Top 10 Lucrative Side Hustles You Can Successfully Start in Nigeria With Little Capital (2025 Guide)

The economic situation of Nigeria is getting very tough every year and sooner every Nigerians realize that the better it shall be for them. It is more wise to have a backup job to complement the main job that you’re on. Starting lucrative side hustles in requires just little capital.

You need to start a side hustle which could help you in many ways including paying your bills while your main job takes care of your retirement savings, and other long term goals.

Introduction

One of my friends Mr. Raymond Faasema is currently working with the Access Bank but he has POS in about five different locations in Makurdi town. This is what we call side hustle, the proceeds of the POS business is being used to pay for light bills and other bills including data subscription.

This is the mindset of someone who really wants to save money. He will be able to save his monthly salary and use the interest from his POS to buy food items and other necessities of life. Side hustles are necessary in our today’s economy due to hardship many are facing.

What is a side hustle?

Just like the phrase implies, Side Hustle can be defined as an extra business or job that can be done just for the purpose of adding extra money to the main job.

For example, Jane works with the Board of Internal Revenue Services but because she either wants to save more money or she has more responsibilities and the money she is earning from her primary job is not enough, she decides to either start a small business or take up a new job she can be working remotely.

Another example is that of a servant Tersoo Ayinaga who after closing from work decided to use his car for either Uber, Bolt or in-drive just to earn extra income to back up the main job.

The example above explains what a side hustle is and why people engage in such activities.

Why Start a Side Hustle in Nigeria?

There are several reasons why people may start a side hustle, some of which include;

• Side hustles are very important especially in times of inflation as they compliment one’s earnings when his or her salary may not be able to meet all his needs because the purchasing power of a currency has depreciated.
• Apart from those, people also start a side hustle because they simply want to save money for a particular goal.
• Side hustles are also a way of earning money using passion as the case with content creation.
• It is also very beneficial because it creates a multiple stream of income. It is not good to depend on just one source of income, infact it is even risky. Starting side hustles will create multiple streams of income indeed.

Factors to Consider Before Starting a Side Hustle

In order to start and manage a side hustle successfully, one has to first consider several factors which when ignored may potentially impact negatively on the business or job. These factors are as follows:

• Your available time and skill set: side hustle is not the main job but just an extra business or job that helps in complimenting the efforts of the main job. So, you have to first consider your availability for the business or job first and whether you possess the required skills for the job. For example, Mr. Dean Oche is my friend and Neighbor, he is a Civil Defence Officer. Recently, Mr. Oche decided to establish a barber shop and brought in someone to work there but after just a week, the boy resigned and he himself doesn’t know how to barb. So it is very important to look at those things before starting them.
• Initial capital vs potential profit: there is an African adage that “don’t calculate your eggs before they’re hashed”. First, do a proper due diligence on the type of business you want to establish and see if you have saved enough money to venture into it and how much you’re going to make at the end of each business circle. Don’t rush into conclusion that you are going to make plenty of profit, in the end you may be disappointed if the profit didn’t come the way you imagined it.
• Market demand and location: this is a very important question you need to first answer before establishing any business in Nigeria, the demand for the product you want to be selling or services you want to be rendering and the location for the business as well. For example, if Mr. A wants to start palm oil in a neighborhood where Mr. C is already selling the same product and Mr. B is equally selling the same thing then Mr. A must reconsider his decision and make a new choice for the product he will be selling because palm oil will definitely not do well again in that same neighborhood.
• Online vs offline opportunities: we are already living in the digital age or era so starting a side hustle without checking to know if it has both the offline and online opportunities won’t be a nice idea. If this factor is put into consideration and the appropriate decision is decided then that would be wise. Businesses that present such opportunities are potentially going to bring more profit than those with just one channel of selling or rendering services.
• Risk and sustainability level: questions such as how long will I be able to sustain my business and how well will I be able to mitigate the potential risks associated with the business? If you can honestly answer those questions then you are good to go.

Top 10 Profitable Side Hustles You Can Start With Little Capital in Nigeria

You’ll be glad you came across this article because this will help by guiding you to start not just a side hustle but a profitable one at that. I’m not guaranteeing you that my ideas are 100% but they’re my experiences so I thought it would be nice if I could share them with you.

