UAE’s Mulk Holdings Invests $40m In Nigeria’s Shopping Centre

UAE-based conglomerate Mulk Holdings announced that it is investing up to $40 million in developing a duty free shopping centre in Lagos, Nigeria.

The company, which has diversified business interests in fields such as energy, construction and healthcare, said that it signed a contract with retailer Suzanne Group to develop the shopping centre at the National Theatre of Nigeria.

The shopping centre is scheduled to be completed by 2016, company executives said.

The project will convert approximately 30,000 square metres of the existing space in the National Theatre to the shopping mall. It will be developed in two phases, with each phase seeing 15,000 square metres of space being converted.

“As part of the continuous drive to promote culture and tourism in the country, the federal government of Nigeria is now revisiting the master plan of the National Theatre, making necessary arrangements to transform the land into a modern mixed-use commercial and business hub of global standards,” said Edem Duke, minister of Tourism in Nigeria.

Mulk Holdings and its joint venture partners own and manage a group of 20 companies having diversified business interests and spread globally across 48 countries.

The investment in Nigeria is part of its strategy to expand and diversify its core business into sectors such as healthcare and retail, the company added.

Suzanne Group, Mulk Holding’s partner in the project, is a global retail operator and registered supplier of goods and services to several organisations and offices of the United Nations.

Headquartered in Dubai, Suzanne Group caters to duty free shopping outlets in international airports and seaports; diplomatic duty free shops in downtown; and supplying products for in-flight duty free services of airlines.

Africa’s retail sector is increasingly attracting investments due to the continent’s consumer boom and a steadily growing population.

According to a report by audit firm Ernst&Young, Africa’s retail and consumer sector received about 17 per cent of all foreign direct investment that came into the continent in 2013.

UAE firms have been flocking to Nigeria specifically in a bid to tap into its growing economy.

Recently, Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund Investment Corporation of Dubai invested about $300 million in Nigeria’s Dangote Cement while Abu Dhabi-based telco Etisalat and state fund Mubadala are the major shareholders of Etisalat Nigeria.