25 Ways & Skills to Build Passive Income in Nigeria

If you’ve been thinking of a way to build passive income in Nigeria, this particular page will show you more than 20 ways you can effectively and profitably achieve that. But why building a passive income?

It’s a known fact that most salary earners in Nigeria spends almost all the money for them paid, before the time of the next payment comes. This may lead to inability to purchase certain items for yourself, your family and take care of some responsibilities such as subscribing to some services and even discourage you from travelling to a certain places either for holiday or tourism.

Since the salary or wages aren’t that sufficient to cater for your needs, you’ll surely agree with me that it is important to improvise. And this the reason why we’re both going to learn the idea of how we can build passive income in Nigeria.

You might ask be asking……

What is passive income and how is it built?

Passive Income can come from a job where you’re not actively doing or a job in which you’re employed and paid by a “boss”. It is the money you earns other than your monthly wages – Simply put, it is called “side hustle”!

And to build passive income in Nigeria or side hustle, you need to be smart, digital savvy, consistent and ready to sacrifice enough time (plus ‘Patience’) and some bucks.

I know you’re ready for this? Please be informed that these passive income ideas here are the mashup of business you can start by investing little capital and other ways you can make money online in Nigeria without spending a dime.

Having that in mind, let veer to the main checkpoint;

The 25 Best Ways to Build Passive Income in Nigeria

1.   Book Writing/Publishing

Are you a versatile writer? If you can write great article such as story, history, tutorials, advice, motivation or any type of article and you can command English with your writing, you can start your way to earn money online from Amazon Kindle.

Amazon Kindle is one great place to publish your books and you could also write. You place a price tag on each book you uploaded to Amazon Kindle and Amazon will help you take care of the rest.

Yes, you don’t need to stress yourself much after publishing the book on Amazon Kindle but if you can promote it to your audience, it will be an added advantage to get sale quicker.

Although it take time to get a book ready, when it finally gets ready, the cash just keeps coming in.

If people love your love and the early buyers gave the book some impressive ratings and recommendations, then you’re going to keep earning from it until it fades.

So if you need a side hustle in Nigeria and you have penchant for writing, considering joining Amazon Kindle.

2.   E-commerce

You could as well get into the field of e-commerce and build passive income in Nigeria through it. Dropshipping would be an ideal option if you’d be venturing into the field of e-commerce.

Dropshipping is selling goods you don’t really have in stock and earning some commission on each successful sales. No risk and no stress. In fact, you can do it alongside with your 8-5 job.

There are lots e-commerce platforms for dropshipping to help you get started easily, Shopify and WooCommerce are a few amongst others.

You need to invest some money to build your online shopping store before you can start this business.

3.   Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a type of online business where you partnered with a firm in order to help them sell their products or services.

A purchase made via your affiliate link gives you a commission usually in percentages. Getting started with affiliate marketing is pretty easy as most firms do have this on offer and you could take advantage of it and build passive income in Nigeria.

Here are the top 10 affiliate programs in Nigeria which you can join, promote offers and start earning some bucks.

4.   Build an Online Course

With proficiency in any field, you could teach the rudiments of such field and get paid for doing so. A good place to start is Udemy, there are more options but Udemy is well known with good reputation.

Teachable and Kajabi are also great to launch your online course and start making money from the successive sales.

5.   Freelancing

Freelancing give you the time to do your active job and you’re not tied by contract to any firm. As a freelancer, you can provide solutions to various problems, get paid and your income keeps coming in.

I earn mostly from Fiverr and I’ve also earned from few freelancing platforms. You can also start your freelancing career today if you got any skills that can be rendered and delivered digitally.

PS: Read this guide on how to start a freelancing business in Nigeria

Here are the top 10 freelancing websites in Nigeria that pay well for freelancers. Check them out before you choose to join any.

6.   Start a YouTube Channel (Vlogging)

A lot of Nigerians such as comedians, musicians, reviewers and other content creators make money constantly via YouTube. They’re making good money daily and you can join the train.

