A recent report by commercial property services company, Broll Property Services Limited, on Nigeria’s retail market viewpoint in the first quarter of this year, found that it was becoming increasingly difficult for retail industry stakeholders such as developers, retailers and manufacturers to run their operations in the country due to economic instability.

The report also found that developers were the worst hit as many retailers were finding it difficult to take up space in malls.

The report stated, “Developers may have to push out dates, opt for phase developments, or reduce the size of the development all together to limit risks. This will create a considerable slowdown in the growth of the formal retail market across Nigeria, especially outside the prime locations in core cities of Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.

“Developers such as Resilient Africa, who are still moving forward with development plans, are limiting their exposure to the market by reducing the size of their retail projects. Two of their planned projects in Owerri, which opened in February 2016, and Asaba were reduced from 13,000m² to 9,000m².”

Developers are, however, not the only ones affected as many retailers have also started cutting down on space and staff strength or closing shops altogether.

An estate surveyor and Principal Partner, RogbaOrimolade and Co., Mr. RogbaOrimolade, told our correspondent that the instability of the naira exchange rate was affecting not just retailers and developers, but also the financiers and real estate agents, who were fully into the letting of the retail stores.

He noted that there were certain categories of retail outlets, which take up spaces in the malls, and a lot of them deal so much o imported products.

Orimolade added that retailers such as Pep Store, Mr. Price and even Shoprite, to an extent, were all affected and this had in turn affected upcoming malls and the development pipeline.

“If majority of these retailers are the key anchors, obviously the developers can’t do much without them being able to still take up spaces. Most of their materials are imported and they rely heavily on foreign exchange. Of course, a lot of them are suspending taking up spaces; some still take and are still in the game, but their operations are slowed down,” he said.

According to reports, Truworths, a South African fashion retailer, like its counterpart, Woolworths Holdings Limited, which left Nigeria in 2013, had early in the year closed its two remaining stores in Enugu and Delta due to capital controls.

The clothing company reportedly struggled to get stock into and cash out of the country for some time before deciding to call it quits.

While Woolworths attributed its exit to tough market with high rental expenses, Truworths said it could no longer cope with difficult regulations.

The Chief Executive Officer, Truworths, Michael Mark, was quoted as saying that the regulations were making it extraordinarily difficult to get stock into the stores or get money out.

“So, there was no point any longer. Obviously, everyone gets excited about Nigeria because of its size, but I think they’ve taken an incredible strain with internal problems in the country politically; and then, there are the issues with their oil,” Mark was quoted as saying.

The report, however, stated that some retailers, such as Shoprite Africa, increased their sales by 19.7 per cent by exploring local distribution and sourcing options to significantly reduce the import bills.

Malls developer and Chief Executive Officer, Top Services Limited, Mr. Tokunbo Omisore, said the real and retail sectors had been made unattractive.

He noted that prior to the fiscal policies, retail malls’ development operated a dollar denominated rental, though payable on due dates in naira.

This, he said, helped international retailers and investors to operate locally and remain listed abroad, but that the policies came in unexpectedly and shut down this growth thereby, causing a withdrawal of those presently operating and restrictions to newer ones.

Omisore added, “Investors have been denied affordable funds to provide the infrastructural platform for the retail industry to grow. As l have said repeatedly in the past, the real sector must be provided long term funding at a single digit to meet rental demands and provide opportunities that are sustainable.

“Our recent mall development opened in the fourth quarter of 2015 and lost 40 per cent of her prospective anchor tenants, undermining the local bank loan in place. The situation has become one that the local banks do not dialogue with the CBN but simply accept instructions at the detriment of increasing non-performing loans and discouraging entrepreneurs.”

PUNCH.

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It described the 16 per cent cost as unaffordable, adding that the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company in conjunction with other mortgage institutions was working to increase home ownership in the country.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, gave the hint in Abuja while speaking on the challenges being faced in the full commencement of the first phase of the Federal Government’s 10,000 housing units under the Affordable Home Ownership Scheme.

The scheme, which was inaugurated in July this year and spearheaded by the NMRC, is to enable the citizens own their houses at affordable rates.

Okonjo-Iweala, who spoke at a housing stakeholder’s consultative workshop, noted that it was imperative to cut the cost required for land titling, governor’s consent and property registration processes in order to enable the government to build these homes.

She said, “The NMRC is working to enhance the enabling environment for mortgage market growth and increase home ownership by partnering state governments through a pilot state scheme. So far, 18 states have signed off, all accenting to review extant land titling, governor’s consent and property registration processes to make this home ownership possible.

“It is very onerous that the present processes result in a cost that could be up to 16 per cent of the value of the accessed property in question. That is not affordable for our people. And this is what we are trying to work on because if we don’t work on it, we may have all the mortgage finance but we will not have the demand. So the plan is to scale it down from 16 per cent to about three per cent.”

The minister noted that through a Memorandum of Understanding, the Lagos State governor and the minister of the Federal Capital Territory had signed to review existing governor’s consent, titling and property registration processes.

This, she said, was with a view to reducing the cost and fast-tracking steps to perfection of titles at the land registries so as to benefit those who had indicated interest in the scheme.

“And this is the proposal we presented to these two governors to work with us on, and I am very hopeful that they will accent to it because we are actively talking to them. If we get that then it becomes a template that all other states hopefully will follow,” Okonjo-Iweala added.

She noted that without the adoption of this model, it would be difficult to proceed in the provision of affordable houses for Nigerians and urged states and the National Assembly to help fast track steps aimed at realising this.

“It is taking us a bit longer. I was very optimistic when we started with the 10,000 mortgage scheme that we could just go ahead but as we went into it, we saw things that had to be tackled before we could move on.”

The minister stated that private sector mortgage lenders were encouraged to join the NMRC as the company would provide them access to liquidity and long term finance.

She said this would enable them to extend the terms of the mortgages they were providing by 20 or more years at affordable rates.

According to her, the meeting was to discuss issues that would help stakeholders to tackle the housing deficit in the country which was estimated at between 17 million and 23 million units, adding that the sector was a prime mover of most developed economies but this was not so in Nigeria.

Okonjo-Iweala further observed that 10,000 applications were expected but a total of 66,402 applications were received across the country.

According to her, 51 per cent of the applicants preferred homes located in Abuja, reinforcing the unique role of the city as the centre of national unity.

She said, “I think we have to think about this. People always say Nigeria is falling apart and so on. But somewhere there, there are people who believe that this is the place to be and therefore they want a house there. And I think this is a very important message for the country. People believe in our capital city, in fact, our younger people. And that to me brings hope.

“I actually expected more people to apply for mortgages for homes in their home states. But I was really blown away when I saw that more than half preferred homes here in Abuja. They believe in the unity of the country. Lagos is the second highest city of preference with about 18 per cent people wanting homes there.

“Applications from the age group of 31 to 40 years accounted for more than half of the total applications, followed by those in the age group of 41 to 50. So that is why I say it is also promising because it is the younger people that are saying they believe in this country. About 63 per cent of the applicants were male; 37 per cent were female and joint application accounted for 10 per cent.”

In her address, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi, said the workshop was organised as a pre-summit towards ensuring the success of the forthcoming two-day Nigeria Housing Construction Summit/Expo fixed for January next year.

“The objective of this pre-summit is to present a platform for key players and stakeholders in the private and public sectors of the economy in the housing delivery chain to discuss the challenges and issues militating against the provision of affordable housing in Nigeria,” she said.

PUNCH.

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