RETAIL COUNCIL NIGERIA PREACHES "ORGANISED RETAIL" AS THE WAY FORWARD FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

The inauguration of the newly formed Retailers Council Nigeria (RCN) took place recently in Abuja with a forum organised to ultimately (and finally!) develop and grow Nigeria's retail sector. The mission behind the Council is to increase consumption, boost production, grow the economy and encouragingly, generate employment.
The forum held on November 18th 2013 featured the two Oluseguns; Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is the on the Board of Trustees as Chairman (of course) and Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Industry,Trade and Investment.

 Aganga identified Nigerias retail sector as a major driver to achieve wealth for West Africa's largest economy. Aganga pointed out that not only do great opportunities exist in Nigeria for new and existing investors to take advantage of but that the retail industry in Nigeria has attracted N205.4 billion ($1.3 billion) of investment. Obasanjo spoke of the government and the private sector collaborating to speed up the development and growth of the retail sector.

BusinessDay Media, who spearheaded this first ever retailers forum, conducted research prior to the forum which concluded that through "organising" retail, this would have a positive impact on other sectors such as assisting the developing IT infrastructure in the country and assisting and boosting tourism with a knock on boost to real estate and the service industries. The research also concluded that the way to successfully achieve the much needed boost to the retail industry would occur through ensuring that there is compliance in the sector to international standards including strict policing of counterfeit produce in open market trade as well as in formal retail platforms.

So what does this mean for the Nigeria retail sector? Prospectively, the RCN should serve as a key point of contact for local and international investors looking to start up or expand into areas of Nigeria. However, there is a difference between discussing ideas and actually implementing them. Nigeria, first and foremost, needs to develop the infrastructure in which the retail sector will comfortably exist and flourish, in order to attract such investors. Transport and logistic issues, dare i say it- power supply issues and security challenges are the few but huge obstacles that deter investors. If the government, perhaps lobbied by this newly formed RCN, minimise and mitigate against these issues then this would inspire potential investors to invest.

With Obasanjo as Chair and Aganga taking the reigns, one can only speculate whether this is a platform for more hot air from the mouths of Nigerians or that things may actually come to fruition.