My Money Mistake is a weekly PiggyVest series that explores the worst money mistakes real Nigerians have made, and the lessons they learnt from it.

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For this week’s episode of My Money Mistake, we spoke to a product designer in his 20s who took a loan to start a business. He tells us about how it happened and the lessons he learnt from the experience. 

Could you tell me about your money mistake?

During the Covid pandemic, I had this idea of learning a tech skill and starting a business around it. On doing some research, I stumbled on affiliate marketing and told a few of my friends about it. 

One of them seemed really interested because she was also an affiliate marketer. She told me that if I was serious about it, she’d loan me some money to get started. Thinking this was a good opportunity, I agreed. 

So, what happened?

She sent me some agreements, involved a lawyer to make it official, and eventually loaned me the money. Then I got into affiliate marketing — I followed all the advice, set up my ads account, did everything I was supposed to do, and I was expecting to make returns. But it never happened. 

Wow. That’s rough.

Yeah. After about six months, I hadn’t made a single sale from it and had lost everything. So, I eventually gave up. 

And the loan?

I didn’t have enough money to refund her, so I kept asking her to give me more time. Then things took a surprising turn when police officers showed up at my door one day to arrest me. She’d threatened me for a while before they eventually came.

It was two days before my final exams, so I was really disoriented. I called my mum and just started crying, but she couldn’t do much. They harassed me and treated me badly. It affected me a bit, but I’m okay now. 

I’m so sorry about that. How much was the loan?

She loaned me ₦‎70k, but she told the police she’d loaned me ₦250k. I had to negotiate it down to ₦120k. 

How did you make it out of the police station?

I still didn’t have a way to refund the money, even with the negotiation. One of my friends came through and paid her ₦50k, and we agreed to pay off the rest in instalments within three months. 

My mom gave me some part of it, and I eventually got a job in tech that allowed me to finish up the payment in three months. 

What lesson did you learn from this experience? 

I learnt to not start a business without doing proper research and with money that’s not mine. I can manage the risk of losing my money to a business that didn’t work well, but I can’t do that when it’s a loan.