Its no news that Nigerians like partying, celebrating and just basically having fun. Just go out on any Saturday and there is a birthday party, naming ceremony, house warming, wedding reception, burial ceremony, house party, pool party, shows, clubbing etc. Nigerians do it week in week out and spend loads of money. I mean lots of money.
An article last year estimate Nigerians drink about 593,000 champagnes in 2010 alone, the highest in Africa. The closest according to the report was South Africa which consumed a distant 384,000 bottles an increase of 3%. According to the report, Nigeria’s consumption increased 9% from the prior year. With Nigeria consuming about 593,000 champagne bottles it is not difficult to estimate how much that is in a year alone. Champagne retails an average N10,000 to N20,000 depending on where you are buy from. At an average of N12,000 that gives you a nicely put N7,116,000,000 (N7.1B).
Its not surprising that Nigeria and indeed Africa is a growing destination for opulence and luxury products as a related article explains. Africa was said to have consumed 2.7million bottles in 2010 alone and 2.6million in 2009. In fact it was 3.1million in 2008 only to slow a couple of years later due to the recession. Nigeria has shown a strong appetite for consumables over the years and this is now creeping into luxury items as well. I actually do feel the quantity is well understated as champagne consumption here may be twice this figure.