25 Untapped Businesses in Nigeria to Profit in 2023

Despite perceived economic stress, there are numerous untapped businesses in Nigeria you can venture into. These are businesses that have the potential to yield profits in the short term and make you comfortable enough to cater for your basic needs. 

This is a practical guide to identifying and building a sustainable untapped business in Nigeria in 2023.

What to Consider Before Venturing into an Untapped Business in Nigeria

With the numerous business sectors in operation currently, it’s easy to discredit certain businesses and bypass the opportunities they present as a result of personal speculations and biassed opinions. 

There are, in fact, certain things to put into consideration to help you dig into the opportunities of untapped businesses in Nigeria. They include:

Untapped Business in Nigeria: Our Top Picks

The best and most profitable way to grow a new business is to avoid market competition and go for untapped businesses. Automatically, you’ll be able to focus on modelling your product or service to attract customers and make sales.

Underlisted are 25 untapped businesses in Nigeria with very high prospects that you can try.

1. Niche Blogging

Anything niche draws your attention to a specific thing. Either you are focused on a particular set of people or a certain area of interest. In niche blogging, you’re giving out information on an area you’re either passionate about or experienced in. 

The beauty of niche blogging is that it helps you build authority in your chosen area. And once people start recognising you as a trusted voice in that niche, you’ll ultimately rank higher on organic searches.

The market demand for niche blogging is high if you’re value-oriented and profitable if you maintain consistency. This business has a diversified means of making money, which includes affiliate marketing, site monetization, influencer marketing, public speaking, and consultancy services.

To get started on niche blogging, you have to consider what social platform resonates with your personality better. This would help boost your confidence when you get started. For example;

• If you’re camera-shy, you may consider podcasting.
• If you’re very outspoken or have a skill to show, then YouTube is a good idea.
• If you are a good writer, then creating a WordPress account is the way to go.

After selecting your preferred social platform, it’s important to do your research and understand how each works. By this, I mean looking into how engagements work on the platform, what tools you’ll need to facilitate your work, and the tone to keep.

Ultimate Guide: How to Start Blogging in Nigeria and Succeed

2. Snail Farming

The scarcity of snails has increased their demand worldwide, making snail farming a profitable yet untapped business in Nigeria. Originally, snail rearers went about hand-picking snails on farms during the rainy season for sale, but lately, the farming system and profitability have improved considerably.

Snails are used to make nice dishes at home, at events, and in restaurants. Pharmaceutical companies and cosmetologists demand the slime, and the best part is that just one snail is sold for N600 or even more.

To get started with snail farming, it’s advisable to think of large-scale farming. In this case, you’ll arrange a secure and cool spot where the snails you harvest can be kept for over a year. This would give them enough time to feed, grow, and breed for mass production. 

Snails are highly safeguarded to avoid diseases and attacks from lizards, snakes, etc., as this can lead to sudden losses, which of course is bad for business.

3. Juice Production

The juice market is a very lucrative one, as lots of Nigerians now go for healthy fruit drinks to help boost their immune systems or maintain a diet. As an untapped business in Nigeria, venturing into juice production is a lot more profitable, especially if these fruits come cheap or, in the best case, you have them grown around you. 

Identifying your market and staying consistent with it is enough to make you at least N5,000 daily for a start if you keep it fresh.

The market demand for this juice varies with age, as each age grade has its own specifications on how it should be produced or when it should be delivered. 

Regardless, getting started on juice production would require a good amount of hygiene and some basic production materials. These materials include a refrigerator or deep freezer and a juicer, and as you progress, you can make provisions for other resources.

The video below from Toyin Fajuyi gives you a breakdown of how to start this untapped business in Nigeria from home.

4. Car Rental

The opportunities in the car rental business are numerous. A car under good maintenance can serve various purposes, like private cab services, logistics services, rentals, etc. 

The good thing here is that this isn’t a business that requires full involvement, as you can easily give out your car to serve these purposes and focus on other things.

The need for people to access a certain location or their goods as fast as possible has kept the demand for car rentals very high and steady while making a good amount of money on each trip.

