MoneyStory: At 28, His Mum Paid His Rent. Today He Makes ₦2.8m a Month

Age

31

Occupation

Livestock consultant and farm management software founder

Location

Ibadan

Housing

Rented 2-bedroom flat, ₦600,000

Monthly income:

₦2,800,000

Current Savings

₦8,000,000 (stocks and fixed deposit)

What's your earliest memory of money?

My dad kept chickens and goats in our backyard. I was about five or six, and I remember him selling eggs to neighbors. He'd give me ₦100 or ₦200 to run to the corner shop. But honestly, I was more interested in where the money came from - the chickens themselves. I'd follow him around, watching him feed them, checking for eggs, treating sick ones. My siblings thought I was weird because everyone else wanted to play, but I wanted to understand why some chickens laid more eggs than others.

What was growing up like financially?

My dad was a banker. My mum was a nurse. We didn't starve. We didn't have everything either. I remember my dad explaining things to us, not to teach us lessons, just explaining his life, why he had the farm. Why he didn't just spend his salary. He'd sit with the ledger and talk about it like we were supposed to understand. He made us watch as he managed the farm as a side business. That was an education on its own.

When did you first earn money?

In SS 1, I started selling eggs from our backyard. I'd take them to school and sell them to teachers and parents. Made about ₦5,000 over three months. It felt like I'd invented money.

The real turning point was when I was in SS 3. My dad got seriously ill for almost three months. Instead of everything falling apart, I took over - managing feeds, treating birds, keeping records, selling. I was 16. It was not smooth. I made mistakes. I overfed birds, miscalculated feed timing, and honestly stressed about things I didn’t understand fully. But the farm didn’t stop.
When he recovered and saw what had been done, he didn’t overpraise it. He just said something like, “You can handle this.” That changed my entire life, honestly.

Did you study this formally?

Not at first. I took science subjects but wasn't sure about a career. Our counselor in secondary school suggested vet medicine, but I didn't want that. I was more interested in the business side, the production side.

Then they told me about animal science during JAMB preparation. I applied to university and got admitted in 2016. By 300-level, I was already consulting for farmers around my area. My roommates were studying for tests. I was writing informal proposals for farms I barely knew.

Tell me about your first consulting client.

My dad's friend had a poultry farm. Small operation but it was losing money. He was desperate, I think. I spent a Saturday on his farm, wrote down everything I saw. Bad feed quality. Overcrowding. No disease management. I came home and wrote this long report then I charged him ₦50k, which felt like a lot of money to ask for.

He called back after three months. His output was up. His profit was up. He paid me and recommended me to someone else.

But that's not the whole story. Before that first win, I had two other farms I was trying to help. One of them, the owner didn't follow my recommendations. He kept doing things his way, and the birds got sick. All of them. I felt responsible. I remember standing in that farm, looking at dead birds, and thinking maybe I didn't know what I was doing. Maybe I was just a student pretending.

I had five clients. But I also had three farms where things didn't work out. People didn't follow advice, or I gave bad advice, or the situation was just too far gone. Those failures stuck with me more than the successes.

Did school suffer because of the consulting?

Not exactly. It was more like I was doing two things badly instead of one thing well. I had exams in October, and I'd be on a farm the week before. I'd miss classes to visit farms during the week. My CGPA wasn't great and it wasn't terrible either, but I knew I wasn't being a serious student.

But my animal science classes made sense to me because I was seeing it in real life. When we learned about genetics, I was already thinking about which chickens I would like to breed. When we learned about nutrition, I was already calculating feed ratios for clients. So it wasn't that school didn't matter. It was that I was learning on two tracks at the same time, and it was exhausting.

In 300-level second semester, I wanted to quit consulting completely and just focus on school because the courses were a bit taxing, and it needed more of me focusing on my studies than making money. I wasn't making enough money to feel successful, but I was making enough to distract me. My mum kept asking when I'd settle down and do my schoolwork properly.

Did you finish your degree?

Yeah, I graduated in 2023 because of the COVID and ASUU strike. By then I was making more from consulting than most people made in their first jobs. But I also felt like a fraud in class. My grades didn't reflect what I actually knew. My supervisor for my final year project was one of the few people who took me seriously. He didn't treat me like a student who was dabbling. He treated me like someone who had actual experience.

My project was on feed formulation in small farms. I worked on it for about a year after graduation and got it published in a journal. That publication changed things. It gave me something to point to. Before that, I was just a young guy saying "I know farms." After that, I had proof.

After graduation, you went solo. What happened?

I turned down job offers and went full-time consulting. That was the first time I was actually terrified about money. As a student, I had a safety net. My parents would help if things got bad. I didn't have that anymore.

Early 2023 was a bit rough for me. I'd have months where I made ₦600,000. Then the next month would be ₦100,000. I remember one month in early 2023, after graduation when I made ₦40,000. I had rent due. I called my mum. I didn't ask her for money - I just called her and told her I was struggling. She helped me with that month's rent. I was 28 years old and my mum was paying my rent because my business was failing.

After that, I stopped taking every client. I raised my rates to ₦150,000 minimum per farm per month. I lost some clients immediately. They thought I was overpricing myself. For three months, I had almost no one. I remember sitting in my room thinking I'd made a terrible decision.

