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Africa Poses Retail Opportunities, Challenges

CAPE TOWN-Angola, Namibia and Botswana could all follow South Africa's path of modern shopping-center development, but infrastructure woes pose a problem.

By Debra Hazel | Updated on October 05, 2007

CAPE TOWN-Though not for the timid, sub-Saharan Africa could prove to be the next boom in retail real estate, investors and developers noted at a session at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Retail World Summit here.

Some countries are seeing rapid GDP growth – Angola alone will see a 20% rise in GDP this year – but infrastructure problems, and even the lack of basic property title hamper the development process.

“These are shark-infested waters,” and not for the impatient says Mike Flax, executive director of Madison Property Fund Managers, Roggebaai, South Africa, which has invested in Angola and Namibia, and is looking at Nigeria. “But we hope that Africa is the true El Dorado.”

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