26+ Recession Proof Business Ideas & Opportunities In Nigeria, Africa, & Worldwide

Recessions strain economies, business, and put employees at risk of losing their jobs. Beyond this, it makes life hard for a lot of people, including entrepreneurs, and makes doing business profitably in the countries affected extremely difficult.

Whenever recessions happen in places like Nigeria, Africa, or many other places around the world, millions are left jobless, millions more are left with massive pay-cuts and businesses lose millions of dollars in revenue & profits.

Since multitudes are affected by each industry’s ongoing downsize and bankruptcy calls during times of recession, the next reasonable call to action would be to find suitable alternatives that are recession-proof. These would help businesses and would-be entrepreneurs start ventures that are both lucrative and resistant to recession vices.

If you’re looking for a business idea that can thrive irrespective of the economic situation, here are 26+ recession-proof business ideas & opportunities in Nigeria, Africa, and many other places around the world:

See Also: How To Make Money In A Recession

1). Become A Money Lender:

With the high-interest rates that banks charge on both personal and business loans, several smaller professional money lenders are springing up.

People tend to seek more finance during a recession, and anyone with a large vault of cash to spare could take advantage of this business opportunity.

A perfect example in Nigeria is RenMoney. Since the 2016 recession took a toll on the Nigerian economy, instead of cutting their marketing expenses, they increased it to reach out to the now larger population of individuals who seek some forms of loans, for a lesser interest rate that the banks would charge.

See Also: 5 Profitable Agricultural Businesses You Can Start In Nigeria

2). Luxury Goods:

Recessions have a hard time affecting luxury goods, especially precious stones like gold, especially as the international retail value of gold continues to rise every year.

No matter how an economy is hit by a recession, anyone who invests in precious stones & metals can always cash them in for a higher value based on the international standard price.

Trading gold keeps your cash value secure and appreciating.

It’s important you watch the market trends to know when to buy and when to sell. This knowledge is key to success in trading gold and several other valuable commodities.

3). Start A Home Rental:

With the ever-growing value of real estate in Nigeria, renting out properties remain a lucrative investment.

Investing in rental real estate not only mostly secures your funds, but revenues generated from the rent establishes a stable revenue stream renewable yearly or monthly.

Rental real estate is one of the safest investments to venture into in times of a recession.

See Also: 6 Profitable Home Based Business Ideas You Can Start In Nigeria

4). Sell On Online Marketplaces:

Selling goods and services on various online marketplaces during a recession is one way to earn a substantial income without paying any real store rent.

With the right products, large quantities, and a reasonable price, you could be making over 360,000 Naira ($1,000) a month.

There are success stories on various online marketplaces like Jumia, Konga, Amazon, and much more. Yours could be next.

5). Education:

When people are struck with problems, they start trying to learn how to solve them.

Equally, during recessions, people focus more in schools, so they can graduate and make the best out of themselves.

You could start a small preparatory school and take it from there. Make your fees fair, the education standard great, and you’d gradually grow a great reputation which would, in turn, result in more students over time.

See Also: Top 3 Recycling Business Ideas And Opportunities In Nigeria

6). Health Care:

Since man’s biological form would always continue to be weakened by disease-causing bacteria and viruses, healthcare practitioners will continue to stay relevant.

Starting a community health care centre would keep an endless stream of income flowing in from diagnosis, medications, scans, and more.

Health care services are recession-proof businesses that remain highly relevant in any economic situation.

7). Food:

No matter the situation of any country, nation, state, or economy, people must eat, even irrespective of the quality of the food.

The food business is a great opportunity to explore before, during, and after a recession because it serves a universal need of humans, which is food to generate the energy our body needs to survive.

8). Alcohol & Beverages:

Just as people must always eat, people almost always drink alcohol and beverages. It could be a spirit, beer, soft drink, or plain old water. No matter what it is, people are always drinking something, making the alcohol and beverages business a great industry to invest in.

9). Start A Night Club:

Every major city barely sleeps at night, and this is because while people go to work at day, some others go to work at night to entertain the people who want to have a good time with their friends, acquaintances, and more in highly spirited fashions. To achieve this feeling, they go to night clubs, buy drinks, party with friends, and in the process, forget their problems and insecurities.

Night clubs provide people with great entertainment to take their minds off their worries in the short time of them being there. They also give people a haven to meet new people and to court new relationships.

If you’re looking for a recession-proof business idea to take advantage of, starting a night club is one.

10). Repair Business:

Things get broken; kitchen sinks, water pipes, automobiles, mobile phones, oil pipelines and much more. And whether these things get broken during a recession or after the recession, people would always hire the services of a technical expert to help them fix their broken items.

By starting a repair business, you’ll always be in business regardless of the economic situation.

11). Cleaning Services:

While residential homes will reduce the use of professional cleaning service firms during times of recessions, most companies do not, and if your business targets majorly corporate organisations from the get-go, you’ll always have clients to service, even if the revenue reduces.

See Also: How To Start A Cleaning Business In Nigeria: The Complete Guide

12). Beauty & Cosmetics:

In times of good or bad economic situations, ladies always strive to look beautiful. And while the male counterparts may complain about the cost of beauty services the ladies patronise, they always want their women to look good. And beyond even their women, they are consistently attracted to beautiful women.

