11 Challenges Nigerian Upwork Freelancers Face in 2024

Being a Nigerian Upwork freelancer can be tough; and in this article, I want to discuss some of the issues you might face as an Upwork freelancer from Nigeria in 2024.

The Time Zone Wahala

In Nigeria, we operate at the GMT+1 time zone — the same as many countries including Norway, Sweden, Austria, etc. Despite operating in a similar time zone with these countries, you operate in a different time zone with several other countries which might pose a problem with your chances of getting hired.

As a Nigerian, this might automatically put you at a disadvantage since many of these jobs come from countries with varying time zones which will favor freelancers from those areas. 

Another issue you might face is that some remote companies like their employees to work at a similar time to aid workflow and communication. 

Most Nigerian Upwork freelancers who got remote jobs with these demands end up working late at night to meet up with the necessary working time.

If you are very lucky, you might get a job that will only demand a few hours of compulsory working time overlap and offer you more flexible working time.

Note: Overlap here means the times that your working periods meet.

Language Headache

If you apply to jobs from non-English speaking countries, you might be overlooked because of the language barrier; and unless you are told the reason why you weren’t hired (which is extremely unlikely), you will never know why you were overlooked. In your mind, you would probably be thinking of other reasons without knowing that the client simply needs someone who can speak their language.

Note: Not all foreign employers need someone who knows their language; many of them only need English speakers.

Payment Headache

There is no single way of receiving payments on Upwork that doesn’t have problems; these include:

Paypal isn’t officially allowing Nigerians to receive payments through their personal accounts.

Payoneer has issues with verification, delays, charges, and its own limitations on Nigerians.

The wire transfer option is sweet when you don’t experience delays or issues; but you might have to deal with issues such as the $50 fees, bank holidays in USA and Nigeria, and the rare possibility of your money getting lost in transit which can take weeks or months to solve. It is very unlikely that your money will ever get lost permanently in transit, but the exasperation and uncertainty that comes with your money getting lost somewhere can be very depressing and damaging.

If you decide to use the Direct to Bank option, be ready to receive your money in naira at possibly the lowest rate available on the market. Depending on the amount you want to receive, one single payment can cost you up to hundreds of thousands of naira in exchange rate issues. 

Well, it will most be felt by people at the top though — for those, they will simply opt for wire transfer or Payoneer to USD domiciliary account options.

Racism

Like it or not, a lot of people in the world are racists — either they deny it or not. Unfortunately, even lots of Nigerians are racists to each other — as evidenced by how they view each other.

You will probably apply to jobs that you are overqualified for and the only reason you will be ignored is because of your nationalism — take note of that.

The only issue here is that unless you are told by the client, you will never know for certain; hence, it is a very difficult claim to make.

Verification Palaver

You know how things are as a Nigerian with the difficulty in getting original documents that can be used for international verification. Luckily for us, Upwork (as at the time of writing this article) accepts the temporary (paper) national ID card which is now rampant in Nigeria. Who knows when they might decide to change their policy and start requesting better and original documents! If that were to be the case, many Nigerians would no longer be able to work on Upwork. 

Also, Upwork randomly requests for re-verification; so, even if you were verified before, you can still face verification issues as a Nigerian. These verification issues are very common with other financial establishments such as Payoneer, etc. 

Good original documents that you should at least possess one of include the original plastic national ID card, international passport, original plastic voter card, driving license, etc. 

Learn more about the Upwork verification process here.

Connects Purchase

Unfortunately, Upwork only gives a meager 10 Connects freely per month; so, be ready to invest 50k+ Naira worth in Upwork Connects before you get jobs — note that you can only buy Upwork Connects in US Dollars. 

Also, be ready to either get a domiciliary account or get a virtual dollar card from one of the several third-party apps before you will be able to buy Connects which must be purchased in USD. 

But once you start earning on Upwork, you can buy Connects from your Upwork balance.

Upwork’s Money Grabbing Problem

Back In 2022, we used to apply to jobs with 1 – 6 connects, Now (as of Sept 2024), it is much higher (some even reach 20 connects for just a job). Also, there are now various ways Upwork wants to grab your money even before getting a job. All of these make it hard for a broke person to get good jobs. 

As it stands now, if you want to start getting jobs on Upwork, you should be ready to spend money to buy Connects so that you can have enough Connects to apply for jobs. You should treat this as a business investment — you will have to invest in buying Upwork Connects so that you can get jobs. After getting jobs though, you start feeling the impact less.

Also, your Connects is the currency being spent on Upwork’s platform. There are several optional add-ons today — apart from applying for jobs — that will require you to spend connects. However, be careful before spending your hard-earned Connects! 

Quality of Experience 

While some niches might have it simpler, it might be more difficult in some. If you are a Nigerian who has never worked for foreign firms, you might quickly find out that your level of experience may affect you in the international market.

