African Tutorial

One advantage a reseller has is that he doesn't take risks in sourcing for raw materials or engaging in production but rather he purchases products already produced and then resells them to others for profit.

In a country of over 170 million people, no other tv show attracts much loyalty as football events and that is why running a football business in population dense areas in Nigeria can be a good business.

Imagine being able to make money in Nigeria just by allowing people to watch football tv in your entertainment center? Well the football tv viewing center business is one of the new and growing profitable businesses one can do in Nigeria as all you need to do is build it and they will surely come. You can make money from gate tickets, advertising as well as consumption sales.

After work, what do people do to relax? Well at times they just go home, while some go to clubs, others go on dates and at times they just want to be entertained. TV viewing centres are in vogue now in Nigeria and they are different categories of them spreading over cities like Lagos and Abuja. Some category of viewing centers are for the big boys while others are for the low income class depending on the gate fee.

Also Read: Investing in Event Halls Will Make You Money
Although, live football viewing is one of the more popular viewing service people are willing to pay for in Nigeria, especially during the season, you can also have some other side attractions when there is no live football like movies and football videos.

To start a viewing center, the basic asset one really needs is a piece of land in a serene environment and you can then setup a main wide screen using a projector or big screen tv.

You know, there are times people may not like going to clubs to party or dance but just want to relax and be at peace with themselves while getting entertained. Besides some clubs can be more expensive than viewing centers so most Nigerians tend to flock to these places as a great place to also socially connect with people in their class.

What people gain by going to public viewing centers
- Entertainment
- Meeting people in a similar social class
- Exchanging ideas and business contact
- Affordable Reacreation

For some people, it is actually cheaper to go to viewing centers than going to clubs or taking someone on a date or the movies. While for some others, it is like a neutral ground that has better moral standards than clubs.

Some Legal requirements
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- Register it as a business
- Register with your local govt
- Get public tv license from authorized dealers if you don't have the direct rights to it eg. from DSTV, HiTv, GoTv or Startimes

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Basic Things you will need
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- Capital
- Staff
- Land or location
- Generator
- TV or Projector and screen
- Cable tv subscription
- Seats
- Inverter/UPS
- Local govt permission to operate as a public viewing center
- Security

Spacing requirements
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You should have it in mind of the maximum capacity of your viewing centre and make sure not to exceed that capacity so as not to cause overcrowding. If your hall is designed for 100 people, don't admit 200 people else it would be a problem. Every public space has a limited capacity of people it can contain so try to enforce that.

Location of generator
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Generators should be located in ideal places far away from where people are seated. It should be able to operate in a well ventilated or open space so as not to cause poisoning to people since its fumes are dangerous.

Collecting payments
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Most payment for viewing centres are collected at the gates or door before entry but you can always decide on how to collect your fees. You may also need the services of security to handle troublemakers.

Related Topic: How To Start Football Viewing Center

In Nigeria, GSM companies make a lot of money offering gsm services to mobile phones. You too can cut a piece of your own cake by offering the same service they offer in your own unique way. Yes, you can make money by simply becoming a gsm geek in Nigeria and you don't have to be an official agent or pay any registration fee to offer that same service.

A GSM geek is a person who is knowledgeable about GSM services in such a way that he can help others around the service.

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Putting money in savings account may not be the best way to make money in Nigeria unless you really just have excess money lying around and just want to put it somewhere to remain useful and earn passive income.

Those days in secondary school, we used to dream of just making big money and then applying a bit of mathematics by investing it in a savings account for interest. In reality however, the interest on a savings account in Nigeria is more like negligible when you compare it with the growing rate of inflation and profitable business opportunities that earn more.

Also Read: Make Money From Operating Football Viewing Center 
 

When you take a visit to a niche market in Nigeria like the computer village at Ikeja, you'd see a lot of small businesses springing up that offer downloading services. The kind of services they offer is not that technical as it basically involves transferring files from a computer to a mobile phone or other portable device. They offer downloads for a fee and this ranges from N50 to N100 per file. They make a lot of money doing so and for them it is a profitable business.


