The economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria was devastating. Millions of people fell into extreme poverty. Many also lost their means of livelihood.
For instance, the N-Power program ran by the government to help reduce unemployment among the youths in Nigeria disengaged about 500,000 Batch A and B beneficiaries during the pandemic. During the application for Batch C, more than 5 million Nigerian youths applied. This shows the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria. Several organizations and businesses also relieved most of the staff of their duties during the pandemic.
The pandemic also led to increasing reliance on digital platforms. Companies, schools, churches, and businesses in Nigeria started creating their websites, social media platforms, mobile, and web applications to enable people to work from home, learn from home, attend church services from home, and also shop from home.
With the way the world is going, digitally, there are lucrative businesses that the Nigerian youth can do to generate wealth, irrespective of the economic breakdown.
Content Writing
So many organizations and businesses are going online and they need quality content to grow their business, increase their website and social media traffic, increase sales from affiliate marketing and grow their email list. This has made the demand for content writers to be on a high increase; content has become a form of currency. There are different types of content writing: copywriting, copy editing, proofreading, ghostwriting, technical writing, and so on.
Content writers are generating millions from writing. For instance, on LinkedIn, a Nigerian lady, Chima Mmeje, posted how she made $10k from copywriting while living and working in Nigeria.
Places you can learn content writing in Nigeria:
- thereadywriters.com
- 02academylagos.com
- theknowledgeacademy.com
UI/UX Design
The User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design of a product give the application and website the feeling of desirability, comfort, attraction, and functionality. This, in turn, makes customers keep coming for more, thereby increasing the sales and growth of the business.
With the rapid growth of the business ecosystem in Nigeria, the importance and demand for UI/UX designers in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. Many companies are looking for UI/UX designers to design their websites, mobile and web applications, and so on.
UI/UX designers are generating great money from their designs here in Nigeria. Apart from the fact that companies are looking for them to employ them, they also do side gigs which pay them well too.
Places you can learn UI/UX design in Nigeria:
- ckdigitalacademy.com
- laimoon.com
- stutern.com
Coding
Having a website is a very valuable thing. Every business desires to have a website, blog, or application where they can sell their products to customers. This has led to high demand for coders because all these applications work on code.
Recently, I spoke with a friend who is a full-stack developer, he told me about rejecting a client’s work because the pay is low. I asked him what he was expecting from the client and he said 1.2million, I then asked him what the client wanted to pay him he said 600,000 Naira – this is just for a website.
Schools in Nigeria that offer training in coding:
- Anchorsoft Academy
- Andela
- Audax Code School
- Code Spark Nigeria
Digital Marketing
With the high rate of competition in businesses today, many brands and businesses in Nigeria are in need of digital marketers to keep them, not just at equality with their competitors, but to enable them to compete head to head with big brands and large corporations.
Many companies are recruiting digital marketers and these marketers can work from anywhere, whether there is lock-down or not, and they are well paid.
Schools that offer training on digital marketing:
- CKDigital Academy
- Nerdy Eye Digital
- HaelSoft Digital
Graphic Design
Graphic design is extremely essential both for online and offline marketing. The graphic designing business is highly profitable in Nigeria. Businesses, churches, schools, and so on demand the services of graphic designers almost on a daily basis. Examples are the design and production of fliers, handbills, business cards, photos, videos, book covers, e-books, and so on.
During the lockdown, there was massive production of e-books, online fliers by so many businesses and churches. Many graphic designers were not affected by the pandemic at all. Despite the economic breakdown, they were still making money.
Places you can learn graphic design in Nigeria:
- shawacademy.com
- aitrainings.com
- landmarkcomputers.com
Cryptocurrency
The cryptocurrency sector in Nigeria is booming. The trading attracts young Nigerians mostly. Data on trends in Google shows that the majority of requests for bitcoin in the world over the past week were carried out in Nigeria, South Africa, and Austria. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that uses one-range technology.
Bitcoin trade had its highest spike of 30% this year during the national lockdown in the country and the highest volume traded during the peak of the pandemic. Between January and September, Paxful reported a 137% increase in new registrations in Nigeria.
Data scraped from Coin Dance shows that from the beginning of May 2015 to the middle of November this year, bitcoin trade in Nigeria has increased yearly with at least 19% in volume since 2017, and the highest volume (20,504.50) was traded in 2020. Nigerian youths are making money through cryptocurrency despite the pandemic and economic breakdowns.
Peace Chinenye
Chinenye Peace Obidike is the founder of Virtuous Women Worldwide, a social media group, that focuses on marriages, relationships, and women affairs. She is a freelance writer, public speaker, counsellor and coach on women, marriage and business.