Take for example; if you are a digital marketer and you have been running ads for Nigerian businesses with ad spends in the range of 100k – 300k Naira monthly, you will be forgiven for thinking that you are spending hugely in ads. 

Unfortunately, when you go on the international scene and you are asked about your previous monthly ad spend in USD, you will discover that you are spending roughly $61 – $183 (using the current official exchange rate of $1 – 1,639 Naira as of Sept 2024). You see how little that will be in the eyes of people who are looking for thousands of monthly USD in ad spend. Well, you might be lucky to get a marketing role that will not request for your previous ad spend. 

For writers, as long as you are a very good writer with some published articles, you should probably be able to stand strong on the international scene. For web developers, the situation is likely also similar to writers. 

Dollar Headache

Once you have opened a USD domiciliary account, started earning money and making sweet dollars, you might be tempted to think that your money problem is now solved. Well, as usual, don’t forget that this is Nigeria — things are not so straightforward here.

Dollar scarcity can be a real problem here, and Nigerian banks can so much frustrate your life due to dollar scarcity. For starters, I will advise you to get domiciliary accounts with banks like Access, GTB, etc which allows you to transfer to recipients who have domiciliary accounts with same banks even if you can’t get the cash. But note that cash generally has more worth than transfers. Also note that $100 and $50 denominations have more worth than lower ones such as $20, $10, $5, etc. 

Note: I will advise having at least 2 domiciliary accounts due to unforeseen circumstances, i.e., In 2023, Access Bank stopped accepting withdrawals from Payoneer, but it is still one of the best in my opinion due to the ability to transfer dollars through its mobile app and the fact that many of these Hausa BDCs use it. 

When you go into a Nigerian bank to withdraw dollars — depending on the amount you want to withdraw — it is possible that you will not be able to withdraw the amount you need unless it is a small amount. You might also not be able to get $100 or $50 denominations. But! This also depends on the state in Nigeria and the economic circumstances in the country at that time. Northern states generally have more dollars available than south-western states; in fact, when you go to states like Kano, you will likely be able to withdraw substantial amounts of dollars if you request it.

The second issue is the crazy instability that can exist in the dollar market. Within a day, the value of the dollar can rise or fall massively in the parallel market which can lead to either a massive gain or a massive loss in potential income for you. 

Personally, as a patriotic Nigerian, I would love for our currency to be stable and not fluctuate wildly as it can destroy a lot of things. 

The third issue is the inability to get good rates from trustworthy sources. If you are a newbie, you can easily be deceived into selling your dollars for far lower rates than the market rates. You can solve this by asking around for the prices before finally going into a shop to find someone you can sell to. Make sure you search for the “naira to dollar black market rate” on Google before going to these BDC operators if you don’t want to get scammed. 

The black market rate you would see online will be slightly different from the actual black market rate when you go to these shops, but it should only be a slight difference. Also note there is something called buying rate and selling rate; you are selling if you want to give them your dollars (so they buy from you which is the buying rate), and you are buying if you want to buy dollars from them (so they sell to you which is the selling rate). The buying rate is normally slightly lower than the selling rate — so they make money via selling back to people at higher rates. 

Also, try to avoid selling to roadside small Hausa boys that litter the streets — you might not get a good rate if you do that. Though, they will likely lead you back to shops so maybe you could try them out — but I advise you to go into the shops yourself (be security conscious also). 

In the north, you can Google where they are located; however, in the southwest, these BDC operators are commonly found in areas inhabited by Hausas. You can also ask the bank teller who is giving you dollars to direct you to where they are. In Lagos, you can go to Ikeja Airport, etc to sell your dollars. In Ibadan, I know of Sabo – beside Roundabout/Mokola. In Ogun state, I know of Sango Otta under-bridge. You can also Google their locations or ask on popular Nigerian forums.

Tax Form Wahala

For years, filling out a tax form (W-8BEN) for non-US citizens has been easy and pretty straightforward – until the 29th of Nov, 2022 when I received an email to update the form. Now, you need a Tax Identification Number (TIN) to fill out the form.

For a lot of Nigerian Upwork freelancers, this is another headache that you will have to go through which you might need to talk to a tax specialist to guide you through. If you can’t have access to a tax specialist, then you should go to the nearest tax office or simply browse online (Google and YouTube) to learn how to get your TIN number. 

If you are still unable to get a TIN, you should contact Upwork support – they might give you an alternative.

Light Wahala

I have alternatives to Nepa light; hence I can cope well with bad light; many others don’t have the same options. 

If you want to enjoy working on Upwork, you need to plan on getting a reliable power supply. It could be a laptop power bank, inverter, or a generator. If you have a generator, be kind enough to consider the noise it will cause and plan how to use it with caution. 

Conclusion

Becoming successful as a Nigerian Upwork freelancer is no easy feat; however, most issues can be solved if you are determined to! To learn more about how to succeed on Upwork, check here.