15 Lucrative Business Ideas With Small Capital In Nigeria (2022)
Are you looking to start your own business in Nigeria, and become your own Boss? Perhaps you want business ideas to invest in and add to your already existing stream of income. Maybe you’ve finally gotten that financial breakthrough you’ve been hoping for, and as a wise person, you choose to invest to sustain your wealth.
Whatever your reasons are for wanting to start your own business in Nigeria, continue reading this article; you’ll awesome business ideas you can invest in, and make good money.
In this article, we have compiled 15 business ideas a Nigerian can easily set up, whether being a graduate or not. A lot of the business ideas listed here can be started with as low as ₦50,000. However, we recommend to always start a business with at least ₦150,000, it helps with the rate of your business growth, and branding if the business becomes successful for you.
We have also tried to trim down the list to businesses where you require little or no expertise to handle, so keep in mind you won’t be seeing ideas like fashion design, hairdressing, or automobile repair. This is not to say they are business with low income, one can indeed make lots of money from them, but they’ll require you going for training for at least 3 months, and this can actually lead to spending most of the investment capital you currently have.
We’ve also made sure we specify the minimum amount you would need to set up these types of business in Nigeria.
So, let’s get to it.
Transportation
Even when people complain about the economy of the country, they still travel, they still board busses to work, market, etc. Even in hard times, people need to move: this is one business opportunity that’s location, and economy proof. With as little as ₦900,000 to ₦1,500,000, you can get a Keke, bus, or a 5 sitter taxi to start up.
However, if you don’t have up to that amount, you can get it on hire purchase deals starting as low as ₦300,000. This business can fetch you at least ₦10,000 daily, and that’s if you don’t work overtime. As regards how to get passengers, you’ve probably been using public transport before, so you should know what to do. You just need to learn how to ride a vehicle if you don’t already know-how.
Courier Services
This is another business opportunity leveraging on the endless opportunities in the transportation sector. These days when people buy things online, both the seller and buyer needs someone to deliver it to the buyer’s door step (or final destination), and that’s where you come in. You can get a motorcycle for as low as ₦800,000, and even some hire purchase deals starts at ₦200,000.
The amount you can make daily or monthly depends on the types of goods you transport, and the distance you have to travel with the goods, you can get clients by affiliating with online sellers and E-commerce platforms, networking, and giving a branded (your brand) product like Key holder, pen, or notebook to a previous customer.
You can also get customers by networking, and word-of-mouth marketing. You only need to learn riding a motorcycle, you shouldn’t need more than a month to learn.
Selling Mobile Phone Accessories and Gadgets
This can be a very profitable business if you can set it up correctly. 9/10 of people above 16 in Nigeria own a cell phone these days — you can leverage on that and start up a business that’s bound to fetch you steady income.
You are basically going to be selling stuff like phone chargers, earpiece, screen guards, Bluetooth speakers, etc. you only need at least ₦30,000 to launch the business, at start-up, it’s not necessary you buy all the products listed above — You can start with only three different products. To maximize sales, it’s wise to set up in strategic locations like markets (or very close), close to schools, busy junctions, etc.
Sales of Raw Food Stuffs
This is one business that’s very lucrative if you can manage it. Though there’s a stereotype of it being more suited for a particular gender, but this isn’t entirely true — every adult that decides to venture into this business has equal chances.
This involves you selling edibles like rice, beans, garri, plantain, soup ingredients, etc. Setting up in market places usually boosts your daily income, but if you can manage to set up at a busy junction, you can as well make a good daily profit — the only problem is that your shop is not a permanent site, and you should be flexible in case of any eventualities. You can get things going with as little as ₦100,000.
Tomato and Pepper Farming
Still on business opportunities that are leveraging the need for man to eat. Tomato farming is a nice business you can consider because it’s never hard to find customers who are ready to take your product to the market to sell.
If you have a farm ready, you only need about ₦500,000 to mechanize the whole process. The pest and diseases that usually affect a tomato farm is usually minimal, and easy to control —another bonus.
Bakery and other Pastry
Well, this requires some skill before you can start it, but if you’re a fast learner, you can actually learn the ropes in no time. It essentially involves you being creative with flowers while making a living out of it too.
Setting up this business won’t take you up to ₦200,000, especially if you have the skill set to do it. If you’re a good cook all around, you shouldn’t have much problem adding baking to the things you can do. You basically get customers by networking, word of mouth advertising, and paid advertising.