Starting this business will only take full knowledge of risk management to help contain any possible problems that may arise. Keeping your car in good condition will only attract customers to you while you leverage social platforms to advertise your business as well.

5. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a business with low risks and high potential if the supplier is very reliable. This untapped business requires just your mobile phone and network connection to enable you to access your potential customers.

As a link between your supplier and potential customers, you create your own market by identifying what’s in demand. This will help you facilitate sales and earn you a steady sales commission.

Getting started on dropshipping only requires that you put in consistent effort to build and engage your audience within a particular niche.

It’s equally advisable to have more than one supplier selling the same product within that niche so as to avoid disappointing your customers when one is not available.

Further Reading: Start Dropshipping in Nigeria: Tips and Tricks for Success

6. Mini Importation

This is a business that benefits Nigerians who have access to international platforms like the Chinese market. These goods are bought and shipped from sites like AliExpress.com or 1688.com.

The mini-importation business is highly profitable, as goods on demand can be bought cheaply and sold for twice the price or even more in Nigeria. Venturing into this business only demands that you carefully choose vendors with quality products and fast logistics services.

Start Mini Importation From China to Nigeria In 5 Steps

7. Tyre Recycling

Every day, hundreds of tyres are dumped in different parts of the country as waste. This perceived waste has, in turn, become an untapped business in Nigeria for various people.

The demand for tyres cuts across different establishments, as they can be recycled into a lot of things. These include gym equipment, office seats, school or bar decorative materials, gaming equipment, playground materials like paintball, etc.

Getting started with tyre recycling is a good venture, as the only thing it’d require is finding those who need them to serve their purpose. The market is also very profitable, as most of these establishments in need of it demand it in large quantities.

8. Pet Breeding

The commonest pet to breed in Nigeria is a dog, as they’re constantly demanded as household pets and have since become another untapped business in Nigeria.

Before starting out in this business, you must first identify what species or breed of dog people prefer. This will help you either crossbreed to get a better species or raise the exact one in demand.

Pet breeding is a very profitable business, as young dogs can be sold for between N50,000 and N80,000.

As a pet breeder, it’s advisable to go for quality breeds, identify with kennel clubbers around you, and promote your business across social platforms. This would help you build your experience and make it possible for people to know you.

9. Internet Marketing Agency

This business has so many unique advantages for anyone establishing it as a business. The focus here is on using the diverse tools on social media to prompt engagements and make sales conversions for brands and businesses. 

There is so much money in this industry, whether you work as an influencer or for brands. You can make as much as N50,000 per month as a starter by utilising your skills for different companies.

Every business wants more visibility; therefore, building authority in this space and making the most of it earns you so much money, whether daily or through contracts. Starting out in this untapped business only requires you to take some courses on your skill of choice, with the commonest being digital marketing.

10. Wallpaper Production

Lately, wallpapers have been in style, as their fancy nature gives customers a chance to substitute them for wall paints. Wallpapers are highly demanded in school hostels and offices, so both the producer and the retailer are steadily profiting from the business.

You may not outright start off as a wallpaper producer, but starting off as a retailer gives you the space to penetrate and understand the market better with low capital and high returns.

11. Rabbit Farming

Just one male and two female rabbits are enough to kick-start your career in rabbit farming. Rabbit farmers make approximately N20,000 from selling a single bunny daily and yet remain one of the untapped businesses in Nigeria.

Starting a career in rabbit farming would require building a strong and well-ventilated cage to prevent the occurrence of sickness. Also, selecting good breeds of rabbits when starting would help with avoiding the risk of mortality. Preferably, you should go for growers who are about 3 months old, as they’re less fragile, and you can get the chance to understand their nature as they grow.

12. Solar Energy Installation

Since time immemorial, the power supply in Nigeria has remained unstable. With current technological advancements, homes, offices, and industrial companies have been going solar for energy supply. This is a reliable source of energy that has created a big, profitable market for those in the business.

