Best Profitable Skills to Learn In Nigeria as a Student.

Skill acquisition is the best thing that can happen to an undergraduate before graduation in this current dispensation. The skills acquired could vary according to your interest but it can go a long way to sustaining you and your family after school.

Before coming across our list of best profitable skills to learn in Nigeria,  I believe some of you may ask why you should acquire a skill when you’re doing a professional course like Medicine, Engineering, Pharmacy, Accountancy or even Law?  well, I want you to do a little survey within your neighborhood or social media friends about those that study the above-mentioned courses, when they graduated, how many of them are currently employed, what kind of job are they employed in and how much they earn.

Many after graduation end up with no job or working in a firm where they are paid 30k per month even medical doctors working in some private clinics.

This is why you need to rethink as a student. If you’re still on campus or already out of campus you really need the process of rethinking life generally.

There are so many profitable skills to learn in Nigeria right now. Unknown to many, for starters, many of these digital skills could be learned online and do not have to cost an arm and leg. 

Below is a list of some best profitable skills to learn in Nigeria if you’re a student. These skills hold out the promise of present and future job opportunities, more so, as our world becomes ever more digitized, learning these skills will widen your horizons and open your mind to the possibilities that exist outside the four walls of your campuses.

Best Profitable Skills to Learn in Nigeria

1. 1. Programming/Coding skill
   2. Digital Marketing
   3. Web design
   4. Typing skill
   5. Graphic design
   6. Video Editing
   7. Youtube
   8. Networking
   9. Microsoft Excel
   10. Learn Chinese
   11. Culinary skill
   12. Powerpoint
   13. Artificial Intelligence
   14. Blogging Skills
   15. Cable TV Installer
   16. Fashion Design

16 best profitable skills to learn in Nigeria if you are a student

1. Programming/Coding skill

Coding is learning any of these skills; Fortran, Java, C++, Python, MySQL, Oracle, HTML, etc.

If you can learn any of the languages and good at it especially Java, Oracle, MySQL, C++ etc., you a hot cake.

Since our culture is increasingly web-centric, a teenager can learn the basics of crafting online content — and how to control the look and feel of it.

HTML5 is the standard markup language used everywhere from web design firms to newsrooms. Other types of coding can help you make programs and easily get information from your computer.

You can check out Codecademy and Khan Academy for beginners’ tutorials.

2. Digital Marketing Skill

It is the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service using digital technologies. Digital marketing is categorized into online and offline marketing.

I will recommend that you read Neil Patel’s articles on Digital marketing. Reading his articles will kick-start your journey in learning this great skill which has the potential of making you an asset.

3. Web Design Skill

Web designing remains very lucrative and businesses now understand the need to showcase their products/services online. Acquiring this skill and being creative with your design can put food on your table.

Once you learn how to design a website, go out there, make your research and look out for small businesses that are yet to have online presence, offer them an opportunity to have their business online at a limited cost, do a great job, have a professional website about your business and link back to your site indicating you designed the site, do this for few other businesses and showcase your works in your site, if you are good and have lovely designs, you will start getting job orders that can be paying your bills.

4. Typing Skill

Typing skill is an icing on the cake. It makes you perfectly fit into the digital word. And it can be learned by installing software like mavis beacon on your laptop.

5. Graphic design

This is another profitable skill that can sustain an individual if he or she is good at it. Most acclaimed graphic designers even with the help of available software do messy jobs.

Acquire this skill and you may not wish to work for anyone in your lifetime. Graphic designers are good at telling stories in images and texts. The best of comics are created by graphic designers.

This skill can easily be outsourced and on a daily basis, novelists, writers, columnists, bloggers, magazines require the services of graphic designers to better buttress their stories.

6. Video Editing

In the past few years, the world has witnessed a massive shift towards video content like never before.

With increasing access to the internet and data, more people can now afford to consume video content either through platforms like YouTube or even on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram.  

Companies and businesses are in turn leveraging this trend to communicate to their customers in a language they most understand through videos.

Anyone who has video editing skills right now is a hotshot and if well-positioned could make a profitable business out of it.

For this reason, I’ll say that video editing is one of the best lucrative skills students can learn.

7. You Tube Skill

According to the latest YouTube statistics, the video-sharing platform has 2.3 billion users worldwide as of 2021. This makes YouTube the most popular social media platform after Facebook.

Not only is YouTube the second-most popular social media platform, but it also holds the same title for search engines.

YouTube is the second-most popular search engine right after Google. In fact, it receives more searches per month than the likes of Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com combined.

Anyone can go and on with YouTube. In the nearest future, owning a YouTube channel will almost be synonymous with having a LinkedIn account. It will be a platform employers would find out more about potential hires and their talents and skills.

Operating YouTube is pretty easy, you can create their YouTube channel  and start creating videos on topics you love most.

In a few years to come, YouTube will really be saturated, so the time to jump on this moving train is now. YouTube is a lucrative business.

8. Networking Kills

Networking skills like communication, active listening and social skills are extremely valuable to have in both professional and personal environments and are particularly coveted by employers, as all successful businesses depend on networking.

Networking skills are the competencies you need to have to maintain professional or social contacts. Networking is a critical skill in sales, business development and several other industries.

