I know this sounds a bit fishy, why would anyone not want a bank account? Well, there are many reasons, it might be that the certain job you did requires a bank of a particular country or region for them to pay you your money or it could be that you trying to save somewhere that’s not entirely regulated by the government which comes with risk, or it could be that you do not meet a certain requirement by the banks (especially with the whole BVN, NIN, ID Card, DOB, AFFIDAVIT challenges that many people are facing in Nigeria)

Whatever the reason it might be, we don’t judge as long as the means of getting your money is legal.

So, without much ado, let’s dive into it.

The first step to making money online without a bank account is of course to simply learn how to earn money online.  Luckily, this post shows you how to make money online in Nigeria without a bank account.

How to Make Money Online in Nigeria Without a Bank account

1. Redbubble

This is a website that allows you to make money by making and selling custom products online.

On this site, you can sell any kind of product like t-shirts, hoodies with custom designs printed on top, phone cases, and anything legal. If you are good at coming up with enticing, good designs then this platform is for you.

To start selling your own products, you will need to first open a free account. Once opened, you can instantly start uploading your own personal designs to products.

Then when a customer buys a product from your store. Redbubble’s production warehouse will print your design onto that product, package it up, and then ship it out to the customer. All of this is done automatically, without you having to lift a finger!

If you haven’t noticed yet, this type of product fulfillment goes by the name of print-on-demand.

The reason why this platform is so great is that you can make money from your home; once you’ve created and uploaded your designs, it becomes a passive source of income.

For each product that you sell, RedBubble will pay you a 20% commission. And because you are paid through a commission, you are not required to pay any fees, meaning selling on RedBubble is 100% FREE.

And because this site is popular, just like e-bay and Amazon, there isn’t much of a need to spend money to advertise your products to customers. Customers are already familiar with these types of sites, so they simply come to search for what they want.

Sellers on RedBubble earn their money through organic traffic. Users typically type in the search bar a product they are searching for and find it organically through the search results.

And sellers utilize Redbubble’s search engine by optimizing their products for search keywords e.g. funny t-shirts, and doctor t-shirts.

And even though you are not a pro at design (though it’s advised) you can still design something that doesn’t take much time and sell it, especially if you focus on funny t-shirts and memes. Even a simple text-based design with a funny word, phrase, or sentence is enough to earn you cool cash.

So once you get a sale, you can pay through either PayPal which is not a bank, or through a bank account but it’s limited to some countries. Luckily you can use another non-banking platform such as Payoneer to work around this.

So YES, you can earn money online without a bank account from this site using either Payoneer or PayPal.

2. Skillshare

This is an online community for anyone who wants to learn about anything through educational videos. On Skillshare, you can share your expertise in a subject or field with others. It can be anything from teaching a language to writing tips, video editing sessions, photography lessons, or even how to get more views on YouTube.

One great feature of Skillshare is that anybody can use this platform and start earning money from it right from their homes.

In fact, on average, new teachers can earn anywhere between $150 – $2,000 in their first month. This is pretty cool, but that is not even the best part–The best part is that once you’ve put your glasses up, all that money you are earning is passive! You could actually wake up to a credit alert which from a personal experience is one of the best feelings in the world.

You get paid on Skillshare every time or every minute somebody watches your video. So, if you were to spend five minutes watching a video on how to learn German, the creator would be paid for each minute you spend watching the video.

Some people will become loyal subscribers and watch all of your videos on your playlist. But the majority of people will just watch a few videos that are relevant to them and be on their way.

Whatever way they choose, it’s still okay because you still get paid for their views regardless of how many videos they watch.

Luckily the only means of payment for skillshare is PayPal. So, no need for a bank account. You can earn and get paid from the comfort of your home.

3. Shutterstock

Shutterstock is an online media library of videos and photos that you can sell as stock footage.

This is a great platform if you’re experienced in photography, as it does not need a huge amount of effort to start earning money. People on this platform make thousands of dollars per month through their portfolios. But to be candid, they don’t make this money through normal photos.

Instead, the majority of their money is made through short clip videos filmed in 4k. These have the highest royalty commissions, and as a result, make more money than regular photos.

So, if Shutterstock sounds like something you would enjoy making money from, then give it a shot though we highly recommend focusing on 4k video. 

You can also get paid through Paypal, Skrill, and Payoneer. So, you don’t need a bank account to make money on this platform.

4. Merch by Amazon

This is Amazon’s own Print on Demand service. A lot like RedBubble that we talked about, Amazon pays you a fee or commission for each item you sell after removing the cost of the t-shirt and any other additional fees.

Once accepted into their program, creating and uploading products here is very simple. 

All you have to do is upload a piece of artwork onto their app. And tailor the features of your product, such as the size of your design, product title, price, and description to your liking. 

As you already know, Amazon is currently the largest e-commerce store online. And so, putting your product in front of customers isn’t much of a job. One huge benefit of selling merch on Amazon is that you get to take advantage of the millions of customers who shop on Amazon every day. They take care of marketing for you and bring in the customers.

You can use Merch by Amazon as a source of side income, or decide to go all in and make this a full-fledged business. Whatever option you choose is completely up to you. Because at the end of the day, the biggest benefit is that the sales you make are totally passive.

The process of getting paid is also like to RedBubble. After Amazon takes all of its fees from production to delivery, the remaining profit is paid out as a commission to your bank account. And this includes Payoneer!

So, this helps skip out on having a bank account.

5. Fiverr

Fiverr is a platform where you can hire a freelancer to complete tasks for you. There are several kinds of freelancers on this platform. Usually, people steer away from making money from home on Fiverr as it’s a bit too competitive. You can find as many as 40 freelancers competing for the same gig, at the same price point (some lower) and still providing the same quality. The average is even 30 Freelancers.

