Popping: Nigeria Spent N9.4b On Champagne In 2012

FGNDespite its status as a third world economy, Nigeria spent $59 million or N9.4 billion last year on the consumption of champagne alone, according to a report by the AFP.

This amount has put Nigeria among the fastest-growing countries for champagne consumption, according to Euromonitor International research firm.

That number is up from N7.84 billion ($49 million) in 2011, and the firm forecasts that the country will spend some N616.8 billion ($105 million) on the product in 2017.

According to analysts this demand is fuelled by oil wealth, hip-hop, movie stars and an elite obsessed with status symbols.

One Euromonitor analysis using data from about a year and a half ago forecast Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, as having the world’s second-highest growth in new champagne consumption from 2011-2016, trailing only France.

The study showed 849,000 litres in new consumption during that timeframe in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with a huge gap between its rich and poor.

Euromonitor senior analyst Spiros Malandrakis said the figures have since come down somewhat, with projections around 500,000 litres in new consumption from 2012-2017, which would still keep Nigeria in the upper tier.

“It’s among the top markets for the future of champagne,” Malandrakis told AFP.

Malandrakis said one aspect of Nigeria’s market seemed to set it apart from countries such as China, where champagne producers have banked on an emerging middle class to drive growth.

“In the case of Nigeria as far as I understand, we have a very divided society with big sections of the population in the working class,” he said, while the elite “have the money to spend on really extravagant consumption.”

Oil barons and Nigeria’s movie industry, known as Nollywood, have especially helped drive growth, he said, while hip-hop has also played a role.

AFP.