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Hello and welcome to the podcast today. Apologies, there's going to be some noise in the background because it's a Tuesday and the house is being cleaned at the moment. So today what I want us to look at is some hard ways of making money in Nigeria. Now, the reason why we are looking at that today is because over on the radio show, that's not this podcast because I have a show on terrestrial radio, Radio Maria 91.3 FM, Abuja.
Don't bother trying to find it except if you're in Abuja, Nasarawa, Niger State, you know, people who are close, you know, can hear it but not the rest of you who are listening from, you know, Lagos, Singapore, New York, you know, wherever you are. So I got a call 2 weeks ago from this chap if I, and then another fellow called Gideon and then a couple of people called and then, you know, it's been on my heart since then that lots of Nigerians and I put it like we're trying to hammer, we're trying to blow yes, because everybody's trying to blow myself, I'm blue.
But The thing is a lot of us are picking the most difficult ways to make money because they have the promise or the allure of being easy. And so that's one thing I spoke about on the radio show that I want to talk about here today, because definitely I know that there's one or two of you who are also checking head inside this kind thing because you know, I was interviewing for sorry, not interviewing. I was on an interview panel for one of my clients who's trying to hire a new sales team.
And you know, so far like one or two people clearly have passed through who are in multi level marketing or in the pyramid scheme, depending on, you know, sometimes somebody says it's multi level marketing. By the time you push, you now see that this is our pyramid scheme. So those are two ways that people try to make easy money, good money in Nigeria. But honestly, there's some of the hardest things you can do, multi level marketing, some of the hardest things you can do,
pyramid scheme, some of the hardest things that you can do. Then of course on the radio show, I also spoke about how you can get your money back if you have put money inside multi level marketing and if you have put money inside a pyramid scheme. So these are some of the things that we're going to talk about today in this particular episode. So multi level marketing is, to be honest, it's a normal business strategy, it's a normal go to market strategy, it's a normal sales strategy.
And the whole idea is to introduce your product into the into the public. You're going to use distributors. So that's what multi level marketing is. So let's say I have a product that I want to sell, let's say electric kettles, and I form my company, Tavishimas Electric Kettles Incorporated. Then I go and train a bunch of people who are going to sell kettles on my behalf. Then they invest money in the inventory. I train them, so they invest money in the inventory, so they buy the kettles from me.
Then they go and sell the kettles and then they get to keep a share of the profits or a share of the commissions. Now anybody who becomes really good at that kind of thing can go and recruit other people to sell on their behalf, sell underneath them. And depending on how we set up the arrangement, you know, they get a Commission from the people who are selling for them. And I am getting a Commission off of, you know, everybody in the chain below me.
So multi level marketing is nothing new. Excuse me? There's a genuine go to market strategy. There's a genuine sales strategy. And in fact, Mary Kay, that's how the company Mary Kay is built on. For those of you men who are listening to the podcast, you have no idea what Mary Kay is. Or for the women who listen, I mean, I mean, they know even though Nigerians don't like to use Mary Kay. So Mary Kay, American woman, I think, yeah, I think she was American and that's how her beauty empire was built.
And it's a multi billion dollar business still alive till today. It's a multi level marketing thing. One person brings another person in, they train the person, that person becomes a distributor eventually. Distributors have people underneath them. You know, that's your downline, everybody taking the chain of everybody's sales. And it's supposed to motivate people to sell harder and sell better. So it works, it's genuine, it's real, it's real.
So don't be afraid. It's real if you find the real company. But I'm sure you've noticed a couple of things that will multi level marketing actually sales motions that is going on. It actually is something that people are buying and people are selling. Please take note because that is going to come in later. While we're trying to differentiate between the multi level marketing scheme and the pyramid scheme. Then one of the reasons why multi level marketing is one of the hardest things you can do is because when we're coming into business, a lot of us are trying to come into business because we're trying to sell something.
You're trying to sell web design, you're trying to sell wedding photography, you're trying to sell solar services, you're trying to sell architecture, you're trying to sell your chickens. You're trying to sell whatever it is. We're all trying to sell something. Now selling something is hard enough as it is, but you can see that it is part and parcel of the multi level marketing process that you have to recruit people.
