By Alex C
In a move aimed at further boosting Nigeria’s retail market, 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.
Some 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.
Noavre equity partners, a South African real estate firm, has 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 partnership between Actis and Duval Properties 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.
In recent times, there are strong interests from notable international brands eager to come to Nigeria’s retail market. 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.