If you find yourself proficient in a certain field, having a channel that explores the nitty-gritties of such field would be a good way to build passive income in Nigeria.

This is one sure fire way to build passive income, what even more unique is the market isn’t saturated with vloggers. You can take advantage and start your vlogging journey today

7.   Blogging

Another way you can build passive income in Nigeria is through blogging. Few years back, owning and managing a blog was quite difficult and required lots of human and technical efforts. With the continuous growth in technology, the process have been simplified, you can even run and manage blog on a smartphone or tablet – even though I don’t support it.

There are numerous ways to earn money online by blogging in Nigeria, these includes selling Ads spaces, Google Adsense, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts and so on.

If you want to start blogging, I can coach you on how to make money, create the blog for you and monitor you for 30 days to make sure you’ve understood the blogosphere.

But this is a paid service I render for smart entrepreneur like you. If you’re ready to start your way to blogging like a “Pro”, contact me here and let talk about it.

8.   Article Writing

If you’re good in writing, it could generate passive income for you as you write articles. Perhaps you’re not proficient in English grammar, there online course which could help you out and expand your skills.

I’m a blogger and freelance writer but sometimes, I gets too busy to write a single letter. That’s why I personally hire proficient writers and I pay them per article not per month.

I calculated the money I paid my freelance writers for a month and it’s up to N35,000.

And personally as mentioned, I writes contents for clients. I bill them based on the type of the article ranging from N1,000 – N3,000 per article (for Nigeria clients)

You can also start your writing career by pitching business owners on social media, email and on freelancing websites.

9.   Comedy

The field of comedy, especially skits making do pay these days. You can take some inspiration from the popular skits producers and start one if comedy is your thing.

Broda Shaggi, Omo Ibadan, Lasisi Elenu and so on are frontier comedians making money from Instagram, YouTube, Paid partnership and other deals.

You can also do stand-up comedy like that of AY, Basketmouth and so on, it pays too.

10.               Graphic Design

It’s seen a primary source of income for most Nigerians, but it could also serve as a means of building passive income in Nigeria with sites like fiverr etc. online or offline.

You can brand your image and start looking for people interest in logo, fliers, book cover and so on

11.               Buying and Selling domain in Nigeria (Domain Flipping)

Another great way you can build passive income is through the purchase and sale of domains. It’s pretty easy to do this, you get domains from those willing to sell theirs and resell for a higher price.

It’s called domain flipping because it involves flipping of domain you’re not going to use for money.

Flippa.com is the popular sites in the world to make profit from domain and website reselling.

12.               Software Development

We’re currently living in a world where a lot of things are getting digitalized, mobile apps makes it easier to access things you’d find on most sites – it’s compact and user friendly.

With this revelation, the market for software development – especially for smartphone is quite high. You could also work independently and create apps.

Again, freelancing sites like Fiverr can help you get started.

13.               Email Marketing

It’s a form a digital marketing that entails sending lots of marketing based emails to several persons. You’d need a huge contact base to succeed in this field.

Wait, I’m not telling you to start sending random emails to people.

The aim of Email marketing is to “sell”.

Now ask yourself; what am I going to sell to the people with these email addresses?

If you don’t have anything to sell or promote, you can offer these service for money. There are lots of start-ups or business owners who need to promote their stuffs, you can be hire if you approached them well.

14.               Copy Writing

It’s another form of writing you can use for building passive income in Nigeria, there lots of places paying for this. It doesn’t require lot of technicalities to begin earning through this means.

Just as email marketing, the main intention of copywriting is to “sell”. Before you jump into this, you need to be a proficient and persuasive writer.

Business owners may hire you to write for their product or service.

15.               Tutorials

Tutorials especially online is one good way to make some good money for yourself and in the process, build passive income in Nigeria. Many people outside there these days are leveraging the internet to learn almost about anything that could be of great help for them.

Having good knowledge of a thing and giving tutorials increases your earning potential.

You can offer classroom tutorial where you’ll teach people face-to-face about what you know and can be of great benefit for them.