As an untapped business in Nigeria, you can create a sustainable one for yourself in solar energy installation as a panel seller or installer and smile at your earnings. 

Starting this business would require you to establish connections with some of these energy companies, which can outsource the work to you when the need arises. On the other hand, you can start publicising your skills by educating people on the advantages of switching to solar energy installations.

13. Kilishi Business 

As a business rampant in Northern Nigeria, the kilishi business is highly profitable if you have a market base in East, West, or Southern Nigeria. This is because they’re scarce in these areas and equally scarce in international markets where they’re needed as well. This is also the reason it has remained an untapped business in Nigeria.

You can start a Kilishi business in Nigeria by finding a reliable supplier and marketing the beef product across e-commerce, agricultural, and social platforms.

14. Online Tutoring

Online tutoring is one of the top online businesses that can pay you daily. It has to do with creating your portfolio and making money by teaching on sites like Tutapoint, Udemy, Teachable, and Skooli. The demand in this market is so high that professionals make over N100,000 hosting classes on social platforms like WhatsApp and LinkedIn.

You have to build trust if you’re considering venturing into this business. This trust is to convince people that you’re knowledgeable and fully grounded in the training you intend to take them on.

7 Online Tutoring Sites in Nigeria + How to Get Started

15. Virtual Assistant

Lots of executive positions seek virtual assistants to help carry out some minor tasks. These tasks include planning, scheduling, hosting, etc., and come in as one of the untapped businesses in Nigeria yet very profitable.

You can position yourself as a virtual assistant based on some of your skills. For example, a graphics designer can publish his skills on freelance sites like Freelancer, Fiverr, and Upwork to get VA gigs from companies and brands. As a Nigerian, this is your way of earning in dollars.

What is required for a virtual assistant is to build a skill, create a portfolio, and send out applications and cold emails. 

How to Become a Virtual Assistant in Nigeria in 7 Steps

16. Mushroom Farming

Mushrooms are very proteinous, healthy, and delicate. If you’re considering setting up a mushroom farm, there are a few things to take note of.

• Mushrooms have poisonous species like Amanita, so you must be very observant during harvesting.
• Mushrooms are grown in dark rooms, so this must be provided, even if it requires improvising.
• Mushrooms are processed and kept to grow in a highly sterile environment. This is because the penetration of microorganisms will most likely contaminate and kill them.

The good thing about mushroom farming is that it requires little capital to start, and when these recommendations are adhered to, you can repeatedly harvest them year-round.

17. Plantain Chip Production

Getting started in the plantain chip production business only requires a few careful procedures. Some of these include cutting them into thin slices, using not-so-ripe plantains to avoid sticking together and using a local deep fryer.

This business requires establishing a sales network among retail stores to grant customers ease in buying. FollowtheTrackswithLihin has broken down the process of starting the plantain chips business in the video below.

18. Snack Production 

Snacks are everywhere, making them a profitable market to capitalise on and venture into. This is a business that works from a place of passion, as the market may not open up to you in the beginning.

When starting in the snack production business, you have to pay attention to what people are going to be fond of, either the taste or the packaging. Then, gradually, people start getting used to your product, and the need to expand and introduce more hands in the production process begins to unfold.

19. Personal Fitness Trainer

With a warm and supportive attitude, you can win and make a good career out of this untapped business opportunity by being a personal fitness trainer. The consistency people maintain at the gym, not to mention the wider gap of people who haven’t even started training yet, defines the huge market opportunity in this business.

Starting in this business requires a personality that allows room to establish connections with people. This, in turn, helps them warm up to your routines and training plan for a subscription.

20. Chatbot Development

Chatbot development is one of the top digital skills that can make you millions. Lately, so many businesses have preferred the installation of chatbots on their sites to help engage site visitors with adequate responses.

Venturing into chatbot development would require an in-depth study and mastery of this tech skill. Since chatbots use AI languages, you’ll be trained in artificial intelligence and machine learning alongside programming languages. When you’ve mastered this skill, you’ll have the strength to pitch to brands and gain projects from them.

