From Accra to Nairobi, Africa Is Full Of Business Opportunities

From Accra to Nairobi, business opportunities abound all across this flourishing continent.

- Jane Labous and Clement Huang

Wandering around Accra Mall in Ghana’s capital, it’s hard to believe that this city was ever considered part of the “developing world.” Fashionable couples promenade through Mango, Puma, Levi’s and Apple stores; women emerge from glamorous boutiques; a huge supermarket sells everything from ice cream to barbecues; a five-screen cinema shows all the latest Hollywood releases; and there’s parking for 900 cars – many of them flashy SUVs. All this without mentioning the food court offering fried chicken, smoothies and a bouncy castle for the kids.

Drive there via the spiraling highways of the city, meanwhile, and you see glossy ads for iPhones, beauty products, flights, mortgages and the luxury condos that have recently appeared in the region.

It’s the same in many major African cities. Nairobi, Lagos, Cairo and Dakar are all experiencing a shopping boom. It’s the new fashionable pastime, along with fitness (gyms are having a moment, too).

In Dakar, the Sea Plaza mall houses 44 shops including Benetton and Aldo, ten restaurants, a cinema and a spa run by the Radisson hotel group on a site that, back in the 1990s, was a rugged bit of cliff overhanging the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean without even a paved road running past it.

In Lagos, the Ikeja mall opened in 2012, while the Palms center is home to brands including Hugo Boss, Mango, Mac, Wrangler, Swatch and Sony, plus a cinema, food court and 1,000 parking spaces. In Lusaka, Zambia, several complexes offer supermarkets, clothing, electronics and everything in between, led by South African retailer Shoprite and Woolworths.