60 percent of Nigeria’s population fall under the category of youths and according to a 2022 unemployment index report, over 50 percent of the young citizens are unemployed or underemployed.
There has been a rising challenge of unemployment in the country, with each year seeing an increase in the number of young men and women who are without jobs.
People have had to resort to entrepreneurship and finding alternative ways of making income online and offline since the federal Government seems to lack ideas on how to tackle the problem.
However, the major challenge most young Nigerians are faced with, is finding the capital to start business even if they have the ideas. Millions of youths in the country have internet enabled devices, but many do not know how they can use that to their advantage, so they just browse through online contents without any aim or goal.
In light of the abovementioned, if you are wondering the type of business you can do online without any capital, here they are:
1. FREELANCING
The freelancing business means rendering services remotely or having work flexibility while on the payroll of one or more companies without even being their employee.
To stand out, you should have skills that are relevant in today’s labour market. It could be video editing, writing, graphic design, typing, translation or transcription, digital marketing skills amongst others.
It is a very profitable online business to go into in Nigeria with strategic positioning and if you have good impeccable service delivery. In USA, freelancers makes up 35% of its workforce and contribute over $1 trillion to the economy.
2. AFFILIATE MARKETING
This entails referring people to buy goods and services for a commission. Affiliate marketing is lucrative but highly underrated, but many people do not know that you don’t need to have any product. If you have huge following on social media, all you have to do is promote a link to a wide audience and when people click or make orders, you get paid for the referral.
For example, there is a phone on sale which cost N80,000 and you are offered a commission of 5% which is N4,000. You share the links through your online channels and at the end of a month, 1000 people purchase through your recommendation. So N80, 000 x 1000 = N80,000,000. 5% of N80 million is N4,000,000. What it means is that in a month you have made 4 million naira.
3. SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER/CONTENT CREATOR
Any young person can be a content creator so long as you have accounts on some or all of these social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok etc
To be an Influencer, you will need to have a substantial amount of following on the platforms, and carve a niche for yourself by either using smart, funny or witty content in any field, to gain popularity.
If you have huge following on your pages, and your posts often garner engagements, you can become an outlet for advertising for very big brands.
4. CONTENT WRITING & MARKETING
Becoming a content marketer requires strategic marketing approach focused on building quality, useful or relevant and consistent content on the internet.
As a content writer, you can provide content that help businesses market their product and you can modify your writing style to appeal to a certain clientele.
Writing has existed through the ages and with the coming of new technology, it does not fade, rather it witnesses an upward shift. From writing on walls, to writing on tablets, then moving to books/paper and now we write electronically, digitally (phones, laptop – social media, websites etc)
While many people can write, just a few have mastered the art of writing engaging content. If you have such skill, you can make money through rendering services like writing cover letters, business plans, or even editing and proofreading literary work for individuals or companies.
Another area that can be explored is ghostwriting, particular for busy people with great ideas but who do not have the time to translate it to text.
With the business of writing, you will be easing the burden of such people by bringing their ideas to life through content writing, YouTube script writing, and so on.
5. VLOGGING
Lights! Camera! Action, vlogging turns you into a celeb without necessarily being a comedian, actor or singer. To vlog, you will have to be in front of the camera, so you must master screen confidence and find a way to fight lens shyness.
Most of what you will be doing will be gossip, anaylysis of people, things or events. In essence you will be creating video contents daily or weekly depending on the field you wish to focus on.
Traditional TV still commands some of the big advertising budgets of leading brands in Nigeria, to be more connected to the youths, brands use short videos on social media to promote their brands. If you are able to amassa a large following as a result of the type of content you churn out, it is only a matter of time before firms begin to approach you for jobs with juicy pays.
Final Note
These five online business ideas do not require capital but for you to start, but you will need to have a laptop, phone, internet connection and in some cases; camera, microphone, tripods then you can be on your way to self dependence and income generation.
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6 Business Ideas That Don’t Require Money To Start In Nigeria
