how to earn money as a student.

Ah, money.

The main reason your parents sent you to school. The cheese. The cheddar. The bread. The hegg.

I went to a private school, and my dad sent me just enough to survive on each month. Initially, I tried to ask for more money because that was the first time I was getting an allowance to manage myself. I just wanted to have a little more money saved up for the regular indulgences; fine clothes, junk food now and then, and any emergency expenses.

My dad refused. E pain me die. 😭

So I set out, angry and determined to prove him wrong. I decided I would learn to make money myself.

First, I read every book I could find about money; investing, saving, earning, building. I learnt where money comes from and how it's valued.

Understanding money is necessary if you don't want to be dirt broke and stranded at any point in your future. Some people in school stole gadgets for money. Sold them on the black market. (I lost a laptop and a tablet to those people, they're likely still broke.)

Because when you make money, its only purpose is to be spent. Like they say, money flies away. 💸

But what you spend on can either bring you more money back or leave you empty. I'm saying it now because without a deep financial education, you'll lose all the money I'll teach you how to make.

Ignore at your own peril.

where does money come from? 🤔

You might've heard this before.

Money comes from solving a problem. That's the simplest answer.

But the problem you solve has to mean enough to the potential buyer, or nobody will pay you. Right now, everywhere is red. Things are increasingly expensive. Your solution has to be essential, or you're building a house of cards. (complete rubbish)

So what do people want? I'll give you a clue.

When you augment the deficiency needs with growth needs, you create the foundation for a product/service.

This isn't the ultimate list of problems whatsoever, but it gives you a good idea of how this works. For example, your parents paid for your education so they can gift you a skill that you can always use to make money even if it isn't your passion.

That's where money comes from.

Think of it like a seed. Can you care for it until it bears fruit to satisfy other people ?

Note: Before you begin spending effort to make something, find out from people if they'll pay for it, under what conditions, and how much. Never go in blind, you will most certainly shed tears.

ways to earn money as a Nigerian student 👨🏿‍🎓

There's no quick and easy way to keep making money, you have to build a system. Every business has multiple aspects that it relies on for success, especially a consistent reputation.

Anybody that tells you they can show you how to make money without any effort whatsoever is about to scam you. Take it from me.

Here are 21 ways you can earn money as a student.

digital skills & remote work 💻

This one earned me and my guys the most money in school. I started out as a freelancer working with African clients abroad, then took a part-time job working 10-20 hours a week in my final year at a startup in the US and eventually transitioned into full-time work after 6 months.

How this works.

There are certain skills that every business needs to grow in today's market. So, anything you can do on a computer with an internet connection is a digital skill. But there are 3 certain skills that are valuable in practically any business:

1. Copywriting: Contrary to the popular opinion on the Nigerian internet, copywriting is the ability to influence people through a careful selection of words. It's not the same as writing blogs - that's creative writing. If you're naturally a persuasive person, I would recommend learning this skill.
   
   Copywriting is used to promote a business, and is the soul of any marketing campaign. It's a skill you take time to learn, and one that can always be improved on. It is sculpting the messaging that presents a business and their product in a more appealing light. To write a single line of copy can take me up to a day. There are different aspects of copywriting you can specialise in, depending on a business' needs and how much they're ready to pay.

2. Visual design: Just like copywriting, any form of visual design - video-editing, logo design, graphic design, animation (2D, 3D), 3D design, content design, interface/product design, etc - is used to influence people's emotions and build their trust in the company's ability to solve their problem. Just the quality of the visual appearance of a brand is enough to draw your attention.
   
   Companies would hire you to help them join your visual design skills with copywriting to sell their products/services.

3. Digital marketing: I learnt this one first from Google's free course. Marketing is finding people who might consider a product/service valuable and bringing it to them. Digital marketing is using the internet to do it.
   
   Every business needs someone who understands how to market their brand on the internet. You might be responsible for advertising on Facebook/Google, marketing strategy, content marketing or even creative direction. These skills are still sustaining me till date.

Be careful though, when you're selling your human resources to someone for a salary. Many employers at home and abroad will try to underpay you drastically to grow their businesses. Make sure you're getting as much value as you're putting into the company. Learn to negotiate, and understand your relevance to the company. By learning to negotiate in your own business, you'll negotiate better at a job. After all, you are a business.

Usually they'll want to charge you by the hour, but you can also decide how you want to be compensated and reach an agreement with them or no deal. You also don't have to work part-time in a company, you can work as a freelancer, contractor or group with other creatives as an agency.

Learn more about earning a living as a creative from Chris Do.

Some other important remote job skills are IT Support, UX Design & Data Analytics. These come with courses created by Google on Coursera. You can pay a monthly subscription of about 7k per month to learn these skills and get a certificate that employers will respect.

Some may even be free now on places like Alison and LinkedIn that you already know of. This route takes more time.

share this blog with a friend looking for money.

sell food/foodstuff 🧆

A no-brainer. People will always need to eat. If you're a skilled cook, people will pay you to provide them with healthy, tasty and affordable meals. The best model for students I've seen is cooking soups and stews and delivering to customers.

However if you have free time on your hands, you could create a meal table and cook a meal daily (or whatever schedule suits you) for a certain number of customers. Ask them to come pickup if you're closeby or offer delivery if they're ready to pay for it. If you have competition, make delivery free in your hostel.

But some schools don't allow students cook.

In that case, partner with a food business on/off campus to deliver a certain number of packs of hot food to you. Take them round your hostel and sell for profit. You can also deliver food that students don't usually have available on campus. Just order and pickup, sell for profit.

There's no money made without hustle. Do the work and collect your profits.

content creation 🤳🏿

If you're good at storytelling, you should be creating content.

We're in the social technology age, and content remains king. Brands would pay you to help them tell their stories to their audience.

You should have a portfolio of your own, maybe a TikTok/Insta you've grown, and a product or service you've helped sell. The people that hit the ground running after school are the ones that were learning life skills; especially how to make money sustainably.

Create content. Take product photographs, run campaigns in school, document things. The bigger your setup, the more you can afford to charge because you can get more done in less time.

Your tools won't pay for themselves. Find a brand you like and get creating!

transport scheme 🚊

When the semester is over or just starting, students will need a way to get to the aiport/campus or to another location. If your city has a train, you can organise a group trip to the station and everyone sits together and looks out for each other.

That said, it depends on your area. I haven't had issues with the Lagos-Ibadan rail, it's comfortable and clean with security and medical staff in the coach. Let everyone inform their parents sha.

You can charter a bus and everyone goes together, you make your profits from there. Provide meals, entertainment and a social space for people to meet and they'll pay.

When they get home, they'll talk about your transport scheme.

software solutions: platforms, tools & bots 👩🏿‍💻

Are there problems in your school that you can build solutions for ?

I designed an app to help students get food from caf easier. Some students designed a better web portal and sold their work to their school.

Note: If you're selling anything to your school, make sure you're skilled at negotiating or you go with someone who is. It makes no sense to solve a problem and let your school belittle your efforts. They tend to do that.

You could build tools that work outside of school too. You don't need anyone's permission to solve a problem using programming, it's why it was invented.

Build that thing. And with the latest in artificial intelligency (Claude for backend, Perplexity (try Deepseek too) for debugging, Gemini for interface), you can ship faster and spend less time making mistakes. Just make sure people want it first before you build it, or you'll end up with empty pockets.

I built and shipped 4 tools (2 paid, 1 free, 1 internal) for recess! in 3 months—the two of them have already made me money.

And I never took a coding course.