The first time someone told me I was “wasting money on rent,” I was sitting in a rented apartment in Ajah, eating jollof rice I could actually afford because I hadn’t sunk my entire net worth into a building. The person giving me the advice? A landlord who had been trying to sell a property in Lekki for eight months with zero offers. The irony was thicker than Lagos traffic on a Friday evening.
The rent-versus-buy debate in Nigeria is one of those conversations that generates more heat than light. Everyone has an opinion, most of them inherited from parents who built houses in the 1980s when a plot of land in Ikeja cost less than a Toyota Corolla costs today. But the Nigeria of 2026 is not the Nigeria of 1985.
Inflation is different. Interest rates are different. Urbanisation has changed our desires of what a good home is. The entire structure of how wealth is built and preserved has also shifted. So let us actually do the math, strip away the emotions, and figure out when renting wins, when buying wins, and when you should just mind your business and ignore your uncle’s WhatsApp forwards about “landed properties near Dangote refinery.”
The Nigerian Dream of Owning a House
Interesting topic because while the capitalist in me wants to make bank like Lagos and Abuja landlords, the socialist in me balks at the high price. As such, the realist in me definitely prefers the lower-priced rent and ample space of Arepo, or Magboro and Mowe.
But of course, there’s always our parents’ voice in our head that says “Why are you paying rent? You’re making your landlord rich” “Buy your own land, start building your house” “This money you just paid as rent can build the foundation”
It’s like the Nigerian dream, if one ever existed. In fact, many of our parents started with one or two rooms in an uncompleted building before building out the rest. But times have changed. You certainly can’t do that in most parts of Lagos, that is even if you can afford to buy a quarter plot and build, or buy a house that can see into your neighbour’s bedroom.
To put it in perspective, the average price of a 3-bedroom flat in Lekki Phase 1 now sits between N80 million and N200 million depending on the estate. In Abuja’s Maitama or Asokoro, you are looking at N150 million to N400 million for a decent detached house. Meanwhile, the median income in Lagos is roughly N150,000 to N250,000 a month. The gap between what people earn and what houses cost is not a gap; it is the Grand Canyon.
According to the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa, Nigeria’s housing deficit stands at approximately 17 to 28 million units, depending on who you ask. The National Bureau of Statistics puts home ownership at about 25% in urban areas. Compare that to South Africa at around 65%, Kenya at 26%, and even Ghana at about 47%. We are not just behind; we are running the race in the wrong direction.
The Math Behind Renting
To take another look at our parents’ advice, for most people in the building phase of wealth, buying a house is making a financial mistake, except, of course, it is for investment purposes. The main argument is always: “Rent is a waste. At the end of the year, you have nothing to show for it.” Let’s test that.
Imagine you want to live in an apartment in Lekki/Ajah worth N200 million. The rent for that house, a Phase 2 apartment, likely costs 4 million to 5 million a year. That is a rental yield of 2% to 2.5% per year.
If you buy the house and live in it, you’re locking down N200 million of capital to save N5 million in rent, but that means that N200 million is working for you at a 5% return. In an economy with almost 30% inflation (yeah, it’s going down), that is a CAPITAL DISASTER.
If you took the same N200 million and put it in a safe instrument, even a simple Treasury Bill or a Eurobond fund doing 10%, you’ll make N20 million a year. You could pay your N5 million rent and still have N15 million leftover.
In this scenario, renting is actually profitable. Also, if you’re a business owner, putting in N200 million into inventory or expansion should yield 20-30%. Turning your capital into concrete means you are killing your business growth to satisfy your ego.
Let me put it even more starkly. Nigerian rental yields are among the lowest in Africa:
- Lagos: 2-4% gross rental yield (one of the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa)
- Abuja: 3-5% gross rental yield
- Nairobi, Kenya: 5-7% gross rental yield
- Accra, Ghana: 7-10% gross rental yield
- Johannesburg, South Africa: 7-9% gross rental yield
This means that as a landlord in Lagos, the rent you collect barely covers 2-4% of the property value per year. As a tenant, you are getting an incredible deal relative to the asset value you are occupying. The math favours renting in Lagos more than almost any other major African city.
