A few days ago, Nigerian popstar Davido announced that he made 500
million naira from his December 27th concert in Lagos and many people
didn’t believe him.
Now, veteran comedian Ali Baba has defended the claims saying it is
indeed possible and as a matter of fact making 500 million naira Is only
a
tip of what entertainment can generate for Nigeria.
Read his piece below…
This afternoon, at about 1pm, I got a message on my WhatsApp asking
me to confirm if Davido can actually make the kind of money he claims to
have made. I thought the sender was patronizing… or as we say in
Warri “e dey use style find my mouth”. But this evening, I got another
chat from a Banker, who wanted to know if the kind of money he is
hearing could be made from a concert. I could not ignore this one. He is
the Chief Risk Officer of a top 5 bank.So, I took my time to mention how possible it is to even make more
than the figure he has heard being mentioned. In 2007… I worked on an
Entertainment, sports, hospitality and recreation R&D project with
some great minds. That was 10 years ago. And after all information and
surveys were gathered, we found out that between 5-8Billions… Yes
billions… are spent between Friday and Sunday. 10 years on, from
another survey carried out last year, its now over 15billion every
weekend.The financial dynamics can be dazzling. That’s showbizness. It’s
unfair, or better put, a total waste of efforts to compare your career
as a banker, doctor, lawyer, accountant, engineer and businessman, to
that of people in the sector listed above. Usain Bolt for instance could
make the profits of some banks just by taking part in 3 meets. Because
the prize money, endorsements and investments, could amount to some cool
dollars. Just convert that. Mayweather is another case in point. THE
POINT PEOPLE MISS IS THIS…The Entertainment sector is a gold mine that activates commercial
activities in allied sectors. Sectors like, banking, security,
hospitality, food and beverage, fashion, video & photo coverage,
equipment rental, printing, advertising, branding, luxury market,
marketing, legal, graphics, insurance, stage, engineering, medical,
transportation, tourism, events management, comedy, broadcasting
content, telecommunications, data consumption… and more. ZENITH BANK,
GTB, HERITAGE, PEPSI, GLO… know this. And it can be a 200billion every
weekend sector. We are far behind considering the potentials we have.
So yes. N500m IS A TIP.
