I make more money in tailoring than acting– Elikem Kumordzie

Actor Elikem Kumordzie has said that his decision to focus on his foremost passion – fashion – has brought him more income than acting.

Even though he acknowledged the rewards in acting, he maintained that it is not as financially satisfying as his fashion career.

“The best thing I did was to think about finding myself a day job other than acting; a job that was going to bring me revenue.

“With the trends of acting and seeing how things were going, I wasn’t A+ or a top list actor where Nigeria will be calling me back and forth,” he said in an interview on Joy Prime.

He explained that acting was not as resourceful a career as he had hoped and “I felt like I could do more” hence the decision to focus on fashion, something that “comes naturally” to him.

He revealed that being a fashion designer has afforded him the luxury to do a lot for himself, including completing his own house as well as creating employment opportunities for others.

His comment comes months after his colleagues picked on him for advising actors to find a “day job” besides acting.

Kofi Adjorlolo, Juliet Ibrahim, James Gardner were of the view that acting is lucrative and producers should pay actors their worth to prevent dependence on other jobs for survival.

According to Elikem, months after that incident, some of his colleagues, who had misunderstood him, came to him seeking advice on how to grow a side business.

This was after the COVID -19 pandemic which hurt almost every sector leading to loss of jobs, shut down of cinemas in some countries, and delay in the release of some movies.

The pandemic, on the other hand, allowed Elikem to still make money despite the challenges that other businesses suffered.

Elikem said he was able to donate over 500 facemasks for free.

In total, he said he “must have sold and distributed up to maybe 50,000 pieces”.#

These included branded face masks for many companies, including cement manufacturing company GHACEM.

“In this Covid era, people are making money, while people are complaining. You either go with the people who are complaining…or find a way to make money during Covid,” he insisted.