Make Money Online

How to Sell Stuff Online in Nigeria

One of the ways to make money online is to sell online.

The entire experience of selling online replicates the process in real life.

In real life, if I wanted to buy something, I would go to the supermarket.

Once there, I would browse the store for products that I wanted and place them in a shopping cart.

At the checkout, I would pay the cashier and collect a receipt and the goods.

To sell anything online, we have to replicate this process.

Selling Online

In order to sell online, you must replicate what happens in the real world.

The first thing we need is a storefront.

This is a place where prospective customers can browse for the items they want

Once they browse the items they want to buy, they then place them in a shopping cart.

Once they have completed the purchase, they checkout and pay for the items.

Once the transaction is completed, they get a receipt.

Depending on the nature of the goods, how they customers receive them is different.

For physical items, the customer will have to wait for delivery.

The main advantage of digital goods is that delivery is instantaneous.

Online Marketplaces

In online marketplaces, the infrastructure to handle everything from storefront to payment is done for you.

All you need to do is sign up and place your products on the online marketplace.

The main benefit of this is leverage.

You can use the reputation and infrastructure of an existing organisation to setup your own.

An example of this is Amazon. Amazon is the global retail giant allowing you to sell anything you can imagine including digital goods.

Some examples of online marketplaces that we have in Nigeria are:

  1. Baya
  2. Konga
  3. Jumia
  4. Olist
  5. OkadaBooks

Going Your Own Way

If you choose to go your own way, you are deciding to be responsible for every aspect of your own online store.

The two popular options for this are:

  1. Shopify
  2. WooCommerce

Shopify is great if you want to quickly get started. There is no need to code.

You can do everything yourself without a developer using Shopify although you must be willing to pay a monthly fee.

WooCommerce although free comes with the challenge of not being for non-developers.

Both of the above tools will allow you get started up quickly with your online stores.

My advice is that you look at the trade-off between time and money and choose carefully based on your own reality.


With the growth of eCommerce in Nigeria in the last decade, there is no reason for anyone not to make money online.

The tools, platforms and infrastructure to make money online are already available all that is missing is you.

Will you take the opportunity or watch from the sidelines?

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Internet Usage in Nigeria

Before we can talk about how to make money online, we have to first take inventory on how we are currently using the internet in Nigeria.

The featured image for this post is a barchart from Statista that shows the projected number of internet users in Nigeria.

The accuracy of the chart is shown to be acceptable as the data released by the NCC confirms this.

Top Websites in Nigeria

Alexa collates the top websites in Nigeria. Data doesn’t lie.

Google is our number one website in Nigeria which is hardly surprising as it serves as an aggregator.

After that, the websites can be categorized into the following:

  • Gambling
  • Entertainment
  • Social Media
  • Education
  • News
  • eCommerce
  • FinTech

Gambling websites are predominant in this list.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise as Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world.

Notable on this list is the eCommerce and freelancing platforms that have taken hold in Nigeria.

What Does the Future Hold?

No one knows tomorrow.

As the economy worsens and confidence in the current administration declines, Nigerians will continue to seek methods to make money online.


At the end of the last decade, the payments would be our greatest achievement.

This means that the infrastructure necessary to make money online now exists in the country.

Consider how you use the internet and how you can use the internet usage in Nigeria to your advantage.

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10 Ways to Make Money Online in 2020 in Nigeria


The year 2019 has come and gone with its heartbreaks and failures.

As we start a new year, I encourage everyone living in Nigeria to consider how they can make money online.

A lot of predictions have been made concerning the economy this year. None of them end well.

The best way to protect yourself is to find a way to make money online.

This post will look at 10 ways to make money online in Nigeria.

I shall testify to things that I have heard and seen.

1. Start a Blog

If you live in Nigeria, you would have heard about Linda Ikeji.

Linda Ikeji would give credence to the blogging industry in Nigeria with her success as a blogger.

Initially starting out of a blogspot account, she would pivot to her current block after running into some trouble with Google.

Blogging is a viable means of making money online in Nigeria.

In addition, it opens up offline opportunities.

To start a blog, you should consider buying a web domain and hosting.

You can get these from Namecheap.

2. Start a YouTube Channel

Fisayo Fosudo runs a YouTube channel where he reviews gadgets.

TechCabal did an interview with him early last year.

The beauty of starting out with YouTube is that you don’t have to start out blind.

They provide education via the YouTube Creator Academy.

3. Write for the Opera News Hub

If you are a writer, you should consider the .

With 163 million active users in Africa, the is where all the content fed to Opera Mini users and Opera News user is gotten from.

4. Online Freelancing

In Nigeria, one platform that Nigerians make money from is Fiverr.

On Fiverr you list the work you can do and you are matched up with a customer that wants your services.

As time goes on an you build your reputation, you can make money money for your services.

5. Cryptocurrency Trading

Last year, I would learn about Digital Currencies.

With all the dangers ahead of the Nigerian economy, cryptocurrencies are a form of insurance.

Cryptocurrency trading is one way Nigerians make money online.

I have been privileged to meet a few cryptocurrency traders in Nigeria.

They have lost money at various times but have mastered their craft.

6. Affiliate Marketing

The way affiliate marketing works is as paid referrals.

So if I tell you about a product and you then go ahead to buy it, the owner of the product pays me a commission.

A lot of services have affiliate programs.

You only have to search for them.

7. Copywriting



As the world becomes more digital, this is an important skill that will pay dividend.

8. eCommerce

The last 10 years have witnessed the rise of eCommerce in Nigeria.

Jumia and Konga have been through the eye of the needle and provided the industry with important lessons.

At the end of the decade, the entire industry has figured out online payments.

If you want to make money online, you can consider getting an online store and selling your products from there.

Two options to consider are WordPress and Shopify.

9. Create and Sell Online Courses

You cannot talk about online courses in Nigeria and not mention Stephanie Obi.

In a very short time, she has been able to carve out a niche for herself.

There are a lot of platforms to use in creating online courses.

Stephanie has even gone ahead to create her own called TrainQuarters.

10. Social Media Marketing

Platforms like Instagram have spawned entire ecosystems for buying and selling.

Typically, the seller posts the item that the want to sell.

Then a prospective buyer sends them a message and a transaction occurs.

This will get bigger in the years to come.


A new year as begun with the promise of opportunities to make money online.

You would be wise to take the time out to learn how to make money online.

Welcome to a brave new world.