Always do your own research venturing into a business you know nothing about. These profitable side hustles are:

1. Mini Importation

You can be able to start a mini importation in Nigeria and make profit from it. In 2022, I decided to start importing phone accessories from Nigeria after doing my own research online. I discovered a platform called Alibaba (wholesale) and AliExpress (retail) which both sell phone accessories and other gadgets very cheap but those same products are sold more costly in Nigeria. It worked for me actually. You can start with as little as N50k and grow gradually.

You can import these products and sell them on other domestic or local e-commerce websites like jumia and konga.

Step-by-step process

• Step 1: sign-up on AliExpress: this is the first step to start. You can either choose to login with a Google account.
• Step 2: Complete profile: when you login make sure to complete your profile because without it the process won’t be complete. You will have to provide a physical address and valid phone number.
• Step 3: Browse the products and select the one you wish to buy. When you select it, it will automatically be added to your cart.
• Step 4: Check out: The selected items were added to the cart, now we have to clear the cart by paying for the items which we have proposed earlier. Remember, a shipping fee will also be added before paying.

That’s all, you will just have to wait and track the location of your goods until they’re delivered to you.

Tips for profit

Focus more on things that are trending especially in that particular year and also consider trading light-weight products so that you would not be spending much on shipping.

2. Recharge card printing business

In the early 2000s, this business really boomed very well but not many people realized it on time. Recharge cards are still needed very often by everyone who uses mobile phones and even those that operate cyber cafés.

It doesn’t require much professional skills to start because once you pay a certain fee to the network provider, they will provide you with recharge PINs which are then printed out on papers and that’s all.

They recharge PINs may be sold to you at the cost of N92 for a recharge unit of N100. After printing you may sell it at the cost of N97 so that you would be making N5K profit while the retailer will be making N3 profit because you are the one who is buying paper and also supplying them free.

So you are incurring expenses that the retailer would have incurred.

3. Event photography

This is a very cool way to make money in Nigeria today. Nigerians wants to always show off during occasions and if you notice very well, they love photo sessions too.

For example, when you attend a wedding ceremony in Nigeria, you will notice the presence of many photographers. They will just be taking photos of people including you.

They will take shots of your arrival, how you were sat at the event, how you were dancing on your way to go and spray money on the couple as if they were specifically assigned to you alone.

The most fascinating thing about these photographers is that, they will rush to the printing lab and print all the pictures and bring them to you before you leave the venue.

Nobody would see his or her pictures and deliberately leave them behind. You must collect them, not because they compelled you to buy you just feel like not leaving them to go with it.

4. Content Creation (YouTube, TikTok, Blogging)

One of the ways to make money in the 21st century is content creation. You don’t need special knowledge or professional skills for it.

All you need is to get someone to create a YouTube or TikTok channel for you which you can easily do by yourself.

Once the channels are created, you can use your smartphone to record a selfie video in which you are explaining what you know and after recording, you can post them on YouTube and Tiktok and if the channels are already monetized you will earn money through the traffic.

Blogging requires skill, at least you should know how to read and write professionally because even professors may come across your articles online and read them.

If they’re not well written with correct grammar, well formatted and punctuated they may never visit your blog again.

Here, you need a website designer to create a website (blog) for you. Next, you will need a domain name just like ours (watchnigeria.com).

You will choose a niche such as finance, technology, law, real estate, recipe and lifestyle. All your articles will be written in that one niche so that the algorithm may understand what your blog is all about and rank you well on search engine results (SEO).

When people visit your blog daily to read articles they will also see Ads or click on an affiliate link which if they buy anything using those links you’ll make a commission from it.

Ads companies will also pay you for showing their ads to many people (impressions).

5. Tutoring or Online Coaching

Many of the things I know today I learned online. If you have a skill such as video editing and AI prompting you can be teaching them online and be making money from fees.

Just create a Facebook page for what you want to be teaching and promote it very well so that when you start many people will be seeing whenever you post a video.

You may decide to even formalize it by registering with the corporate authorities and obtain a license so that you can be able to issue certificates to your students at the end of the course.

