By Kingsley Adegboye

The multi-million Onitsha shopping mall being promoted by Messrs African Capital Alliance, a private equity investment company in collaboration with the Anambra State Government, has attained a 64 percent completion level and would be ready for commissioning by mid 2015. The project is anchored by Shoprite, the popular South African retail company.

Located at the old Anambra Broadcasting Building in the commercial city, the mall which comprises 55 shops of various sizes, will be managed by Broll Nigeria Limited upon completion. Already, the road leading to Park Street where the mall is sited, has been dualised and resurfaced with traffic lights by the state government to accommodate the volume of human and vehicular traffic on the road preparatory to the 2015 take-off date.

These disclosures were made at the public unveiling of the mall to prospective tenants and investors in Lagos last week by Mr. Obi Nwogugu of African Capital Alliance.

He gave reasons for the establishment of the mall in Onitsha. According to Nwogugu, Onitsha is the fifth fastest growing city in the world with the biggest market in West Africa known as Onitsha Main Market. “It is the economic nerve centre and the gateway to the eastern part of Nigeria. It is known to be a major commercial city in the South-Eastern Nigeria,” he said.

He noted that the vision of Anambra state government and his company for the Onitsha mall is to build an infrastructure that would attract private capital into the state. He pointed out that Anambra state is ranked second in telecommunications disposable income and highest in commercial and micro-finance banks branches in the Eastern Nigeria. The city, according to him,   recently attracted investment worth $120 million from South African Breweries, which is currently planning to double its investment due to the success of the business in the area.

The project is being funded by African Capital Alliance and Anambra State government while Diamond Bank is the debt financier. He allayed fears of insecurity expressed by some people at the public unveiling.

According to him, “in terms of safety of lives and property, the state has recently received a significant investment in security equipment and personnel in the city, which created an enabling environment for business to thrive”.

Prominent features

Prominent features of the mall include 12,100 square meters of net lettable space; 24 hours electricity and security, over 500 parking bays; six local and international restaurants, central air conditioning, ATM galleries and an average of five stores reserved for commercial banks.   He said the lucrative business environment, which provides huge investment opportunities for investors, is another major reason for building the mall which he described asthe first of its kind in the commercial town.

In his own contribution, the project manager, Mr. Chuka Okoye of Pro-M Limited, explained that the project suffered a set back from its former handlers, Technics Construction Company.   He noted however, that the project has been re-awarded to Akiota Works Limited. Okoye therefore assured that the project will be completed before May next year.

He said February 1, 2015 is the proposed date for all the tenants to start occupying their spaces as the beneficial occupation shall be granted to tenants to commence their shop fit-outs, which is expected to take 30 to 60 days before the formal commissioning date.