How to make extra money in Lagos
In Lagos everybody needs extra cash one way or another. You don’t just stick to one thing; mostly everybody has a side-hustle. Please excuse me if you are the child of a minister or any other government child – who may not need the side hustle.
VISA Application Processor (or VPA)
If I had a quid for everyone who asks me to assist them with visa processing application; I’d be….well I’d have a lot of quids! It seems like once people hear you have lived in the UK for an extended period of time, they assume you have the bb pin to the home office, or have the right to whatsapp the queen herself!
I have a friend who actually gets paid up to 50,000 naira for one application – which now I see as reasonably priced. The fee has no bearing whether the application is successful or not by the way.
I had an agent trying to sell me the dream of getting a visa to the UK. I played along to his games; I asked him what does his own charge of 150,000 naira entail? He boldly told me it was for: filling in my name CORRECTLY (I mean who would know how to spell my name correctly? Myself or a total stranger?); and then the clincher of all services, he declared that he would help me take an approvable photo. So I’m guessing the normal passport photo would not suffice anymore?
So let us break down the cost:
Assistance in filling the form, including completing names
Then add the cost of 8 passport photos.
Unless you intend to charge 75,000 per task, then I really do think this is over charging.
The reason this ‘business’ is even viable is due to the fact that there are those in our good country, who are petrified of processing their own applications without any assistance. They have already programmed their mind to believe that taking on the task alone equates to failure. This situation thus calls for a middle man. You could as well be a VISA application processor. Why not – people are asking for it. But where you’d differ is the ludicrous price tag attached. But you could easily charge a respectable flat rate per hour (let’s say 10,000 per hour) or you could just settle for 25,000 per application. A quick recap:
Job entails assisting in application processing for VISA to countries such as UK, USA or Canada
Pay: anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 per application
How to get started: read up on application laws and processing on each country. Ensure you understand all the necessary documents applicators need. People needing visa will find you! Merely word of mouth can do the trick.
Nigerians are afraid of information that is not gossip. Yes I can boldly say that. The nation has been programmed that one cannot be self sufficient; there MUST be a middle man in all tasks. So if you really want to cash-in on this trend, then you’d be laughing all the way to GTB!