Nigerian shoppers are reported
to be the fourth biggest foreign
spenders in the United
Kingdom. A report by the UK’s
Guardian has revealed.
According to the report “Visitors
from the west African nation are the
UK’s fourth biggest foreign
spenders, ringing up an average
£500 in each shop where they
make purchases – four times what
the average UK shopper spends.”
One of the Nigerians interviewed in
the report, Victoria Appiah disclosed
that she stocks up on everything
she needs for the next six months
in Nigeria whenever she visits the
United Kingdom.
“I basically only do food shopping
back home. It’s not that you can’t
get these things in Lagos, but
everything here is much more
reasonably priced. If you want
cheap products, Chinese-made have
taken over in Nigeria, and you can’t
always vouch for quality” she said.
Holidaying or visiting relatives
abroad is increasingly open to
millions of middle class Nigerians,
with the number of visitors to the
UK increasing by more than 50% to
142,000 a year in the decade
ending 2011, according to the
Office for National Statistics.
In a country projected to become
Africa’s biggest economy next year,
and the world’s fifth most populous
by 2050, businesses at home and
abroad are cashing in.
In Debenhams’ Oxford Street
branch, signs in Hausa-one of the
official Nigerian languages in the
country’s largely impoverished
north-direct shoppers to items on
sale.
This year, the shop said that
Nigerian customers were its biggest
overseas spenders.
Daily flights plying the lucrative
route between Nigeria and the UK
have ballooned in the last decade.
British Airways permits almost
double the normal baggage
allowance for the six-hour haul.
In some cases, Nigerians are literally
using their deeper pockets on
sprees.
Shola Obadeyu wore a heavy duffel
coat while queuing in Heathrow for
a flight back to her sweltering home
city of Abuja.
“I can save [airline] baggage space
by putting small things like vest
tops and underwear in the
pockets,” she said as she queued
with other passengers, almost all
struggling with bulging suitcases.
Back in Abuja, Obadeyu sells wares
bought in London “at prices that
don’t kill you”.
Others are tapping the market. A
mushrooming middle class snapped
up 10m microwaves last year. Big
name brands from Apple to Zara
have sprung up to feed those
aspirations.
The African-based discount
supermarket giant Shoprite is
pouring $205million into its current
three outlets in Nigeria, while the
US hypermarket Walmart sees
scope for 50 outlets in the country.
On a recent trip back from Europe,
Marie Claire Lienou lugged 50kg of
frozen meat in a freezer bag back to
Nigeria. “You can’t compare
[Shoprite's] prices here with their
prices in Europe. For 10 steaks
there I can buy two here. You just
pay what you have to for the
convenience and guarantees,” she
said, pushing a trolley laden with
relative luxuries such as bagged
salads.
“Nigeria is very crowded, traffic is
terrible, fakes [wares] are
everywhere. The only thing I’ll buy
from the market is fresh bulk
vegetables, because there are no
fake tomatoes,” she added.
Being middle class in Nigeria isn’t
cheap. In a brightly lit KFC across
the shopping centre, Taiwo Edun,
an engineer, treated his girlfriend to
crispy chicken and chips, a luxury
beyond the reach of many at $20
(£13) a pop.”I don’t consider myself
in the super-rich class, I’m not
chartering flights for my friends to
go on holiday like some Nigerians
can. But I can come here maybe
once a month,” he said.
The widespread corruption and
infrastructure woes that plague
Nigeria – including daily power
blackouts that are smoothed over
by millions of generators–push up
the costs of running businesses
here, keeping most dependent on
informal, market-style retail.
Abrupt plans to introduce a new
N5,000 (£20) note worth five times
the current highest bill have caused
an outcry, with market sellers
saying it would drive up prices.
On the back of one of the notes will
be Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, mother
of the Afrobeat singer Fela Kuti.
Ransome-Kuti made her name as an
activist with a mass protest against
policies that increased prices for
market women.
Meanwhile, those who can afford it
continue to see a better deal
abroad. The country’s central bank
throws billions of dollars into
propping up the Naira at artificially
high rates, hurting millions of local
exporters and encouraging Nigeria’s
shopping exodus.
Indicating her clutch of M&S carrier
bags, Appiah said it was her five-
year-old grandson’s favourite shop.
“As long as the weather is not too
cold, Nigerians will be shopping in
London,” she said.
