If you are not a rich kid in a Nigerian university, there is a high chance that the money you get from home isn’t always enough. So, what do you do when there’s no food in the hostel and you’ve spent the 5k sent from home? You get a part-time job or start a business!

So, if you are a student who needs to make money to hold body and conquer hunger, this article was written just for you. Here, we’ll examine 14 business ideas to start with as low as 5k as a student in Nigeria.

Some of these business ideas may not even require you to spend a dime. Yes, it’s that good. So, you can start immediately after reading this article. Let’s get into it.

14 Business Ideas to start with Little or no Money as a Student in Nigeria

With these business ideas, you can make as much as 50,000 per week, and grow as time goes on.

1. Dropshipping

This involves advertising products online, without having any products with you. As a dropshipper, you send products to customers through a wholesaler or another vendor, while you get a cut of the money as your profits. With 5k, you can buy data, run sponsored ads to advertise the product, and make your first sale.

This was how Joseph Edijala started his business at OAU, and here’s what he said, “When I started, I didn’t have any products. So, I was just posting product pictures from other vendors on my page. With that, I started getting sales, and I remember how excited I was when I got my first 5k profit on a sale.” — Joseph Edijala, Creative Director at Gadget Atlas & Student Entrepreneur.

One thing that makes dropshipping good is that you don’t need to bear the risk of buying products. But it also has the disadvantage of not having a physical product to show offline customers who want to see the products before buying.

However, it’s a great model to start with. And one way to make good money with dropshipping is by selling a product you understand to an audience you understand. This will help you market it well and attract customers faster.

2. Digital Marketing

Every business needs a digital marketer. And no one cares if you are a graduate or not, as long as you can do the job well. So, if you have skills in digital marketing, social media marketing, paid ads, etc., you can offer your skills as a service to business owners and get paid for it.

Start by mastering the core skills you need to get results for clients. Then, build a personal project to build your portfolio and show results to potential clients. After this, get results for the clients, talk about the results online, and use that to get more clients.

You should read: How to launch the right business idea in Nigeria

3. Graphic design

If you can design graphics for businesses, events, NGOs, churches, etc., you can turn it into a stream of income. With Canva, you don’t need to learn complex graphic design tools to start earning.

Create a free account on Canva and access thousands of free templates to create flyers, posters, etc, and get paid. To succeed at this, master the basics of graphic design, such as alignment, colour combination, typography, hierarchy, etc, enabling you to create stunning graphics that communicate well to the audience.

4. Content Writing/Content Creation

With your phone and an internet connection, you can make money writing content for businesses. If you’re also a video content creator, you can make money by creating videos for small business owners who need video content to advertise their products and services.

Start by showcasing what you can do on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, or anywhere your target market is. Build your portfolio, then start sending messages to the kind of people you would like to work with, by showing them your past work and asking to work with them.

5. Digital products

You can also make money out of your skills or knowledge by selling digital products that help people. For example, if you are an expert in digital marketing, content writing, emotional intelligence, financial management, or anything at all, you can create ebooks, checklists, templates, etc, to help people in that niche.

To make profits from selling digital products, start by positioning yourself as someone knowledgeable about the topic. Talk about it on your WhatsApp status, create a social media page to share your knowledge about it, tell your classmates about your skill/knowledge, and share resources to show people that you know what you are doing.

If you do this well, it becomes easier to sell any digital product on the topic, since people will already see you as an authority on the subject. And if you don’t have a skill you can create digital products on, start by taking free online courses to learn.

6. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is another means to make money with your phone, with no money. It involves marketing another person’s product and getting a commission on every sale you make.

With affiliate marketing, just like dropshipping, you don’t necessarily need to have the product with you to sell it. You simply need to know about the product well and how to convince people to buy.

You can sign up to be an affiliate marketer on websites like Selar, Konga, Expertnaire, Aliexpress, and many more. To succeed as an affiliate marketer, ensure it’s a product you are very interested in, understand sales and how to move people to buy, and keep trying until you get your first sale. After that, it becomes quite easy to get more sales.