Poultry Farming
Again still on the endless possibilities of investing in consumables. Poultry farming can be a very lucrative business when you do it right. This is business can be done in your house, which gives an added advantage when starting up. A definitive guide is coming on different types of profitable poultry farming you can start in Nigeria.
Sales of Clothes (Boutique)
This is a very flexible business you can even start without owning an actual boutique at first — it’s preferred to start with a live boutique. If you prefer, you can also niche down to selling only clothes of a particular gender, or age group — this will further increase your sales because people tend to buy more items if they see more options in the same place.
It’s wise to choose a shop along a federal road, or even better, pick a plaza or shopping complex in a market. You can start this business with as low as ₦500,000, if you are very customer friendly, you can make it all back within 3 months.
Pest and Weed Control Business
This is a unique business yet to be fully exploited in Nigeria, partly due to the nature of the country’s economy. It’s one of the few businesses you can actually start up from the comfort of your home, and after getting the necessary tools, you don’t need to spend till you get your first client.
On expansion, if successful, you can add sales of the chemicals and tools to DIY enthusiasts. You need less than ₦100,000 to secure all the tools you need for both pest and weed control.
The majority of your clients will come from running paid adverts, word-of-mouth marketing, and networking. While that’s the case, it’s always wise to set up in a shop that’s close to a major road where people can see what you do.
Soap, Detergent, and Disinfectant Making
This is one business that truly makes you your own boss, because at start-up, you are in charge of everything from manufacturing, to sales — even after the start-up level, you can still choose to be in charge of how your products gets to the market or retail customer.
Learning how to make these is very easy, with YouTube videos, you can learn and be well-grounded in making a particular type of soap or detergent within the hour. It’s also a business you can start from home, and expand when necessary.
You would be shocked how much you can make from a single batch of product — a batch of detergent that costs ₦25,000 to produce can be sold for up to ₦50,000, when sold at retail prices we’re looking at ₦60,000-₦80,000. Customers can come from all types of advertising, and marketing, but a key way to ensure consistent growth is by branding your products.
Perfumes and Cosmetics Making
Just like soap and detergent making, you get to be your own boss and can start producing on a small scale at home. You can learn how to make perfumes by reading our perfume making guide. With materials that cost ₦10,000, you can make a profit of ₦30,000-₦50,000. You get clients by networking, paid advertising, word-of-mouth marketing, and branding.
Mini Importation
This is a business you can easily launch from the walls of your home. You just have to take screenshots of hot trendy foreign products, post on social media and put your price tag (above the cost price of course).
When you get a paid client, you can proceed to order the goods, then shipping it to Nigeria you can read our Importation guide, and also trusted shipping companies you can use to ship goods to Nigeria. Your monthly income depends on the amount your customers pay for goods and the frequency of orders.
Gaming Shop (PlayStation center)
This is a very hot business to set up in locations close to schools or the market. You don’t necessarily need much to launch this business. You just need a good secure shop/room, and at least one PS3, PS4 or PS5, and a TV set — a total of ₦100,000 is more than enough to start up.
Your daily income depends on how many people play games at your shop daily; with a single PS3, you can make at least ₦1,500 daily, with a PS4 you get at least ₦2,500 daily and a PS5 can fetch up to ₦10,000 — all these assuming you close up 6p every day.
Your customers are majorly teenagers, young adults, and youth — try to find a secure location filled with them.
Jewelry and Bead Making Business
Dealing in jewelry can be very lucrative, especially when the jewels are handmade. A lot of people these days prefer handmade jewelry to those made in bulk because of their uniqueness whenever it’s flaunted.
Learning how to make beautiful beads and jewelry is just a matter of creativity — you only need YouTube videos to learn the basics, then you can kick-off from there. If you’re good and your designs are unique enough, you can even expand to having your own jewelry-making school which can fetch you extra cash
Sales of Fabrics (Ankara materials, vintage, etc.)
This is also a very portable way to make money in Nigeria — you can start by posting social media adverts online to get your first client. You don’t even need to get clothes in stock before you venture in, you just have to snap many samples, then when a client pays you can go get them.
Your clients can range from fashion designers, normal people looking for where to buy fabrics to give their designers, and people looking for clothes for marriage. Your profit depends on the level of sales you are able to make.