The Math Behind Buying
Now that I’ve badmouthed buying a house enough, that does not mean you should never buy. Buying is not always a bad deal. It depends entirely on your situation, your goals, and your capital structure. For example, a house can be a financial investment. Say you get a mortgage at 9.75%, and you buy a house in an area giving you at least 10%, even if you’ll still be adding some money. If you rent out the whole house and are able to use the rent to offset the mortgage cost for a period of 10 years, you essentially get a 100 million property for 10 million plus the returns for 10 years.
Only a few asset classes can turn 10 million to 100 million in 10 years, possibly more because the house could appreciate as much as 150 million plus you’d still be collecting rent. Of course, maintenance costs apply too.
The challenge, however, is that Nigerian mortgage rates are among the harshest in the world and they are not very accessible. I have written about the mortgage issue elsewhere so I won’t go too deeply into it. The average mortgage interest rate in Nigeria ranges from 18% to 30%.
At 25% interest over 20 years, a N50 million mortgage would cost you roughly N250 million in total repayments. You are paying for the house five times over. The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) offers the National Housing Fund at a more palatable 6%, but the maximum loan is N15 million, which in 2025 barely buys you a self-contain in Ikorodu.
The Hidden Costs Nobody Tells You
Of course, owning a house also comes with fees. For example, buying comes with regulatory hurdles, and agency and legal fees, sometimes 10% or more to buy.
Another issue is maintenance. A house is a living thing that constantly tries to die. Roof leaks, pipes burst, POP falls, and more. Also, the cost of depreciation in Lagos is also chilling when you consider the huge sum spent to buy these properties and the fact that the developer has most likely tried to cut costs by using substandard materials and the artisans have most likely fixed something in a way that keeps you calling.
Let me break down the hidden costs that nobody puts in the brochure:
- Legal and agency fees: 5-10% of property value (lawyer fees, agent commission, survey fees)
- Governor’s Consent / C of O processing: N500,000 to N5 million depending on state and property value. In Lagos, getting a Certificate of Occupancy can take 6 months to 3 years and involves multiple trips to Alausa that will test your faith in humanity.
- Stamp duty: 1.5% of property value (recently increased under the Finance Act)
- Annual land use charge: Lagos introduced this and it keeps climbing. Some estates in Ikoyi pay N2 million to N5 million annually.
- Service charges: Monthly service charges in some apartments and estates will set you a figure that rivals rents in other areas. Service charges are just so-called fees for reduced security and cleaning whereas you’ll pay inflation on power charges and battle flood and traffic still.
- Maintenance and repairs: Budget 1-3% of property value annually. That N200 million house needs N2 million to N6 million a year just to not fall apart.
Real estate is the most illiquid asset class. You cannot sell a bathroom to pay for a medical emergency, nor can you sell your kitchen to pay school fees. If you dump all your cash into a house, you can easily be asset rich, cash poor.
And here is the one nobody talks about: the title risk. Nigeria’s land administration is a minefield. Omo onile (land grabbers) are an actual profession in Lagos. Excision disputes, government acquisition notices, family land wahala, and cases where the same plot has been sold to three different buyers are depressingly common. The Lagos State Real Estate Transactions Department (LASRETRAD) was supposed to clean this up. Progress has been… slow.
So, to Rent or to Buy?
Buying seems to be a hurdle but rent is not cheap either and you are getting to a point where you want to have your forever home. So when do you rent and when do you buy?
When Renting Actually Wins
If you’re still building, especially in a volatile country like Nigeria, cash flow is king.
Renting is the smarter move when:
- You are in your 20s or 30s and still building your career or business. Mobility matters.
- You are a business owner. Putting N200 million into inventory or expansion should yield 20-30%. Turning your capital into concrete is killing your business growth to satisfy your ego.
- You live in a city with low rental yields (2-4%). You are getting more value as a tenant than the landlord is getting as an owner.
- You do not have stable income to handle mortgage payments, maintenance, and unexpected costs.
- You are unsure about staying in one location long-term. NYSC just posted you to Sokoto, and you are not sure if you will end up in Lagos, Abuja, or Port Harcourt.
- The opportunity cost of your capital is higher elsewhere. If you can earn 20-25% on Treasury Bills or 30-40% in your business, locking capital in a house earning 2-4% is irrational.