So you see now we now have to become skilled at recruiting people, looking at someone, vetting talent, is this person talented enough vetting Dr. and ambition. Then we also have to become skilled at training people because yes, you bring the person into the fold and there'll be some training. But then once in a while you would recall your downline to say how far now what's going on? You know, I'm not seeing sales like waiting to happen, blah,
blah, blah. How can I support you? All those conversations, you have to be having all those conversations too. So you can see that for somebody who's coming in new to the business, you're picking three very hard things to do. Selling in itself is hard. OK, no problem, you're doing it. Next thing, managing people immediately. You're now becoming a manager. Managing is hard now. OK then training people like were you born a trainer?
Have you gone for training classes? Who has taught you how to be a trainer? It's a lot. It's a lot for a first timer. So for those of you who really, really want to hammer, like multi level marketing is good because you learn a lot about yourself. You learn how to do time management, you learn presentations, you learn proposals, you learn negotiations, you know, you learn a whole host of things, but Amour is hard. Is this your first time?
It's hard. You picked a very hard route just selling your, let's say you graduated from architecture, just setting up shop and trying to be an architect and trying to sell your architectural services. I honestly think you stand a better chance of building a successful architectural business, you know, first round than to say you're going to go and do multi level marketing. It's hard, but of course Nigerians are drawn to it because of the prospects of growth.
The whole idea that you'll be taking money from somebody's commissions. So if you build a down line of five, the five build a dine line of 10, maybe the 10 build a down line of 15, the 15 build a down line of 26, the 26 build a down line of 100. The thought of collecting Kabul, Kabul, Kabul Commission Commission on top 100 people and you know that's the thing that is catching people's you understand as in as making your eye big, making your eyes shine.
But it's a hard game. So for those of you who are trying to run two things now listening to this podcast, you graduated from hockey, you're saying you want to do the setup on architecture agency, no problem. But on the side you want to be doing multi level marketing. Please stop deceiving yourself. Multi level marketing is hard. If you want to do the multi level marketing thing, forget your dreams of being a or building an architecture agency,
forget the architecture agency and then throw yourself into this multi level marketing thing. 100%. If you're struggling with this multi level marketing thing, you know, I understand the pressures of managing people, managing inventory because you will be managing inventory. So back to the example, my company, Tavishyamas Kettle Kettle Electric Kettle Incorporated, you have bought 100 kettles from me. You have to manage inventory.
Where are you going to store the kettles then delivering the kettles, you know, to your downline who are going to be buying the buying the kettles off of you. So inventory management, when is somebody coming to pick off? When are you going to drop down And look, the work is plenty. There's easier ways to make money. I beg easier ways. And I'm glad that people who are listening to the radio at the time called in somebody called to say hi.
He was making money off of pure water, pure water nylon or more. I'm telling you that the benefits I've had from this podcast and the radio show being exposed to Nigerians from different socio economic classes, different tribes, people making money in different ways like pure water nylon, I never would have thought So what the guy does is he goes and collects pure water nylon whichever way he can. Then he goes to Jabi.
Jabi is a is a district here in Abuja. Then in that district, there are people who take this pure alta nylons and then they melt it down into pellets. Then people come from Kano and buy the pellets because they use the pellets as raw materials to make nylon bags. And yes, I know this part as a for a fact because I served in Kano. That's back when I was a lawyer. For those of you who listen regularly, you know that I'm a former lawyer.
So where was I? So that's why I, I served and I spent some time as a lawyer. Now my Olga in the law firm that I used to work, one of our biggest clients used to sell nylon. Lebanese gang used to produce nylon. And I'm surprised because you know, these Lebanese guy who could be kind of rude sometimes, but the guy get money, guy gets 0 bar, you know, children screaming abroad, all that kind of thing. And every time the guy you know,
comes, we do something for him. Millions, 1,000,000 millions. So one day now after we picked up like 7 point something million. Because, you know, back then when I was surfing, you know, all this wireless transfer was not, you know, you didn't used to do transfer, transfer, transfer like that. And so it was was Cash, Cash, cash. You know, if somebody wants to say to you, they'll give you a check or they'll come to your office and Graham here's your cash, the rest is up to you.
