I joined steemit since February this year, but started blogging on the 16th of March. I began my Steemit adventure when I had no single penny on me. It doesn't mean I was jobless, but I was making very little from my efforts. I'm a crafts-person. I make beads. Since the economic recession in the country, making a comfortable living from that alone was extremely difficult. For the past 16 months, life has become very frustrating for so many Nigerians. Being able to provide basic life necessities is a challenge for the masses. In the quest for survival, then came the "Almighty MMM".
My beautiful bead
MMM is a HYIP (High Yield Investment Program) scheme. It was established by Sergei Mavrodi, a Russian. It is a well packaged scam. So many Nigerians were victims of the MMM scam. I was also a victim, not because I don't understand how HYIPs work, but because in very hard times, the struggle for survival makes people do weird things. I lost the little money I had to schemes like MMM. Then someone introduced me to Steemit.
Another beautiful design
An anonymous facebook friend introduced me to Steemit. He said I could earn $20 a day on steemit. I leaped for joy on hearing that, but when he said they'll pay me with cryptocurrency, I became sceptical about it. The reason I was initially sceptical about it was because MMM and its cohorts have given cryptocurrency a bad name in Nigeria. They were the ones that first introduced cryptos to us. Since they turned out to defraud people of their hard earned money, so many people don't want to here anything about cryptocurrency. When I told my sister about Steemit, she said "this is another well packaged MMM". She said, after wasting my time here, I'm not going to be paid. I'm glad Steemit has turned out to be the exact opposite of MMM. Steemit is putting smiles on the faces of so many Nigerians.
Since I joined steemit, my ever radiant face is glowing more and more.
What it cost me to stay active here
It cost me courage to join steemit when everyone around me was against it.
It cost me sacrifices to have enough money to always purchase data for my internet connection. Staying connected to the internet is not a very cheap thing for most Nigerians. To purchase One gigabyte worth of data, it will costs you approximately $3. More than 50% of Nigerians are living below $3 a day.
Electricity supply is a major problem here. 10 hrs a day electricity supply is not guaranteed. For some people to power on their computers for a long period, it takes using a generator set or solar energy.
For an average Nigerian to stay active online, it takes a lot of sacrifices.
A shout-out to all the Nigerians and others from Third World countries who defiled all odds to come on board and remain active here.
If you ain't on Steemit, you haven't experienced the power and wealth of social network.
