New figures emerging has revealed that Nigeria is the second highest consumer of champagnes in the world, second only to France, and ahead of Brazil, China, US and Australia.
The Chief executive of Southern Africa Luxury Association, Silvana Bottega, has told the BBC's Milton Nkosi at the luxury and wealth summit in Johannesburg that Nigeria has now become the second largest consumer of champagne, after France.
Alarming figures from research company, Euromonitor, revealed that Nigeria has the fastest growing rate of new champagne consumption in the world, second only to France, and ahead of rapid growth nations Brazil and China, and established markets such as the US and Australia.
The report also forecasted that champagne consumption in Nigeria will reach 1.1 million litres by 2017, with 2011 consumption at almost 8bn naira (£31m).
"Champagne has its own demographic on the higher end of things – it's not even about the middle class, it's about the elite.mPeople may find it surprising that Nigeria came second in the rankings, but it has an extremely extravagant elite, with Nollywood and the oil industry." said Spiros Malandrakis, a senior analyst at Euromonitor.
Nigerians' love of big spending has attracted growing attention in recent months. Last year figures revealed that Nigerian tourists in the UK are the fourth biggest foreign spenders, ringing up an average £500 in each shop where they make purchases – four times what the average UK shopper spends.
"At all the celebrity parties in Lagos, they always have champagne. And it has to be the finest – Cristal, Dom Pérignon or Moet et Chandon rosé. These are the things that are important symbols here.
People say that at every elite event the champagne has to be flowing, and that how much champagne there is is a one-upmanship thing, like showing people that your house is bigger than theirs." said Vanessa Walters, from Genevieve magazine.
But not everyone in Nigeria – 63% of whose 160 million population still live on less than $1 a day – is impressed with the extent of Nigerian champagne consumption.
"Nigerians' unhealthy enthusiasm for anything foreign or imported is a plague that continues to pull the country back into this sort of wasteful expenditure. [These figures] reveal the profligacy that is offensive, if not obscene." said an editorial in Daily Trust in response to the figures.
Sources: BBC Africa / Guardian UK