Rapid urbanisation and Nigeria’s youth demography of about 70 percent of her population, have amplified the demand for a new shopping experience.
Lagos with a population of over 20 million has just four standard Malls compared to 23 malls in Nairobi with a population of 3 million.
Consequently, Greenfield Assets Management Limited, an indigenous infrastructure development firm, is turning 28–acre space in Aba, the commercial city of Abia State, a strategic trading hub in the southern part of the country.
The first phase of the project, which provided about 1000 shops, was commissioned in May, 2015, while construction for the second phase is ongoing.
The facility on completion will be a purpose-built smart mall community with 100,000 square metres of retail space for shopping, a multiplex movie theater, bank, its own transportation system, a dry port for wholesale distribution and more.
With a projected development cost of $300 million, Aba Mega Mall is expected to be the biggest shopping mall in Africa.
According to Paul Obanua, chief executive officer, Greenfield Asset Management Limited, the mission of Greenfield Asset Management is to renew sub-Saharan African cities, regenerate our communities and empower lives.
He continued, “In our quest to achieve this, one of the opportunities we identified is in the area of infrastructure development, especially retail infrastructure. This has encouraged us to pioneer the leapfrogging of Africa’s ‘Historical Open Market Retail System to Smart Mall Infrastructure’.
“Our goal is to transform the way in which Africans trade”.
“Aba has a long history, as a major centre of commerce and industry in Nigeria and its influence extends to such neighbouring countries as Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central Africa Republic, Ghana, etc.
“The major shopping center in Aba is the Ariaria International Market built in the 1970s with the capacity for 20,000 shops; today it has become a sprawl of 120,000 shops. This and many other commercial centres are all busting at the seams as they have all exceeded their carrying capacity.
“The amount of retail space required to meet present demand is in excess of 500,000 square meters and we envisage that Aba Mega Mall will go a long way to fill this gap, “he affirmed.
GODFREY OFURUM