So on. Then after we picked up 7 points thing and I asked my guy like what does this guy do stuff? He says he said nylon and bathroom sleepers. I said sorry Sir, I didn't hear you correctly. He repeated it. He said he guy makes nylon and the guy makes bathroom slippers. And I said how? Sir? The guy said look around you who doesn't have bathroom slippers? Is there anything click? And then he said, look in the market who doesn't use nylon bag?
Is there anything clicked? Now there's some ways of making money. There are people who make money, you know, big, big, big. And then you have few customers, you know, like you're charging 1010 million, but maybe during the year you only have four or five clients. Then the other businesses where you're collecting cobra, cobra cover from people, but then billions of people are using it. So that's like the profit model for bathroom sleepers and and nylon bag that you use in the market.
So I know that this industry goes on and that there are producers in Kano. Funny enough, when I was in Kano, Nepal was really bad and power is a huge part of this industry. So everybody used to run a generator. So sometimes I wonder, like, you know, you guys are smart, it's a good business model, but that you have to pick Kano, the one state in Nigeria that has terrible power supply and hopefully things have improved in Kano.
So yeah, so the guy called and he told me that that's how he is making his own money. Pure water nylon. Pure water nylon. Yes, you will help me correctly. Pure water nylon. So basically people called in to say, yeah, there's a way to to make money and this multi level marketing thing that you're trying to describe. So now what's a pyramid scheme? This pyramid scheme is similar. But what happens is all the focus is always on recruit people.
Recruit somebody, let them come for the meeting. When they come for the meeting, they pay their dues or they do their this, they do their that. And then everybody gets paid a certain percentage from the money that new person dropped. So one person brings in two people, the two people drop money, the two people bring in four people, the four people drop money, the four people bring 8, the eight people drop money, the 8 brings 16, the 16
drop money. And everybody's getting a is a Commission on each other person's head. So this is the main difference between the multi level marketing scheme and the pyramid scheme. When you hear multi level marketing, buying and selling is involved, you can't separate the two. It's like Mary Kay for Mary Kay. When you go for meeting, it's not just recruit, recruit, recruit. It's also a matter of we have lipstick, we have eyeliner, we have powder, we have eyeshadow,
we have this, we have that. They're selling things. They're calling you for meeting. You will sit down, you talk about progress, you pay your dues and everything. You talk about financial, this financial that, you talk about the secret, the eternal wealth and everything. But the end of the day, money is moving. How is this money moving? I don't know. They paid me a Commission. How did I get paid a Commission? I don't know.
Are we selling something here? Are we investing? I have no idea. My own is just. I show up for meeting and then I invite people and people show up for meeting. Where's the value coming from? I don't know Where's the value going to? I don't know if you're listening right now. You've attended this guy meeting last week, two weeks. Please go and check on you could be in the pyramid scheme and let me let me let you know the bad news here.
Pyramid schemes unfortunately can't go on forever because these things are growing at is it geometric rate 1 to 2/2 to 4/4 to 6/4 to then just not enough people in the world to support the pyramid scheme. It's mathematically impossible. So the pyramid always has to collapse. Always. Definitely. So I'm letting you know it seems good now because you're receiving your own cut, but eventually the pyramid collapses. Then what?
Especially if you brought your mom into the thing, you brought your wife into the thing, you bought your best friend into the thing, you bought your pastor into the thing. The whole thing collapses. Then people start writing about how online, about how The thing is 419 and some people are angry and unfortunately they don't know the person who is in charge of the whole thing. So when the time comes, will they come and grab?
They'll come and grab you. You're the one that will now face the police Palava and the military issues. So the easier way is to make a living and we have to be very careful before we go and choke on inside something that we do not understand. So these are very, very difficult ways to earn a living. So the answer to the question how do you get your money back? If it's a genuine multi level marketing scheme, the way that you get your money back is you have to sell, you have to sell more and you have to sell aggressively.
So when you sell off the stock, let's say back to my company now tarvishing my Electric Kettle Company Limited, you bought 100 kettles from 100 kettles from me. It is after you sell off the stock of 100 and maybe a little bit, you know, just to make up for how will I put it, time invested. If you sell off all your inventory and you want to exit, you exit, but that's the only way you're getting your money back. Sell more, sell aggressively, or you stay there and recruit it down line.
