Why ARE NIGERIAN ACTORS POOR

It's often mind blowing when actors, who enjoyed years of fame, come out to say they are broke. Some actors either fade from movie scene because the roles are no longer trending, many leave the scene on their own terms because the pay is no longer adequate, or even die because they couldn’t pay for their own medical bills. The unfortunate state of their finances isn’t open knowledge until they are ill and are in need financial aid from their fans, colleagues or The Actors’ Guild of Nigeria (AGN). Since the decline in actors' fees is in an alarming state, several Nigerian actors have relocated, and more, are considering moving. Earlier this year, Femi Ogedengbe, who was once a 'successful' actor in the Yoruba movie industry, revealed that he makes more money as a security guard in the US than he did as an actor in Nigeria. Some actor’s said that Nollywood is a make-believe world. "That’s why many who jump in get frustrated because they missed the memo: it's a huge labour of love As Alibaba would say.. In 2017, Stanley Aguzie, an actor and producer who has appeared in many series "Tinsel," and "Into the Badlands" after he moved to Ireland said. While he was still working in Nigeria, the highest pay he received was N200,000 for a TV series that required him to work on set for three months. But as an actor in Ireland, it's a different story for Aguzie, who made millions of Naira for featuring in one movie. "I made over Five Million Naira from one film. Not as a lead actor, but just as a professional actor," How much do actors really make in Nigeria? Very few actors can still command the kind of deal that was more prevalent over a decade ago. Genevieve Nnaji, for instance, will still receive over a million naira for appearing in a Nollywood film. However, there are not so many producers who can afford big stars like her. In 2014, Obi Emelonye was quoted to have said that Nnaji and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, two A-List actors he worked with on "The Mirror Boy" and "Last Flight to Abuja," respectively, have become too expensive as they cannot afford to charge less than their status. He advised them to fund and star in their own productions. And in 2016, Nnaji, five years after her last lead role in the 2011 "Tango with Me," produced and starred in the film, "Road to Yesterday." And in 2017, Lion Heart Currently, most B-List actors are paid less than N400,000 per movie, and even in some cases, N200,000 per movie. What they do is try to make four or five films in a month to be able to make up to N2 million. Or, they are offered N2 million to star in, at least, four films. "There are producers paying people 50 and 100 thousand naira, which is unbelievable. But you see, those people don't care, they just want to appear in a film. A lot of the girls then get boyfriends they can collect money from, and next thing, they are producing their own film. That's why you see a lot of people, out of the blues, are producing their own film," the insider said. Why is there a deterioration in actors' fees? There are several factors that could have caused this decline, and the recession that hit Nigeria in 2016, forcing several companies to either fold, lay off staff, cut cost or take a pay cut, probably added more misery to an already bad situation. In November 2016, the Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe, told ThisDay Business that the entertainment company was facing tough times. They couldn’t increase subscription rates after the devaluation of naira, despite the fact that they bought a lot of international content in dollars. However, to keep offering those content, they absorbed costs on behalf of their subscribers. For a while, the entertainment company wasn't able to pay their bills and was supported by MultiChoice Africa. It has been years, but quite a number of industries, individuals, businesses and investors are yet to recover from the infamous 2016 recession. Speaking to Pulse, Jim Iyke said Nollywood is still at the mercy of so many people who don't care about the industry. "We are at the mercy of DSTV, we are at the mercy of theatre owners, we are at the mercy of the guys in the East," he says. 'The guys in the East' 'The guys in the East,' is a frequently used label for pirates in Nollywood. Piracy has been blamed for the extinction of the VCD/DVD market, which is arguably the biggest film market in Nigeria. In 2014, few weeks after the release of "Half of a Yellow Sun," a big screen adaptation of the award-winning novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the movie, which was financed with a US$8 million loan from the Bank of Industry in Nigeria, was sold on the streets of Lagos for just N500. In 2016, Emeka Ike said he quit acting because he got tired of making money for DSTV without getting royalties. "They pay all other countries but when it comes to us, they say we don’t deserve to be paid. They keep lying that we are just 10 million people who subscribed to DSTV, but I know we