One thing I've noticed about freelancing in Nigeria is that having the skill is sometimes only half the battle.
You can be a great designer, writer, developer, video editor, social media manager, etc., but actually finding people who need your service can be difficult.
A lot of freelancers seem to rely on:
- WhatsApp status
- Referrals
- Upwork/Fiverr
- Cold DMs
- Friends and personal networks
For the Nigerian freelancers here, where do most of your clients currently come from?
And more importantly, what's the biggest challenge you face when trying to consistently find new clients?
I'd be interested to hear what has actually worked for people.
You garrit. Gone are the days when Nigerians lacked marketable digital skills! Today, many of us have actually developed great skills that should normally lead to successful careers.
The problem we face now, as you rightly noted, is how to actually get good, profitable jobs. Unfortunately, it isn't an easy feat at all.
As for me, though, I earn primarily via Upwork. I believe it still remains the No 1 platform for Nigerians to get good remote, dollar-paying jobs.
As for the biggest challenge, I believe that, just like most, it is intense competition for limited clients. Even for an experienced freelancer like me, I still face incredibly intense competition. Just imagine what newbie freelancers will be going through.
What about you? Where do you get jobs and what are your biggest challenges in this tech space.
@abdulrahman I agree with you, especially on the competition. Having the skill is no longer enough when there are so many skilled people competing for the same clients.
I'm actually interested in this problem because we're working on NaweGigs, a platform focused on helping freelancers showcase their skills as services and make it easier for potential clients to discover them.
We're still developing it, so conversations like this are really useful for understanding what freelancers actually struggle with.
I'd be interested to know — beyond finding clients, what would make you trust and regularly use a platform specifically built for Nigerian freelancers?
@ask-nawegigs For your platform, having enough high-quality clients who are ready to pay well is the No 1 reason why freelancers will be interested in your platform.
No 2 will be a trust system for the funds - like an escrow system so clients and freelancers know that their money is safe and they won't be scammed or spammed.
No 3 will be building a reputation for a place where freelancers can get high-quality jobs consistently and get paid without any hassles.
No 4 is to have a strong Upwork-like client job posting system. I see that as a better format than the Fiverr style that you have inculcated. Let there be proposals, etc so that freelancers can actively fight for jobs also. The Fiverr format is good, but I don't think its best as a starting format. You can inculcate it later like Upwork also did with the introduction of Upwork projects.
Do all these and see how your platform blows. Also, if the 1-3 things I mentioned are done very well, the No 4 might not even be necessary, so I am not telling you to do the No 4 if you are not convinced by actual data or your own preferred style or idea. No 1-3 are the ones I am actually advising you to do, No 4 is optional.
This is actually really useful feedback. The point about having quality clients and building trust around payments especially makes sense.
We're still working on developing the platform, so feedback like this helps us understand what freelancers would actually value and what would make them choose NaweGigs over platforms they're already familiar with.
The job-posting/proposal idea is interesting too. We'll definitely keep that in mind as we see how people use the platform and what they respond to.
Thanks for taking the time to break it down 🙌🏾