And hopefully if the down line sells well, then you're going to make a bit of money from that. But just know that if you're staying with an MLM, you're essentially you're becoming not just a salesperson, you're also becoming a sales manager. And just know that you only make serious money when your downline starts to produce. So sorry, one moment. I will return shortly. OK, I'm back. Sorry about that. I thought my attention was needed elsewhere.
OK, so I was talking about exiting multi level marketing schemes. Now for pyramids, if you're in a pyramid scheme, unfortunately the only way to exit is you have to realize that you're in a 419 situation and then you have to join people in that 419. That's the only way you would get your money back. So recruit people and then cash out. There are lots of Nigerians who do that. Now unfortunately, this is not a good thing to do.
This is not ethical thing to do. And like I've pointed out, you're going to be burning Personal Capital because the people that you're going to bring into the pyramid will be your friends, your family members, and your associates. They'll be the easiest people to convince. You know, your wife, your kids, your siblings, your parents, your uncles, your aunties, people at work. But then, like I've told you, mathematically speaking, there are not enough people in the world to support a pyramid scheme because these things grow at a geometric rate and there are not enough people.
So a pyramid always crashes. When it crashes, look, I think of all that burnt social capital. Your wife is angry with you, your in laws are angry with you, your mom is angry with you, your uncles are angry with you, people are work angry with you. And if somebody loses enough money, and I want to make this a serious police matter, you're the one that do Jack. Because for some reason, and nobody ever knows who's on top of the pyramid.
We never know who started this thing. We don't know. Everybody is just joining, joining, joining, but nobody ever knows. So that's the only way you can get your money back. Join them in the 419. I recruit people. By the way, in case you haven't figured it out, I do not advise it because it is bad. It's unethical. And even if I didn't give a hoot about these sorts of things, the personal, the hit to your personal credibility, I don't think it's, I don't think it's worth worth the effort.
Then apart from that, the only other chance that you have is to report to the SEC. The SEC is the Securities and Exchange Commission. There are the body in Nigeria that are responsible for managing, for making sure that investments and people don't lose money in investments, you know, and things of that nature. So if you report to the SEC Securities and Exchange Commission, maybe you might stand a chance of getting your money back by the time they do the enforcement, sorry, the enforcement enforcement activities.
Now, the SEC in Nigeria unfortunately doesn't have offices in every single state of the federation. So the HQ, the headquarters is in Abuja and it's in Central, central district. As for those of you who maybe you put out in this country and you're wondering how they extricate myself, so you go to SEC. They're in Central district in Abuja. They're next to Grand Square, next to Grand Square in Abuja. Grand Square is not far from NNPC Towers.
So if you're familiar with Abuja and you know that area, you can find the SEC. Now the good thing about the SEC is it's not one of these government parastatals where come today, come tomorrow, it's not that kind kind of thing. If you show up to say they ban me, they swab me and I have a complaint, the security guards will take you right into the building. They usher you to whoever is responsible for enforcement to take your details.
It's not a go come, go, come something. You don't have to even book appointment ahead of time. Just go to the building, walk up to the building, talk to the security guards. They'll take you to who it is that is responsible for these sorts of things. So yeah, that's it. Then in Lagos, I think, I don't know about now, but I think the last time I was in Lagos, I think the office was on the island, not on the mainland. I can't remember where on the island then where.
Again, I think they have an office in Kano, I think zonal office in Kano, zonal office in I think Port Harcourt, I think I think those any if you go on and I check you'll be able to verify. So that's the closest that you'll be able to to to do to get your money back. So here are some of here are some things to watch out for in case you have been shook your head inside one or two things they are not sure. So the first thing I tell people is something being sold.
Is that something being sold? That's a good sign. It shows that you're putting your money into inventory. So if you join these kind of things, but then what they're selling is electric kettles like in my example, good chances are that you're an MLM. If they're selling makeup like Mary Kay, good chances are you're an MLM. If they're selling things like rice, good something is being sold. You can see where value is moving, you can see where money is moving, and you can see where your commissions are coming from.
It doesn't mean that fraudsters can't do something like this as a front, they can, but I'm just saying that at least if you see that something is being sold, it's a good sign. Then another thing to look out for is money being invested into assets because some people arrange these things also as collective, like investment groups, saving groups and stuff. So everybody get together, you put together a bunch of money, you use the money to build a block of flats, and then everybody's being paid profits from the block of flats, you know, like a cooperative or something like that.
