10 Lucrative Businesses in 2023 with Low Entry Costs
Most of us by now are feeling the impact of the global recession. The World Bank predicts that global growth will slow to 1.7% in 2023, the third weakest pace in the last 30 years. That means whether you are unemployed, employed or retired, you probably could do with a lucrative side hustle. Here are
10 Profitable Hustles To Try Out in 2023
1.) Foray into Agriculture
With expansive arable land, water and good soil in the North, South, East, and West there is ample opportunity for individuals, businesses and government to make money from Agriculture. What's more, food is a major human necessity so demand is massive for businesses that venture into this area. Here are some of the lucrative agricultural businesses you can start in Nigeria.
Livestock Farming
Cattle farming is popularised mostly by the Fulani nomads as they can be seen in various rural and urban settlements in search for food. You can buy a young cow for NGN85,000 to NGN100,000 and sell it for as much as N500,000 - NGN700,000( 400kg-550kg). In holidays and seasons such as salah/Ileya celebrations and Christmas; prices for cows are at their peak.
Poultry Farming
Chickens can be reared from when they are little and raised till they are mature. Through out their lifetime they offer value in eggs and manure for fertiliser. Eggs go for as much as NGN2,600 per crate and can be sold for as much as NGN15,000 per chicken in peak periods. They can be purchased in cartons for as low as NGN28,000 in a carton. This is the total price for all the 50 chicks that come in that carton.
Fish Farming
This is a popular farming method. You can purchase fingerlings for an average rate of ₦250 and set up a small pond with less than ₦10,000. Cat fishweigh around 500–700g after 4 to 5 months of cultivation and can be sold for ₦1250 on average. Check out this video from a Ghanaian corper who started catfish farming with GH₵200 or ₦7500. Catfish can also be roasted and sent to the market.
Cash crop Farming
People would always eat, so farmers that deal in cash crops can be profitable with the right strategy. Popular cash crops like yam, cassava, fruits, corn move in the market.
Agriculture is capital and resource intensive so there's a barrier to entry but the next business it free to start and you can start being profitable in no time.
2.) Real Estate
Real estate investment doesn't have to start from building units of apartment buildings or buying expensive land. If you can recommend friends, prospects to buy property, most developers and companies would willingly give you a handsome commission.
Other ways to make money with real estate investment include:
Development
Property development involves purchasing land, erecting buildings, developing infrastructure, and selling to the buyer either at carcass (lintel level), fully finished, with fittings, plumbings, and so on, or fully finished and furnished.
Rentals
In Rentals, you buy a property to put on the market for monthly or yearly rental. It has a lot of upsides like; regular cash flow, asset appreciation, collateral for loans, and property can be sold afterward for a profit.
Reits
Simply put, a REIT is a trust that pools fund from individual investors, acquires, operates and/or manages income-generating real estate.
Flipping
Also referred to as land/property banking - you purchase a property to sell in the quickest time possible for profit.
See How Nola Adetola started started and Veritasi ; one of the most profitable real estate companies in Nigeria.
3.) Furniture and Fittings; The fine Art of Living
Nigeria, a country of over 200million people has a housing deficit of 17-21million depending on who you quote. With an ever increasing population growth, Nigeria is a prime investment destination, a ready market for various investments; tech, financial services and real estate investments.
As houses are springing up by the day, they will need to be properly finished and furnished. This opens up a huge market in the furniture making industry.
In this video Miss Jumoke Dada who is a Nigerian entrepreneur talks about how she built a successful Furniture Manufacturing Business in Nigeria from the ground up.
4.) Nigeria or Ghana Jollof? - Food is Big Business
According to SEMRUSH; "Jollof rice", a local Nigerian delicacy has on average; 400,000 global organic searches monthly and on Youtube; it has a combined over 7 million views from two of the top food YouTubers; "Sisi Yemmie" and "Sisi Jemmimah". And this is only one recipe !
With thousands of Nigerian recipes available, opportunities abound in the food industry outside opening a conventional restaurant; you can monetise: a community on a blog, instagram, YouTube or Facebook "How to Guides, recipe books and brand endorsements. You can monetise all of this!
Whether restaurants, fast food, fine dining, selling snacks or a community; the food business is a 'moving' business that has consistent cashflow and mouth watering margins.
5.) Logistics and Package Handling
Logistics business which include mostly deliveries here in Nigeria have massive potential. Post Covid, lots of businesses and opportunities are open to delivery services so most restaurants, e-commerce stores, vendors have demand for delivery to the customer's door. This means that motocyclists, drivers, riders are in demand to courier products. The minimum amount per delivery nowadays ranges between; NGN1,500 - NGN2,000 for short distances. This business is pegged at volume as you can see decent daily income by the day!
6.) Carpooling or Ride Hailing
Uber and Bolt have democratised movement globally and of course in Nigeria. With on demand taxis and cabs available to take you to your destination, guaranteeing prices and safety, it is a very popular option to move around in town. Now even more ride hailing apps like Rida, Anaya, Indriver are popping up daily. The drivers have most of these apps in their phone and can make as much as NGN30,000 daily as net profit.
You can also offer your car to co-workers or stranded commuters moving along your daily routes for a fee. Great way to make some extra cash without paying out any commissions to a third party.
6.) Drop shipping
According to Oberlo: Dropshipping is a type of retail fulfillment method for online stores, where instead of warehousing inventory, merchants purchase products from third-party suppliers as customers make orders. The products are then shipped directly to the consumer. This way, the seller doesn’t have to handle the product directly.
Many Nigerian Ecommerce store owners have become millionaires through drop shipping as they can avoid a lot of the overheads that come with having traditional retail business and only invest in running traffic to their site and making money. Popular wholesale marketplaces for these drop shipping products include:
Alibaba
1688
7.) Fabrics Business
Fabrics business is the first stage of the fashion business. The food chain proceeds from here. Designers, tailors, have to source textile materials and retailers can acquire from the wholesalers in bulk and markup per yard for profit. The profit to be made in this business is in the volume. A yard of material can be acquired for as low as NGN1,500.
8.) Bedsheet Business
After sourcing for textiles depending on the quality and design, they can be cut and sewn to different sizes and types of bed sheets. It's big business many homes have need for several sheets and also folks in the hospitality industry constantly have need for bedsheets.
9.) Fashion Business
The holy grail of all things textiles. Whether fast fashion, traditional, luxe; social media buzz, socialite events and hangouts mean people always have to look their best! So providing ready to made or customised clothing is a lucrative business if you can carve out your niche and produce quality wears. Adenike Ogunlesi is the proud founder and creative director of Ruff 'n' Tumble, one of the best manufacturers of children's clothing.
10.) POS Business
Fintech has had a bull run over the past few years and even in 2023, only 3% of Nigeria's population has a credit card and only 32% own debit cards. Payment is a lucrative industry in Nigeria with still so much ground to cover. Managing and accessing cash on the go is very vital for our cash based economy.
To this end, Point of Terminal businesses; where individuals can withdraw money from the POS machines like traditional ATMs are now mainstream. A commission starting from NGN100 and above is added per transaction based on the volume of cash needed. This is how POS businesses make money! On Jiji, A brand new POS terminal can be purchased for as low as NGN20,000.