These download services being offered mostly by youths at the computer market is profitable and they do have a large inventory of files

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More and more Nigerians who own mobile phones nas small gadgets normally desire to have their own copy of digital content and so the demand for downloads is growing and these are basically offline downloads offered by connecting two computers or gadgets together.
What type of files are being downloaded? Mostly files like videos(mp4, avi, mpeg, 3gp), music(mp3, wav) and games(jad, jar, apk)

Is it legal to offer downloads in Nigeria?

If you are interested in going into this sort of business, you should know that the Nigerian law doesn't support offering downloads of files protected by the Nigerian Copyright Commission(NCC) and so most Nigerian content fall into this category. So, what these service providers mostly offer customers foreign content like western music, videos and so on. So, to be on the safe side, don't offer Nigerian content as downloads if you don't have the right to do so. Most foreign songs are not protected by Nigerian law and so these computer guys make lost of profit offering people lots of downloads.

A potential customer could want to download all of R.kelly's songs and these could be up to 100 tracks and these download providers could offer it at a price of N50 per track. For 100 tracks, they've gained a cool income of N5000. They also charge about N100 per download for retail customers.

What this business involves

- Having a good computer system with lots of space
- Having internet access
- Having an large inventory of files or knowing how to get them
- Having an office, shop or location to provide instant service
- Setting a price per download

How to offer downloads

- A customer approaches you for a request
- You browse through your computer folders to see if you have the requested file
- If available, you connect phone or gadget to computer using USB cable, bluetooth or memory card
- Transfer the requested files by copying and pasting or using other software
- Allow customer to review your transferred files
- Customer pays you for the download(s)

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What to do if you don't have the requested file

You could download it from the internet by searching for it from free sites. There are alot of sites that offer free mp3s, MP4s, music converters. You could also rip music off cds if the customer brings a cd along and a software Windows media player allows one to do that. Videos can also be downloaded from YouTube using any of the many free online converters available.

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A lot of Nigerians do have money, at least to be able to pay for 24 hrs electricity but the problem is that most of them are not knowledgeable or educated about alternate sources of power other than the power supply from the Federal govt or fuel consuming generators.

Most Nigerians would not mind paying for stable electricity at least and from reports we've been having from successive administrations in govt, Nigeria's power supply problem may linger for the next 20 years.
Nigeria is abundantly blessed with a lot of natural resources and has more sunlight than most countries like USA, Britain or China where solar devices are even produced. So we can really cut down power costs by simply switching to solar energy.

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There is a lot of opportunity for people investing in alternative sources of power like solar energy. Solar energy business is still relatively new in the country as people now tend to spend more of their income on generators rather than on NEPA due to their fact that they know nothing about solar energy.
You can make a lot of good money by enlightening people about solar power(marketing), selling solar gadgets, doing installations for them and maintaining such installations.

Solar energy is the future for Africa, a continent with one of the highest levels on sunglight on an annual basic. Due to developing technologies and educational advancement, many people in Nigeria have come to become addicted to electric power and would not mind having a sufficient supply. The truth most people have realized is that when it comes to things like power supply, demand would always exceed supply and that's why switching to solar energy is probably the best way for the country.
Offering Solar energy services could involve analyzing your potential client's need, offering them a variety of solar devices and doing the installation for them.

I was excited to see a documentary on CNN one day showing a building that was 100% powered by solar energy and this was definitely a green building which has no CO2 emmissions unlike what buildings powered by the national plant ot generators would give. So, the world as we know it is already looking for alternative sources of power for the long term in order to divert away from pollution causing generators which are destroying our world and even driving up the price of oil.

Solar energy has a bright future and investing in it for business would only prove profitable in the long term. Besides, with growing economies like that of China, a lot of these solar products are still produced in mass and at affordable rates.