Networking skills are necessary to make and develop relationships with new contacts and promote something of value.

There are different skills that you can practice to become more effective at networking. They include:

9. Basic Microsoft Excel

As a student,  one digital skill that would be most beneficial to you is Microsoft Excel skill.

What is Microsoft excel? Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, etc.

You could start learning the basic excel skills as soon as possible if you haven’t already. If you love graphs and drawings, trust me you will love it. If not, just try still.

Basic Excel skills include common Excel keyboard shortcuts, using cell references, styles, and ranges with data. Different view options like zooming in or out and showing formulas, and basic spreadsheet formatting also belong to the basic skill set for Excel.

When recruiting new hires, top employers prioritize candidates with Microsoft excel skills among other things. So, learning this lucrative skill is big deal for any smart student right now.

10. Learn Chinese

You already know all the compelling reasons you should pick up this language -Mandarin- that is spoken by more than a billion people on earth. But I will be kind enough to remind you.

Chinese is the most spoken language in the world with over 1.3 billion speakers, followed by Spanish with over 400 million speakers.

Chinese-speaking people are living all across the world and if you’re a professional, it’s more than likely that one of your clients, suppliers, or colleagues will speak Mandarin.

Besides, Chinese language skills are scarce in some companies, even for companies that do a lot of business with the country.

With Mandarin being needed in business, knowing the language will make you an attractive employee in the nearest future.

11. Culinary skill

Culinary skill has to do with anything related with cooking. So, put simply, culinary arts refer to the art of preparing, cooking, presenting and serving food.

This may often be in the form of meals in a restaurant, but culinary arts can refer to all professions that involve preparing, cooking, and presenting food.

If you are curious about how delicious meals are made or has some form of love for making food or food yourself, culinary skills could be a great fit for you.

Learning to make dishes professionally is one of the lucrative skills students can learn right now that would be of immense value for them.

Learning this skill is an opportunities that might open up in the future – who knows who will be the next world-known connoisseur.

12. PowerPoint Skill

Another vital skill you can learn is Microsoft PowerPoint.

PowerPoint was originally designed to provide visuals for group presentations within business organizations but has come to be very widely used in many other communication situations, both in business and beyond.

Learning how to use PowerPoint now will prove to be very beneficial in the nearest future.

This skill will help your make presentations easily either for organization or at work.

13. Artificial Intelligence

 Artificial Intelligence skill is a great skill to learn.

 Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing the landscape of work, making it an exciting time for programmers looking for something new.

Hiring growth for  Artificial Intelligence practitioners grew 32% between 2019 and 2020. Because of its increasingly widespread adoption,  Artificial Intelligence specialists earned LinkedIn’s #1 emerging jobs spot in 2020 and are #15 on their 2021 list of jobs on the rise.

As a student who wants the best for yourself, this information point to the fact that  Artificial Intelligence is a good skill for you to learn. So, make your findings and enroll for  Artificial Intelligence classes online.

14. Blogging Skills

his remains a profitable business if done right. Some Bloggers make as much as a six-figure income monthly, others make less or more. When you are knowledgeable enough in a particular niche, then you alone can decide what your earning potential could be.

But for you to monetize well, you need to register your own domain name and host your own blog, that way, you will be limitless with options to monetize with, either through affiliate marketing, ad networks, or sale of e-materials.

15. Cable TV Installer

This is another profitable skill that will cost you almost nothing to learn if you love Engineering or like playing with electronic tools. You can do this business on the side while you do other things.

Cable TV Installation is not so hard to learn and you could meet with Satellite Cable companies or their distributors and ask them to refer you to mount cable for new customers, this way, you do not only install it that once but big chances are you will be maintaining it.

16. Fashion Design

The fashion industry does not know the meaning of recession. This industry grows yearly and as well the profit margins. If you are creative and the trendy type, you will make it in this industry.

Also, in Africa, we are good at organizing/attending occasions in uniform and there is no week in Nigeria that people are not celebrating or mourning.

When you are good at designing or sewing, you will be overwhelmed with job orders. A friend once said that if you can survive the disappointment of a Nigerian tailor, you can survive any disappointment.

What this implies is that they hardly keep up with delivery date; this could be out of too much job order or just another lazy tailor (many of them are).

So if you are good, creative, and keep up with the latest design in vogue as well as keep to time, then this industry is definitely a go for you.

Profitable Vocational Skills to Learn In Nigeria

Vocational skills are handwork skills because they require undergoing training for you to be proficient in them.

Here’s the trending profitable vocational skills in Nigeria right now. Below is the list of vocational/handwork skills:

• Photography
• Cooking
• Tiles laying
• Makeup Making
• How to repair cars
• Fashion designing
• Selling car parts
• Shoe and bag making
• Hairdressing
• Brick making and laying
• Printing
• Dye, soap, cream, etc. making
• Writing and proofreading

Employee Skills to Learn 

Have you ever gone through the big companies Job requirements? Most of the companies require you to have skills in the following areas:

• Communication
• Leadership
• Analytical
• Creative and Innovative skill
• Organization skill
• Ability to learn quickly, identify issues, and propose innovative solutions