Displayed on Apapa Mall are the insignia of Shoprite and 15 brands, but the reality is that nearly all the stores that housed them are vacant.
On the ground floor, eleven stores were permanently empty, eleven occupied, while Cash and Carry and Ruff and Tumble had vacated their shops, as most shoppers were going to Shoprite, apparently to buy basic food items.
When BusinessDay went upstairs, behold the place was too quiet for a mall. Only one shop, Spetranet, was open. The remaining 15 shops were sealed.
Some spaces are big enough to be a conference hall while others can house three offices depending on the square kilometre. The Film House Cinema, located on the top floor is under lock and keys. Even the Samsung office on the same floor is vacant.
This means 26 out of 38 shops are empty, and more risk being dormant, according to experts.
Experts say a lot of tenants are exiting shops because of low patronage caused by weak consumer purchasing power and decrepit infrastructure in Apapa.
Adebunkola Taiwo, who manages the mall, said the menacing gridlock in Apapa has compounded the woes of retailers as many shoppers avoid the town while the high-end earners have relocated to other parts of the state.
The traffic in Apapa is discouraging many people from coming to the mall but if the roads can be fixed, more tenants will rent shops, but that may take some time, Taiwo said
The deserted Mall is a representation of the deteriorating condition of Apapa, a town that was the pride of Nigeria. It is the home to the largest ports in the country.
As a result of the gridlock, the economy loses N5 billion daily, while the federal government had awarded the contract for the reconstruction of the 35 kilometres Apapa-Oshodi Expressway on September 12, 2017 at the cost of N72 billion, to be completed within 24 months.
According to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, the country losses N20 billion daily and N140 billion weekly as the logjam affect businesses across the country. It affects businesses across the country.
Underneath the bridges, shanties are sprawling, as trunk and tanker drivers make the place their abode, where they take their bath and cook. Of course, the new housing estate also houses miscreants and vagabonds, who smoke marijuana.
A visit to the Surulere Shopping Mall showed landlords are gnashing their teeth as the number of empty shops mounts, but operators of the mall attribute the situation to a weak economy.
The economy doesn’t support growth and a lot of companies are closing down due to the high cost of production. We don’t have the amenities and tenants can hardly survive, according to Otukoya Abiola, Centre Manager Leisure Surulere, and Lagos.
“Next year will be tougher because the Value-Added Tax (VAT) increase will result in an increased price of diesel, which means the service charge will further go up. The service charge would have gone down if there was no need to run the generator,” said Abiola.
Abiola said that Landlords bear the burden of overhead cost so that tenants can stay. “It is another form of subsidy.
Service charge costs as much as N120, 000 and N150, 000, but it has been increasing every year, according to a tenant show doesn’t want her name mentioned.
A total of 9 stores at the Surelere shopping Malls are under lock and keys, and some of them the vacant spaces are large enough to take 2 offices. The stores are on the same floor with KFC Foods, but the 26 stores at Leisure mall are occupied.
Over a decade ago, Nigeria was at the cusp of an economic boom as investors had wagered that the country’s rapidly expanding middle class and a copious young population that craved for consumption would spur growth.
Developers began to respond to the aforementioned benign environment and positive optimism by building American style shopping mall, home to famous end brand stores, movie theatres and large supermarket chains.
In short Chinese developers and other Asian investors were looking to invest in the country’s malls.
However, the economic recession of 2016 that stoked a severe dollar scarcity that paralyzed business activities have crimped consumer spending,9 and the once-thriving malls are not a shadow of themselves.
Nigerians are getting poorer as over 50 percent of a population of 200 million live on less than $1.98 a day; little wonder the country has overtaken India as the world’s poverty capital.
The unemployment rate is at an all-time high of 23 percent, and to further exacerbate the already anaemic situation of consumers is the incessant fuel hike and devaluation of the currency.
The country’s economy has been growing sluggishly as GDP slowed to 1.94 percent in the third quarter, this compared to the 2.10 percent expansion in the second quarter of the year.
Experts are proffering solutions to of high rent for would-be tenant retailers, and they said has to formulate policies that will help spur consumer spending.
Dolapo Omidire, the lead researcher at Estate Intel, said investors would have to build less elaborate and smaller malls of around 7,000 square meters —around half of the size of typical large malls—and simply focus on delivering space at affordable rates.
”If I build a $100 million mall and people are showing up just to take pictures, then it’s a big problem,” said Omidire, in a recent interview with Quartz.
Experts say an optimal mix of tenants could attract traffic to malls and that people shouldn’t be selling identical products.
Malls in the United States, Asia and Europe houses recreational centres, big parking lots and lounges to relax.
“There are has to be banks, a nice car space, hyper supermarket where people can get what they want, and saloons,” said Abiola.
BALA AUGIE
