Nollywood hunk, OC Ukeje became a household name when he won the Amstel Malta Box Office AMBO. The sought after actor was in a financial mess even after clinching the winning prize. He made this known when he was hosted as a special guest on the Live Your Dreams Africa Facebook group.
According to him:” I opted to go for a course at the Film academy in Los Angeles, but what was interesting at this point was that even though I had won a prize money of N2.5M from Amstel, I was flat broke. I had done what I believed was the smart thing, invested the bulk of the money in businesses that would give me monthly returns that I could live on till I could go back to work.Just like now that the MMM bubble has burst, there were similar schemes that were going bad that year and people were losing money to the point that the government had to step in. Even though the companies I had invested in were straightforward businesses that weren’t running network marketing, MLM or Ponzi schemes, they got caught up in the government legislation that was trying to sanitize the system. So here I was – having no money and unable to work either.”
He also revealed that at a point, he was tempted to apply for a job because he couldn’t meet up with his financial obligations.
“Later that year, the course I wanted to do was being offered at a special discount and this time I pulled every stop I could to get my tuition paid and travel to the States to begin classes. I still recall speaking to one of my ‘egbons’ about this trip and he ‘discouraged’ me, telling me to go get a regular job. He felt my life was volatile (and I had no money) and getting a job would set things in proper order. In fairness to him, his intentions were good and this made it even more difficult to decide on what to do. I recall sitting outside his office – confused. I eventually decided to follow my heart – I believed it knew what was best for me.”
“Believe me when I say these were the worst three months I went through yet going to L.A. was one of the best decisions I ever made (funny, I know). I didn’t go on a shoe string budget, I went on a shoe string! I didn’t have money for rent for two of those months and barely enough for food but I had a will of steel that somehow I would pull through.I couldn’t reach out to my mum for assistance because I knew she just didn’t have that kind of money” he reveals.