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What a solar energy installation would require

A basic solar system would involve the following:
- Solar panels
- Inverters
- Energy storage e.g battery
- Charge controller
- Connection Wires
- Meters

Benefits of solar energy in Nigeria

In Nigeria, solar energy can be used for a lot of things such as:
- Recharging mobile phone batteries
- Watching 24 hrs tv
- Offering lighting for the home
- Pumping water to buildings
- Cooling buildings
- Powering computers and other electronics

Related Topic: 20 Solar Business Opportunities

In Nigeria, the population only keeps increasing especially in urgan areas like Lagos, Kano and Abuja. People are also beginning to migrate to rural areas which are receiving their own breath of urbanization. People are born, get married, die and according to Nigerian custom, it is only proper to celebrate all these occasions.

There is an increasing number of Event centers or halls springing up in Lagos and these people tend to make more money from their small investments than landlord make from their tenants. Well they are landlords in their own right since they rent out their halls to tenants holding a single day event but for hug amounts of money.

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If you already have an exisitng business either in the physical world or the internet, one way in which you can give it more publicity is by doing business blogging.
Blogging about your business gives it more publicity on the web and in this way enable more people to patronize your business in the real world.

If you've got like N500k to N1m, you might be able to start up a small business comfortably in Nigeria but if you've got like N5m to N100m and above, there are actually some cool businesses you can do in Nigeria too..


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Here is my list of some 5 big businesses one can do in Nigeria
===========================
1. Real Estate Investment
Investing in real estate has always been profitable in Nigeria except during the civil war when people lost some of their homes. Land is abundant and at cheap rates too but there is scarcity of housing for the masses of people who mostly live in the urban areas. People who have got capital and invest in housing in Nigeria mostly make back their capital via rent in about 10 years or immediately after outright sale. Housing provided in cities are more likely going to cost more than those located in villages. Also the issue of security and infrastructure is important too. When buying land for real estate investment, one should make sure to get a certificate of occupancy before going ahead with major construction.

2. Mechanized Farming
One popular one is Cassava farming. You can also try egg production, fruit farming and so on. Prices of agric products keep rising in the market due to scarcity and inflation in cities. Due to export of cassava products to China as well as cassava flour requirement in bread production, more companies are going into cassava farming, processing and packaging. Other products that sell well are yams, pepper, tomatoes and poultry. There is abundant land in Nigeria for farming and most of it is located in the rural areas.

3. Packaged Water Production
The world is getting warmer and more and more people in Nigeria do need good drinkable water on a daily basis. Nigeria is one of the few countries where people actually have to buy drinkable water. Drinkable water doesn't run in the pipes and you can make money offering this charitable-like service. Your products can be satchet or bottled water and who knows, you cna also start your own brand of mineral water. Mind you, you would need a good piece of land with a factory setup in a non-toxic environment and well drilled borehole. You'll also need to get NAFDAC approval and SON inspection after you've set all up.

4. Movie Production
There is a hug market for Nigerian movies both home and abroad and you don't have to spend too much to produce a movie. Most movies are mostly for home video although the trend is shifting a bid for cinema sized videos. You can get new or old faces, get the movie script, shooting crew and producer, choose a location and kick start your movie. You will own rights to your home videos on VCD, DVD and the internet. You can even sell movie rights to Paytv providers like DSTV and Startimes.
Even if your small or big budget movie doesn't make an immediate sale on the dvd market due to pirates, you can also try the Youtube option where companies like Nollywoodlove are making millions from Google by simply publishing Nigerian movies on YouTube.

5. Educational Institution
Running a school is big business. Prices for school fees keep increasing yearly and you don't have to be a graduate to own a school in Nigeria(But a B.ED can be helpful). Just get a good land, install buildings, get the right staff, get the operating license and do some marketing and you'll see school students trooping in. There is a big market even fro day care centers and who knows, you can
expand to a secondary school. Your money comes when you charge per term and there are 3 terms in a year.

One smart transportation business one can do in Nigeria is the cab(taxi) on demand business. It just basically involves getting people to hire your car for a time period and they get billed for it, just like a taxi service. You can charge them on a time used or distance traveled basis.
Unlike the normal taxi business whereby taxis would have to be parked at a particular car park waiting for customers and setting prices arbitrarily, you only need to have your cars at a spot and then take orders from customers who call you. You would need to have standard rates which should be transparent and people would know it even before calling you.

