Nigeria: Emerging middle class spurs retail

Investors are continuing to demonstrate confidence in the Nigerian economy, despite the slowdown in the economy occasioned by lower oil prices and naira depreciation and the disruptions caused by the general elections earlier in the year, which have all negatively impacted growth.

Nigeria however has attractive numbers which investors find compelling. “A strong demographic profile, an emerging and aspiring middle class with high consumer spending power are some of the market fundamentals that investors find compelling”, explains Ruth Obih, CEO, 3Invest Limited.

Based on these fundamentals, a fresh investment in excess of USD150 million, an equivalent of N29.6 billion has just been made in the retail sector of the economy which in the past four to five years, has seen over N200 billion investment, holding out hope for about 150,000 square metres of retail space.

Resilient Africa, the new investor from South Africa, told BusinessDay that they are in Nigeria to develop as many retail centres as possible, explaining that they have invested the $150 million in the three malls they are developing in the country.

McDonald said they have demonstrated this confidence further, by making sure that there is local content in all their developments. “In our company today, we have some Nigerian shareholders; we partner with some Nigerians to do these developments and that tells you the level of confidence we have in this country; we do our developments in partnership with the local authorities”, he emphasised.

Source: businessdayonline.com