My cousin's UI school fees taught me more about money than three failed startups

Three years I've been paying my cousin's UI school fees. Nobody in my family knows. Not his father, not my mother, nobody. Every semester I transfer the money quietly and he sends back a one-word text: "received."

The thing is, I nearly stopped last year. Consulting had a dry spell and I was calculating in my head whether to just tell him to defer. Then I saw him post his first design on Twitter and something in me just... reset.

We talk about money in Nigeria like it's only about what you can buy. Car, house, data, aso ebi. Nobody tells you money can also be a quiet thing you do for somebody who will never post about it. Shey you dey see am? What's the one thing you're paying for that nobody knows about?