Looking for small business ideas that you can start with 20k or less in Nigeria?
You are not alone.
In Nigeria of today, you would need a capital of 50k to start a small scale business, but that doesn’t mean that there are no other businesses you can start with a lesser capital.
In this article, we’ll be looking at some profitable small businesses that you can start cheaply. Some of them would cost you 20k to start, while others would cost almost nothing.
Let’s jump right in.
Mobile Food Vending
Food business is good business anywhere.
And the good news is, you can start a mobile food Vending business with 20k Naira or less.
All you need is hire a good truck, which would cost less than 1k daily, use your home utensils and cutleries, and prepare food as demand grows.
You wouldn’t imagine how much people spend on feeding on a daily basis until you set up shop to start selling.
The average mobile food vendor in Nigeria earns nothing less than 7k Naira daily.
Masonry
Masonry is underrated as a very lucrative business in Nigeria. Even though it is manpower intensive, there is a lot of money to be made.
The good news is that all you need is basic masonry tools, such as a trowel, a leveler and a carrier pan.
All these tools cost less than 5k to get you started, and you can start finding jobs almost immediately.
The average mason earns at least 3k per day, which is almost 100k per month.
Crypto Trading
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a large capital to start crypto trading.
There are levels to trading cryptocurrency, and there is room for anyone to start trading at any scale.
With a trading capital of 20k Naira, you can set up shop on any of the crypto apps with P2P trading option.
With a capital of 20k Naira, and a good trading strategy, you can start making at least 3k profit daily by trading crypto.
Fuel Reselling
The Petrol and Kerosene black market in Nigeria is another thriving industry on its own.
People living in remote locations where there are no fuel stations need local fuel resellers to sell to them, and these resellers make good money doing this business.
With a capital of 20k, you can purchase a 50 liter jerrycan, funnel and refill cans, transport yourself to and fro the nearest fuel station, and pay for 50 liters of whatever fuel you want to purchase.
Petrol is obviously more demanded than kerosene, so there’s likely to be more profit to be made there.
You could buy a liter of petrol for 180 Naira or less, and resell for 250 Naira. That’s almost a 40 percent profit margin.
So, if you invest 20k Naira in reselling fuel, you’re likely to be getting a profit of about 8k Naira.
If you sell fast enough, you could be making that amount on a daily basis, which would gross you about 240k per month.
Egg Distribution
Egg distribution is a fast-moving business, which you can start with a capital of 20k or less.
You don’t necessarily need to have a shop. You could set up a mobile distribution or get an attachment.
With 20k, you could start with 10 to 15 crates of eggs, while you build up your relationship with farms, to be able to carry goods on credit.
You also need to build your own distribution network of retail shops that will buy from you.
The larger your retail shop network, the faster you can sell, and make profit. There’s also the need to learn egg selection so as to maximize profits.
You could also set up a retail egg business on the side to complement your egg distribution.
The average established egg distribution business in Nigeria makes at least 5k per day.
Mobile Fruit & Grocery Cart
Everyone loves fresh fruits and vegetables, but it seems the only people who know that this is good business are the northerners.
Now, let me tell you for free, mobile Fruit and grocery cart business is a very lucrative business in Nigeria.
On average, a mobile Fruit vendor could make as much as 10k daily, especially during weekends.
With just 20k, you could make good money, plus the advantage of keeping fit while doing your business.
Home Decor
Are you one who is obsessed about putting things at the right places? Do you love colorful paintings and good ambience?
Then you probably should start home decoration as a business, as it costs almost nothing to start.
One thing about home decor is that most customers do not know that they need decor services until you show them what they can get.
So, there is a lot of marketing involved with home decor, and you have to be very sociable and available.
Depending on the client being served, a home decor specialist could make an average of 50k per job.
But note that these home decor jobs could come few and far between.
Small Scale Lending
Most people underestimate the power of having capital, and that includes a capital of just 20k.
You would think that 20k is chicken change until you split it into 2 or 4 and ask people to have it in return for a small interest.
The tradermoni program of the Federal Government of Nigeria should give you a sign. Traders and business people almost killed themselves just to get a loan of 10k from the government.
With 20k, you could start a micro-lending business where you loan small businesses the sum of 5k in return for a small interest.
This would work like a passive business, because you’ll be doing nothing other than tracking your money and collecting it back.
You could start from people you know and trust and then expand into mutual contacts.
It wouldn’t be long before you discover the wonder of compound interest, as your 20k capital would continue to grow, the more you rinse and repeat the process.
Bread & Fries Distribution
Bread and fries distribution can be a daily earner for people who know how to knuckle down for their money.
Many bread makers and catering shops are looking for people to help them distribute their products.
This is because their distribution network is either poor or non-existent, and many of them maintain a single location.
As a distributor, what you do is approach retail shops that sell snacks and drinks, and ask if you can supply them with snacks.
You could even go with samples, so they could test and see that the product may be better than what they already sell.
Once you have a list of shops that have agreed to buy from you, you simply place bulk orders from the bakery or caterer, and start distributing.
Most bakeries would give you a discount in price or unit, so you could be making anywhere between 10% to 20% profit margin per order.
For example, if you have 20 shops or supermarkets to supply bread, fried chips and other snacks, and the average cost of each item is 500 Naira. Supplying 20 items per shop would cost 10k and would give you a minimum profit of 1k Naira.
Supplying 20 shops would then give you a minimum profit of 20k. If you supply weekly, then you can be making a monthly earning of 80k and above.
Online Fashion Shop
Do you know that fashion is the easiest commodity to sell? Even more than food!
People spend a lot of money on trending fashion, and they don’t feel guilty about it.
But the fact is that most of the best fashion stores are offline, and are mostly tucked away at market complexes where few impulsive buys take place.
There is an opportunity to then curate the best fashion you can find and market them online for a profit.
People search products online and products get recommended to people on different sites that they visit.
For example, I just saw an old photo of me wearing one of my old favorite shirts – a long sleeve polo.
Guess what? I wanted to get hold of that shirt again, and I searched online for something similar. I found a few good ones on Jiji and bought three of different colors.
I’m sure the lady that sold it to me didn’t own those shirts. She simply marketed it from an offline fashion shop, and pocket the profit on the original cost.
A lot of people are doing this kind of business, and you can too, for way less than 20k.
All you need is a good camera, which most phones of today have; and then some good hustle.