Abuja Shopping Guide-A List of Markets And Shops For Best Buys

Wuse Market  

This is the main market in Abuja and is located in Zone 5 of Wuse district. It is a general market where you can find almost anything; food stuff, fresh vegetables, meat, clothes, electronics, furniture, phones, rugs and carpets etc. Prices in Wuse market are relatively high compared to what you will get in other markets like Utako and Garki. The prices are however cheaper when compared to prices in malls and stores. One good thing about the market is that it is organized and generally clean. You will however occasionally encounter traffic when driving into the market especially in the evenings.

A section of Wuse Market

Garki Market 

This is also a general market located in the Garki district of Abuja. It also has variety of items from food stuffs to clothes. However, it is not as versatile as Wuse market. Food stuffs are relatively cheaper in this market compared to Wuse market.

Utako Market 

This is another general market located in Utako district of Abuja, and is quite similar to Utako market.

Garki International Market 

This is an ultra modern market located in Garki 2 district of Abuja. Garki market can equally be compared to Wuse market.

Dei Dei Building Material Market

This is a market that is mainly for building materials. It is located in Dei Dei district, a satellite town under the FCT.

Gudu Market 

This is a vehicle spare parts and electrical fittings market which located in the Gudu district of Abuja. Genuine new and fairly used products are offered for sale here.

Maitama Fruit Market 

Also know as "farmers market", this is a small market in Maitama where  fresh fruits and and drinks are sold. Household items, confectioneries, provisions of different types are also sold here. The high prices of goods sold here reflects the high-brow neighbourhood that is Maitama-the home of Abuja nouveau rich and the diplomatic community.

Farmers market, Maitama

Banex Plaza 

Located at  Plot 750, Aminu Kano  Crescent ,Wuse 2,  Abuja, Banex Plaza is home to many businesses that trade mainly in mobile phones and accessories. Of course, clothing, sports equipment, electronics etc could be bought at this massive market.

Sheriff Plaza 

This plaza is next to Banez plaza, Wuse 2. Both are into same trade.

EMAB Plaza 

Emab sits next to Banex plaza too. Same trade as in above.

Grand Square Shopping Mall 

This impressive business is located at plot 270, Muhammadu Buhari Way, Central District, FCT, Abuja. According to its website, www.grandproductscompany.com, it trades in appliances, power, furniture, lighting, home, electronics, toys, sports and entertainment.

Omega Centre Omega Centre is a shopping complex with shops that sell mostly fashion gears. There is a DSTV office , a pharmacy, and bar at the plaza.

Ceddi Plaza - In Central Business District

Shippers Plaza - In Wuse zone 5

Chembin Plaza - In Gwarimpa

Erisco Bumpet Plaza - In Wuse Zone 5

Metro Plaza - In Central Business District

Coscharis Plaza - In Area 3 Garki

If you are in the FCT and wish to have a pleasant shopping experience in a quiet environment with huge parking space, you will surely find that in the following places:

Next Cash And Carry 

This sprawling shopping mall prides itself as having "everything under one roof"..and rightly so. Reportedly owned by the immediate past governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, Next is claimed to be the largest shopping mall in Africa. Designed after ASDA in the UK, Next offers virtually everything one can think of  in a very spacious mall. The location has a huge parking lot for thousands of its customers. 

Shoprite

The rapidly expanding South African business is located in the Apo district of the FCT.

Amigo Supermarket - In Wuse 2

Park and shop - In Wuse 2

Exclusive Stores - In Wuse 2

Spar - In (Ceddi Plaza) Central Business District

Grand Square Supermarket - In Central Business District

Sahad Stores - In Garki Area 11.

Dunes Supermarket and Restaurants-Aguiyi Ironsi Way, Maitama 

This shop is certainly not for the every day shopper in Abuja. Located in high-class Maitama district, it caters more for the needs of the super-rich, and foreigners (expatriates), mostly from the diplomatic community.

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Herbal Bitters-Nigeria Remains Alomo's Biggest Market

Herbal bitter drinks market

Herbal bitter drinks market is flourishing in Nigeria. The market was deepened with the entry of Alomo Bitters in 2011. Before then, Swedish and German bitters were skeletally marketed in the country and because of the limited distribution there was not much awareness, as the visibility of the products was limited. Some consumers who would have possibly tried the Swedish and the German products believed that the bitters were for ‘big men’ and perhaps were not affordable by the common man.