This can be profitable in major cities in Nigeria with huge population but it can also work everywhere else where you have a large customer base.
There are probably a lot of Nigerians who would prefer a pickup service that comes with standard rates than having to go to a public park to negotiate for prices.
At times I see some rich old people getting into buses or tricycles just to get to their daily or weekly destination. It would be smart if you could tap into that and offer them the routine service as often as they want it at a good fee.
Likely customer base
=====================
Your target customer base could be:
- Rich old people too tired to drive
- Working class people too busy to own a car
- Mothers at home who don't drive but can hire a taxi
- Children who need a lift daily to and from school
- People who go to church or mosque on a weekly basis
This is a sort of taxi on demand service whereby customers call you by phone or make an arrangement to subscribe to your service on a continuous basis.
Niche services you can offer
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Pickup service: Pick people from home and drop them back.
Worship service
School service: For kids going to school frequently
Shopping service: For women who like to shop
What you'd need
================
- Vehicles e.g. cars, tricycles, buses, motorcycles.
- Car park
- Drivers
- Customers
- Admin office
- Business permit
You can still smart small even with one car and a good customer network.
What you'll have to decide on
==================================
- Choice destinations: Your approved routes for travelling. e.g inside state, inside LGA. Should be within 24 hrs
- How much to charge
- Fee basis: e.g. distance travelled or time used.
- When to get paid: Cash after service, cash before service or bank prepayment.
- How customers would order for a cab service: e.g by phone, in person e.t.c.
- Packages: Pay as you go or subscription basis
Some Nigerian companies who are already being successful at this business:
- Orange cabs
- Red cab
Marketing can help
===================
If you do start a small or big cab business, you would have to do some publicity so that people may patronize your business. It could be by word or mouth, church bulletin, newspapers, internet and social network. Your pricing strategy can also be a good marketing tool. Most cab businesses in Nigeria tend to be too expensive so there is a need for cheaper private cab services.

There is a lot of money to be made from Nigeria's stock market just by knowing when to buy and when to sell.
Although Nigeria had probably already experienced it's own time of boom and shock, there are still market opportunities to be taken advantage of just by trading shares.

In every year, stock prices always experience a period of upswings and down swings. Most stocks in active sectors tend to always rise and fall at different times owing to a lot of factors and that's where stock investors tend to make money.

One good thing I've noticed about buying and selling shares in Nigeria is that you don't have to pay any tax for capital appreciation. Capital appreciation is the profit you get when you sell a stock at a price higher than what you bought it. The only fees or taxes you might pay are some small fees like NSE fees, Stockbroker's commission all of which amount to about 4% of your transaction. You get to keep most of the profit you make from selling your shares.

Some people buy and sell shares once a year, some sell once in three months and some sell every month while some never sell their shares.
No matter what kind of investor you are, you can make some good money from Nigeria' stock market by taking opportunities such as selling, buying and even just holding your stocks.

Let's take a look at Access bank for instance. As at December 2012, the stock price was at N9.00 according to a historic stock price tool I got from Cashcraft But as at today in February, the stock has appreciated to N12.00. Chances are that it would keep appreciating till around April and may even reach N15.

If I had bought 100,000 units of Access bank with a N900,000 capital, by now, my money would be worth N1.2m and probably N1.5m by April. So that gives me a capital appreciation of about N300,000 just for about 2 months investment.

Another good investment would have been Sterling bank which is now currently priced at N2.93. However as at October 2012 when I first watched the stock, the price was at around N1.6 showing a price appreciation of about N1.3. This means that if I had invested about N1.6m by October 2012, by February 2013, I would hve had a net investment of N2.93m showing a total profit of about N1.3m in just 4 months of holding the stock.

