From civil servants driving Bolt at night, bank tellers running online stores during lunch breaks, to school teachers tutoring in the evenings, side hustles have become survival strategies across Nigeria.
These side hustles have become a means of survival in an economy where a drastic increase in the cost of living squeezes incomes, salaries stagnate, and millions are taking on multiple jobs just to keep afloat.
While these extra shifts put food on the table, they also expose cracks in Africa’s largest economy, where multiple jobs don’t translate to substantial growth.
The Economy that Gave Birth to the Hustle
In Nigeria, the side hustle is responsible for generating extra disposable income, creating a nation of poorly paid employees who live middle-class lifestyles. Nigeria’s side hustle didn’t emerge as a choice, it is a direct response to economic pressure.
The first driver is inflation eroding purchasing power. As everything gets more expensive and affording daily necessities gets harder with the average salary buys less every month. Workers who once lived modestly on a single paycheck now need extra income just to cover transport, rent, and groceries.
Also, wage stagnation and poor job quality have forced people to improvise. Most Nigerians work in the informal sector, where pay is unpredictable and benefits are nonexistent. Even those with formal employment often earn below a living wage, leaving them with no cushion against rising costs while some salary earners remain stuck on the same pay for years, even as the cost of food, transport, and housing climbs relentlessly.
Another driver for the booming side hustle is underemployment and job mismatch. Many young graduates can’t find full-time roles that match their skills, so they piece together multiple gigs, teaching after office hours, driving e-hailing apps at night, or selling online to make ends meet.
Hidden Costs of Working Two to Three Jobs
Side hustles may provide quick funds for sorting out emergency expenses or sustaining a lifestyle. However, it’s not without its cost.
The extra hours often lead to exhaustion, stretching the workday far beyond healthy limits, which could erode performance at primary jobs. What appears to be greater productivity can quickly turn into burnout.
Personal lives also take the hit. Time that could have been spent resting, nurturing relationships, or focusing on self-development is consumed by the relentless pursuit of additional income. The result is declining health and missed moments that no amount of money can replace.
In addition, too much multitasking makes it harder to sustain attention, and focusing on more than one professional pursuit at a time makes people more likely to abandon the pursuits that take more effort or have a longer payoff curve because there are always other options to focus on.
The Economic Upside
Over time, this side hustle mentality has created a rise in the number of micro and small enterprises across the nation.
While the hustle culture stems from economic pressure, it isn’t without benefits. Side businesses provide funds for supporting households, supporting small-scale consumption, and reducing the risk of financial collapse when salaries fall short or are delayed. This extra income sustains demand for everyday goods and services, from food delivery to fintech transfers, creating micro-markets that stimulate economic activity.
The rise of digital platforms has turned previously invisible jobs into visible and organized work. Ride-hailing, freelance marketplaces, and social-commerce apps provide payment records and transaction data that improve financial inclusion.
This shift strengthens financial inclusion by helping individuals build verifiable income patterns and credit histories. While it might not automatically guarantee access to loans or insurance, it creates the foundation for financial services providers to better evaluate and potentially serve these workers.
At a macro level, side hustles encourage entrepreneurship. Many small ventures born out of necessity evolve into viable businesses, creating jobs beyond the founder. In this way, what begins as survival can, in some cases, seed innovation and broaden Nigeria’s tax base.
Still, these benefits are not without a downside, as this highlights the fact that side hustles are thriving because core wages remain stagnant. Without wage growth or structured support, the hustle economy is less a sign of prosperity and more a coping mechanism dressed up as progress.
Nigeria’s side-hustle boom, which looks like entrepreneurial zeal at its core, for most, it’s an adaptation to harsh reality. It’s a symptom of an economy that fails to deliver decent work.
Workers chase survival, not ambition, across multiple jobs. To lift Nigeria beyond this cycle, policymakers must build jobs that support life, not just keep it on life support.
