Don Pagli, Author at NairaBrains

In Life

Applying for Canada Permanent Residency? 5 Things to Help You Succeed

October 31, 2019 No Comments

If you are going to go all the way through the process of applying for permanent residency through the Canada Express Entry program the least you can do is be prepared. Gather all the information you need to improve your chances.

We look at 5 important things you could do to help improve your chances of succeeding and getting invited to apply for Canadian permanent residency;

First, Take a Realistic Assessment of Your Potential Score

So let’s assume you have a first degree, have at least 2 years work experience, you do not have a sibling or parent living in Canada etc, the Canada Express Entry program is a point based system. Each of the key areas such as education, work experience, language ability, siblings in Canada, work experience in Canada, job offer from Canada and more have points. So for each box you tick you accumulate points. Checking for an estimate of your score (based on the current qualifications you have) is a good way to start your express entry application as it helps you identify how much gap you need to close. In the Complete Canada Permanent Residency Guide we show you via video how to take a quiz on the immigration site to find out your current score based on the parameters you have.

2. Understand How the Points System Works and the Cut Off Scores

So continuing from number 1 above you need to understand not just how points are allocated but how selection is made and what cut-off scores mean. So for every draw that is held (the draws for Federal Skilled Workers program is done every two weeks except once in a while where that is interrupted to hold the Federal Skilled Trade draws) there is a cut-off score.

The cut-off score is usually the score of the lowest applicants selected from the pool. So let’s assume 3,500 applicants are selected from a draw, they will usually selected the top 3,500 applicants with the highest score (from top to down). The score of the 3,500th person selected is the cut off score. So as someone intending to succeed with your application you should always check at least the last 3 draws to compare what the cut off scores are. This is what you use as a benchmark so once your CRS score matches or exceeds the usual cut off scores then you are sure to be selected in the next draw.

So let’s say you check the last three draws (as at the time of writing this article a draw was held this week and the cut-off score was over 470) and the cut off scores are 464, 461, 471. Get the average of the 3 scores which should be 465. This should be the minimum score you aim for.

3. Create Your Express Entry Profile (and then upload your profile as soon as possible)

Time counts in the Express Entry program. For every draw when there is a tie of 2 or more people having the same lowest score (cut off score) for selection the system picks the candidates based on who created their express entry profile first.

So you see why every day you spend in procrastination costs you.

Get your academic documents verified, Take your language tests and set up your profile as quickly as possible. If you need help Our Complete Canada Permanent Residency Guide will show you every step.

4. Ace Your Language Tests

For some candidates who do not have things that can give them points like having a sibling in Canada, having Canadian work experience, getting a job offer from Canada etc the language tests become important. Hitting the top band of your language tests (IELTS or CLB for English Language) can earn you up to 34 points which will significantly boost your CRS score. Same goes for the French Language tests. We advise you prepare hard for the language tests and try to get the highest band of scores. (Check out The Complete Canada Permanent Entry Guide for tips on preparing for IELTS)

5. Know What to Do If Your CRS Score is lower than previous cut-off scores

Like we said earlier you need to compare and benchmark your CRS score with the cut-off scores in recent draws because those cut-off scores are the minimum score you need to have to stand a chance of being selected. So if your CRS score is much less than the cut-off scores how do you improve your scores so you can get in the selection range?

Some of the things you can do include;

getting a job offer from a registered organisation in Canada. Depending on the NOC of the job (the Complete Guide shows you videos of how to get the NOC of a job in Canada) you could get additional between 50 and 200 points if you show a valid job offer from Canada. The higher the job the higher the point with management level jobs getting you points closer to 200. Getting a job offer from Canadian organisations is not easy but we show you ways you can do that. If you succeed it helps your total CRS considerably.
Improve your education: If you selected one degree as your current educational status you can get additional points by acquiring recognised diplomas or certificates to increase your education level to two or more degrees/diplomas. Diplomas are any post secondary education certificate recognised by the Canadian immigration authorities. We showed in the Complete Guide some diplomas and certifications you can prepare for and take the exams in 3 months to boost your education level to the next band and improve your score. If you have a Masters degree of course it becomes easier as you simply select the Masters degree level which gives you considerably more points than the one degree level and the two or more diplomas level. We explained this more in the Canada Guide here.
Taking additional language tests; If your score is low and you can do the extra work, take additional language tests and aim for a high score. If for instance you have very good score in English language test (eg IELTS) you can do the French language test (either TCF or TEF). If you score high enough that could give you an additional 34 points.