So you see, stock trading is a good business but you just need to know when to put your money in and when to take it out. Stock trading is different from stock investing for the long term. Most people who trade stocks tend to hold it for the short term and not necessarily looking for dividends and other small benefits.
You can make good money trading stocks but the idea is to buy low and sell at the peak and sell at the peak to buy into newer opportunities. You can trade bank stocks, insurance stocks, food and health stocks and so on.

If you intend being a short term stock investor, you should keep a tab on news reports and financial record of the company as well as their historical prices. When investing in a country like Nigeria, a growing nation, it is really hard to lose in the long term since the economy would always be growing for now.

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A cool way to make money easily in Nigeria is by saving it in a strong currency. Not all savings or bank accounts can actually make you reasonable money so if you are going to save money in your bank account, then you better save it in a currency that hardly loses value in the long term.

On the 2nd of January 1995, the price of the naira to a single US dollar was officially around N21. Eighteen years later, by Jan 2 2013, at N153 to the USD the naira has depreciated by more than 700% while the US dollar has only grown stronger.

Imagine what would have happened if you saved $10,000 in your bank account in 1995, your capital would have grown to N1,530,000 even though you initially invested around N210,000 about 18 years ago. Those people who held N210,000 in their naira bank accounts would have lost a lot of money while you who saved the same N210,00 but in US dollars would have gained about N1,300,000 by 2013.

One of the reasons why people, especially the old, keep losing money in Nigeria is by holding on to the naira. Most of the old people who still have money today simply avoided the naira depreciation by investing in more stable assets. I am not saying that the naira is a totally weak currency by all standards but when compared to the US dollar, it is really weak and has depreciated constantly since the early 1980s.

There was a time when N1 was more valuable than the US dollar and even comparable to the British Pounds but gone are those days, until, at least our economy starts catching up and we start to export more than we import.

For the moment now, the best ways to save your hard earned naira would be by converting it to something that hardly loses value like an asset such as a stable foreign currency. Saving your money in a currency like the US dollar is a good investment for now.

Even the Nigerian govt and CBN know this and that's why a huge sum of our money is held in foreign banks in US dollars. The govt then withdraws from this account from time to time when the naira has lost value to invest it in projects to reduce costs.

Having a domiciliary account is a good way to save money in Nigeria without having to lose the value of your capital over a long period of time and still have access to your money any time you want it. Almost every year, it seems that the Nigerian currency keeps losing value and it really does not make much sense.

It is better to save money in USD than in Naira is you just want to hold money and it is even much better to invest in fixed assets like land, housing, stocks, small business than putting money in the bank. If you would rather put your money in the bank so that it doesn't lose money for you in the long term, then it is even better to put int in a domiciliary account where you can have access to it any time you want.

Some people even make money by trading the USD against the naira and vice versa. They buy the USD when it has depreciated a bit like during Christmas and then sell it when it appreciates like before April.
Imagine if you invested say N1.4m for $10,000 in a domiciliary account when the dollar is at around N140 and you let it stay there untul the naira depreciates to about N160. With that scenario, you would have gained N20 for every single dollar and for 10,000 dollars, that would be N200,000 you get just from saving your funds.

So if you must hold money in your bank account, why not make money at doing so by also saving it in a currency that earns you more?

Manufacturing is not something a lot of Nigerians are into due to the stress it involves but it does pay in the long run and you can succeed at it even if it is just one product you can produce and offer to the market.
People like Dangote have been in the business of producing cement and this has helped make him a success story in Nigeria.


Today, he is not just the richest man in Nigeria but currently the richest man in Africa.
Some people may say that its probably because of his relationship with politicians that made him richer but the bottom-line is that he already had something to offer, a useful product.

What does Aliko Dangote do to make him Africa's richest man? Well, he is a manufacturer whose business involves the production and packaging of cement which is useful for the construction industry.

He is one of the good examples that shows that manufacturing does pay in Nigeria despite the odds. If you could produce anything that the market needs, rather than import it, people would be willing to buy it from you at a reasonable price. There are other many examples of manufacturers in Nigeria producing a lot of products like tomato sauce, fruit juice, noodles, bottles water, biscuit, detergents, machine parts and others.

