Kenya’s Capital Leads Shopping Centre Development In Sub-Saharan Africa
By Daniel Owa-George
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| Ikeja City Mall |
As international
investors continue to visualize retail opportunities in Africa, the sub-Saharan
African region is experiencing tremendous acceleration in modern shopping mall
development.
According to a report released recently from the outcome of
the sub-Saharan shopping centre market growth research, conducted by Knight
Frank research company, it was revealed that Lagos, the largest city in Africa
with the population of about 12.6 million people is placed 7th among
the top 18 sub-Saharan African cities that are on the list. Lagos is discovered
to have a total of about 121,000 square metres of shopping centre space.
However, Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, with a population of
about 3.8 million people takes the lead in shopping centre development in
sub-Saharan Africa with an existing mall space of 391,000 square metres.
The relatively small cities of Windhoek, Namibia and
Gaborone, Botswana have been reported to have a total of about 260,000 and
247,000 square metres of shopping mall space, taking the positions of second
and third respectively, surpassing megacities such as Lagos and Kinshasa.
The report analyses the shopping centre market growth in
sub-Saharan African cities covering 47 countries excluding South Africa, which
is discovered to have about 23 million square metres of shopping centre space,
more than seven times the total of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
Meanwhile, Knight Frank research also identifies the cities
of Nairobi, Luanda, Lagos, Dar es Salaam, and Maputo as cities with the five
largest shopping centre development pipelines in the sub-Saharan African
region, with Nairobi taking the lead having a total of about 470,000 square
metres of shopping centre space in the pipeline, while Luanda with 351,000
square metres and Lagos with about 240,000 square metres of shopping centre
pipeline space are placed second and third respectively.
Modern shopping malls are said to be relatively new
phenomena in the major part of Africa and reported to have emerged over a
decade ago. The Accra Mall, with total square meters of 27,000 is regarded as
the first modern mall in Ghana’s capital, and was opened in 2008.
Developers are currently looking forward to the development
of modern shopping mall in second-tier cities in a number of African countries
without existing modern malls.
The report also added that numerous construction projects
are currently being undergone in the second-tier Nigerian cities such as
Onitsha, Benin City and Abeokuta. The Ikeja City Mall of 22,650 square metres
and Palms Mall of 20,000 square metres are among the key opened malls in Lagos,
while Royal Gardens Mall (30,124 square metres) and Novare Lekki (22,000 square
metres) are among key pipeline schemes in the city according to the report.
Moreover, international retailers targeting Africa are said
to have entered the continent via North African countries such as Morocco and
Egypt, with immense interest in the sub-Saharan region.
It is also envisioned that long-term shopping centre
development will facilitate and increase Africa’s urbanization and economic
growth and will also play a major role in shaping the future landscapes of
sub-Saharan African cities.
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