Money Gun: New Craze Among Nigerian Socialites

As the new couple stepped onto the dancing floor last Saturday at a Lagos events centre, soon were they swarmed with family and friends who had come to rejoice with them on their memorable day.

The live band from Ibadan played both local and exoteric lyrics, while the couple and their guests danced, and danced, until their clothes were dampened with sweat.

When the couple had danced to the delight of everyone, then came the “naira rain,” a ritual in most ceremonies in the country, with some people even going as far as competing with themselves at parties.The guests — with piles of cash in their hands — sprayed the money on the new couple as they kept on dancing, the groom now holding the waist of his bride. It was a moment of joy for the duo.

The band weren’t also left out of the money rain show as some of the guests sprayed on them. At this juncture, their music became more exhilarating and more dance steps followed.

Then came this man decked simply in a dry lace attire. After he was sure that he had secured a vantage position, a few metres away from the dancing duo, he did not raise his hand much but then, crisp N1000 notes began to fly up above everyone on stage, then cascading and targeting the new couple. It arrested everyone’s attention.

Even the couple could not hold their shock. They nearly became onlookers at their own show. Before long, so much naira notes had littered the stage. The money man appeared to have achieved his aim, a show stopper of sort.

On a closer look, the big man was holding a gun-like machine from which naira notes were flying out to the air.

The situation whereby Nigerians hold piles of cash in their hands while spraying money may soon become a thing of the past as the gun-like device appears to have come to displace the manual ritual.

Called the money gun or money sprayer or money spraying machine, the device looks like a toy and dispenses paper items — such as cash, flyers and confetti — in a rapid but user-controlled manner.

The device works by lifting the top cover open, placing the items in the loading compartment, aiming at the direction the items are to be dispensed, and then pulling its trigger.

The money gun uses a simple motor and rubber roller assembly that causes enough friction to move cash notes and other items smoothly out of the slot, with its ergonomic handle giving the user a good control of the loading compartment and the direction the items are to be released.

The squeeze trigger allows the user to control the frequency at which the items are dispensed.

The money gun also operates using one 9-volt battery and costs between $50 (N14,000) and $300 (N84,600), depending on its loading capacity and the manufacturer.

Saturday PUNCH learned that many socialites from around the world, including from Nigeria, have been buying the product, according to information displayed on the website of one of the manufacturers, but no specific details on how many Nigerians had ordered for it.

Apart from the gun-looking money sprayer, another device, which looks like a point of sale machine, is now also being adopted by Nigerian socialites to spray money at ceremonies.

Just a few days ago, a video emerged on the social media showing the Chairman of Five Star Music and musician Kcee’s younger brother, Emeka Okonkwo — popularly known as E-Money — using the money gun to spray tons of minty notes at the wedding ceremony of Nigerian footballer Onazi Ogenyi.

The video showed him bringing out the device and raining the couple with abundant cash while they danced.

In April, he was rumoured to have sprayed over N1m at the wedding ceremony of Nollywood actor Mike Ezuronye’s sister using the same device.

E-Money’s action, however, drew a lot of criticisms from some of his fans.

Marshall Onoriode with the Twitter handle @MarshallOnos said it seemed the money spraying gun was intentionally invented for Nigerians.