When Buying Makes Sense
Also, if you’re optimizing for stability, for starting a family, and not returns, then by all means, buying makes more sense. You’re paying for a luxury, and not an investment since you want your own space, freedom, and no landlady/landlord nonsense again. In this case, buying is not a financial strategy, it is just about having a home. Asides this, there are still instances where buying still makes financial sense.
Buying makes financial sense when:
- You have excess liquidity. Too much money. You can park the money in a house. You’re not after survival money again after all.
- You are playing the 20-year game. Land banking and capital appreciation to protect your wealth from devaluation over decades.
- You are taking a high-risk investment approach. Apartment price for a two-bedroom at a friend’s building rose from N45 million in late 2022 to over 100 million by early 2025. If that’s your game, then that’s understandable too.
- You are buying to rent out and the rental income covers or exceeds your mortgage payment. This is a genuine wealth-building strategy.
- You are an older professional with a stable career and family, and you want the psychological comfort of knowing nobody can evict you.
- You have access to a subsidized mortgage (FMBN, employer-backed, diaspora schemes) that makes the total cost competitive with renting.
The Nigerian Context: Why This Is Harder Than It Should Be
The reason this debate is so heated in Nigeria is because the system is broken in ways that make both options painful.
For renters: Landlords demand 1-2 years’ rent upfront. In most developed countries, you pay monthly. In Lagos, you drop N3 million to N8 million in one shot. That is a barrier that turns renting into a capital-intensive activity, which defeats the entire purpose of renting being the low-capital option.
For buyers: The mortgage system barely exists. Less than 3% of Nigerians have mortgages, compared to 15% in South Africa and 30-40% in the US and UK. There are fewer than 50,000 active mortgages in a country of 220 million people. The Primary Mortgage Institutions are underfunded, the National Housing Fund is capped too low, and the private banks charge interest rates that would make a loan shark blush.
For everyone: The land titling system is a disaster. Getting a Certificate of Occupancy in Lagos involves a journey through bureaucratic purgatory that can take years and cost millions in unofficial “facilitation fees”, governor’s consent fee, deed registration, survey plans, omo onile settlements. It is a system designed to extract money at every stage.
A Practical Decision Framework
Here is a simple framework to guide your decision:
Step 1: Calculate your rent-to-buy ratio. Take the price of the home you want and divide by the annual rent. If the ratio is above 20 (as it is in most of Lagos), renting is mathematically superior.
Step 2: Calculate your opportunity cost. What return can you get if you invest that capital elsewhere? If it is above the rental yield (2-4% in Lagos), you are better off renting and investing.
Step 3: Assess your liquidity needs. If buying will drain more than 50% of your liquid assets, you are taking too much risk.
Step 4: Factor in your life stage. Building a career? Rent. Settled with family? Consider buying. Entrepreneur needing capital? Rent, always.
Step 5: Evaluate the title and legal risk. If you cannot verify the title chain, do not buy. Full stop.
The Bottom Line
The long and short is to stop letting societal pressure and childhood delusions dictate your balance sheet. If you’re trying to grow wealth, rent the lifestyle and invest the capital. If you’re trying to preserve the wealth, buy the asset. Just know the difference before you sign the deed.
Your uncle who keeps telling you to buy land in Epe does not have access to your bank statement, your business projections, or your risk profile. You do. Make the decision with your spreadsheet, not your ego.
And if you are a landlord reading this and feeling offended, relax. I’m not saying real estate is a bad investment. I’m saying it is a terrible primary residence decision for most young Nigerians in the wealth-building phase. The numbers don’t lie, even if our parents did (with love).
May 4, 2026
9 minute
Isreal Oyarinde
To Rent or To Buy a House: The Nigerian Housing Dilemma
Table of Contents
The first time someone told me I was “wasting money on rent,” I was sitting in a rented apartment in Ajah, eating jollof rice I could actually afford because I hadn’t sunk my entire net worth into a building. The person giving me the advice? A landlord who had been trying to sell a property in Lekki for eight months with zero offers. The irony was thicker than Lagos traffic on a Friday evening.
The rent-versus-buy debate in Nigeria is one of those conversations that generates more heat than light. Everyone has an opinion, most of them inherited from parents who built houses in the 1980s when a plot of land in Ikeja cost less than a Toyota Corolla costs today. But the Nigeria of 2026 is not the Nigeria of 1985.