This is why if you want to stand out from the herd, it is essential to have a lot of reviews, or you risk being just another average freelancer in the bunch.

If that is the case, then how on earth can somebody with zero knowledge, zero reviews, and zero money, succeed on Fiverr? Well, the secret is to discover gigs that have high demand, but very low competition.

You could create a gig on something as random, high demand, high payout as building a video game account or characters to the max just to sell (Yes there’s a market for that) Take time to do your research and come up with something.

The mode of payment is also through Pay Pal or through a bank account which you can use Payoneer for. 

This covers the section on making money online without a bank account now let’s go into how to create an alternative bank account.

There are a lot of platforms you could use alternatively to bank accounts, such as some freelancers saving their main money in those platforms and then transferring little of what they need to their actual bank accounts for upkeep. 

Some of those platforms are PayPal, Payoneer, 

But we will focus on two today. PayPal and Payoneer.

PayPal

With its headquarters in the United States of America, PayPal is accepted in over 200 countries globally!

In the past, there was a tough restriction on Nigerians using PayPal to receive and send money. Nigerians were not permitted to open an account. But in 2014, that ban was lifted and Nigerians were permitted to have a personal account. The drawback is the account can only send money. No possibility of receiving money.

In 2018, PayPal’s business account was open to Nigerians to register. Thanks to the PayPal Business account, Nigerians are able to receive money. But with certain conditions. The account is only open for most businesses, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. Which luckily is what you are.

So how do we go about having one?

 To begin with, there are two types of Paypal account as stated above. 

1. Personal account

This account is meant for individuals who prefer using PayPal to send money or pay for services online. If you also like shopping on websites online that accept PayPal then the personal account is for you!

2. Business account

Business accounts as well for businesses who want to receive payment from their customers online. The business account provides businesses tools to add Payment solutions to their websites and receive money. They have many tools and options that are beneficial to businesses.

So, we are going to focus on the requirement needed to open a PayPal business account in Nigeria.

Requirement For opening a PayPal Business Account in Nigeria

1. Your name. No nicknames. It has to be your legal name
2. Your business name. You should possess a registered business name if you want to open a business account. The only exclusion is if you’re a freelancer
3. Your business information will be needed
4. Your Government issued ID card. Preferably international passport
5. Valid email address
6. Phone number

Note: You should provide only truthful and accurate information or else you will lose your account and everything inside it.

The same details are needed for a personal account, the only exception is you don’t need a business name and you need to provide a valid debit/credit card.

Once you sign up and get approved you can begin to use your PayPal account to receive money instead of using your bank account. And when you need money, you can transfer it to another PayPal agent who can then send the money to a local bank of your choice based on the agreed exchange rate.

Some of the FAQs you might have regarding PayPal.

Does PayPal work in Nigeria?

Yes, PayPal works in Nigeria! You can choose to either open a business or a personal account.

Can I receive money through PayPal in Nigeria?

You can only receive money through your PayPal business account. You can’t receive money with a PayPal personal account in Nigeria. You can only make payments, send money, and shop to your heart content online. 

What if I don’t live in Nigeria, can I still send and receive money with a personal account?

Yes and No. Just check if the country you are in is among the countries PayPal approves. 

 Payoneer

The other platform we are going to look at is Payoneer. Personally, I prefer Payoneer to PayPal.

There are no restrictions regarding Payoneer and they are growing at a rapid rate that they are now accepted in 200+ countries, more than PayPal. Everything about them from the moment you open to managing your account is seamless.

If you open a Payoneer account in Nigeria, you’ll get to enjoy the cost-effective and simple payment solutions that Payoneer offers. You can send and receive money with Payoneer either from international or local clients right here in Nigeria. Founded in 2005 and based in New York, Payoneer simply allows you to pay and get paid as easily internationally as you do locally.

Once you have a Payoneer account, you can open a virtual USA bank account in Nigeria that is used for receiving payments and also apply for Payoneer Mastercard while still in Nigeria for online payments. You can use the Payoneer debit card to withdraw your funds through any ATMs worldwide or Nationwide.

Requirements for Opening Payoneer Account In Nigeria

1. Your name. No nickname. Your legal name only.
2. Valid email address.
3. Valid postal, office or home address for delivery of your Payoneer Mastercard.
4. Valid means of ID e.g Nigeria drivers licence, international passport, National ID card etc
5. Valid phone number for authentication reasons

 Note: You should only provide truthful and accurate information or else you will lose your account and everything inside it.

Once you sign up and get approved you can begin to use your Payoneer account to receive money instead of using your bank account. And when you need money, you can transfer to another Payoneer agent who can then send the money to a local bank of your choice based on the agreed exchange rate or even do a direct transfer to your bank or use their ATM card anywhere in Nigeria that has the MasterCard logo.

Some of the FAQs you might have regarding Payoneer.

Does Payoneer work in Nigeria?

Yes, Payoneer works in Nigeria! 

Can I receive and send money through Payoneer in Nigeria?

You can send and receive money through Payoneer. 

What if I don’t live in Nigeria, can I send and receive money?

Yes but check your country to see if it’s among the list of countries approved for Payoneer.

Conclusion 

These are some of the skills you can learn and use to make money online and get paid without a bank account. There are many other platforms you can use as an alternative to a bank but we focused on PayPal and Payoneer today. They are good, trusted, and are mostly accepted all over the world as a means of payment. So, even if you don’t have a bank account, you can still use PayPal and Payoneer to conduct transactions online.