You can also sell ebooks.

16.               Photography

Photography is another way you can get to build passive income in the country. Asides the conventional style of photography, you could also sell your photos on various platforms which are available online.

Personally, I make few bucks from photography because I have small camera and printer here. I snap people who call for a quick shot and I will print it out for them. I also earn from wait-and-get passport as it is more expensive than normal photograph.

You can buy a small camera and printer of N150,000 or second of N100,000 and start doing the business in your school or environment.

17.               Real Estate Investment

Investing in real estate is one of the best ways to build passive income in Nigeria. Take the current American president for example, aside his salary he makes good income via real estate. It’s one of the best ways of earning these days.

I don’t want to bore you with stuffs about real estate investment but I got a nice tutorial on how you can make money from real estate investment in Nigeria – read here.

18.               Stock Exchange

The stock exchange market is one that pays a lot, it’s a market where trillions are made daily, this trillions are distributed among the traders.

Investing in a company’s stock is a good way of building passive income in Nigeria, but it’s important to scrutinize the firm before investing.

19.               Music

No doubt the entertainment industry in Nigeria is one of the most functional industry currently. Music in the country does pay, especially if you can produce cool songs that keep people glued to their earphones.

There’s more than enough genres you can choose from, so you’re not stuck on a particular style and that’s the beauty of music – its dynamism.

Davido, Wizkid and others started from somewhere and you too can.

Read this guide on how to make money as an upcoming artists in Nigeria

PPS: Here is how you can promote your music and build your fame in Nigeria

20.               Radio/Television Jingles

If you happen to have a good voice, then you can earn some money via radio and tv jingles.

It’s pretty easy, just saying some words about a product or service and you’re paid for it, how cool!

DJs, Radio stations, TV company and some business owners hire these type of people

21.               Audiobook Sale

The world have grown a lot in terms of technology in the 21st century, books have grown from paper formats – which is traditional and wildly used, to e-books – which is beginning to gain attention, to audiobooks.

Audiobook format are getting a lot of attraction from persons of various field who will like to read while doing other activities and making a book in such format is one way to build passive income in Nigeria.

N.B. Not all books are suited for this format, especially books with graphical representation and pictorial illustrations.

22.               Disk Jockey (Dj)

With events happening every weekend services of a disk jockey are always needed. You could use the weekend to rack up some extra bucks.

There are lots of radio presenters who do this during the weekend or on days they’re off work, you could learn, get a laptop and start your journey.

This also one of the best business ideas for students in Nigeria

23.               Master Of Ceremony (MC)

Still on events, every event will always require the services of an M.C. and what better way to build passive income in Nigeria than conducting events and getting paid for it.

Becoming an M.C. will require self-confidence which you can build if you don’t have one and public speaking skills which you could also learn easily.

It’s an added advantage if you know how to make people laughs.

24.               Cryptocurrency Trading

It’s quite similar to stock trading in terms of structure. Dealing on cryptocurrency is good way to make an extra income asides your daily job. It does require a bit of technical acuity and you’ll start making money.

PS: Here is how you can make money with cryptocurrency in Nigeria

PPS: You can sell your bitcoin or any coins to these trusted cryptocurrency exchanger website in Nigeria

25.               Human Resources

People who are into HR consulting in Nigeria makes money once they started with the right orientation.

Human resources simply involves recruiting and training people who are job seekers. After training and might have selected the best from them, you will then recommend them alongside with their CVs for companies who need such skilful or experience employees.

You’re going to be paid certain amount of money every month on each employee taken out by any employer from your HRO Company.

But you need to professionally start this business if you want people (both prospective employers and job seekers) to trust you.

With this business, you can profitably build a passive income in Nigeria. But how do you start?

No worry! I got a detailed article here that will teach you the best ways to start HR Outsourcing Business in Nigeria

…. and over to you

So wrapping up, you’ve seen 25 ways to build passive income in Nigeria. There are more ideas but the ones above are ideal. 

Which are you into currently and which would you like to venture into? Let me know in the comments!

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