Instead of a physical, part-time job, you can earn money doing simple, digital jobs online via apps or websites. These jobs won’t affect your lectures or studies and require no money or skills to start earning. Anyone can sign up and earn, the registration is free, and you earn either in naira (NG) or dollars (USD). Excited to know these apps and sites? Let’s get started.
Apps to Make Money Online in Nigeria as a Student
Quickly, we will look at some of the less-talked-about apps and websites that will pay you real money online without any investment or skills. Forget about Upwork and Fiverr, and sign up on any of these apps you see here.
1. TimeBucks
The first app every Nigerian student out there needs to make some cash is TimeBucks. I’ll guide you through earning money with TimeBucks. How TimeBucks works is that it is a ‘rewards website’ that pays you to do simple, everyday online tasks. You will get paid for tasks such as watching videos, visiting websites, downloading free or paid apps, playing games, testing websites and apps, etc. All of these are simple tasks anyone can do and that you can do from anywhere—at home, in traffic, or whenever you like, using your phone, tablet, or PC. No, you don’t have to pay to join TimeBucks. It is free, not one of those pay-to-play websites.
You will get paid directly to your bank account in Nigeria, either through crypto like Litecoin (LTC) or direct bank deposits. Before you sign up, know that TimeBucks is just for earning money from small tasks; it’s not for full-time income. It is a side hustle. But don’t worry, you can still earn sufficient funds as a student with this app.
- Go to Timebucks.com.
- Click on ‘Sign Up’ and enter your details. You can even use your Facebook details to register.
- Once you have signed into your account, you are on your way to start making money.
- Click on the ‘Earn’ tab to show all the different tasks you can complete to earn real money. There are a lot of tasks to do. Pick one and suit yourself.
- Finally, get paid.
The best way to earn from TimeBucks is from the Task tab. However, there have been new developments on this tab, which I have also talked about.
Another cool way to earn is to complete surveys. Surveys will require you to answer questions about a particular website. It could be what you think about the website or app, or what you feel they could do better. You have to be honest and consistent to avoid getting kicked out. You earn money whenever you complete any given survey, up to $2. The problem with surveys is that you won’t qualify for many of them. Out of 10 surveys, you might qualify for just one.
You can also earn money here through ‘Offer Walls’. When you click on it and scroll down, you’ll find tasks from different companies. These tasks pay differently, from $0.20 to $0.40 and more. Just select a task and start working on it.
TimeBucks even pays you to play games in Nigeria. Click on the ‘Games’ section, scroll down, and you’ll see a list of games you can play to make money. Just follow the rules and be ready to play. So, instead of spending time on Candy Crush or Call of Duty Mobile, you can actually make something out of Timebucks.
As for the Timebucks Tasks section we mentioned earlier, you will see a list of tasks to complete and get paid for. There are many Nigerians in this category because there is always something to do for everyone. It’s the most lucrative part of Timebucks, even though you’ll be seeing offers from $0.17 upwards. Click on ‘Tasks’ when logged into your account, scroll down, and you’ll see different categories like social media tasks, webpage engagement, and more. Select one category, and it will load available tasks. Follow the instructions for each task to make money.
You can also earn some cash on TimeBucks through referrals. You’ll find your referral link on your profile that will give you 15% of whatever your referral earns. For example, if the person makes $10, you will be paid a $1.50 commission. Feel free to share your link on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter with your family and friends. Do not spam, though.
TimeBucks will pay you once you accumulate at least $10. Payments are made every Tuesday and Friday. You can receive your payment via Litecoin and AirTM.
2. Legiit Messenger
The second app is the Legiit Messenger app. The website is Legiit.com. Unlike other apps, this one will pay you much more money. The difference between Legiit and Timebucks is that Legiit requires a bit of skills like writing, etc. If you don’t have such skills, stick to Timebucks.
On Legiit, you can get paid up to 20,000 naira (it’s typically in USD) for just a 1,000-word blog post. I currently have an open order on Legiit and have made more than $15,000 all time. If you convert this to Naira currently, that’s 15+ million.
Simply sign up and post your gig as a content writer. You’ll see others charging around $30 for a 1,000-word blog post. That’s more than 30k naira.
What if you don’t have advanced writing skills? When you get a writing gig on Legiit, outsource the work to writers on Writersgig. You can pay around 2,000 to 3,000 naira. Just make sure you choose writers with ratings above 4.5 for quality assurance.
3. SproutGigs
If you have not yet made your first dollar online, the reason is not that you are a Nigerian student but rather because you have not been informed about SproutGigs! The website is SproutGigs.com, and I’ll show you how to earn dollars in your account when you sign up on SproutGigs.
SproutGigs is not as well-paying as Timebucks. It is a small job or mini-task website. There are so many tasks for everyone to do and get paid for—it never runs out. Any time you turn on your data, you will find tasks to do. SproutGigs works like Fiverr but requires no skills. It also has skill-based jobs though, so it’ll be a plus if you can write, edit images and videos, etc. When you go to SproutGigs.com, there are many gigs here. For example, you can see ones that say, “I will write an article” or “I will design three logos for $2.70,” etc.
You can focus on the micro jobs if you need jobs for students without skills. When you sign up, go to the ‘Micro Jobs’ section and click on ‘Find Jobs’ to see many opportunities to make money. Just complete these small tasks, submit proof of your work, and get paid. You can get paid as much as $2, sometimes even $5, for each task.