Ready to kick ass in your Canada Express Entry application? Get the Complete Canada Permanent Residency Guide

In Life

Why More People Will Leave for Canada in 2020 Than Ever Before

October 30, 2019 No Comments

This is not a doomsday post, we are just saying it as it is. The way things look and the fact that the Canada Express Entry program officially ends in 2021 expect 2020 to be the year of the Canada gold rush. You know how lots of people like to leave things till the end period.

So what does this mean for you or for anyone intending to migrate to Canada?

Simple.

More competition in the pool. It will become tougher to get invited to apply for permanent residency (In case you are wondering what the Canada Express Entry program means and how you can start the process yourself I suggest you get the Complete Canada Permanent Residency Guide here).

Things that point to a gold rush for Canada in 2020;

Worsening economic situation: For a lot of people the economy bits harder and it’s only natural they will try to escape to better climes. Every year already some of the best professionals leave (doctors, lawyers, engineers, IT specialists etc). The outlook from some quarters/experts on economic matters indicate it isn’t getting better soon, so…
Career/Employment Prospects: Many young people are increasingly getting frustrated at the lack of employment opportunities. It’s normal news now that millions of graduates are not in employment while a lot more are under employed. This naturally points to a greater exodus to Canada in the next year.
Standard of Living: Even people who earn decent salaries and appear to live comfortable middle class lives are jumping ship to Canada and other places like the UK. Why? For this set of people it is more about the quality of life and standard of living in the country. Everyone looks for better of course.

If you are considering joining the Canada train it is important to be fully equipped with all you need to know to stand a chance of succeeding. We have compiled a Guide (with 8 videos) to show you or anyone who wants to start their Canada Express Entry application, how to go through all the stages and succeed. The Complete Canada Permanent Residency Guide covers all you need to do, mistakes to avoid, breakdown of costs so you can plan better and more importantly how to ensure you get a high enough CRS score to stand a good chance of being selected in the draws.

It is ideal for you whether you are a novice (who barely knows much about the Canada Express Entry program) or you are already aware of how it works but still need quality insights and information. Learn how to get permanent residency in Canada here.

In Business

Eight Things They Don’t Teach You in College About Business and the Labour Market

October 29, 2019 13 Comments

There will always continue to be the argument on whether college or university prepares the average individual for success in the real world.

Of course college has its uses. There is abundant theoritical knowledge on almost any discipline you can think of. Still I hardly know of any successful fellow who made success based only on what he/she learnt at the university. There are many things college doesn’t prepare you for;

1. Networking: Funny how our universities do not deem it fit to develop a very practical curriculum on interpersonal relationships and networking. The benefits for the average graduate will be enormous. Many leave college still shy and unable to connect effectively with people that will link them faster to their ambitions. If you’ve been to a typical Nigerian higher institution you will have enough academic workload on your hands that you may really not have time to learn the skills that matter later in life (networking included).

Joining clubs with focus and involving in students unionism all helped me learn how to relate and meet up with people but it wasn’t easy. You did all that at your own peril or risk. So what it means is that to learn people skills you have to mix and interact, rack up meaningful relationships especially with people higher up the ladder than yourself. If the colleges would teach that most of our young people will have a tool that will serve them well in business and career.

2. Selling: Have you noticed how many graduates have the phobia for selling anything even themselves. In the past two years I had interviewed quite a lot of graduates for positions within my new company and found one alarming thing; All of them didn’t want to be put where they’ll have to sell anything to anyone or convince anyone to buy anything.

