Toyosi Etim Effiong, wife of Nigerian actor and filmmaker Daniel Etim Effiong, has revealed that her marriage to the movie star influenced her decision to become a talent manager.
In her recent podcast outing, Mrs Etim Effiong explained that after she got married, she noticed that her husband’s career and Nollywood in general lack structures and legal frameworks.
She said banking on her experience as a show organiser in New York, she decided to introduce some of the structures in the American showbiz into Nollywood, starting with her husband as her first client.
She said after some months of managing her husband’s career, some of his colleagues who noticed the positive changes in his career also reached out to her to be their manager as well.
Etim Effiong said, “I am married to Daniel Etim Effiong -Nigeria’s finest filmmaker and actor. And earlier on in the marriage, I realised that there wasn’t a lot of structure in his career and the Nigerian movie industry generally.
“Producers just casually call actors and ask when they will be available for a shoot and when the actor is available, they start bargaining for the artiste’s fee over the phone like market women. It was very informal.
“Sometimes, you will clear your calendar for a shoot and the producer will call and tell you it has been cancelled at the last minute and give excuses. There was no structure or legal framework. The negotiations were also horrible.
“So, I became a self-appointed manager, which he was fine with. I started to support him, even with his social media and reading through his contracts. My support brought immediate results. And after some months, some of his friends approached me to manage them, too.”
