It is a further boost for Nigeria’s retail market as foreign investors are in the country to feast on the retail boom with $500 million expected to finance the development of six retail malls in five major cities in the next 30 months.
A roll call of these investors include RMB Westport, a joint venture between Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and Westport Property Group—a highly skilled real estate investment management company—which will be funding about 51 percent of the $74.3 million Osapa Convenience Centre and 50.5 percent of 30,124 square metre Royal Gardens Mall, expected to gulp about $165.2 million when delivered in Q4 2017.
Another company is Resilient Africa, a South African partnership between Resilient Properties, Shoprite and Standard Bank, will be delivering four of its choice malls in Delta, Benin city, Owerri and Asaba by Q4 2015 at a total cost of $200 million.
Likewise, Noavre equity partners, another South African real estate firm, has already commenced the construction of its 22,000 square metre Lekki Mall expected to be delivered by the end of 2015 at the cost of $ 60 million.
A formidable partnership between Duval Properties and Actis is poised to berth a new shopping experience in Abuja by 2015 when both firms are expected to deliver the 27,000 square metre Jabi Lake Mall. Actis, a global pan-emerging market private equity firm is expected to contribute a fair share of the $100 million that the mall will cost.
Nigeria’s retail space has spiked new interests in recent time with South African owned Shoprite, Park ‘n’ Shop, Spar, Game, Mr Price, Wrangler, Etam, Lacoste and Cold Stone showing huge commitment to further spread their footprints having occupied nearly all of the country’s retail space estimated to be a little above 100,000 square metres.
“There has been a strong interest from notable international brands (not just the regular South Africa ones) who are eager to come to the Nigeria market in recent time and this enhances the take-off of these malls when delivered”, Chu’di Ejekam, a director at Actis, told BusinessDay.
Analysts predict that with the coming of Inglot, Gap and Tommy Hilfiger set to join the country’s retail sector, opportunities are evolving for more investment in retail space development are investors are urged to take up the challenge of building more malls.
Pan-African Standard Bank’s projection that the number of households with annual income greater than $3,000 at market exchange rates will increase to 100 million by 2015 gives further hope on the growth of this sector in the country.
In a study by Global Retail Development Index, a handful of African nations were listed among the top 30 countries for retail investment and Africa has been projected for increasing growth in recent and upcoming years. A 2011 World Bank report states that “Africa could be on the brink of an economic take-off, much like China was 30 years ago and India 20 years ago.”
ODINAKA MBONU
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