5 Great Jobs That You Can Do From Home in Nigeria

Years ago, working from home seemed like a mirage and was only appealing to stay at home moms but the narrative has changed over time, particularly after the coronavirus was declared a pandemic. “The world’s largest work from home experiment” became an instant global hit, with companies all over the world switching to the only available alternative as a means of staying afloat.

Nigeria, as with most countries around the world, is still living with the after effect of the pandemic. Some companies were forced to downsize in order to save costs, thereby pushing people further into misery and leaving job seekers in a more difficult situation.

Working from home or working remotely particularly for oneself used to be considered an alternative to making PASSIVE INCOME but this isn’t exactly true anymore. In today’s world, there are over 10 million people from across the world who work from home and make ACTIVE INCOME from the comfort of their bedroom or living room.

Make no mistake, the thought of working from home might sound like a lazy man thing, it requires extra effort, dedication, and determination. In some cases, you might have to part with some money at the initial phase in order to get started. Some of these jobs also require that you possess some skills without which you might not succeed.

In this post, we compile a list of well-researched jobs you can do from home as a Nigerian, whether you are an undergraduate, a job seeker, or a stay-at-home wife/mom and make an active income.

5 Great Jobs That You Can Do From Home in Nigeria

Below are 5 handpicked jobs that you can do from home in Nigeria, according to Finanticum:

1. Social Media Management

The social media bug isn’t going away anytime soon and the trajectory of advertising is greatly shifting from traditional advertising which is TV and radio to a more simple social media which many take for granted. More than ever, companies are now seeking social media managers to manage their social media accounts.

The best part of this stay-at-home job type is that it is relatively new in the job industry and has little or no requirements other than a good command of the English language, have or own a laptop and a proper understanding of social media and how hashtags works.

To increase your chances of getting a job as a social media manager, you have to clear out our social media bio, position or introduce yourself as one, read free materials online on social media management and possibly take a test drive with your social media accounts. If you are convinced and determined, you can go ahead and hop on hashtags on social media to advertise yourself. If you have a decent social media following, you might get companies that will contact you directly to work for them.

Freelancing websites such as CareerBuilder.com, SimplyHired.com, and Upwork.com have thousands of listings for social media manager roles. So it is best that you also include these sites in your job search areas. To maximize your opportunities and make the most, it is advisable that you take on more than one company, whether foreign or local. In the United States, social media managers make an average of $50,000pa with a company while the worst-case scenario in Nigeria is N480,000pa with one company.

2. Social Media Influencing

This is somewhat similar to the one mentioned above. The difference between both, however, is that one requires you to work for others while the other requires that you post contents of others on your social media handles for an agreed fee, for a specified period.

Social media influencing is a pretty easy thing to do but the task of growing a social media account to the point of being worthy as an influencer is where the nightmare lies. Another downside of being a social media influencer is that it is not meant for everyone, particularly people who consider themselves to be private or too reserved for social media. Thus, having a private life might not necessarily be there if you opt for this.

Another thing to note is that influencing is of two specific categories:

1. broad influencing: This is when an influencer chooses to influence every product, service or item.
2. niche-based influencing: This influencing type, as the name implies, is restricted to a particular niche, based on one’s area of expertise, such as medicine, careers, etc.

Niche-based influencers easily stand out from the crowd but they mostly do not earn as much as broad influencers who get periodic gigs almost every minute.

The major requirements of being a social media influencer are to have a large social media followership and periodically create engaging content that also relate with your followers. In the quest to create engaging content, some individuals adopt scandals and controversies as strategies in growing their social media accounts and it works for them. If you consider growing social media accounts to be a problem, then opt for an easier alternative, which is to buy a social media account with large followers. It always works.

3. Blogging

Blogging pays and it pays incredibly well. Where the lie resides with blogging is that some claim it is easy when in fact, it is not. Blogging requires consistency, hard work and research. Blogging just because someone says there is money in it means you are setting yourself up for failure.

To do well, blogging requires that you spend at the initial phase. Although you could start small in order not to make the same most people make.