How the hell are you expecting to be paid if you don’t want to sell. All companies make money by selling something and those who are willing and prove to the company that they can sell and pull in the profits have an edge over any others any time any day. I watched appalled as all of the job seekers I interviewed dodged from any marketing or sales related job. Everybody wanted to be in the office pushing papers and generally doing nothing. We had enough office staff but very little marketing guys who could help double or triple revenue. It was not acceptable.

How do our universities not teach students how to sell. Selling is vastly important.

– When seeking a contract you sell yourself and your company to the client
– You sell yourself to the Interviewer, trying to convince him to hire you
– You sell yourself to investors asking them to invest in your startup or idea
– You sell yourself to that pretty girl you met in the banking hall because you want to date her
– You sell yourself to your boss at that’s why you always want to impress and get that raise or promotion you need so badly.

All we do everyday is sell, sell and sell some more.

How better we will be if our colleges and universities can teach us how to do that.

3. Fundraising: Getting funded is one of the biggest challenges to small and medium scale businesses and tech startups in Nigeria. The funds sit in bank vaults but are extremely difficult to get hold of. I wish I had a course (something like Funding 312) when I was in college probably taught by an established businessman who had to raise his own funds and not by a white haired, stooping professor of Business Administration whose only experience in running a business was at age 9 when he helped his mum sell groceries.

If experienced business gurus and CEOs were to hold fundraising and capital sourcing classes at least one semester for each student many graduates would have had it easier going into business for themselves and giving birth to the ideas that run riot in their minds.

4. Money Management: Yes, we made money while in school or at least I made money in school but then I spent it as fast as it came sometimes even faster so I had to be in debt some of the time. A class in practical money management (not the lame financial management classes taught by lecturers that were even broke as they taught) would have done me and lots of others a world of good.

Sometimes you don’t need millions to start a business and grow it big. If you were taught how to bootstrap and form a lean business that will go on to make you serious money I bet you would have been further on the road than where you are right now. Same as myself. But pity we had to learn the lessons ourselves the hard way.

5. Rejection: Does our colleges teach one how to handle rejection and not be bogged down by it. It matters because you are going to be rejected many times in your life before you get that ‘Yes” that makes all the difference.

Look at what college doesn’t teach you about rejection;

– That girl you had a serious crush for rejects you, how do you handle it?
– They don’t teach you what to do when your job application gets rejected 25 times?
– Do they teach you what to do when 12 banks and 5 private investors turn down your request for funding?
– Do they teach you how to handle the rejection of two investors on whom you had all your hope for funding your Startup company?

I could go on and on. These are things that matter and everyday many young bright people get discouraged by several rejections. Wouldn’t it be nice if they taught you in college how to prepare for and handle rejection.

6. Failure: The University/college is probably the worst place to learn about failure. There they treat failure like a plague. If you fail it seems you have done something terrible. Assuming you were an A student and suddenly you failed 2 courses. Classmates and friends would keep discussing it. How did he fail? That guy afterall, doesn’t know as much as we thought?

That is why many students cheat. They are so afraid to fail that even after they leave school they can’t work on actualising their ideas because they are afraid of failing. They are scared of what their parents, friends, relatives will say if their first business failed.

They are scared of hearing things like,”I warned you to get a job, Now see how useless you are,” “You threw the whole money away, punk head!” “You are good for nothing, go get a job”

Wouldn’t it be nice if the college system was changed so that failure doesn’t become an anathema but something to learn from and progress. What if colleges focus on helping students handle failure instead of creating entities that end up so afraid to even give a speech for fear of failure.

7. Creativity: In college, I hated it when a lecturer in one of my engineering classes insisted on having us solve his problems in a particuar way. One other man gave you questions to which you must write the answers as exactly as it was in his notes. They simply did all they could to turn us to robots.

The lack of creativity in our schools is scary. And I guess we are paying for it with the quality of graduates that come into the labour market every year.