21. Food Delivery Service

The food business is very lucrative if you have great culinary skills. You make twice the amount you’ve invested in the business after sales and even more when you’re cooking on a large scale.

The market demand for the food delivery service business can never be saturated, as people will always walk in the direction of good food. Therefore, this business requires expertise if you want to stand out in the market and steady promotion to get your business in the faces of people.

Starting out, you might want to define your niche to know which set of people you’ll be rendering your service to and what dishes to focus on.

22. Drone Services

To stand out in the drone service business, you must also be good as a content creator. As part of the current untapped businesses in Nigeria, this draws attention to you, even though those in this market space adopt other skills like photography, cinematography, and video editing.

This is a business worthy of earning you over N100,000 per month, so you have to find your prospective clients where they are. Plus, you need to build your social presence for people to see when you create new content and engage with jobs.

23. P2P Lending Business

Peer-to-peer lending is usually common everywhere, but it’s different within the business scope and remains an untapped business in Nigeria. Here, the lender is conscious of borrowing a certain amount of money and getting it back along with an agreed amount of interest as profits.

If you plan on starting this business, your first step is to draft the agreement terms between the borrower and their guarantor. Next is to get proper licencing in case of possible court action. 

24. Grasscutter Farming

The best market for grasscutters is in bars that appreciate their delicacy, pepper soup. Just like other grasscutter farmers, you can make N10,000 or more from selling one. Of course, this is very much dependent on your location.

Before you go into grasscutter farming, you must understand the animals’ nature, as they’re susceptible to diseases such as pneumonia. This, in turn, will help you raise them and reduce risks.

25. Courier Service

Courier service is the last untapped business in Nigeria that can never go out of style. It’s currently the fastest way business owners can transport their products to consumers. This, therefore, shows how high the market demand is and how profitable it is.

If you’re starting this business, ensure you sign up only reliable riders who’ll be very responsive because speed is the core of the courier service business. Connecting with business owners is a quick way to start pushing your business out there for good visibility and job offers.

Kilishi Imperio – An Untapped Business Success Story

When we started the Kilishi business, we had only N10,000 to purchase stock. After our first sale, we were able to see the potential in the business since we recovered more than twice our initial starting cost.

It has required a lot of consistent effort to draw people’s attention to our product, but it’s been worth it. Our growth over time has been evident in the high rate of demand as we have been able to produce a reliable product for our consumers.

Today, we’ve grown to six figures, and there will be more tomorrow. The business has been able to support retailers and distributors too. Glad we stayed strong.

~Kilishi Imperio 

Winning Strategies to Adopt When Starting an Untapped Business in Nigeria

Understanding the market

Don’t start a business based on just speculation. No business in the world announces its pain points. The best approach to a business idea is to get into it to fully understand its operation.

To get this done, you must pay attention to market trends, what has the attention of people, and where their pain point is. You need to look at your competitors’ operations and their behavioural patterns to see what you can improve on.

Funding and investment

No one can show or pitch the prospects of your business to investors or sponsors as you would. Every business, whether new or already existing, can scale up with the right amount of energy and resources. This is exactly what investors are looking for in every business: the possibility of making sufficient progress.

You must put in adequate effort to show this, and when you can’t, you can depend on your savings to learn that skill or gather the basic materials your business needs for a start.

Legal requirements and regulations

By law, every running business in Nigeria ought to be registered, even if it’s the commonest, with a CAC registration and tax identification number (TIN). Some demand even more, like a NAFDAC registration for businesses related to edibles.

Businesses like P2P lending and virtual assistants require a legal backup to seal the terms of the agreement. Adhering to government demands and following due regulations for your business saves you from surcharges or potential losses.

Potential risks and challenges

Some businesses have more risks than others. Rabbit, grasscutter, and mushroom farming have a high chance of mortality in cases of infection or contamination. 

It’s even more challenging when you haven’t made your first sale yet and are already losing money on your start-up capital. Some businesses fall victim to situations beyond our control, like accidents, but they’re all part of the business. No one ever quits due to potential risk, but a more careful approach averts the majority of these possible problems.