sales commission
Sales commission is the extra money you earn on top of (or instead of) a salary, calculated as a percentage of what you actually sold.
In plain English
The showroom at that popular Lagos electronics plaza on a Saturday afternoon is a small theatre. A young man in a tucked in shirt follows you from the phones section to the generators section, smiling, asking about your budget, calling you 'boss' or 'ma' depending on your age. He is more than being friendly. He is doing arithmetic in his head, because if you buy that ₦380,000 television, he goes home with something extra that his colleague who sat by the door all day will not get.
That extra is sales commission. It is a percentage of a sale, paid to the person who made the sale happen, on top of whatever basic salary they earn, or sometimes instead of a salary altogether.
Companies love it because it lines up what the worker wants with what the business wants. Nobody has to beg the sales boy to hustle. His own pocket is already begging him.
A pharmaceutical company in Ibadan might pay its sales representatives a small basic salary plus 5% commission on every carton of drugs they move to hospitals and chemists. A recruitment agency in London might pay a consultant £300 basic a week plus 10% commission on the first month's salary of every candidate they place successfully.
For someone in the diaspora sending money home, this matters more than it seems. If your brother in Lagos works purely on commission selling insurance policies, his income this month could be triple last month's, or it could be nearly nothing, depending on how many people said yes. Sending support becomes less about 'he is lazy' and more about understanding that commission income breathes in and out with the market.
A car sales agent in Abuja sells a Toyota Camry for ₦9,500,000 on a 3% commission arrangement. She takes home ₦285,000 from that single sale, on top of whatever monthly basic salary her employer pays her.
Questions people ask
Is sales commission taxed like normal salary in Nigeria?
Yes. Commission is treated as part of your income for tax purposes, so it gets added to your salary and taxed under PAYE, the same system that taxes your basic pay.
What is the difference between commission and bonus?
Commission is tied directly to a specific sale or set of sales, calculated as a percentage, and it is usually predictable once you know the rate. A bonus is often a lump sum tied to overall performance, targets, or even company profit, and it can feel more like a surprise gift than a guaranteed formula.
Can an employer refuse to pay commission after the sale is made?
Not fairly, and not legally if there is a written agreement stating the commission terms. If your offer letter or contract says you earn a percentage on sales, that becomes part of your entitlement, and withholding it without cause can be challenged, especially if you kept records of the sales you closed.
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