So if assets are going into something is good, if you can see land that is being bought is good. If you can see farmland that is being bought is good. If you can see anything that money is going into is good. But of course, talk to your lawyer. Talk to your lawyer whenever you're doing any collective investing, collective saving, collecting, whatever. Let your lawyer see what's up and give you advice. Now for those people who are struggling and who don't have money for legal counsel, there's something in Nigeria that we call legal aid.
They're there behind legal aid is you can be broke as hell, but at least somebody should be there to advise you even if nothing else. So in Abuja, there's legal aid. If you approach the Magistrate Court in would say that is who says on. I think that's zone 5, zone 2, zone five. I'm not sure what that part of town is. There's legal aid there. Then there's also legal aid offices in the High Court in Maitama. So you just go to the building,
you ask for the legal aid office, the security guards, you know, other people who are there will will direct you to the right, to the right place. For those of you based in Lagos, when I was still in school, there used to be a High Court next to the General Hospital, next to General Ikeja General Hospital. That's after after Honda Bridge, Ikeja Honda Bridge. So the High Court used to be there, but I think after I graduated later on, I heard that the whole complex burnt down.
So I'm not sure where the I'm not sure where the High Court in Lagos is now. I don't know if they built it back up or if they just relocated. They renovated the whole place. But if the place is still there, if they rebuilt it, then at least while I was a student, legal aid was there. Then also multi door courthouse, you know, alternative dispute resolution type things. So just go there, you know, like you're broke, you don't have money.
Go there, ask for legal aid. At least somebody will be there to give you advice. Even if they don't do anything else, they'll at least tell you that this is where you go, that this is north and this is South. Then if you don't understand how people are making money when they call you for these things, please run. If they're saying this person is making millions, this person is making millions. This person got paid 100,000
Commission, this person got paid. This person got that. You know, it's impressive and it's it's nice and you can see the fancy car parked outside. But if you don't understand how these people are making money, please run. Run. Maybe everything is legit, but you're not sophisticated enough. And no problem. Still run if it's legit. But you're not sophisticated enough to see how this thing is working. How you know when things are good, how you know when things are bad?
How do you know when things are tipping sideways? You won't know. So apologies for the noise in the background. You know, I'm making today's recording at home, and then my neighbor has Peacocks, and those Peacocks make a lot of noise. OK, that reminds me. I've been curious to wonder, can Peacocks fly? Yeah, I should do that research after this because I see them running around, but I've never seen them fly. Then another sign to watch out for if you're in any of these meetings or any of these investment clubs or whatever.
And people keep talking about the secrets, attracting money, the secret to wealth, getting the universe to align to your financial benevolent something in all those new age, you know, funny stuff. Once they start talking all those kinds of things and it's as sounding as if you guys are in a secret cult. Please, my brother or my sister, Run, run, run, run, run, run. Then if you're in a place and they keep talking about earning daily Commission, any money,
earning money while you sleep, any money by doing nothing, you know, please run. There's no easy money in his life. Maybe we need money in heaven, there'll be easy money then. But in his life, there's no easy money. Anybody talking easy money, please run. This is also another thing to look out for. Then after the radio show, I forgot my, my brother reminded me 10X anybody that is inviting you for a meeting and they keep saying they will 10X or this they will 10X or this they will 10X or whatever.
Please run by the way. It's, it's not. I know because Grant Cardone says 10X, but Grant Cardone is different. Grant Cardone is saying that he's a salesperson and he's teaching you how to 10X your revenues by 10X ING the effort that you put in. So in people like Grant Cardone's case, what they're saying is we will get you from 10 to 100, but you have to sell like crazy or you have to do this like crazy or you have to do that like crazy.
They are not promising you that you will attend meeting and then out of nowhere your returns will just start multiplying by 10. Then I'm a final warning, a lot of these groups and or not, you know, they have to invite people for meeting and stuff like that. So you're going to be sharing lots of links. They'll be sending you links on WhatsApp. Click on this for this. Click on this for meeting. Click on this for that. Click on this to register.