If you have ever interviewed graduate job seekers you will understand why there is an urgent need to revitalise our colleges and universities.

8. Managing Others: Management is a course in most colleges but that is not what I mean. If we were taught how to get people around us to work in harmony towards achieving a common goal we would have had a better head start in business and life generally. Management of people is an important skill we should have been taught in college but unfortunately we were just taught theoritical management principles and jargons that really do not equip one for the real world out there where the struggle can get rough and everybody is inherently selfish.

If these eight things were taught in college many more people would have been better prepared for business and career success.

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In Business

Small Business Recruiting: Low Cost Strategies to Hire the Best Employees for Your Young Startup

October 5, 2019 No Comments

If you are running a new business (with most likely very limited funds) the success of your first few hires will play an important role on the speed at which your young startup business progresses.
Big companies and businesses are always on the lookout for great talented workers and the reality for a young and inexperienced business entrepreneur is that he/she will have to battle with the bigger companies for the available talents in the job market.

To develop a smart recruitment strategy for your young company you have to be aware of the challenges you face in your bid to get in quality staff and team members.

Do You Have the Finance to Be Competitive Enough?

While it may not take much to hire for such positions as receptionist, clerk, personal assistant etc the fact remains that for your young company to grow faster and produce better products and services you will eventually need to hire star quality performers in such areas as programming/design, engineering, business development etc and you will find it very difficult to hire the super performers your company needs at low cost.

Unless you come across a generous investor at the early stages of starting your company chances are that you may not have the resources to offer the sort of wages to attract real top talents to your startup. That is a problem you should be aware of. Still you will not be doing your company any good by settling for low quality workers that you can pay little.

Does Your Location Matter?

Previously as an up and coming inexperienced entrepreneur I never agreed that location was that important in today’s technological business environment. However when I started my first company a technology services firm in a town not known for harbouring great talent I had a firsthand experience on how difficult it can be to attract good employees who will be willing to leave their location to come work at a quiet, sleepy town. The town was and is still behind technologically.

In as much as I and my partner saw an opportunity there to bring in quality ICT services, break new ground and reap the rewards we soon discovered how difficult it was to get good lieutenants with the right skills to help us build the company. For our job adverts we mostly got people who lived far away from our business location. As a young, self funded company we didn’t have the funds to help them relocate or even pay the kind of wages they expected. While we received applications from some candidates who lived in the town they were not of the quality we wanted and lacked many of the skills and experience we were looking for.

These and some others are the questions you must consider if you are intending to hire and grow your business as quickly as possible.

How Then Can You Increase Your Chances of Hiring Great People Even With the Limited Funds Your Company Has

Recruiting is one of the toughest jobs of being an entrepreneur or founder. You either hire people who help your company/startup grow faster or you get people who slow down your company’s progress or even, at the extreme, halt it.
Here’s how you can make sure your recruitment of your first few employees becomes a success;

Get a Clear Picture of Who and What You Want

Before you ever put out word or place any advert for vacancy be sure to sit with your team or partner and write down who and what exactly you are hiring

For instance as a small company you might need a receptionist who will also double as customer assistant and answer calls from customers. You will have to decide what exact position or job title you will be putting out. Remember that a job title can give a perceived bigger or lower value to the prospective employee and thus affect the expectations they will have of you as the employer including salary demands. Once when we wanted to hire a front desk officer who would also act as secretary we advertised a job title that somehow gave candidates the impression that the job would pay more than it actually was. As a result we got mostly overqualified applicants who we couldn’t pay.

A job title conveys the importance the prospective employer attaches to the job. Some titles will attract under qualified persons while certain titles will draw the attention of the kind of people you need.

Be Clear as Possible on the Requirements and Responsibilities

It is very often that I see entrepreneurs putting out job adverts that do not have clear eligibility requirements. Very scant summary of requirements might attract applications from very unqualified candidates. On the other hand putting out very high and sophisticated requirements will scare away some good candidates you might have got otherwise. The key is to strike a balance between the ideal candidate descriptions you wish for and the average qualifications and requirements you need to get a good, if not star employee.