Noticing this gap, some people started smuggling Alomo Bitters produced by Kasapreko from Ghana before the product got NAFDAC registration in Nigeria. The product received immediate consumer acceptance as the consumers needed something different from lager beer. When the product officially entered Nigeria, distributors jumped at it and this created the visibility and the product boomed, again on the back of affordability.

Predictably, between 2011 and 2012, the product market share hovered around 80 percent of the bitters market. But this share was soon weakened as adulteration of the product and genuine competition entered to tap into what experts described as N32.2 billion annual bitters market.

Adulteration market

Both registered and unregistered bitter products, which faked Alomo, entered the market unfettered. Some of them are mixture of chemicals, which do not contain herbs.

Kasapreko’s response

Prior to the double ‘attack’ on Alomo, the product made of extracts from seven herbal plants, the company, Kasapreko founded by Kwabena Adjei, 25 years ago had planned a $50 million expansion plant in Nigeria. The company, he said started in his garage and he had the determination to succeed.

The idea of the product came from the observation that Africans were drinking herbs locally mixed with alcohol. But his vision was to use scientific method to produce the product with clinical authentication.

Adjei introduced Alomo 10 years after the company was established, as he was producing Kasapregin. But the breakthrough came when he introduced Alomo Bitters, which became a trail blazer in the bitters’ category. He was able to find a scientific way of proportioning the herbs that were introduced into the bitters.

So, he was able to partner Scientific Plant Medicine in Mapong, which is World Health Organisation affiliate that did the extraction of the herbs. That helped him to make sure that the herbs and the amount of herbs and the proportion of the herbs are according to what is good for human consumption.

The company had previously promised to start production of Alomo Bitters and other aligned brands in Nigeria because of the country’s huge market, which is its biggest export, but said it was being frustrated by the faking of the brand that had reduced the brand equity of Alomo Bitters.

“We wanted to make a strong footprint in Nigeria and we have not cancelled the ambition, but once we are able to get rid of those destroying the market and harming the lives of the people through faking of our product, then we can decide to put the factory in place,” Kwabena Adjei, the company’s founder/ CEO told BusinessDay in Accra, Ghana, last week.

Orijin, the newest entrant in the Nigerian bitters market

Adjei regretted that the faking of the product because of its success and health benefits had brought the equity of the brand down. “If we don’t fight the fake, we are hurting the government because fakers don’t pay tax. We are harming the consumers because fakers don’t use good product. Some of these fake products have been tested in our laboratory and I tell you that the result is shocking and unhealthy to consumers,” he said.

Adjei, who recognised Nigeria as a big market in Africa, said the brand’s dominance of the market had been greatly diluted, not by genuine competition but by fake market. He however said that the company, which is now exporting to European and Western and other African countries, was presently collaborating with Nigeria’s regulatory agencies and distributors to tackle the fake market.

In order to still offer the quality product to Nigerians who have accepted the product and checkmate faking, Adjei and his team are introducing security seal on the Alomo brand.

“Two years ago, we embarked on a journey to protect our brand and consumers. That journey took us to Germany where we partnered with a hologram company.”

According to him, the security will involve four levels all in an attempt to ensure that the consumer gets the right quality product. “We know that fakers will try to confuse the consumers with fake holographic seal but ours is so sophisticated and consumers will be able to identify the original from the fake” he said.

Production lines

In order to reach the growing international market, Kasapreko has commissioned two production lines – the pet bottle production that rolls out 40,000 containers per hour and the glass bottle line that produces 30,000 bottles per hour.

Entry into global market

Today, Kasapreko continues to receive enquiries from various countries such as Australia, US, and the UK, for the supply of Alomo and other brands within its portfolio. In all, it has 15 variants in gin, whiskey, wine categories. Adjei who has won several awards since 1999, intends to continue his market research to satisfy the growing market.

Source:Bussinessday Online

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F.G Crashes Fish Price

catfish

Millions of fish consumers are heaving a sigh of relief as fresh import quotas for fish issued by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) recently help to cool down prices across the country.