The beauty and cosmetic business thrives in both times of economic boom and recessions because its target market only cares about looking beautiful at all times.

13). Laundry Services:

Laundry businesses naturally have high patronage during great economic times, but during times of recessions, their patronage reduces but doesn’t diminish, as a very large part of the working-class population does not have the time to do their own laundry.

Also, hotels that outsource their laundries to external organisations continue to do so in times of recessions, keeping their laundry services in business.

If you’re looking for a small business that is not greatly impacted by the negative effects of a recession, then the laundry service business is one to get into.

See Also: How To Start A Lucrative Laundry Service Business In Nigeria

14). Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG):

Fast Moving Consumer Goods like candies, sweets, cupcakes, cookies, biscuits, and so much more continue to record high sales because the market they’re selling too have a knack for sweet things, especially kids.

While the profit margins on the sales would drop, the sales don’t necessarily drop, making the FMCG industry a great place to invest in.

See Also: 5 Lucrative Fast-Moving Consumer Goods You Should Invest In Today

15). Event Planning & Management:

People love to party whether there’s a recession or not.

Weddings happen, birthdays happen, corporate events happen, and so much more types of events happen. And to execute them right, the hosts almost always hire the services of an event planner.

As long as you live in a society that loves to have fun, you’ll always have an opportunity to thrive as an event planner no matter the economic condition.

16). Selling Baby Products:

Babies are born every day and because of how young and fragile they are, extra care must always be given to them by their mothers and other caretakers, and it starts with getting every essential baby product the child will need to grow up right and healthy with.

The interesting part is baby products are not necessarily cheap, and this is asides the fact that baby care products are recession-proof.

If you’re looking for a recession-proof business idea to start up, selling baby products is a great place to start.

17). Funeral Services:

People have always died every day since the beginning of mass civilizations, and the number will only continue to increase as societies grow.

But what happens when they die? They’re taken to a mortuary, a wake keep happens, and burials happen.

The cycle of events that happen to most people after death is consistent, irrespective of recessions or not, and as a result, starting a funeral business is a recession-proof business idea and opportunity to venture into.

18). Private Tutoring & Coaching:

Just as starting a school can be recession-proof since people must get an education, starting a private tutoring and coaching program is also a great recession-proof business idea to venture into as parents now want to put in more effort in giving their kids the best chance to succeed in life through impacting them with the best information possible.

19). Tax Accounting:

Recession or no recession, taxes must be paid, and when the tax season comes, the tax consultants swing into action on behalf of their clients whom might face the wrath of the government if they do not prepare, file, and pay their taxes.

20). Security Services:

In times of great economic stability, the wealthy in many parts of the developing world use security, but in times of economic instability and recessions, they strangely use security more, especially in countries where kidnapping is rampant.

Since most influential & wealthy people want to protect the little they have in times of recessions, they do everything possible to protect it, and this includes hiring the services of security firms when visiting certain places.

21). Sales Of Contraceptives, Condoms, & Other Sex Tools:

Billions of people have sex every day, and as a result, billions of sex tools are used daily, especially condoms and contraceptives.

You could take advantage of the ever-growing sex industry by selling sex tools purchased and used by billions of people daily.

22). Transportation:

Over 90% of people are always on the move daily, especially as they’re trying to always get somewhere.

You could help ease their transportation stress and fares by starting a transportation business.

This industry continues to have a large influx of customers even in times of recessions. While the income might drop, the customer rate doesn’t.

See Also: How To Start A Lucrative Transport Business In Nigeria: The Complete Guide

23). Agriculture:

Just as local food businesses will always be in business, they need their raw products from farmers who grow the crops on their farmlands.

The same applies to exporters. They need the agro commodities they’re shipping from the farmers who grow these crops, and as a result, agriculture is an industry that thrives in times of recessions and non-recessions.

24). Exportation:

International trade has consistently been carried out between nations for thousands of years. And will probably continue indefinitely till the end of time. As a result, this is one of the most recession-proof business ideas in the world because trade must happen consistently worldwide for countries to run, and the margins are far higher since the currency would be devalued, affecting importers but greatly benefitting exporters.

See Also: How To Start An Import/Export Business In Nigeria: A Short Guide

25). Lands Banking:

During times of recessions, many people panic and quickly spend a lot of their money on the purchase of lands without actually building anything on it. They use this to save the money to avoid risk of devaluation and to also know that they’ve taken a step towards changing their financial situations.

While land banking is part of real estate, a lot of people do not particularly buy houses during recessions. Instead, they focus on procuring lands since it’s far cheaper and a quicker way to start the journey to owning a home.

26). Sports Betting:

Humans have always been gambling since the beginning of time, but during recessions, the gambling activities explode because people do not have enough purchasing power and would want to make as much money as possible through whatever means, especially in sports betting.

You can become a sports betting agent for a parent firm or start a sports betting business of your own.

27). Entertainment:

Times of economic recessions bring with them problems, emergencies, and a whole lot of worries. But what is the easiest route people take to forget their problems? They go on to entertain themselves through visiting music concerts, comedy shows, parties, bars, and so much more

In terms of economic turmoil, people would still be entertaining themselves as a drug to forget their sorrows and you could take advantage of this by setting up an entertainment business or one that services entertainers.

This way, you’d be in business, recession or no recession.

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What are your thoughts on these 26+ recession-proof business ideas? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

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