Long before many students settle into their lecture seats each morning, OsheVire Gift has already started working. By 8:15am, her phone is buzzing with messages from customers asking about prices, placing orders, and requesting deliveries. While others are preparing for lectures, she is trying to satisfy customers before rushing to class.
For the Journalism and Media Studies student at Delta State University, Abraka, selling clothes online is not simply a way to earn extra money. It has become part of how she survives school. “I needed something to help me afford things in school,” she says.
Gift started her clothing business in October 2024 with the hope of easing some of the financial pressure that comes with being a student. Since then, she has learned that being an entrepreneur and an undergraduate at the same time is anything but easy.
Some days begin with business. Others end with assignments. Many days involve both.“It’s quite exhausting managing school and business,” she admits. “Sometimes I skip classes for the business, but it’s worth it.”
Like many small business owners, there are good weeks and bad ones. “Sometimes I can make up to ₦18,000 in a week, sometimes ₦5,000,” she says. “It’s not predictable.”
Money is not her only challenge. Keeping customers happy can be just as stressful. “The hardest part is when a client orders something and it doesn’t fit—maybe it’s too big or too small,” she explains.
Still, she has no plans to stop. “Of course, I want to continue,” she says with a smile. “It’s my dream.”
Just a few hostels away, another student is chasing a different dream. Choosing to remain anonymous, the student runs a noodles business that has become popular among fellow students. The idea did not come overnight. It started years ago.
“I’ve always had the desire to make noodles for people,” the student says. “It’s something I’ve liked since primary school.” When university admission finally came, so did the opportunity to turn that passion into a business.
“I decided that when I entered the university, I would start selling noodles for people, which is what I’m doing now.”
Balancing cooking with attending lectures is not always easy. “Not really hard, but a bit,” the student explains. “The time customers place their orders sometimes affects my classes.”
Even with the challenges, there is no regret. “Yes, it has helped me financially—very well actually.”
Stories like these have become a familiar sight across Delta State University (DELSU). Walk around the campus or the hostels and it is easy to find students selling clothes, food, pastries, cosmetics, hair products, perfumes, or offering services such as photography and graphic design.
For many of them, these businesses are no longer just side hustles. They are helping to pay for handouts, transportation, feeding, and other everyday expenses that continue to rise.
But success rarely comes without sacrifice.
Many student entrepreneurs find themselves replying to customers during lectures, packing orders late at night after studying, or missing social activities because they have deliveries to make. Every sale often comes with the challenge of managing time wisely.
Despite the pressure, they keep going.
For Gift and many others like her, running a business while earning a degree is about more than making money.
It is teaching them responsibility, patience, resilience, and independence—lessons that cannot always be found in lecture notes.
As the cost of living continues to rise, more students are likely to join the growing community of campus entrepreneurs. Their stories serve as a reminder that behind every neatly packaged order or steaming plate of noodles is a student working hard to build a better future, one lecture and one customer at a time.
. Omokhape is a student of Journalism and Media Studies of the Delta State University, Abraka.
Othegbemeh Daniel Omokhape
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