Advertise Creatively

Creative job advertising is a blend of online and offline non-conventional methods. To get the word out there about your job positions you may place your jobs in proven job sites to get the needed exposure. Let colleagues and associates be aware that you are hiring. If your company has a facebook and twitter account be sure to share the information on the vacancies open in your company. One good thing about these social media platforms is that users who read your information can easily share and retweet to their connections and help spread word about your vacancy.

Interviewing Prospective Candidates

One mistake most young entrepreneurs make is to assume they have read all they need to know about the job interviewing process. The truth is there is more to a job interview than just asking the right questions. You have also to watch out for the right signals from the prospective candidates. Most times a candidate’s attitude during interviews will tell you a whole lot more about them than their answers.

Some candidates will give you all the right answers they have been trained to provide during interview situations so you will need the ability to look beyond the answers and look at the characters of the persons you interview.

Paul Eze is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ngcareers a top job search and employment site in Nigeria used by thousands of employers to reach prospective candidates. Follow him on Twitter @paulemekaeze

In Succeeding

Try This Unconventional Way of Raising Small Start-up Capital for Your Side Hustle

August 1, 2019 No Comments

Years back I had this need for a small sum of money to start a small business and searched in vain for anyone to loan me the money. The banks are usually useless in Nigeria for these sort of things.

If you’ve been in a similar situation you know how difficult it can be to raise just N200,000 (less than $1,000) to start that business idea you’ve always had.

So a friend then gave me this very simple but effective and creative advice. This idea is so simple that you may even dismiss it the first time you come across it. It may be useless for raising significant startup capital so I advise you use it if only you want to raise anywhere between N100,000 to N500,000 or even a million naira. So imagine you need to raise $1,500 to start that hustle you have been thinking about.

Instead of asking a couple of friends and family to cough out the money why not take this approach.

Make a list of everyone you know (family, friends, work colleague etc) who can ‘dash’ (gift) you a small sum of money without too much persuasion or breaking sweat. Say you needed N250,000 and you divide it by 25. This means you’ll need 25 acquaintances who can give you N10,000 for free and you have your N250,000. If you have a large circle of people to ask you could even make it N5,000 per head and get it from 50 people you know.

The idea behind this approach is it is easier to ask people for painless, negligible amounts of money than ask for loans of sizeable sums. So from taking a piece here and there from many people you have your small startup capital.

If you are in a position where you need this sort of money try this approach out. Get out a piece of paper and list down every single person you know who can afford to part with N5,000 or N10,000 without too much resistance. You’d be surprised how long your list will be. Then reach out to them one by one. Be simple and straightforward and ask for that amount. Not as a loan but as a gift. By the time you make the rounds you have your small seed capital.

Don’t underestimate the little ideas. Go on, try it. And maybe let me know in the comments what you think.

In General

Develop New Products/Services or Die

April 20, 2019 No Comments

There is a reason even large corporations commit significant resources in research and development of new products/services. Relevance. The moment you stop innovating and creating, your gradual slope down the relevance valley begins. You may not know it then but you would be in similar situation to that of someone threading against the escalator.

Apple was winning with Macs, iPods, iPads. They didn’t stop there. Today they have the Apple Watch. Every year improved itineration of the iPhone gets released. There is Apply Pay. Also a cloud storage and computing service is in full force. What do we say about Amazon? They started selling just books. Now they sell almost everything one would need in a home. And they didn’t stop there. They are now a major player in the cloud business with Amazon Web Services.

These are just two of the biggest companies in the world right now. Coming back home to Nigeria we have a problem where many companies do not just do enough in committing to product development (or re-development). However there are still examples of companies here who get the need to remain super competitive. The FMCG and beverage sector probably understand this more than most others. Every few years we get new beers, drinks, detergents etc each claiming to provide the value and satisfaction that others don’t. They do this to stay in the game.

