Success they say has many relatives, admires and indeed followers. Like its South African Counterpart, MTN, Shoprite , the leading retail outlet in Nigeria and one of the biggest in South Africa has benefited immensely from their investment into the most populous country in Africa and the second largest economy.
According to Reuters, the supermarket chain plans to invest $205m(N32b) on “property development in Nigeria to overcome a lack of infrastructure and capitalize on rising consumer spending”. This seems to me that the company is no longer willing to wait on property developers to make up for the shortage of Shopping Malls in Nigeria and will rather build themselves.
It’s obvious the lack of shopping malls in Nigeria is hampering their expansion into other major markets in the country. Shoprite is yet to hit major cities like Onitsha, Ibadan, Kano, Benin, Porthacourt to name a few. They also mention that they plan to add 9 more outlets by mid next year potentially taking up their tally to 13 in the country.
The impact of Shoprite’s arrival and expansion in Nigeria is yet to be felt by smaller supermarkets as even they continue to expand rapidly. This is a testament of the diversity of depth of the Nigeria market as its potentially to accommodate many is an oyster for growth.