Make sure you work honestly! If you submit fake proof, you can be banned. You need to complete the task genuinely, submit proof of your job, and get paid. SproutGigs is really strict when it comes to IP. If you are IP banned, it’s almost impossible to get back. Also, there is a leaderboard section on SproutGigs.com. I forgot to mention earlier that Timebucks has this too, which you can always check out. The leaderboard shows you different people and the amount of money they have made from the completed tasks. You’ll see earnings from a few dollars to several hundred. That should encourage you to get to work.
4. Sidegig
Sidegig.co is another app a Nigerian student can use to make money online. It’s not the best compared to others but it’s worth it if you just want to have many different earning platforms on your device. Note that the platform I am referring to is Sidegig.co and not Sidegig.com. It’s fairly legit, and it pays students to do simple gigs. This website pays you to complete really simple tasks that require no skill.
Anyone can join, even if you are new to making money with your phone or computer. On the website, just click “Join us as a freelancer”. If you are already logged in, the site should sign you in automatically. You will see many student-friendly tasks on SideGig.co that won’t affect your regular studies.
When you sign up, click ‘See All Tasks’. It will show all the tasks you can do to earn quick money. For example, you can earn 3 naira for liking a post on Instagram. Obviously, this does not require any special skills. You’ll see both the tasks done by others and the ones still available for you.
5. Nairaworkers
The next app is Nairaworkers. You may be familiar with it, but you’ll find new tips here to increase your earnings. If you just found out about Nairaworkers, it’s a site where you make money when you do simple tasks such as taking surveys or following people on social media.
Visit Nairaworkers.com and click ‘Register’. After registration, you are all set. Many students think the only way to make some money on Nairaworkers is to do jobs like joining Telegram channels for small payments—10 naira here, 100 naira there, or some naira for signing up for an app. Well, these are legit methods to earn, but as you can see, they don’t pay much.
Let’s talk about the high-paying methods on Nairaworkers. Instead of doing tasks, open a buyer account and post these jobs. Don’t worry; you’ll understand in a moment. You are going to post tasks like getting likes, followers, sign-ups, etc., to earn more money as a student. This is similar to what sites like dislikes.ng are doing. They simply help people grow their social media accounts or increase engagement on their posts.
Let me explain how this works. You can set up an Instagram account, for instance, and offer services to help people get likes or followers. When clients pay you for this service, you then use NairaWorkers to post these jobs. So, you go ahead and click ‘Post a Job’ and list tasks for a small fee while you charge your clients a higher rate. It’s a simple arbitrage.
Let’s make an example. Suppose a client offers to pay for people to join a WhatsApp group and is paying 8.2 naira. If someone needs 200 people for this task, the total cost on Naira Workers will be 1,640 naira (8.2 Naira multiplied by 200 people). However, you could charge your client, say, 20,000 naira for getting 200 people to join their group. Subtract the 1,640 naira cost, and you are making a profit of over 18,000 naira just for getting people to join a WhatsApp group.
6. OwoDaily
Whether you’re in a university, college, or polytechnic, OwoDaily.com will pay you to do small digital tasks. It’s similar to Nairaworkers. You can earn money when you refer people to join. I’ve personally made 300k naira on OwoDaily just through referrals. I made this amount by inviting up to 150 people. OwoDaily even features a list of their top referrers.
There are many students on this site who are bringing in lots of referrals. You can share your OwoDaily affiliate link. It’s simple—sign up on OwoDaily, and you’ll find your invite link in your account. When someone uses your link to join OwoDaily, you get paid for the referral.
Becoming an affiliate on OwoDaily is not just about joining as a regular member. There’s also OwoDaily Plus. If you are a member and want to get into affiliate marketing, you’ll need to upgrade to OwoDaily Plus. It has a yearly subscription but not really worth it, anyway. The yearly subscription fee is 10,000 naira, and it includes a small service charge from Flutterwave.
7. WritersGig
Finally, I really recommend WritersGig.com. Yes, it’s fairly legit. When we say ‘fairly’, it means that you’ll still be better off working on TimeBucks. The advantage of WritersGig is that you don’t need to be a professional writer, but some basic writing skills are necessary. You will be able to see how much money people are making by writing simple gigs once you sign in.
Once you are on the website, click ‘Become a writer’. You’ll find yourself on their landing page where it explains how WritersGig works. After the registration, create your gig, similar to Fiverr. You receive payment for your work, complete the writing task requested by the client, and then you can withdraw your money to your local bank account in Nigeria.
Once you are accepted to WritersGig, you’ll see different writing offers posted by buyers. For instance, you could find a request for 10 blog posts of 2,500 to 3,000 words each. The pay can be around 20,000 naira. You are right, it’s not good enough. So, if you know your onions and can write really well, WritersGig is not for you. There are many job offers available – another example is a 112,000 naira job to be completed in 12 days. Some jobs receive many proposals, so make sure to sign up correctly and start bidding for jobs you can do on your own.
Conclusion
So, there you have it—all the best apps any Nigerian student can sign up on and real money online and never go broke. All you have to do is sign up, complete the tasks, and get paid in naira or dollars to your local bank account. None of them requires you to invest a kobo, apart from OwoDaily. Time, phone, and data connection are your only investments. These are better options than borrowing money from loan apps, even though some of them offer low interest loans.
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