7. Gadget Repair Business

If you can repair gadgets, such as laptops, phones, tablets, etc., you can earn money as a student in Nigeria. Many students have gadgets, and when they get faulty, they need someone to repair them, and you can be that person.

Start by telling your hostel mates course coursemates, that you repair gadgets to get your first set of customers. Afterwards, ask for referrals from customers to get more people.

Also Read: 8 Things to do when restarting a failed business

8. Celebration cards/ebooks

Everybody loves to celebrate, and with people falling in love and being in relationships in school, building a business around celebrations like birthdays, relationship anniversaries, and other milestones is a great idea that will make you good money.

So, if you are good at graphic design, start making greeting cards, birthday ebooks, and anniversary memoirs for people to celebrate themselves. You can create these designs on Canva for free, then print them out. Start by creating some samples for people to see, then tell people around you what you do to get your first customer.

9. Back-to-school package

Every student has a list of things to buy when resuming a new session/semester, and in there is a business opportunity. While most students buy their food from home, there are some essentials that they may not buy, and you can create a back-to-school package with those items.

Think of items like books, pens, perfumes, phone accessories, rechargeable lamp, slippers, bed sheets, padlocks, detergent, disinfectants, quick snacks like noodles, plantain chips, socks, bonnet caps, etc. Then create a bundle around related products and create tiers to make people buy more at a reduced price.

Since the aim is to start the business with 5k or less, you can start on a pre-order model and get people to pay before getting the products. Your 5k capital can then be used for things like packaging bags, data to advertise your service online, etc.

10. Tutorial

If you are good at a particular course, you can organize paid tutorials for your classmates or junior colleagues on the course and get paid a token. Now, most times, these tutorials are usually free, however, you can still charge a token fee and get people to pay you, especially if it’s a difficult course that many people find difficult to understand.

You can also tutor secondary school students or students who want to write WAEC or UTME in core subjects like Mathematics, English language, Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Accounting, etc., depending on your specialty. This can be a home tutorial where you get paid for the number of hours you teach.

11. Virtual Assistance

If you are very organized and good with research, email management, data entry, calendar management, and other admin activities, then you can work as a virtual assistant to busy professionals. Start by learning how to use the tools needed for this work and talk about what you do online to get your first set of clients.

For this business, you only need to use your 5k to buy data to work, and you can work with multiple clients and get paid.

12. Write research papers

If you have research and data analysis skills, you can write research papers and final year theses for other students. Start by networking with individuals in their final year and showing them samples of what you’ve done.

These samples could be essay presentations or research work for other people. This will earn you trust and get you that first client.

13. Stickers and Journals

You can start a business selling stickers and journals. For example, Motunrayo Dada started her sticker business, which has now grown to include other products with 5k.

She said, “I started my business during a break from school. Before the break, I had saved #5,000 to use for detty December, but changed my mind and used it to start the business. The business started with selling affirmation stickers, bible verse stickers, etc, after which I started selling journals.”

You can create affirmation stickers, event stickers, etc, for individuals and organizations in school, and make great money from it. Just ensure that your stickers are of high quality, and you will get repeat customers.

14. Perfume Oil Business

For as little as 5k, you can buy bottles of perfume oil and start a perfume business in school. This is a profitable business idea because perfume oils are a great alternative for students who cannot afford perfume bottles.

Start by using these perfume oils on your body, then take some bottles to class, church/mosque, school events, etc, and market them to people. The money you make from this can even help start a standard perfume business, to make more money.

Start Small, Grow Big

Every big business started small. So, instead of eating that 5k seed in your hands, invest it in starting a business and reap the fruits in years to come.

At Triift Africa, we help small business owners get the money, resources, and community to grow. Join our business community where we share opportunities, tips, and tools to grow your business faster.