6. Phone Accessories Business

This is one of the businesses that sells one of the most demanded products. Phones spoil everyday from either falling on the ground and the case is broken or the screen is malfunctioning.

People buy phone accessories everyday so it’s a good business start as a side hustle.

All you need to do is buy a container shop and situate it on a busy street and people will be coming daily to buy SD cards, chargers, cases and so many other things that are needed.

You have to travel to the Alaba market in Lagos and buy those accessories cheaper then come and sell them in your locality and make profit from it.

7. Laundry and Ironing Services

People like myself don’t like to wash clothes and also press them. In the Nigerian society, if you want to start a laundry shop, situate it where wealthy people are because middle class and poor people don’t patronize such businesses.

They wash their clothes with their hands and some don’t even iron them at all.

You can start this business small by washing with your hands then gradually you can be upgrading until you buy a laundry machine and even a drying machine too.

You can go to work while a shop attendant will be there to keep watch of the shop until you return. So even in the night, you can wash the clothes that people brought to you.

The only equipment you need here is a pressing iron, laundry machine, drying machine, detergent polythene bag for packaging clothes neatly in them.

You can start from your home or a hotel where the service is not offered.

8. Food Delivery / Homemade Snacks Business

Do you know that you can start an online restaurant? You will be cooking all your food at home and you will advertise them very well online so that people can get to know of it and begin to order for them.

If you can make snacks and sell them online or supply them to big shops you will make a good profit from it.

Food delivery has become very popular these days especially in cities when civil servants and bankers found it very helpful.

They make orders online and you prepare the food at home and supply them wherever they are. Not much competition yet because not many people are doing it at the moment.

9. POS (Agent Banking) Business

In 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown banking agency became very popular in Nigeria because banks were completely closed so to get cash was a bit problematic.

POS business is thriving daily in Nigeria and this is why; so many people hate queue so to go and line up in banks simply because they want to withdraw money. Instead, they just pay a small fee and get the cash they want from a POS operator.

Initially before you are approved especially by the first bank you would need to deposit N50k in the account before you are approved.

So, you need to have at least N100k cash before starting the business. The charges are very attractive, you collect N100 for every N5k withdrawn.

For example, if you withdraw N5k they will charge you N100 and if you withdraw N10K you need to pay them N200, for N15k you must pay N300 and for N20k you will have to pay N400. It continues in the progression of N5k each attracts N100.

10. Data reselling business

Just like it is with the recharge card, another way to make money through a side hustle is by reselling internet connection data from network providers.

For example, you may buy 1gb at only N200 for a day and resell it for N300 per the 1gb.

Although not many people like to buy data from people, they prefer to buy recharge cards and use them to buy a data subscription.

You only need at least N10K to start the business and once you’re known in it, you’ll make a good profit from it, this isn’t a guarantee.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Side Hustle

So many people make mistakes when they are starting their side hustles which may potentially harm the business subsequently. These mistakes are:

• Starting many side hustles at once: starting many side hustles at once may not do well. You need to start with just one and manage it well then you can start another and get somebody to manage it for you.
• Not re-investing profit: always re-invest the profit if you really want to see the business grow. Re-investing the profit is also a way of expanding the business.
• Expecting quick results: don’t focus more on the profit you want to make from the business, but rather focus more on expanding the business instead.

These attitudes has killed many businesses and may continue to do so until people realize that there is a need to focus on business management and expansion rather than focusing on quick profits.

How to Manage Your Side Hustle Alongside a Full-Time Job

In order to manage your side hustle and also keep regular time for your primary job, you need to create a clear goal and keep to it. Your target should be aimed at achieving those goals.

Schedule your time and set a reminder on your phone so that you will know exactly when to go to work at your primary job and when to return to your side hustle.

For example, Vivian Onyilo works with the ministry of works and urban development, she also has a beer parlour. She goes to work in the ministry of works and urban development from 8am to 4pm, then after closing at the beer parlour she returns home at around 10pm daily.

If you have a schedule, you will need to set a reminder and be faithful to it.

Conclusion

Side hustles will help you to save money from your primary job so start one today and manage it well. You don’t really need to start big but what actually matters is your dedication and consistency in doing the business.

I would like to see your comment on which of these top 10 Lucrative Side Hustles You would want to start for yourself.