By IFECHI OKOH

They are making money as if it's going out of fashion. They are fully in charge of assets that are turning heads and tempting some oil tycoons to start thinking of career switch. They are living the real celebs life; hopping from one private jet to limited edition cars and SUVs, jaw-dropping mansions, limited edition Hummer jeeps, sold-out stadium concerts, billions of naira in annual income, chartered planes, flashy, big budget videos, bespoke Apparels and diamond jewelry, trooping from multi-million dollar endorsement deals, major coverages on MTV base, channel O, BBC, and CNN. Added to all these, are earnings from bestselling albums and amazing other encouraging financial sources of incomes, especially from their amazing fans base. With these supportive pillars, it is obvious that the Nigerian Showbiz celebrity class, are getting there faster than close watchers may have projected. The new class of entertainers and culture icons, are really inspiring a new generation of troubled Nigerian youths; influencing the way they live, thereby painting a mural of hope, on otherwise bleak canvass by any definition.

With minimum and actually encouraging earnings per month, and at times highest ones too, these celebs undoubtedly are raking the big bucks, and unwittingly making their colleagues and contemporaries quietly green with envy. Today, Showbiz Xtra would give readers the rare privilege to enjoy short takes on four of the eight Showbiz celebs making the mega bucks quietly. Now, welcome.

TUFACE IDIBIA

This celebrated and lanky fine singer, who was actually the lead vocalist of the defunct Plantasium Boyz, has been fingered seriously to be one of the richest Nigerian acts. With two platinum in his kitty, he has been rumoured to be worth N1.8billion. This update may not have come as a surprise because of the whooping sums of money which comes with his endorsement deals with multi- national concerns like Guinness plc, which was alleged to have dropped jaw-dropping N50 million endorsement deal, followed by another enormous amount of N35million per annum deal from Airtel, before another N50 million wind fall from the producers of Phat girls movie. All these multi million naira financial blessings aside, he charges with confidence, between N5 -7million naira per show, depending on whether if it's a corporate one or an individual affair.

We scooped that as a discerning young man, he has since dived into investment concerns like real estate and stocks which are fetching him mega bucks quietly on regular basis. Tuface was once quoted as saying that he wants to recover all the wealth the Oyinbos forcefully took away from Africa years back. Oh yeah! Can anybody beat this witty philosophy which may have also spoken volumes of his determination to make as much mega bucks as possible from music? Of course no!

BANKY W

This highly controversial act, whose video has simply given him out as quiet a raw soul, may have since proved to the Nigerian beats scene followers that his music is capable of helping him to make the highly competitive and selective list of Nigerian acts with mega bucks.

He is believed to have made bulk of his mega bucks from gigs, charging exorbitantly as much as N3-5 million per show which one of his managers who pleaded anonymity maintained that he had never pegged the amount for whatever reason for years. Another visible source of his earnings, according to a close feeler, is from endorsements of corporate giants like Etisalat which he allegedly packaged their Celebrated jingle, 0809ja for life. He also did same for Nokia and Samsung. He was said to have topped these mouth-watering offers when he featured in Coca-Cola Nigeria's World cup theme song and Microsoft's Anti-cyber crime initiative. For those who care, Banky W is an entrepreneur and has invested heavily in concerns fetching him good money. As a philanthropist, he founded the Mr Capable Foundation (MCF) which engages his attention passionately with serious financial implications which he had never complained of its financial burden for one day. It is on good record that his own EME record ka Bel is home till date to Whizkid, one of the biggest Nigerian acts, from whom he pulls a sizable amount of money regularly in a given period of time. Waoh! We can now see why music watchers listed him confidently as one of those Nigerian celebrity acts with the big money.

D. BANJ

The show boy of the Nigerian beats scene loves to show-off as a real show boy, just cut out for it. Luckily, he is naturally good looking and has equally good songs and stage charisma to blend over the years. One thing which may not have been expedient about him is his penchant for making money. This could be seen in his passion for business. Aside from music, Mr Endowed as most of his fans address him, boasts of other chains of businesses which include Koko Mansion, a TV reality show, Koko Lounge, an upscale hangout in Lagos and UK, Koko Foundation, a charity outfit and much later, the Koko mobile phones. It's on good source that he has a business deal with Chris Aire as the face of his wrist watches, which ran into millions. He also enjoyed another multi-million naira deal with the UAC foods for years. He collects between N7-9million naira per local gigs. As for shows within the African periphery, he won't touch anything less than hundred thousand dollars to 150 thousand dollars, while he embraces 40, 000 to 60,000 thousand pounds for U.K shows. His standard charges for American shows stand at 50,000 to 60,000 thousand dollars per outing. Like his former boss and friend, Don Jazzy, he also bagged a recording deal worth millions of dollars with top American act, Kanye West. This has since boosted his morale and career too. For anybody's information, the Koko master is strongly believed to be worth N2.5billion. Interestingly, he knows that his assets are monetarily weighty and this naturally makes his head to swell at the slightest opening to blow his trumpet which he does arrogantly when he says “I work hard, so that money, awards, endorsements, bookings and kokolets would all chase me at same time.”

P-SQUARE

The twin-singing duo of Peter and Paul Okoye of the sensational P. Square fame, obviously gifted in music making concern are unarguably among the richest celebrity acts on the Nigerian beats scene. Both clinched successfully the highly prized KORA award for the best African act as far back as 2010. The award came with a $1 million (N150million) cash reward. Shortly after, they got Globalcom telecommunications endorsement, an incredible windfall of N500 million cash for a period of four years. Their American tour of seven States fetched them a mind-blowing $1 million cash.

To confirm and stamp that the duo are in money, they built a mansion almost immediately when their former landlord chased them away from his home in Ojodu area of Lagos State. Their mansion was estimated to have cost them a whopping N400 million. Among their multi-million naira investments are the Jos-stationed Rayfield Hotels, two costly factories in same city, where they also erected a multi-million naira bakery and sachet water companies for their aged parents, now late. It is on good source that bulk of their wealth sprang from concerts within Nigeria, Africa and outside Africa. They have reportedly sold over 20 millon copies of their CDS since 2005. They charge about N5 million per show.

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