By Egufe Yafugborhi

INVESTMENT consultants, Broll Properties, have projected the operation of shopping malls as having the potentials to grow bigger than telecommunications success in Nigeria in the near future.

Mr. Oni Olusola, a manager with Broll, gave the projection in Effurun, Uvwie council area, Delta State where the firm is consultant to investors of the newly opened Delta Mall, host to state’s first Shoprite branch.

Olusola said, “Shopping mall is still at its infancy in Nigeria. It’s going to be like the Telecoms business, or even bigger. The dream is that in future we won’t have to operate open market in our towns and cities. Traders and market women will sell in the mall, in a better environment.”

On the impact the new Delta Mall has had on Effurun, Olusola said, “we have been doing about 12,000 footfalls everyday. From what I’ve seen in the few weeks we’ve opened, it is a successful project already.

He added that about 57 percent of the workforce at Delta Mall has been recruited from the host community, primarily from the Uvwie Local Government Area, projecting that the figure will increase with time.

He said management was already considering the idea of expanding the facility, even though work was still ongoing on the remaining two phases scheduled for commissioning in July and September.