The price of the Herring specie of fish for instance, has  come down from N7,600 to N4,000 per carton. The price of Horse Mackerel has likewise come down to N5,800 from more than N9,500 per carton. The Titus specie is being sold in the market for N6,800, down from a level of N10,200 per carton.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) figures, Nigeria currently has a shortage of 2.6 million tons of fish. While the global average of fish consumption is 18.7 kilograms per person, Nigeria’s per capita consumption of fish is only 11.2 kilograms.

Nigerian fish supply consists of 600,000 metric tons of local production and the balance is mainly covered by imports of frozen fish. Frozen fish is the general description for fish of different species, caught in high seas by trawlers in Asia, Europe and Russia, the major markets (and frozen for preservation) from where Nigeria imports.Nigeria’s domestic production consists predominantly of farmed fish, mainly catfish. The varieties of frozen fish that Nigeria imports are mostly not available in Nigerian coastal waters, or are not in very commercial quantities. Besides,the  Nigerian trawling industry has been seriously affected by oil spillage, piracy and non-sustainable fishing practices.

“The impact of any major reduction in imports would only mean that catfish will be the only variety of fish available in Nigeria”, a fishery expert, Solomon Anichebe said. Anichebe has expressed the opinion that Nigerians have gotten used to varieties of imported frozen fish over the past decades, including Herring or Shawa, and Sardine, which are popular in the North, Horse Mackerel (Kote), Sardinella (Agbodu), and Mackerel which are staples in the East and Blue Whiting (Panla) which are favourites in the Western parts of Nigeria. Only the catfish has become accustomed to breeding in Nigeria, he says.

Following representation and prayers from numerous consumer bodies and associations, pointing to the apparent shortfall in supply and the prohibitive prices, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture recently approved issuance of more quotas to deserving importers.According to informed sources, the quotas were issued based on proven track record of high quality, fair prices, efficient storage, back up power, cold chain management and firm commitments for fish farming in Nigeria.

culled from Businessday online

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Orji Uzor Kalu And Tony Elumelu Makes Forbes Rich List

Tony Elumelu and Orji Uzor Kalu, with four other persons have joined Forbes list of 50 richest people in Africa.Forbes said Elumelu owns a controlling stake in Transcorp, a listed Nigerian conglomerate that has interests in insurance, healthcare, hotels, power production, energy and agriculture, adding that he is a proponent of Africapitalism, an economic philosophy that propagates that the African private sector has the power to transform the continent through long-term investments, creating both economic prosperity and social wealth.According to Forbes, Elumelu, a Nigerian investor and founder of African investment firm, Heirs Holdings, joins the rich list with a net worth of $1 billion.

Tony Elumelu

“Elumelu made his fortune when he bought into a struggling Nigerian commercial bank and transformed it into the United Bank for Africa, a leading commercial bank with a presence in 19 African countries,” Forbes said. On Kalu, Forbes said, “He is better known in Nigeria as a politician. But the former governor of Abia state, located in Nigeria’s southeastern region, is also one of the country’s most successful businessmen.

“He made his first million at age 20 by trading agricultural commodities, and then found his way into the circles of influential military personnel who awarded him lucrative contracts to import and supply arms and ammunition to Nigeria’s defense forces.

Orji Uzor Kalu

He made a killing reinvesting his profits into expanding Slok Group, his privately-held trading and manufacturing empire.

“The Slok Group, a West African conglomerate in which he owns more than 90 per cent, has interests in shipping, banking, aviation, steel and manufacturing. His country home in Igbere, Abia State, has 400 rooms and is one of the largest privat

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The Success Story of INNOSON The First Made in Nigeria Cars,Buses ,Trucks

Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company (IVM) was commissioned by His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at Nnewi. IVM is part of the Innoson Group of Companies founded by the visionary Chairman, Mr. Innocent Chukwuma, Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON). 

IVM introduces automotive products from China, Japan and Germany. It's product line includes heavy duty vehicles, middle and high level buses, special environment friendly vehicles. The company carries out optimization design and assembly according to west African road condition so as produce suitable products at affordable prices.

The company also provides good services for repairs and parts supply. All these actions are engineered to meet the customers' special requests, attain the highest possible performance and safety standards and also make the vehicles suitable for the west African market.

Innoson Bus

Innoson Garbage truck

Innoson SUV

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