The moment I walked into the venue, I immediately looked up and found myself staring at what seemed like hundreds of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. They stretched across the enormous hall, one after another, catching the light and scattering it across the room until everything seemed to glitter. For a brief second, I was less impressed than concerned. I remember thinking that if even one of those things decided to come down, I would not be anywhere near the person responsible for explaining it.
Still, I was determined to enjoy myself. I saw people I normally only saw on television, people whose names I recognised long before I had any idea what they actually did. So, I stood there, taking in the flowers, the enormous tables, the lights and the sheer amount of effort that had clearly gone into making the place look like this, and I thought I had finally understood what people meant when they talked about Nigerian luxury weddings.
I hadn’t.
The first surprise came when I saw performers descending from the ceiling, suspended in harnesses as they moved through the air above the guests. They twisted and turned to the music while the room erupted in cheers, and before I had even processed what I was watching, the bride and groom appeared with an entire production behind them. Their friends came out dancing in formation. Within minutes, the entire room was on its feet; phones raised, everyone trying to capture what was happening.
Then a celebrity I would have happily paid a ridiculous amount of money to see perform at a concert was suddenly on stage entertaining two people on their wedding day, and just when I thought we had reached the limit of extravagance, I noticed a gorilla dancing somewhere near the dance floor.
A giant gorilla mascot.
I watched it for a few seconds, trying to understand before turning to the person beside me, Seyi, and asking, “What exactly does a gorilla have to do with marriage?”
She laughed, but she didn’t have an answer. Neither did I. Apparently, once you have reached a certain level of Nigerian wedding, the question is no longer whether something belongs at a wedding. The question is whether you can afford to put it there.
By the time the bride and groom took to the dance floor, I thought there was nothing left that could surprise me. The music softened into the familiar rhythm of the couple’s dance, and almost immediately, their friends and family began gathering around them. It was the part of the celebration where I expected the usual shower of naira notes, except that there was no naira to be seen.
Guests danced around the couple, and for a moment I simply stood there watching the whole thing. If anyone ever tells you there is no money in Nigeria, I thought, bring them to this wedding. I wasn’t sure what conclusion they would draw from it, but they would certainly have questions.
The guests weren’t holding money at all. They had their phones in their hands, and rather than pointing them at the bride and groom to take pictures, they seemed to be pointing them towards the giant screen above the dance floor.
I looked up and finally saw what they were looking at.
A QR code had appeared on the screen.
At first, I assumed it was part of the wedding graphics, but then I watched one of the guests lift her phone towards it, scan it and continue with what looked like a normal payment on her screen. A few seconds later, she put her phone away and went straight back to dancing. Another guest did the same, then another, until I realised what was happening.
They were sending money to the bride and groom instead of spraying it.
I turned to Seyi, still trying to make sense of it.
“Are people actually scanning the QR code to send them money?”
She nodded as though this was the most ordinary thing in the world.
And that was the moment I realised that, somehow, we had managed to take one of the most recognisable parts of a Nigerian wedding and give it a digital upgrade. She explained that she used FirstBank’s QR payment on the LIT app.
I had arrived expecting to see chandeliers, celebrities and, for reasons I still cannot explain, a dancing gorilla. I certainly hadn’t expected to leave wondering whether even wedding spraying had officially entered the digital age. I thought I already knew most of what the LIT app could do. I had heard about the quick account opening, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), facial authentication, complaint tracking, flight bookings, scheduled payments and instant loans. What surprised me was finding out that it also supports QR payments. I’m definitely downloading the LIT app, and so should you. To experience one of the fastest ways to transfer money, download the LIT app now.
