The first phase of the $300 million Aba Mega Mall project, expected to stimulate eco¬nomic activities in the South East and South South regions of Nigeria, will be commis¬sioned in few weeks.
The project, which sits on 28 hectares of land, on completion, would consist of 5,830 ultramodern shops, in four sizes of 12sq meters, 16sq meters, 24sq meters and 48sq meters.
The facility will also have provision for banks, secu¬rity post; 25,000sq meters climate-controlled ware¬house space, restaurants, entertainment centres with six cinema screens, children play area and a massive parking space for over 5,000 cars.
The South East Amalga¬mated Traders Association (, an umbrella body of traders in the South East region of the country, has endorsed the project, which they described as laudable.
Consequently, they have urged its members across the country to support the pro¬ject, which they said is good for the South East region, as it is providing the needed infrastructure to ensure that the region regains its place in commerce in Africa.
Paul Obanua, group man¬aging director, Geenfield Assets Limited, promoters of the mall, while playing host to Governor Theodore Orji, Tuesday, on a pre-com¬missioning inspection tour of the facility, explained that the mall on completion would be the first mall with a dry port in Nigeria and Africa as well as the biggest mall on the continent.
The dry port, according to Obanua, is going be a 30,000 square metre bonded warehouse, which will af¬ford people of the South East the opportunity of getting their goods in on time. “So, they don’t suffer time wast¬ages, due to port congestion at our various sea ports”, he said.
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“We are going to also of¬fer good storage facilities-au¬tomated climate controlled facility. So this mall is going to be a one-stop-shop. And by the second phase, you are going to have a 100-room hotel come up here at the Aba Maga Mall.
“So, we are going to have a section that will be called the Aba Business Resort, so that you have your events here, like conferences and when you are in the South East, you can also lodge in and do your business.”
“The other aspect of this mall is that we are going to have Aba Mega Mall online. So the e-commerce of this mall will commence opera¬tion at the commissioning. What that means is that if you can’t come down to the mall to shop, you can shop online, wherever you are in the country. Even if you are in Lagos or Abuja, you can shop from any shop in the mall and it will be delivered to you at your location.”
Obanua, who was im¬pressed with response from the business community, revealed that the price of the facility has gone up, due to pressure.
In his words, “Traders from Aba, Onitsha, Lagos, Abuja and Kano are buy¬ing into this project and the price has increased about two folds, because of pres¬sure.”
He revealed that the first phase of the project will be commissioned in a few weeks. “The facility is al¬ready fenced and the place is well secured, we have surveillance cameras all over the place and we are going to have armed patrol, and so the facility is going to be the safest place in Nigeria.
“We also have 10 mega¬watts power station and the excess capacity will be given to the neighbouring community. So we are going to have power here and this is going to be one city where you can boast of 24-hour power supply.”