Inflation is different. Interest rates are different. Urbanisation has changed our desires of what a good home is. The entire structure of how wealth is built and preserved has also shifted. So let us actually do the math, strip away the emotions, and figure out when renting wins, when buying wins, and when you should just mind your business and ignore your uncle’s WhatsApp forwards about “landed properties near Dangote refinery.”
The Nigerian Dream of Owning a House
Interesting topic because while the capitalist in me wants to make bank like Lagos and Abuja landlords, the socialist in me balks at the high price. As such, the realist in me definitely prefers the lower-priced rent and ample space of Arepo, or Magboro and Mowe.
But of course, there’s always our parents’ voice in our head that says “Why are you paying rent? You’re making your landlord rich” “Buy your own land, start building your house” “This money you just paid as rent can build the foundation”
It’s like the Nigerian dream, if one ever existed. In fact, many of our parents started with one or two rooms in an uncompleted building before building out the rest. But times have changed. You certainly can’t do that in most parts of Lagos, that is even if you can afford to buy a quarter plot and build, or buy a house that can see into your neighbour’s bedroom.
To put it in perspective, the average price of a 3-bedroom flat in Lekki Phase 1 now sits between N80 million and N200 million depending on the estate. In Abuja’s Maitama or Asokoro, you are looking at N150 million to N400 million for a decent detached house. Meanwhile, the median income in Lagos is roughly N150,000 to N250,000 a month. The gap between what people earn and what houses cost is not a gap; it is the Grand Canyon.
According to the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa, Nigeria’s housing deficit stands at approximately 17 to 28 million units, depending on who you ask. The National Bureau of Statistics puts home ownership at about 25% in urban areas. Compare that to South Africa at around 65%, Kenya at 26%, and even Ghana at about 47%. We are not just behind; we are running the race in the wrong direction.
The Math Behind Renting
To take another look at our parents’ advice, for most people in the building phase of wealth, buying a house is making a financial mistake, except, of course, it is for investment purposes. The main argument is always: “Rent is a waste. At the end of the year, you have nothing to show for it.” Let’s test that.
Imagine you want to live in an apartment in Lekki/Ajah worth N200 million. The rent for that house, a Phase 2 apartment, likely costs 4 million to 5 million a year. That is a rental yield of 2% to 2.5% per year.
If you buy the house and live in it, you’re locking down N200 million of capital to save N5 million in rent, but that means that N200 million is working for you at a 5% return. In an economy with almost 30% inflation (yeah, it’s going down), that is a CAPITAL DISASTER.
If you took the same N200 million and put it in a safe instrument, even a simple Treasury Bill or a Eurobond fund doing 10%, you’ll make N20 million a year. You could pay your N5 million rent and still have N15 million leftover.
In this scenario, renting is actually profitable. Also, if you’re a business owner, putting in N200 million into inventory or expansion should yield 20-30%. Turning your capital into concrete means you are killing your business growth to satisfy your ego.
Let me put it even more starkly. Nigerian rental yields are among the lowest in Africa:
This means that as a landlord in Lagos, the rent you collect barely covers 2-4% of the property value per year. As a tenant, you are getting an incredible deal relative to the asset value you are occupying. The math favours renting in Lagos more than almost any other major African city.
The Math Behind Buying
Now that I’ve badmouthed buying a house enough, that does not mean you should never buy. Buying is not always a bad deal. It depends entirely on your situation, your goals, and your capital structure. For example, a house can be a financial investment. Say you get a mortgage at 9.75%, and you buy a house in an area giving you at least 10%, even if you’ll still be adding some money. If you rent out the whole house and are able to use the rent to offset the mortgage cost for a period of 10 years, you essentially get a 100 million property for 10 million plus the returns for 10 years.
Only a few asset classes can turn 10 million to 100 million in 10 years, possibly more because the house could appreciate as much as 150 million plus you’d still be collecting rent. Of course, maintenance costs apply too.
The challenge, however, is that Nigerian mortgage rates are among the harshest in the world and they are not very accessible. I have written about the mortgage issue elsewhere so I won’t go too deeply into it. The average mortgage interest rate in Nigeria ranges from 18% to 30%.
