making good money from it.
- Recharge Card Printing Business
Though this is a business that is gradually fading away due to the introduction of mobile banking by commercial banks in Nigeria. However, a lot of people still buy printed recharge cards.
Before now, this is the business of most students who want to work part-time. You can still try it if you have good number f buyers on campus.
You can start the business by buying recharge card pins online and using your printer to print them out and sell it to the students directly and to other recharge card vendors on the campus. It is a business that can give sustainable income capable of supporting your education if you have a good number of buyers.
- Open a football betting shop on campus
Most male students like football and like betting on football games. There is a good number of sports betting companies in Nigeria example is Bet9ja, Nairabet, Betking, Merrybet, 1xbet, and lots more. Register with any of them and open their betting shop on campus.
All you will need is computers and a mini-printer to run this business. A betting business can turn you into a financially independent student if you have a good number of customers betting steadily in the betting shop and if you have a good number of customers winning steadily in the shop.
- Run a students’ boutique
Buying clothes is a normal students’ lifestyle. You can become a major supplier of clothes to the students by running a mobile boutique. Make good pictures of clothes you have in your stock and paste them on public places on the campus. Include your mobile phone number on the advert pictures and interested students will start calling you for supply.
You can run this business without opening a shop. All you need is a good hostel space to store the clothes and supply them to anyone who indicates interest.
- Run a cybercafé & Business Center
Though Cybercafé is gradually becoming outdated because of available mobile data, there are still cybercafé in schools that help students with online registrations, printing and scanning, photocopying, etc.
This business will require good capital and a shop in a suitable location convenient for the students to reach. In most cases, you may need to employ someone to work for you while you monitor the business closely.
It is a popular business on the campus that a lot of competitors may be available but your uniqueness can make you stand out.
From the thirty lists above, you can see you have lots of options available for you as a student. You can choose any option base on how convenient it can be for you. Remember to pay attention to your academics as well when running any business on campus because sometimes students that get carried away from part-time activities due have problems with the course there are studying.