In order to get it right, it is recommended that you watch videos on the basics of blogging, buy materials or courses, understudy blogs to see how they are struggling or surviving and learn the many possible ways to make money from blogging.

You might not see any tangible result from blogging until about 6-8 months if you are consistent but the resulting effect is often a boat cruise.

While blogging has no requirements, you must possess good writing skills and command of the English language in order to make headway. Other things such as learning to research topics and basic SEO skills are needed ab initio if you do not plan to fail.

Most blogging earnings pay USD and this means you could earn from $100 to thousands of USD within a short period of time if dedication, consistency and research are not kicked to the curb.

4. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is one of the oldest retail businesses in cyberspace. It means you advertise items or products you don’t have, take orders from customers, source the exact products and ship them to the seller within the given delivery time you specified.

Dropshipping is a very profitable business to do but requires that you research on-demand products or items in your locality, market them and sell to interested buyers.

A major downside of dropshipping is that sellers have no control over the quality of goods or products and the possibility of marketing low-quality products without knowing it is enormous. However, this is where research should come in.

It is important to research the products you intend to sell. Just because it looks good in pictures does not mean it will be so in reality. Unfortunately, while buyers are oblivious of the fact that the products they bought are drop-shipped, their feedback in public places can damage one’s business, if the products are of low quality.

In order to be successful at drop shipping, it is recommended, though not important to own a website as it can establish trust. Also, a laptop and access and internet access are required. In getting your products out, you have to rely on social media platforms and periodically post products you can source either from abroad or in Nigeria.

Consider the below points if you want to be successful at dropshipping:

1. Avoid selling products or items of companies with a presence in Nigeria.
2. Create a delivery time frame for all of your products. To do this, understand how long it will take the original seller to Nigeria.
3. Read reviews on the products or items you intend to dropship.
4. Communicate politely with your buyers and make your communication channels known to them.
5. Understand currency rates before placing a price on the items to be drop-shipped. Failure to do this might cause you to incur losses.
6. Develop a shipping strategy in order to save costs. If you source from abroad, always look out for items with “free shipping” labels.

The profit margin of dropshipping is not set in stone. One can make as little as 2% and as much as 80% profits on products, depending on research and product demand.

You do not necessarily need capital to start drop shipping. In order to maximize profit and succeed at drop shipping, you can source your items from Aliexpress.com, Taobao.com and Alibaba.com.

5. Freelancing

Freelancing simply means being self-employed and hired to work for different companies on particular assignments. It requires that you have certain skill sets in order to qualify as one.

Freelancers are in the enviable position of being able to adjust their own workload. This means that they can take up a main, remote job while they do others by the side. Most freelancers hate the idea of being micromanaged largely because they love to remind themselves that they are in control of their lives.

With freelancing, you get to decide how much you would love to earn and whether or not you can cope under stress against clients’ deadlines. While this is not as bad as it sounds, freelancers are often confronted with managing their time effectively.

Honestly, freelancing is not a walk in the park as most assume. There are moments when freelancers are overwhelmed with jobs and there is the period of no work; when it seems like jobs would take forever to come. Thus, it is advisable to take on more than one skill set and switch between both when job drought is in sight. Below are some of the most high-valued freelancing skills today:

• Writing or copywriting
• Web Designing
• SEO consulting/SEO services
• Digital Marketing (SEM)
• Graphics Designing
• Programming
• Translating, and
• Content writing/article or blog writing

If you have any of the above skills, you can conveniently charge up to $15/hour or $50 per gig, depending on your level of skill. While these platforms are saturated with freelancers from across the world, it is worth a try if you intend to take freelancing seriously. To get started, you can use the below sites for freelancing.

• Fiverr
• Upwork
• People Per Hour
• Solidgigs
• Aquent
• Toptal
• Guru

 Wrapping Up:

Working from home is the new normal. While the idea can unsettle one at first, it is worth it if you research the area to be focused on. And just because you can do these jobs from any corner of home does not mean that you will have it easy. If you are unsure, get a mentor; someone with deep experience in the area you intend to operate in and learn from their failures, challenges and breakthroughs. All the best!