Coca Cola leads the soft drinks industry but they get challenged all round. New entrants will chip away at your market share. Rite Foods are there with Bigi Cola. RC Cola just came in. Coca Cola does this well as over the last 10 years they have tried to maintain overall market share by tickling the fancy of consumers with new products. CWAY Foods was not content with having products like Nutri Milk. They added Nutri-yo a yoghurt drink and also recently moved to launch mixed spirit drinks. Chi Ltd expanded its Chivita juice brand with new additions – Chapman Happy Hour and Frooty Happy Hour. In technology to stay relevant you must constantly reinvent, look to tap new market opportunities.

In another post I’ll stir the hornet’s nest on how ambitious companies can create their own winning product development approach and ensure they tap into evolving market opportunities.I

In General

How to Trade in the Stock Market – Important Tips and Techniques

April 5, 2013 No Comments

Trading in the stock market can be really challenging as well as fruitful at the same time. The key to making money from the stock market lies in the patience you have, the knowledge you gather and experience you gain while investing in the stock market. If you are a newbie to the world of stock market, you will have to invest a good amount of time in how the stock market works and understand its terminology, before you go ahead and invest your money. Investing the time to learn about the stock market and its various aspects will help you in the long term to reap the benefits of the stock market.

The stock market has been there for centuries and it is certainly going to be there for as long as the financial world exists, so there is no reason for you to be impatient or volatile in trading. Take your time in understanding as well as gathering the knowledge of the stock market trading before you put in the real money to start trading.
The first thing that you need to do before you enter the stock market is to understand its terminology.

This will help you understand the language traders, brokers, relationship managers and others involved in the stock market talks. Without this knowledge, it will be hard for you to go ahead and deal in the stock market. Once you have accomplished that, you can join one of the many sites that allow you to trade in real time with virtual money. You do not have to invest any of your hard earned money to trade in these accounts but the experience you will get will be real. This will help you know how things work in the stock market and this first-hand experience will help you deal better when you are investing your hard earned money in the stock market. Knowing the signs of bull and the bearish market as well as knowing how to follow the trends and the flow of the market is very essential to know when to sell, when to put the stop loss and when to entry and exit from your positions.

There is absolutely nothing that can guarantee hundred percent safety or profits in the stock market but all these essential knowledge building steps that you take, will help you minimize the loss while maximizing the profits. Keep yourself updated with the latest happenings in the world of stocks, never invest more than you can afford to lose, evaluate your trading strategy from time to time to find any loopholes and improve it further, sign up with free stock trading tips websites providing tips on a regular basis, read stock market magazines, listen to what the experts have to say, follow the stock market gurus and never ever follow any stock market tip blindly.

After you have followed the above steps and is confident to put in your hard earned money into the stock market, the first thing that you need to keep in mind is that the stock market is not a place where you should want to make quick money, even when the world says so. You will earn quick money for sure, but do not get carried away. Know when to call it a day. If you have lost a good amount today, do not invest more money to balance it out. Most of the people make such mistakes and end up wiping their bankroll completely. If you have made good profits today, do not think of doubling or tripling it just because the market is bullish. Stay calm and in control.

Diversifying your portfolio is also very important when investing in the stock market. Have scripts of small, medium and large enterprises in equal amounts. Check the fundamental financial standings of the company you invest in. Fundamentally strong companies will never close down and thus, the chances of you losing it all are also very scarce. Diversifying your portfolio adds that much needed harmony to your investments and keeps you safe.

The stock market has many different kinds of trade happenings like equity, commodity, Forex, futures and derivatives, short sales and so on. Do what you know best and do not experiment with your hard earned money. If you feel the need, expand and gather your knowledge about such trading options and then only go ahead and invest your money on it. Make the habit of investing in long positions than short positions. Short term trades are very risky generally, but when you have bought shares of a good company on the capacity to hold it for long, rest assured you are going to make good profit out of it in most of the cases.

