Best Business to Start in Lagos Life

The honest answer to "best business" is the food spot, because it is the only one we can put numbers on, and it is also the cheapest. Here is what we know and what we do not.

What every company costs

• Registration: a ₦50,000 CAC fee, plus the setup cost for your industry and location.
• Staff: ₦13,000 a week each.
• Manager (optional): ₦39,000 a week.
• Bills: ₦20,000 a week, plus 5% tax taken from the till on Saturdays.
• Takings: customers and takings arrive every evening around 6 PM in-game.

The eight industries

Setup prices start at ₦90,000 for a food spot and rise to ₦6m for a tech startup. See all industries for each one.

Location matters

For a food spot in Lagos, setup runs from ₦90,000 in Ikorodu, Ajah and Mushin up to ₦450,000 in Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Banana Island. The game marks pricier areas with more ₦ signs to say they earn more. We have not verified how much more, or how location prices combine with other industries.

The worked example

A food spot in Ikorodu is ₦140,000 to start. The game showed an estimate of ₦4,256 profit a night. At that rate you earn your money back in about 33 days.

The catch: it is not verified whether that nightly figure already takes off staff, bills and tax. Our calculator has a switch for this. If the figure does not include costs, the maths changes a lot, so check your own company screen first.

Our advice

1. Fund the company from a job, not from hope.
2. Start with the cheapest location and read your own profit figure for a few nights.
3. Put that figure into the calculator before you hire a manager or buy marketing. See company marketing.