At 25% interest over 20 years, a N50 million mortgage would cost you roughly N250 million in total repayments. You are paying for the house five times over. The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) offers the National Housing Fund at a more palatable 6%, but the maximum loan is N15 million, which in 2025 barely buys you a self-contain in Ikorodu.
The Hidden Costs Nobody Tells You
Of course, owning a house also comes with fees. For example, buying comes with regulatory hurdles, and agency and legal fees, sometimes 10% or more to buy.
Another issue is maintenance. A house is a living thing that constantly tries to die. Roof leaks, pipes burst, POP falls, and more. Also, the cost of depreciation in Lagos is also chilling when you consider the huge sum spent to buy these properties and the fact that the developer has most likely tried to cut costs by using substandard materials and the artisans have most likely fixed something in a way that keeps you calling.
Let me break down the hidden costs that nobody puts in the brochure:
Real estate is the most illiquid asset class. You cannot sell a bathroom to pay for a medical emergency, nor can you sell your kitchen to pay school fees. If you dump all your cash into a house, you can easily be asset rich, cash poor.
And here is the one nobody talks about: the title risk. Nigeria’s land administration is a minefield. Omo onile (land grabbers) are an actual profession in Lagos. Excision disputes, government acquisition notices, family land wahala, and cases where the same plot has been sold to three different buyers are depressingly common. The Lagos State Real Estate Transactions Department (LASRETRAD) was supposed to clean this up. Progress has been… slow.
So, to Rent or to Buy?
Buying seems to be a hurdle but rent is not cheap either and you are getting to a point where you want to have your forever home. So when do you rent and when do you buy?
When Renting Actually Wins
If you’re still building, especially in a volatile country like Nigeria, cash flow is king.
Renting is the smarter move when:
When Buying Makes Sense
Also, if you’re optimizing for stability, for starting a family, and not returns, then by all means, buying makes more sense. You’re paying for a luxury, and not an investment since you want your own space, freedom, and no landlady/landlord nonsense again. In this case, buying is not a financial strategy, it is just about having a home. Asides this, there are still instances where buying still makes financial sense.
Buying makes financial sense when:
The Nigerian Context: Why This Is Harder Than It Should Be
The reason this debate is so heated in Nigeria is because the system is broken in ways that make both options painful.
For renters: Landlords demand 1-2 years’ rent upfront. In most developed countries, you pay monthly. In Lagos, you drop N3 million to N8 million in one shot. That is a barrier that turns renting into a capital-intensive activity, which defeats the entire purpose of renting being the low-capital option.
For buyers: The mortgage system barely exists. Less than 3% of Nigerians have mortgages, compared to 15% in South Africa and 30-40% in the US and UK. There are fewer than 50,000 active mortgages in a country of 220 million people. The Primary Mortgage Institutions are underfunded, the National Housing Fund is capped too low, and the private banks charge interest rates that would make a loan shark blush.
For everyone: The land titling system is a disaster. Getting a Certificate of Occupancy in Lagos involves a journey through bureaucratic purgatory that can take years and cost millions in unofficial “facilitation fees”, governor’s consent fee, deed registration, survey plans, omo onile settlements. It is a system designed to extract money at every stage.
A Practical Decision Framework
Here is a simple framework to guide your decision:
Step 1: Calculate your rent-to-buy ratio. Take the price of the home you want and divide by the annual rent. If the ratio is above 20 (as it is in most of Lagos), renting is mathematically superior.
Step 2: Calculate your opportunity cost. What return can you get if you invest that capital elsewhere? If it is above the rental yield (2-4% in Lagos), you are better off renting and investing.
Step 3: Assess your liquidity needs. If buying will drain more than 50% of your liquid assets, you are taking too much risk.
Step 4: Factor in your life stage. Building a career? Rent. Settled with family? Consider buying. Entrepreneur needing capital? Rent, always.
Step 5: Evaluate the title and legal risk. If you cannot verify the title chain, do not buy. Full stop.
The Bottom Line
The long and short is to stop letting societal pressure and childhood delusions dictate your balance sheet. If you’re trying to grow wealth, rent the lifestyle and invest the capital. If you’re trying to preserve the wealth, buy the asset. Just know the difference before you sign the deed.
