No, Nigeria is not the world’s biggest champagne consumer after France.
Do Nigerians pop nearly as much bubbly as the French themselves? What started out as a forecast on new champagne consumption has taken on a life of its own.
On what do Africa’s super-wealthy spend their money? Much the same things that rich people around the the world do, according to BBC Africa.
Starting at a “luxury and wealth” summit in Johannesburg, reporter Milton Nkosi took viewers on a tour of a sports car dealership and a posh property.
One of the interviews was with the head of the Southern Africa Luxury Association, Silvana Bottega. She said: “In the sector of champagne, it is very well-documented that Nigeria has now become the second largest consumer of champagne after France.”
Africa’s most populous country overtook South Africa as the continent’s largest economy last year, but do Nigerians pop nearly as much bubbly as the French themselves?
Origin of the claim - most likely a forecast
Bottega pointed Africa Check to news reports published in 2013 in The Guardian and the Japan Times. But these articles said that Nigeria is expected to show the second fastest growth in new champagne consumption during the period 2011 to 2016, and not that it was the second largest consumer after France.
When Africa Check questioned Bottega about this, she said: “I have sent you the links. Have you read them? You can put those two articles down as the source of my claim,” and hung up.
The forecast in the two articles was attributed to Euromonitor International, a market research company based in the UK.Their website contains a blog piece by “senior alcoholic drinks” analyst, Spiros Malandrakis.
Titled “Nigerian Chic and European Doldrums”, Malandrakis described a talk he gave at a champagne conference in February 2012: “It was the last slide that did it. Looking at the list of the markets expected to post the strongest actual gains in total champagne volumes over 2011-2016, most of the usual suspects were there. However, what did come as a surprise was Nigeria's second place in these global rankings, and the audience's disbelief was palpable.”
Malandrakis told Africa Check that they based their forecasts on expected oil revenues in emerging markets in West Africa. At the time of analysis, when the oil industry was thriving, the company predicted that the wealth gained from these revenues would drive consumption of status symbols, such as champagne.
“Somehow that [forecast] turned into ‘second biggest market’,” The Wall Street Journal’s West Africa correspondent, Drew Hinshaw, tweeted at BBC Africa.
Certainly by 2014, media institutions like Business Today in the US and Mail & Guardian Africa reported that champagne consumption, or sales, in Nigeria was the second largest in the world. City Press then wrote earlier this year “Nigeria is fast becoming the second champagne capital in the world, trailing only France – which actually produces the bubbly.”
So where does Nigeria rank?
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