So, if you are really keen on investing in the stock market, keep the above mentioned points in mind. Slowly but surely, you will start making consistent profits out of the stock market and this will help you gain confidence to invest smartly and more accurately.

Lance Margolis is a financial market analyst, and an alumnus of Ivy League University where he obtained his degree in Business Management. JG Wentworth serves as his inspiration to succeed. Join him on Twitter @MargolisLance.

In Life

Ten Things Nigerians Search For Most Online

October 19, 2011 3 Comments

For the past few weeks we have researched and studied browsing habits of Nigerians online. We sought to know what Nigerians search for most on the internet.

Is this article useful?
You can bet. Information marketers and bloggers will find it useful to have the information about the most searched things online by Nigerians. In compiling this report we did not take into account single word searches like “2go” “Facebook” etc. We, rather, wanted to find out the sort of information (How to’s) that Nigerians seek most online.

Note also that this report is not complete in its entirety as we will still continue our research and effect any changes we discover along the way. We also give credit to the following site/organizations through which some of our research was carried out:

a. Google.com
b. Nairaland.com
c. Facebook.com
d. Twitter.com among others.

And now, the list.

Please note that we do not compile in an order of importance or most searched,. We just let you have the list and do whatever you wish with it.

1. Job Vacancies/Opportunities: the relative success of many job sites in Nigeria attest to the fact that thousands of Nigerians go online everyday seeking information on available job openings. They type in several phrases depending on the job they want. You see phrases like, ‘engineering jobs in Lagos, accounting jobs in Nigeria’ etc.

Also, many search for web address of known recruiting firms, oil companies’ banks and telecom companies. When government agencies like the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) advertise for recruitment thousands of people go online to search for details and application process.

Job vacancies is one thing Nigerians will continue to search for online for sometime to come given that unemployment has continued to be a huge challenge to the country.

2. How to Make Money/Income Online: this is a particularly popular search term for Nigerians. As the internet opens more and more in Nigeria, thousands dream for a life where they work on their computer for a couple of hours per day and get the dollar cum naira rain to live the life of their dreams. For many however they soon realize how difficult it is to make money online in Nigeria. Nigerians search to discover best ways to make money online without much stress.

3. News: depending on the latest occurrences in the Nation’s political or sporting sector (these two are the most eventful parts of Nigerian’s lives) Nigerians go online to search for more information. News sites like 234next.com, Vanguard and sports sites like goal.com are very popular in Nigeria for this purpose.

4. How to Get Overseas Scholarship: the craze to go abroad by Nigerians did not start today. And it is not about to end. Undergraduates and graduates all seek multiple ways to escape the country and study abroad to presumably have access to better life with the degrees they’ll acquire abroad.
The search for overseas scholarship and educational opportunities include a wide varieties of country; Canada, Malaysia, US among the most common searches.

5. Where and How to Get Laptops, Phone Accessories and Other IT Gadgets: do we need to say more on this? As the latest gadgets and tools appear many Nigerians search online for information on these gadgets and tools and how to get them.

6. Computer/Mobile Phone Cheats: many young Nigerians want to browse the internet with their mobile phones for far cheaper costs or even for free. Hence, the search for phone cheats to enable free or low-cost browsing. The same applies to the computer.

7. Sports: the country has some of the craziest fans of the English Premier League, Spanish League and UEFA Champions League.
Every transfer window in Europe brings plenty of searches by Nigerians who wish to keep up to date on latest sales and acquisition of players by their favourite dubs.

Nigerians also search for match results and issues concerning Nigerian football.

8. Answers to Term paper Questions, Project Topics & Other Academic Questions:
This consist a reasonable percentage of searches conducted by Nigerians on the net.

9. Free Stuff: yeah, Nigerians love free money, free browsing, free tips on how to get a woman to like you and stuffs like that. So they search for free things. When I started out as a blogger I searched for many free tips to help improve my blog.

10. Online Dating: the last but not the least. Curiously, many young Nigerian are into searching for online dates with the opposite sex.

Do you have any other ideas? Lets us know about it through the comment box.