Your uncle who keeps telling you to buy land in Epe does not have access to your bank statement, your business projections, or your risk profile. You do. Make the decision with your spreadsheet, not your ego.
And if you are a landlord reading this and feeling offended, relax. I’m not saying real estate is a bad investment. I’m saying it is a terrible primary residence decision for most young Nigerians in the wealth-building phase. The numbers don’t lie, even if our parents did (with love).
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The truth is that building multiple income streams is not just about doing more, it is about doing the right things, in the right order, with the right systems, so that your income grows while your stress levels stay manageable. It is not easy, I will not lie to you about that, but it is absolutely possible, and it does not require you to destroy your health and your relationships in the process. The ability to build multiple income streams matter so much for Nigerian professionals specifically. In most developed countries, a single good salary can provide a comfortable life — mortgage payments, car payments, utilities, food, healthcare, savings, and a vacation once or twice a year. In Nigeria, that calculation simply does not work for the vast majority of people. Even professionals who are considered well-paid by Nigerian standards — doctors, lawyers, engineers, bankers — often find that their salary alone cannot keep up with well…anything. For the majority, a single income stream is simply not sufficient for financial stability, let alone financial growth. This is not a character flaw or a failure of ambition, it is a structural reality of living in an economy where inflation consistently outpaces salary growth, where the currency loses value faster than most investments can compensate, and where the social safety net is essentially non-existent. Building multiple income streams is not a luxury in Nigeria, it is a survival strategy. Building Income Streams Sustainably Now, let’s talk strategy. The goal, remember, is not to stop grinding, it is to ensure that we are maximising output and building multiple income streams in a way that doesn’t lead to burnout. The Foundation: Stabilize Before You Diversify The biggest mistake I see Nigerian professionals make when they decide to build multiple income streams is starting too many things at once without having a stable foundation. They hear about someone making money from real estate, someone else killing it with e-commerce, another person doing well with content creation, and they try to do all of it simultaneously while still holding down their day job. Within three months, they are exhausted, none of the ventures are doing well because none of them are getting enough attention, their performance at their main job is suffering because they are distracted, and they end up worse off than when they started — financially, physically, and emotionally. Please do not do this. The first and most important principle of building multiple income streams is to stabilize your primary income before you diversify. Your primary income whether it is a salary, a business, or freelance work is your foundation. Stabilizing your primary income means several things. First, it means making sure you are earning as much as you can from your primary occupation. If you are employed, have you negotiated your salary recently? If you are a freelancer or business owner, are you pricing your services appropriately? Are you serving the right clients or customers? Are there ways to increase your revenue from existing clients before chasing new ones? Second, stabilizing your primary income means building an emergency fund, at least three to six months of living expenses set aside in a place where you can access it quickly but will not be tempted to spend it on non-emergencies. Putting away your emergency fund in a money market fund offers this critical balance. Third, stabilizing your primary income means getting your financial house in order. That is understanding exactly how much you earn, how much you spend, where your money goes, and where the leaks are. Most Nigerian professionals, if they are honest with themselves, are spending money on things that do not align with their priorities, and plugging those leaks can free up significant capital for investment in additional income streams. Understanding What You Are Building: Income Stream Categories Before we get into specific strategies, it is important to understand the different categories of income streams, because not all income streams are created equal, and
August 31, 2026
Isreal Oyarinde
Why Nigerian Businesses Must Take Cybersecurity Seriously Before It Is Too Late
Many small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria think about cybersecurity as something only big corporations and government agencies have to prioritise. In reality, because small businesses form the backbone of Nigeria’s economy and often have weaker defenses, they are the easiest targets for cybercriminals. The scale of the cybersecurity threat facing Nigerian businesses is staggering and growing every day, driven by the rapid digitization of the Nigerian economy, the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals, and the pervasive lack of cybersecurity awareness and investment among Nigerian businesses. Managing cyber risks has become a big part of building a business today. Regardless of the size of your business, you must incorporate cybersecurity strategies that would protect your business from cyberattacks that could lead to financial ruin, reputational damage, or total operational collapse. Common Cyber Threats Targeting Businesses Understanding the threat landscape is the first step towards protecting