Lagos’ Biggest Shopping Centre, the Novare Lekki Mall, Opens On August 25

If you are driving through Lagos’ Lekki-Epe Expressway, you might notice that the area seems to be dominated by housing estates. And you wouldn’t be wrong; Lekki is often referred to as being in the centre of the “New Lagos”, the axis to the East of the already congested business districts of Ikoyi and Victoria Island, where property prices have soared to dizzying heights. The fuss about the area is inspired by the realization that, as population pressure and high property costs push businesses to seek new set-up space, the workforce moves along with them- or in trails them from a not to far-off distance.

The Novare Lekki Mall is built to take care of the shopping needs of people who live in this rapidly urbanizing part of Lagos State. The investors involved here- the Novare Equity Partners- may very well be striking gold with this one, as the mall is situated quite close to a number of middle and upper class estates, where potential customers reside. And the prospects going forward seem bright too: the population of the Lekki area is growing at about 10 percent annually, and a lot of the new residents are workers who fit into the modern brand-savvy category of shoppers that the mall will need to keep going.

The anchor tenants for the Novare Lekki shopping mall will be Shoprite and Game stores; other tenants include MTN, Nike, Adidas, Levi’s, HealthPlus and Stanbic IBTC Bank. In all, about 100 shops will be taken up by tenant businesses providing fashion accessories, electronics, furniture, food, entertainment, and telecommunications and banking services. It also has enough parking spaces for about 1,000 vehicles- probably just about right for what will be the biggest shopping mall in Africa’s most populated city.

On Thursday, August 25, 2016, the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode will be declaring the Novare mall open for business. The fanfare of the day should be the beginning of a new normal for the usually quiet patch of Lekki, one more recognisable for a bustling giant of a shopping centre, and the shopping excitement that comes with it.

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ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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