The Nigerian business industry is booming at a high rate. This is because many unique business ideas, mostly online, have started springing up and becoming familiar in the business space in Nigeria. These unique business ideas have actually existed in the Nigerian business space for a while now but with little recognition. However, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many people to lose their jobs, made them begin the search for business ideas that would last them a long time.
The interesting thing about these unique business ideas is that they are very simple and affordable. Some of them are even online and don’t require inventory or stock to run. These unique business ideas are good business ideas for newbies who want to make money online as a side hustle with their 9 -5 job or as a full-time business. Most 9-5ers are starting to understand that their salaries aren’t enough to sustain them, so they are actively looking for better sources of income. If you are in any of these categories, then this is for you.
In this post, I’ve selected 10 unique business ideas that you can start as a side hustle or a full-time business, online or offline or both. The beauty of this is that you can start some of these businesses with as low as N20,000 in this current economy.
Table of Contents
10 Unique Business Ideas in Nigeria for Nigerians
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Selling popcorn
This is one of the most unique business ideas with high potential and low exploration. Many people have the mentality that this business is for poor people. What they don’t understand is that people involved in this business are making a lot of money from it.
To start this business, you only need to buy the popping machine, corn and electricity. Then you can position yourself at a place where lots of people would pass through, make the popcorn and start selling. You don’t have to worry about packaging at the start. Once you have a solid customer base, you can brand your packaging and even start exploring flavours. People like trying new things, so they’ll definitely patronise you.
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Affiliate marketing
This is also a unique business idea with little exploration in Nigeria. This is because even as popular as this business is, most people do not believe in it. Many people still think of this business as a scam or an MLM scheme. This is the reason why only a few people are involved in it.
You can effectively start affiliate marketing online where you create affiliate links for a product for easy tracking. To make money through this business idea, you need to pick a product that resonates with a specific audience that you already have or be ready to create. You’d also need strong marketing skills to market other people’s products. After making a sale of the product, you get a particular commission from that sale. The more convincing you are and the more products you can sell, the richer you’ll get.
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Bead making
This unique business idea is a bit stressful but worth it. Although it requires some level of skill, it is not something difficult to know and start. Simply meet with an expert that is willing to teach you, learn how to make beads and start making your beads for sale. You can also add a bit of creativity and make very unique designs that would interest your buyers.
You can start bead-making with as low as N10,000. If you’re very creative with your designs and launch impressive campaigns and adverts, you could make a lot of money with this business.
Read also: Businesses you can start with less than 50K in Nigeria
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Dropshipping
This unique business idea is online and similar to the affiliate marketing business. The similarity is in the fact that you need to advertise other people’s products by adding your profit to them. In dropshipping, you decide on the amount of profit you want to add to the price of the product. You cannot do this in Affiliate marketing. In affiliate marketing, only the owner of the product can set the percentage of his profit that you would get a commission for selling his product for him.
Start by growing an audience, find a product that you know your audience would like, advertise the product to them, and add your profit to the price of the product, when a customer requests that product, send the request to the seller of the product, send the money for the product to the seller after removing your profit, the seller sends the product to the customer in your name. At the end of the process, you have made a profit without even owning a product. All you need for this unique business idea to work for you is a product, a reliable seller, an audience and good marketing skills.
Read also: Digital marketing platforms for Nigerian Businesses
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Soap making business
This business is very popular and can make you very rich but sadly it is almost non-existent. This is because people believe that the process of making the liquid soap is very stressful and there’s no point venturing into the business. Whereas, this is one of the easiest unique business ideas in Nigeria.
You only need to learn how to make the soap, get containers of varying or uniform sizes, depending on your target market, advertise to people and start selling. To make your product stand out, you can customise the container, use a unique perfume, and start supplying it to supermarkets. You can start this business small with as low as N10,000.
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Drop servicing
This is actually a newly discovered and unique business idea. It is similar to the dropshipping business model. The only difference is that what you are advertising and making available to people is a service and not a product.
Here, you would need to source qualified service providers which could range from a social media marketer and graphic designer to in-person services like barbing. Just find someone that needs the services, take the job as if you are the one rendering the service, outsource it to someone that can provide the service, pay the person you outsource it to and deliver the job to the client in your name. The only thing you need to do is to make sure you’re hiring a professional for that service you need and monitor the work.
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Smoothies’ business
This is a very good business idea that is still very new in Nigeria. What you need are the right fruit combination, blenders, a refrigerator, creativity for fruit mix and toppings, and the readiness to create awareness about it. If your smoothie is very chilled, people would rush it and you would make money from it.
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Virtual assistant
This is a very simple business model that many people do not know. Being a virtual assistant is simply rendering the skills you have to other people as services. These people do not even need to meet you in person before you can render those services to them.
This unique business idea includes Blog management, online community manager, social media manager, email marketing, online customer, and service representative. The list is not exhaustive. If you don’t have any of these skills, you can learn them online, advertise yourself, and start rendering the service.
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Turban and accessories making
This is also a very unique business idea that requires you to learn how to make it. Turban and accessories making cannot go into extinction because it is a spice in the fashion industry and fashion isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
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Autogele making
People haven’t explored this business idea because most are used to the common traditional stressful tying of gele for their events. When you have an autogele, you can easily wear it and remove it anytime you want. You can learn how to make this gele and start selling them. You can get the aso-oke from the customer and make it into an auto-gele. Or you buy the aso-oke yourself and make it into the gele. To know how to do this, you need to meet up with someone ready to teach you how to make it.
Conclusion
Nigeria is a country full of many unique business ideas because of one thing or the other. Some of the reasons are the type of business, the cost of starting the business and the fear that the business might not bring in a huge income.
Read also: How to overcome the fear of failure as an entrepreneur
However, if you are a 9-5er, you can as well pick any of these unique business ideas as a side hustle to make more money to augment your salary.
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About Author
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My name is Olorunsola Omolayo. I am a legal practitioner, chartered accountant, and writer. I am also an Ebook creator who specializes in writing books and blog posts on business topics, especially online businesses.
My leisure activities are writing, seeing movies, and researching.
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