Please. My brothers and sisters, as of 2026 in Nigeria, this is a recipe for disaster. A lot of these people that are calling you for all these meetings are strangers. Apart from the person who invited you to this meeting, you do not know all these other 506070 faces that you are seeing there. You do not know these people, You don't know these *** Then they're telling you share this thing on WhatsApp. Click on this link.
What you're clicking you don't know. Before you know it, security breach in your phone, WhatsApp has been hacked, from there banking app has been hacked, identity theft and all kinds of issues. I beg, even if you want to join them in the 419, can you at least, you know, put your brains on. You're sharing links you don't know to your mom, to your dad, to your brothers and sisters, to your colleagues. You're clicking on those links yourself.
You're entering in personal details, showing up for Zoom, meeting with a bunch of strangers who you don't know. Anyway, let me not make this thing a prolonged rant. Bottom line, what I'm trying to say is that life is hard in Niger. I get it, I get it. So I'm looking for easy ways to make money. I get it, I get it. I'm looking for easy ways to make money as well. But multi level marketing prayer meet scheme please. Not the way for.
If you must play with these things, then make sure it's a genuine multi level marketing, but just know that you're embracing a life of not only selling very hard, but you're also becoming a sales manager because you're also going to be responsible for your downtime selling very hard as well. There is a ways to make money. Than this. So please shine your eye specifying called me. The thing has been on my mind. The reason why it's been on my mind is because I have a personal connection to all of this.
I've seen family members lose their ish over these kinds of things. I've seen it happen twice, once when I was a kid then you know, kid like primary primary school kid. One of them even talked to me to try and recruit me. One of my family members that I love so, so much tried to recruit me and my brother into these kinds of things. Then another time when but then I'd come back from my master's and I had to now like speak up,
tell my mom, tell my aunties that look, I know you will, you see what's going on, but you will are not saying anything. But look, this is the download. This is how this kind of thing goes. All right, So me, because I'm a small somebody, I can't talk. But we need to nip this thing in the box. We need to keep this thing, this inner anti so, so so and so is saying this in serious fire. We need to put a pause on this thing.
I said my own. But of course not everybody agreed. When everything is scattered as it always scattered, That's why family members do not start quarreling. So that's. The reason why me? Personally, this thing really it. Guy. Anyway, there is a ways to make money. So please, if we notice that our friends and our family members are being hoodwinked, being called, pulled along for all these, so please, I beg, let's speak out.
Let's speak out. These things don't end well. They don't end well. It's simple mathematics. There are not enough people in the whole world for the pyramids to continue to grow exponentially. It will crumble eventually. It's a disaster waiting to happen. It is fine now because people are making money. Your cousin puts in 100K and then he gets 250 next month and then he puts 250K the month after that and then he gets 350
and he's looking sweet. He's making money. You do you want to join him? OK, now anyway, that's it. So if any of you want to connect with me because you have business questions like if I did and Mr. Gideon and all the other people, then he can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064 662140. Even if it's not related to sales, I'm willing to have a chat, you know, you know, investing, finances, stuff like that.
It's not my area of specialty, but if you're genuinely curious about something, you know, reach out, talk to someone else. And for this one, in fact, I'll give you all the time that it needs so we can try and figure out whether this thing is a safe space to put money in or or not. Because honestly, it's a painful thing to watch your family members being had. It's painful. In fact, it's going to be even more painful if it is you.
You are the one that is the mogu, and you are the one that has been had. Anyway if. This is the first episode that you're listening to. I'm not a charity. I don't run an NGO. Financial inclusion, financial education. You know, that's not my thing. Sales. Sales Coaching. Sales consulting, that's what it is that I do. So if you have questions related to how to grow your revenues, how to manage your sales team better, let's see what else, how to handle negotiations better,
how to handle pricing better, all these sorts of things. Yeah, those are the problems that I do that I solve for a living. So reach out 08064662140 and I'll do my best to see how I can help. But if you want to discuss about other general financial stuff, you know, I'll listen. I'll give any advice and share any knowledge that I have, but most likely I'll have to point you towards someone else, like in this case point you towards the SEC.
That's if you happen to chew can inside this matter and you have now gotten gotten into a situation where you can't extricate yourself from. So that's it and that's all. Thank you very much for today. I'll catch you all some other time.