International Payments: 4 Mistakes Nigerian Freelancers Make

4 Costly Mistakes Nigerian Freelancers Make With International Payments

Four Nigerian freelancers share the payment mistakes that cost them money, and how to avoid them.

Why does a $500 payment never feel like $500 by the time it reaches your bank? If you freelance for clients abroad, you’ve probably asked this before.

To help answer, we spoke to four freelancers who work in four different jobs. They all get paid by clients abroad, and each has made a costly payment mistake.

Esther Adegbite is a virtual assistant, Olagoke Okediji is a podcast booker, Favour Oladeji is a web developer, and Daniel Jobi is a UI/UX designer. Even though their work is so different, the same mistakes kept showing up repeatedly.

Here are four of them.

Mistake 1: Not Comparing Platforms Before You Choose

A payment can lose money in three places before it reaches you: the exchange rate, the fees, and the wait. An Afriex guide tells of a freelancer who lost about 12% of his income to spreads, fees and the rate his bank chose that day. It adds that local banks often use their own rate, which can sit 3 to 5 percentage points below the official one.

Olagoke Okediji and Esther Adegbite each used Grey and Cadana, and that is where their problems started. Olagoke did not confirm the rate first, and his payment was reduced when it was converted to naira. Esther's rate was weak too, and her payment came late because she did not know how long withdrawals would take.

Favour's story is a short one. Favour gave a client the details of an account that was no longer in regular use. The client paid, but nothing showed up. "It delayed the payment and also meant I had to spend time contacting the payment platform and the client to sort it out," Favour says.

The fix is a habit, not a tool. Before you send any invoice, read your payment details out loud and check that the account is open and can receive that type of payment. Favour says, "I should always double-check my payment details before sending them to a client." Platforms also tend to ask you to verify your identity before you can withdraw, so finish that setup early.