Detty December Pumps Millions Into Lagos Economy While Small Businesses and Locals Bear the Strain.

While Detty December has become a cash cow for some sectors, others are feeling the strain of runaway festive inflation. For small business owners like tailor Funmi Busari, the season’s promise of opportunity has come with unexpected setbacks. Busari had planned to expand her operations by purchasing an additional weaving machine to meet heightened December demand. After carefully saving the required 400,000 naira, she was caught off guard when the price jumped to 450,000.

According to Busari, suppliers are exploiting peak-season demand, particularly from clients preparing traditional outfits for diaspora customers willing to pay a premium. “They know people will still buy,” she says, noting that festive demand has shifted bargaining power away from small producers and into the hands of sellers controlling key inputs.

Yet from a macroeconomic perspective, the Detty December phenomenon is delivering tangible returns. The Lagos State government says it generated more than $71.6 million from tourism, hospitality and entertainment during the 2024 festive season, underscoring the growing fiscal significance of end of year travel, concerts and nightlife to Africa’s largest city.

That success has also sparked policy debate. Earlier in the year, a proposal emerged suggesting a $500 tourism levy on Nigerians in the diaspora, with projected revenues of $165 million. The idea was swiftly criticised and ultimately rejected. Stakeholders described it as ill advised and potentially exploitative, warning it could undermine the very goodwill driving diaspora engagement.

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission cautioned that such a move would discourage return visits rather than promote them, calling the proposal counterproductive at a time when Nigeria is benefiting from voluntary inflows of foreign exchange.

Tourism expert Ikechi Uko agrees, arguing that Detty December’s growth has been organic and should remain so. He believes government intervention risks stifling a model built by Nigerians themselves. “Nigerians create the success that Nigerians enjoy,” Uko says, pointing to the global rise of Afrobeats and Nollywood as industries that flourished without heavy state interference.

As Detty December matures, the challenge will be ensuring that its economic windfall does not come at the expense of those priced out of the very celebration they help sustain.