yourself. Hence, it is important to identify some of the most common threats that businesses face today. Business Email Compromise (BEC) targets people, not technology. By hacking or impersonating legitimate accounts, attackers trick employees into diverting funds or sharing sensitive data. BEC bypasses technical security by exploiting human trust, losses from BEC exceed billions of dollars annually, and Nigeria is both a major source and a major victim of BEC attacks. Ransomware is a rapidly growing threat to businesses. In a ransomware attack, criminals use malware to encrypt a company’s files, databases, and systems, rendering them completely inaccessible, and then demand a ransom payment, usually in cryptocurrency in exchange for the decryption key. Ransoms range from hundreds of thousands to billions of naira, yet paying never guarantees data recovery. Beyond the immediate extortion, the operational downtime often leads to lost revenue, regulatory fines, and long-term reputational damage. Malicious actors flood company servers or websites with overwhelming traffic, causing system crashes and severe service disruptions. The Nigeria Computer Emergency Response Team (ngCERT) warns that a sustained wave of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are increasingly threatening Nigeria’s critical digital infrastructure, with both public and private sector organisations under heightened risk. Fraudulent emails, text messages, or websites designed to trick people into revealing passwords, financial information, or other sensitive data is another common entry point for virtually all types of cyber attacks, including BEC and ransomware. Nigerian businesses are particularly vulnerable to phishing because of low levels of cybersecurity awareness among employees, the widespread use of personal email accounts and devices for work purposes, and the general culture of clicking on links and opening attachments without verifying their legitimacy. I have only highlighted the above as they are the most common forms of cyberattacks targeting businesses. There are other examples of cyber attacks targeting businesses such as Supply Chain Attacks, and SQL Injection & Zero-Day Exploit among others. Why Small and Medium Businesses Are the Most Vulnerable There is a dangerous misconception that cybercriminals only target large corporations because that is where the big money is. This could not be further from the truth. Small and medium-sized businesses are disproportionately targeted by cybercriminals precisely because they tend to have weaker security defences, less cybersecurity awareness, and fewer resources for incident response and recovery. A cybercriminal might not be able to steal a billion naira from a single business, but they can steal ten million naira each from a hundred small businesses with a fraction of the effort it would take to breach a major bank or telecom company. According to Kaspersky, 86% of small and medium sized businesses encountered cybersecurity incidents over the past year. The average cost of a cyber attack for a small business is often enough to threaten the viability of the entire enterprise. In the Nigerian context, where most businesses operate with thin profit margins, limited cash reserves, and no cyber insurance, a single significant cyber attack can be an extinction-level event forcing the business to close permanently because it simply cannot absorb the financial loss or recover from the operational disruption. The vulnerability of Nigerian SMEs is compounded by several factors that are specific to the Nigerian business environment. First, most Nigerian SMEs do not have dedicated IT staff, let alone cybersecurity specialists. Technology decisions are often made by the business owner or a generalist office manager who may have basic computer skills but no expertise in cybersecurity. Second, the rapid digitization of Nigerian businesses driven by mobile payments, online banking, e-commerce, cloud computing, and social media marketing has dramatically expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals without a corresponding increase in security awareness and investment. A small business owner who used to operate entirely in cash and paper now has a POS terminal, a mobile banking app, an Instagram business account, a WhatsApp business number, and a cloud-based accounting system, each of which represents a potential entry point for cybercriminals. Third, the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) culture that is prevalent in many small Nigerian businesses creates significant security risks because employees are accessing sensitive business data and systems from personal phones and laptops that may be infected with malware, connected to unsecured public Wi-Fi networks, or shared with family members and friends. The Human Factor: Your Employees Are Your Biggest Security Vulnerability Cybersecurity professionals have a saying: humans are the weakest link in the security chain, and this is especially true in the Nigerian context where cybersecurity awareness and training are virtually non-existent in most organizations. Think about how many times a day your employees click on links in emails without checking where they lead, open attachments from unknown senders, use the same password for their personal email, their bank account, and their work systems, share sensitive business information over WhatsApp without encryption, connect to public Wi-Fi at hotels, airports, and coffee shops while accessing company systems, and leave their laptops unlocked and unattended in public spaces. Each of these behaviours represents a potential security breach waiting to happen, and in an organization with dozens or hundreds of employees all engaging in these risky behaviours simultaneously, it is only