are more than that. If you multiply N10,000 by 10 million, that is N100 billion every month," he told The Point in June 2016. In Hollywood, roles in successful shows and movies don’t only mean instant huge paychecks for the actors, but also a gift that keeps on giving. Whenever their works are redistributed,released on DVD or purchased by a streaming service, these actors get residual checks, also known as royalties. In 2016, Drake received a $8.25 check for his role in “Degrassi” over a decade ago. According to a 2016 report by Daily Mail,Charlie Sheen who was fired from his role in “Two and a Half Men” in 2011, makes $613,000 each month from residual payments.. In 2004, eight A-List Nollywood actors, including Ramsey Nouah, Jim Iyke, Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and RMD, were banned for charging huge bills Recalling the 2004 controversial ban that, the industry never really recovered from that incident. Back in those days, most Nollywood actors preferred market distributors to independent producers. The marketers who had their account numbers would pay millions into their accounts, even before negotiations. The richer marketers could afford to pay the A-List actors, while the others couldn't. As a result of this, most actors had a backlog of productions to deliver on. Their unavailability despite collecting huge fees, infuriated the marketers, so a meeting was held, and the decision to ban them from acting for a year was made. “They were making what you would call good money back then because you were looking at about four million per month,”. Things got worse after the ban. The A-list actors who were once paid N1 million per film were now paid N400,000. And those who weren't A-List actors were making about N100,000 per film.. Ramsey Nouah tells Pulse that after the ban, most actors left the DVD market for the cinema. “We started making movies for the cinemas since the DVD market was beginning to think that they owned it [all] and could decide to turn someone's life around," Nouah said. "We just delved into it [cinema business] and as you can see, an alternative market. Now the DVD market is almost dead and gone. There's so much piracy going on there. It's not a regulated market so even if you make your big movies and you want to take it to DVD, it's selling little or nothing." How then do most actors fund an expensive lifestyle? Most actors don't make money from acting. So how do they afford to live in luxurious apartments and drive posh cars? There is the pressure they face from their fans, who expect them to be as opulent as they appear on the screen. They have to do some side hustle to meet up to the status they are trying to build as actors and superstars. Fairly a number of Nollywood actors make extra cash from being ambassadors to big brands, while some others own businesses that fetch cash. Very few depend on just their acting fee for survival. Can this decline be fixed?. If Asuzu's films is anything to go by, he should, at least, be comfortable enough to cater for his own medical needs. But that's not the case with most 'popular' Nollywood actors. However, a filmmaker who refused to be named for this story doesn't think that's enough. Unions like AGN fail the actors, not by 'abandoning them during their sick days,' but by failing to represent their interests during their active years," the filmmaker said. A producer, who has been in the industry for decades, thinks distributors going into production have reduced the chances of independent producers to make more money. In 2017, "The Wedding Party" was distributed by FilmOne Limited, the distribution company which owns Filmhouse cinema and also doubles as one of the producers of the film. There were conversations online about the movie enjoying favourable marketing techniques and showing times in cinemas, unavailable to other movies. For its pre-screening, free buses were provided for moviegoers from Ikeja to Filmhouse Surulere. Another producer argues that since Africa Magic started producing their own films, they have reduced the rate at which they give independent producers the opportunity to produce their own films. "And this is where the Government comes in and says, 'no, you can't do this.' You do business in our community based on us. We give you the opportunity to do business, you can't cut off the industry because you're competing.' The government can come in and say, 'if we let you do this, every week, you must show us proof that you gave everyone equal opportunity' as you gave your own film," a producer tells Pulse. "The government just don't care about entertainment, they don't care about it enough to bring in proper experts to regulate it and speak to Nigerian finance houses to be far more supportive of initiatives that are created by the industry," the actors says. The Nigerian film industry is rising, but until there are proper structures, regulations, accountability, infrastructures, punishment for defaulters and welfare, there would be no financial growth, for actors.