The Best Affordable Data Plans For Freelancers

Finding reliable and affordable data plans can be hard. Four Nigerian freelancers share their best-kept data secrets.

Imagine that it’s an hour before a project deadline. Suddenly, your internet stops. You just subscribed two days ago, so you’re left puzzled as to how that happened. We’re sure this is familiar.

As a freelancer, it can be hard to find a reliable data plan that’s also affordable, so we asked four Nigerian freelancers what works for them.

1. Chinelo, Content Creator

A part of my job as a content creator is to create and upload at least two videos a week for the five brands I manage. I didn’t realise how much data I was using until I tracked my airtime purchases on Kuda Business.

I was spending ₦10,000 weekly for a Glo data plan that was meant to last a month. Now, I switch between Glo and Spectranet. I use Glo for when I’m not working from home and Spectranet for when I am. My data budget is between ₦15,000 to ₦25,000. The best part has to be the 100% bonus on my Spectranet - I can pay ₦7,500 for 25GB and get an extra 25GB.

2. Kunle, Graphic Designer

As a graphic designer I switch between tools, download or send high-quality images, which can suck data. Speed is also important for me to be efficient, but I wasn’t getting that from my service provider because of the area I lived in.

A friend told me about Fiber One but I was sceptical. The cost of installation was ₦50,000 and I was worried it wouldn’t give me what I wanted. I’m glad I took the leap, because it is the fastest internet I’ve ever used.

What I love the most is that it’s unlimited. I can use 100GB a day and my data would still last me a month. My budget is ₦11,000 monthly. However, when I have guests over and share my internet, it usually goes up to ₦22,000.

3. Renike, Content Marketer

I write and distribute content for a living. The most part of my job is research, which means that I’m online often and I watch a lot of YouTube videos. I have been using Tizeti for a year and it’s the best data plan ever. My monthly data budget is capped at ₦11,000, plus it’s unlimited.

Even when there’s an outage, which isn’t often, I get free data to make up for it. I love that my data plan is underrated because I don’t trust popular data plans, they never match the hype.

3. Jaja, Technical Support

I think one of the challenges of freelancing for me was figuring out affordable data plans. MTN works for me. My budget varies. I buy 40GB for ₦10,000 or 25GB for ₦6,000. I also get double data on my subscription when I use the #121# code. This means that I get 37.5GB for ₦‎6,000 and 80GB for ₦‎10,000. With my data plans varying each month, I use my Kuda Business app to buy airtime and track my purchases. This helps me to know if I’ve overspent on data for the month.

Remember that your service provider can let you down even if you’ve chosen the right plan. It’s important to also have a backup data plan so you’re not left puzzled when you have to meet a deadline.

Take care! 💜