In 2020, while the world was in the middle of a pandemic, Bolaji Anifowose got his first international gig. He got paid $100 for two articles he wrote for the blog of a UK fintech founder.
It wasn’t a huge amount of money, but it meant something. For the first time, someone outside Nigeria had stumbled on his work and thought it was valuable enough to pay for. And perhaps more excitingly, he was about to earn his first money in a currency other than Naira.
Then he had to figure out how to actually receive it.
Bolaji eventually went to a Guaranty Trust Bank branch and was handed his $100 in cash. Since you can’t exactly walk into a Nigerian supermarket and pay for your groceries with a $100 note, he had to find a money changer at the roadside to convert it to Naira.
That experience made him realise that getting international work was only one part of the equation. He started looking for a simpler way to receive international payments and eventually found a service that gave him access to a USD account. Two years later, he still uses it to receive his international income.
Six years after that first $100, Bolaji works with a US company as a Go-To-Market (GTM) Engineer, combining marketing, AI and automation to build systems that help companies grow.
“I’ve known Bolaji for a while, and one thing that has always stood out to me is how curious he is about tools and technology. When we worked together, if you needed a tool for something, Bolaji probably knew one you could use. He was always trying things, figuring out how they worked and finding ways to make the process better.”
How did Bolaji navigate the hiring process for remote work
The international job market is competitive, and he has seen thousands of people apply for a single role. Rejection and ghosting are part of the process. As he puts it, you have to get comfortable with being ghosted.
But it is important to note that, sometimes rejection has nothing to do with your ability.
Last year, he made it through the interviews for a high-paying role at a European company based in Portugal. He passed the technical stage, got positive feedback from the hiring manager and seemed like a strong candidate.
Then the company changed its hiring policy and decided to only hire people based in Europe because of tax and logistical considerations.
Bolaji wasn’t rejected because he couldn’t do the work. He was rejected because he was in Nigeria.
It’s one of the less obvious realities of building a global career from Africa. The internet has made the work itself borderless, but location can still determine whether you get the opportunity in the first place.
And once you do get the opportunity, you have to make sure you can keep showing up.
Some of Bolaji’s earnings have gone into making that possible. He upgraded his laptop as the AI tools he uses became more demanding, added a monitor and set up multiple internet options alongside an inverter for backup power.
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Bolaji’s advice to anyone wanting to work remotely.
It is simple: build publicly. He doesn’t just want people to know what he can do. He wants them to see it.
That means documenting projects, sharing what he’s learning and sometimes recording Loom walkthroughs of things he’s built. Some of those projects have even led to inbound opportunities, including work he shared using tools like Clay.
His thinking is that the thing that feels small to you might be exactly what someone else needs to learn.
And putting your work out there gives people a chance to find you.
How Bolaji plans to not squander the money he makes.
Finding international work is one thing. Figuring out what to do with the money once it arrives is another.
Bolaji is deliberate about his foreign income. He puts some into USD savings, invests in things like ETFs and mutual funds, and keeps separate accounts for regular expenses.
Earning in dollars has also given him some protection from the volatility of the Naira, but it hasn’t made him careless with money. He’s naturally frugal and even built a tool to compare supermarket prices.
At one point, he found that a bag of basmati rice selling for ₦25,000 at one supermarket was available for ₦16,000 somewhere else.
It sounds like a small thing, but I think it says something about how Bolaji approaches money. Earning internationally isn’t just about earning more. It’s also about being intentional with what you do with it.
So, what’s next for him?
You might think that after finding an international job, earning in dollars and figuring out how to make it all work, the next goal would be to simply maintain it. Not Bolaji.
Seeing what is possible has made him more interested in what comes next. Roles paying $150,000 or $200,000 are now motivation to keep learning and expanding his skill set, with the goal of becoming a recognised expert in GTM engineering.
And perhaps that’s what makes his story interesting.
It isn’t really about leaving Nigeria to find opportunities somewhere else. It’s about figuring out how to build a career that reaches beyond Nigeria while still living here.
The work has become borderless. The opportunities are increasingly borderless too. And as more people like him work with companies around the world from wherever they happen to live, the way we earn, receive and manage that money has to evolve with it.
For Bolaji, that first $100 was only the beginning.
That’s the gist.
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