Events planner says wedding industry is big business in Nigeria

Funke Bucknor-Obruthe, CEO of Zapphaire Events, believes that Nigeria's million-dollar wedding industry is booming because the people love to celebrate, and often try to outshine others.

In a chat with CNBC Africa, Bucknor-Obruthe said: "People spend money because they want to celebrate and, sometimes, people want their event to be the best. They want it to better than the next person's so they won't spare any expense to do whatever they need to do to get it done."

She added that while celebrations abroad may last for 4 or 5 hours, Nigerian parties can go on for as long as 10 hours on average or even go on all day.

The growth of the wedding industry has also created many jobs and contributed to the economy as well.

"About 12 years ago, this industry didn't really exist," said Bucknor-Obruthe, "now there are so many people - make-up artists, hair stylists, designers, decorators and engineers".

She also said that she would like to see more support in the industry from the government.

"Government is trying but they haven't really done much on it because they're concentrating more on Nollywood. But, the events and wedding industry is a really large market and I think they need to look more into it."

"We do not have as many resources as they do, we still have to bring in a lot of things from abroad and we still get it done," she said.