Communiqué 63: BellaNaija and Nigeria’s wedding industrial complex

In Nigeria’s attention economy, aspiration is the most valuable currency. And no one trades it better than BellaNaija.

1. Flashing lights

In March 2024, the world watched in awe as Anant Ambani, son of Asia’s richest man, married Radhika Merchant in a wedding extravaganza reportedly costing $600 million. The event, attended by global celebrities, politicians, and business moguls, was just the latest in a series of ultra-luxurious Ambani weddings. Anant’s sister’s 2018 nuptials had already set a high bar with a $100 million price tag.

These spectacles are part of the booming $250 billion global wedding industry, where high-profile weddings drive romance and entire economies. When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot in 2018, their royal wedding added an estimated $2 billion to the U.K. economy through tourism, merchandise, and media coverage.

Media companies have long recognized the lucrative potential of documenting these grand celebrations. Publications like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar have built empires covering celebrity weddings. In Nigeria, the wedding media industry is no different, thriving within a larger ecosystem obsessed with the lifestyles of the rich and famous. In the late 1990s, a group of soft-sell magazines dominated this space, including Ovation, City People, and Encomium, offering glossy spreads on high-society weddings, high-fashion events, and A-list parties.

Their dominance lasted until the 2000s. In 2006, 22-year-old Uche Pedro (then Uche Eze) launched a blog that would soon upend the old guard’s dominance and usher in a new generation.

Almost two decades later, that blog has become Nigeria's most prominent lifestyle publication, shaping how citizens and foreigners consume weddings, fashion, and aspirational content.

This is the story of BellaNaija.