Then I got two new clients at the higher rate. Then three more. By the second half of 2023, I was making between ₦500k and ₦800k monthly. But I'd lost something too. I was burned out. Every farm problem felt like my problem. I'd go to sleep thinking about a client's birds. I'd wake up worried.

Then you took a corporate job?

A company in Lagos reached out in late 2023. They'd heard about me. They wanted me to head their livestock division. ₦1.8m monthly. Benefits. Stability. I took it because I was exhausted. The money was less than what I was making consulting, but the stability mattered more than I want to admit.

The first year was good. I was building their operations from nothing. Training people. Growing the division. By the middle of 2024, my salary had grown to ₦2.1m plus bonuses. I wasn't thinking about leaving.

But in September 2024, I got restless. I felt like I was working for someone else's vision. I pitched a business idea to my director - a digital platform for farm management and consulting. He said no. That stung, lol. I remember that conversation. I was sitting in his office, and he said it wasn't a priority. And something in me just... stopped trying.

I didn't leave the next day. I stayed for months, but I was already gone. I was doing the job, but I wasn't interested anymore. My attention was on this idea that my company didn't want to build. That was a weird feeling - being paid well to do something I didn't care about anymore.

December 2024, I left. Walked away from ₦2.1m/month stability to start my own advisory firm. Literally insane by conventional standards. Brilliant by entrepreneurial standards. I still don't know which.

So what happened next?

I didn't have a plan, honestly. That's the part that still makes me nervous when I think about it. I had some savings, maybe ₦2m in the bank. I had ₦8m in investments that I wasn't touching. I had client relationships from my consulting days. I thought that would be enough.

The first three months were terrifying. I was living off savings and old retainers. I had time to work on the software, but no income to feel secure about. By month two, I was questioning everything. My mum asked when I'd get a "real job" again. My friends thought I was reckless.

By month four, I'd signed three corporate farms. That brought the income back to maybe ₦1.5m monthly. Then the software started getting traction - ten beta users paying between ₦200k and ₦300k each. That was another ₦2m-3m monthly.

But I'm still not comfortable. I wake up thinking about what happens if two of my three corporate clients leave. That would cut my income in half. With the software still small, that's a real risk.

How secure is this income?

Not very, compared to the job. With a job, you knew December 28th the money was there. Now, if three clients pull out, I'm stressed. But I also get to build something. The software tool is the real play. If I get 100 active users, I don't need consulting anymore.

The trade-off I made is: stable ₦2.1m for volatile ₦2.8m with upside. Most people would call me stupid. I think I'm patient.

How much are you making now?

This month, ₦2.8m. But it's not stable. It's three farm clients bringing ₦1.2m, ten software users bringing ₦2.5m (but that varies), and workshops bringing maybe ₦300k when I run them. If the software users drop to five, I'm back to ₦1.5m. That keeps me awake sometimes.

What does your spending actually look like?

Rent takes the largest chunk at ₦600k, followed by transport and fuel at ₦200k, personal care and clothes at ₦150k, food and groceries at ₦160k, and utilities at ₦110k. Dining out and farm consultancy tools and software each come to ₦100k, with gym and health rounding out living expenses at ₦80k. On the financial side, ₦800k goes into business reinvestment and ₦500k into savings and investments.

Most months I'm not spending the full amount on savings because the income varies. Last month I only saved ₦150,000 because a client delayed payment. That's stressful. I know people who make ₦2.8m steady, and they're building things. I make ₦2.8m and I'm trying not to go backwards.

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How has your relationship with money changed over time?

My dad taught me that money is a tool, not the goal. He made decent banker money but wasn't obsessed. He invested in the farm not because it made more money than his salary, but because he wanted ownership.

I apply that now. My consulting income funds my software development. The software is building toward long-term wealth that consulting never will. I'm not chasing the highest hourly rate; I'm building toward passive income.

I'm also careful with debt. I bootstrapped my firm, so I took no loans or investments. Everything organic. That might slow me down compared to people who've taken funding, but I keep my sanity and my decision-making power.

Money used to feel massive. When I made ₦50,000 as a student, that was huge. Now I make ₦2.8m and it feels like work output. The fear is different now, not "Will I eat?" but "Will my business survive? Will I be relevant in five years?"

What's the long-term plan?

I want to build a demonstration farm eventually, maybe ₦50m-80m to set up properly. I'm maybe ₦1.5m into that dream right now. That's going to take years.

The real goal is to get the software to 100+ paying users. If that happens, consulting becomes optional. Right now, consulting is what's keeping me alive while the software grows. But if the software actually works, that's the real business.

I think about this a lot. I'm 31. I left stability for risk. Most people would say that's stupid. But I also know people earning ₦3m yearly in stable jobs, and they'll be earning ₦3m yearly for 30 years. I'd rather risk it now when I don't have dependents.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

7/10. I'm not stressed about eating or where I sleep. But I'm stressed about whether this was worth it. I have friends in corporate jobs making ₦2m, ₦3m monthly, and they sleep better than I do. They're buying houses. I'm reinvesting everything back into the business.

The happiness would jump to 9/10 if the software worked and I didn't need consulting anymore. Right now, I'm in this place where I'm building something, but I'm also one bad month away from real problems. That's productive tension, I guess. But it doesn't feel productive when you're living it.