A foreign lady living in Lagos has caused a stir online after listing the things that still surprise her about Nigeria, even after spending years in the country.
She started by praising the Nigerian banking system, saying it is far ahead of what she experienced in Europe. According to her, instant transfers have been normal in Nigeria for years, while European banks only recently moved to faster SEPA transfers.
“If you do a bank transfer here, the receiver gets it immediately… like seconds,” she said, adding that Nigeria’s fintech space is “really growing” and “impressive.”
She also expressed shock that Nigerians can borrow data. In her words, if someone runs out of data and has no wifi, they don’t need to stress.
“You can just borrow data and buy new data with the borrowed data. It makes sense,” she said.
Another thing that stunned her is how she barely falls sick in Nigeria. She claimed she used to deal with seasonal flu, stomach viruses and constant respiratory infections while living in Europe, but in Lagos she has been “perfectly fine.”
“Nothing. Nothing. Apart from malaria. Be careful for malaria, dear foreigners,” she warned.
She added that she finds the behaviour of plants during the dry season surprising. According to her, grass and plants remain green for long periods, unlike Europe where everything turns yellow quickly once the weather becomes dry.
But the one that shocked her the most — and the one she called “very controversial” — is the way some Nigerian men urinate in public without caring who is watching.
She said that in Europe, men at least try to hide a bit when they need to ease themselves outside because there is no available toilet. But in Nigeria, some men do it “right in your face.”