As at the first time he entered Forbes list, Dangote was estimated to be worth a little over $2bn but as at 2010, his fortune has only multiplied and Forbes currently updates his value to about $16bn. This makes him the richest pure black man in the world as at 2013.

There are lot of products that can be manufactured in Nigeria but an investor would have to focus on products that don't have too much competitive prices in the market. There is always a Nigerian advantage in producing items locally and one just needs to find one that suits his business well.

One of the factors competing against local manufacturing is the issue of importation. Most imported products tend to come at a discounted price to Nigeria than the cost of producing it locally. One would have to decide on whether to compete against those imports or avoid manufacturing such products altogether.

There are certain products that also have an import prohibition on them and it's wise to understand govt laws in order to take advantage of it. Most locally produced products do well when the market has not been flooded with related imported products.

Another factor manufacturers face in Nigeria is the issue of inefficient power supply. Many manufactures have to invest in alternative sources of energy such as generators and solar energy. Generators are fuel consuming and some companies would have to use it on a 24 hr basis just to remain profitable.

Computer business centers are mostly profitable businesses to run in Nigeria as they offer services which are mostly not too competitive yet. Not many people know how to use computers in Nigeria and there is cool money to be made by offering computer services to such people. The market does not just consist of people who are not computer literate but also to those who are but still need the services of a business center for one reason or another.

What does it take to setup a computer business? Not much really but I'm going to try to list out some basics:

Things you'll need:
===================
- A Shop or office
- Running capital: For fuel, salaries and bills.
- One or two computers - Desktops are common and cheap
- A photocopying machine
- A printing machine
- Standby generator: Small or big
- Business registration
- Account keeping for income and expenses
- Staff: At least a Clerk and Receptionist

Some Problems computer business centers face in Nigeria
=============
- Inefficient Electrical power supply: At times, most business would have to run generators for most part of their business time. To stay profitable in this business, you should just assume you are going to be using generators for a 24 hr basis, 365 days in a year. You may also invest in alternative source of energy like solar, wind or power inverters

- Multiple taxation: There may be a lot of taxes imposed by local councils and state govt. You just need to know what the right taxes are and the proper way to pay them so you don't get cheated
- Sourcing for original computer products: There are a lot of fake products in the society and it won't make business sense if you invest in parts or products that won't last for the long term. It would be better to buy brand new computers for a start and original ones rather than fake or cloned ones since this is business we are talking of. You should also try to get original Windows software from credible suppliers rather than just the open market.

- Software virus: A lot of computer business center operators don't really know much about taking care of their computers and they end up leaving their systems infected or operating at a low efficiency. If you want to start this business but know little about computers, then you should liase with people who do like an expert or a supporting company to help you with maintenance issues.

Services which computer business centers do offer:
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Since it is mostly a service oriented business, there is less need for raw materials but more need for expertise. Here are some services which you can offer:

- Typing and printing: This is mostly common among them and it basically involves typing on a computer using software like Microsoft word and printing it with maybe a hp printer. The last time I paid for this service, it cost me about N100 per page. The main raw material are white A4 papers and printing ink

- Photocopying: This is simply making a copy of a document using a photocopying machine designed for it. The price range is about N5 to N10 per page in Nigeria and the main raw material which is an A4 paper costs about N1. It is much easier than typing and takes less time

- Computer training: At times, they also offer the service to train people on a basic way to use a computer. It is mostly a computer literacy program designed to help them know basic things like powering it on and off, using desktop publishing and some other computer programs. This is mostly a more lucrative business and the fee is normally based on a periodic subscription which ranges from N15,000 and above for a month.
I hope this helps. if it does dont fail to share it

There is money to be made from food delivery services as they are a lot of Nigerians willing to pay for such services if they can get a home delivery rather than going all the way out to buy food.


Online food selling websites are on the rise in Nigeria and these are basically websites that list various restaurants in cities like Lagos and Abuja. They normally list a lot of local restaurants people already know, have their current price list and allow people to make orders for such foods depending on the menu they want.