Super Mall Poised to Spice-up Shopping Experience in Surulere, Lagos
A new shopping facility known as Super Mall is evolving in the Akerele axis of Surulere, Lagos that is set to redefine how people will meet their daily needs, including hardcore entertainment.
There is more. Investors in the Mall are sure of high returns on investment (ROI), according to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Median Infrastructural Development Company Engr. Olumide Akinsanya, promoter of the mall.
According to Akinsanya, as commercial real estate, malls have “extremely high returns, but the investment is quite large,” adding that the Super Mall is very big, as it is a proper mall.
The Super Mall is being built where the Super Plaza used to stand. “We call it Super Mall because it has always been a center called Super Plaza. And we feel that redeveloping that into a mall becomes a Super Mall and it’s truly going to be super. The industry is waiting to be tapped, to expand.
“And what I’m happy about is the influx of what I would call the second generation of retail. This second generation of retail seems determined to stay, irrespective of the economy.
Akinsanya said malls in Nigeria are less than 20, with over 200 million people. “Nigeria can still conveniently accommodate a thousand malls without even beginning.”
The recent upsurge and revolution in the mall industry, he said, started with the mall in Lekki, “which is quite commendable. And very few people have been able to throw their hat into the ring. While the return is good, as far as commercial real estate is concerned, the investment requirement is very huge.
“And you see very few Nigerians playing in that sector. Extremely few Nigerians play in that sector. Most of the big players are still foreigners.
“It has become extremely challenging now because of the local currency volatility. I will not say devaluation. I will say the volatility of our local currency.
“In most cases, most of the investors that partner with us are unable to take their funds out of the country. So that has made it very difficult for investments to come in, for expansions to take place. So those of us that are local players are taking the bull by the horn.
“We are Nigerians, we have nowhere to go. And we also see the opportunity in that. You know, the foreigners will not develop us.
“They will assist us, but they are here to make money too. If it wasn’t a profitable venture, you will see foreigners come here. But because it’s profitable, that’s why you see foreigners come to Nigeria to want to come and play in the retail sector.
“So now that the appetite has gone south, very low, a few of us locals, and our followers, believe that there’s only one Nigeria and we must still make things happen here. So we’ve thrown our hats into the ring. A few people like myself are still making sure that this is still happening.
“And that’s the reason why we have the Super Mall in Surulere. We’ve, on our own, taken up the Tropicana model in Uyo, Akwa Ibom and we’ve turned it around, we’ve made it what it is today. It’s been running, this is the third year.
“And that shows that if that can happen, then we can do it here. We believe that the Super Mall in Surulere will surpass that.”
He said the first generation of retail was in the days of Kingsway, Leventies, and the like. And we had them across the country. And in 1984, by the time we had the structural adjustment programme, similar to what’s happening today, everyone of them took off.
“And a generation of Nigerians did not experience what we experienced when they used to take our hand and we went for Father Christmas. We were waiting for the train ride to Father Christmas and we cried and all of that they missed.
“But they were also going abroad and were seeing malls. So by the time the first new generation mall came back, that’s about 12 years ago, if I’m not mistaken, or thereabouts, it was like, wow, that’s the ninth wonder of the world. So you could see people from Ibadan coming to Lagos just to come and see.
“That means that our population was hungry for something. We were hungry for that. And the old energy was being put into it.
“Developers were looking at it. Investors were looking into it. And this started coming up.
“By 2016, there was a nosedive. That is quite unfortunate, but then that’s a reality. There was a nosedive from 2016. So if you look at the number of malls that sprang up before 2016 and between 2016 and now, it’s a far cry from each other. This is because of the fact that dollar investors became shy, because you cannot earn dollars in rent, but you build in dollars.
“Even when you now earn in Naira, you cannot exchange it in the official market and remit your loan back. So you are taking a dollar loan, you are earning Naira, and the Naira keeps going down, and the dollar keeps going up in terms of the value you get from it. So it’s been a struggle.
“So what we are looking at is to devise our own way of ensuring that we invest our Naira and we earn our Naira. Which is what is happening today. We have devised our model to continue to be in the market, to continue to offer people the quality that they deserve. The upside of it is the fact that the new generation of supermarkets that came in, post-2010 and the rest of it, have improved the offerings to the people. Now, every neighbourhood has one form of supermarket or another, they offer something that you can compare to what you see in the international sphere. And equally, we realised that there is also a mix.