There is huge scope for growth in the retail sector in Africa and this can be integrated into the hospitality industry. Irwin Barkan discuss the subject in this hospitality TV show.

Developing the retail sector

Particularly West Africa is going to change so dramatically we won’t even be able to notice it. Ghana is a country of 30 million people. It’s considered one of the hot spots on earth nicely, because we started there three years ago when few people knew where Ghana was. And it had one shopping centre, exactly one. Nigeria, which is the largest populated and one of the wealthiest nations on the continent had three, which you would call world class shopping centres. In the United States, that’s 200 million people, even if you make the clarifications or the adjustments to the number for income levels, in the United States we have, depending on what you’re counting, anywhere from 75 to 150,000 shopping centres, and we have 300 million people. So for 200 million people between just those two markets, you can count them on your, you know, both hands. So the opportunity is dramatic. Retail can develop even more quickly than hotels because anchored tenants are the key, when Wal-Mart made its deal to buy 51% of Massmart three years ago we knew. And when I say we, my partners and I knew that Africa was ready for well developed, high quality malls, not necessarily high end luxury malls, which are really what a lot of people are focused on today in Africa because those are the markets that are so underserved, that they just spring up and do well right away, that’s true. And South Africa as well, Kenya, but what we are here to do is to build for the middle class and the transitioning, middle class to upper middle class with supermarkets, discount stores and middle quality hotels. We’re not looking to combine the Ritz just to use a word, with a Wal-Mart, because the two don’t really mix. We may have some sites where five star hotels are appropriate but right now we’re looking to serve, where the population and the income is growing the most and that’s in the middle class.   If you enjoyed this video about the retail sector, Africa and the middle classes, why not explore more TV show on The Hospitality TV Channel       

Infrastructure development in Africa has seen African government and international investors work together. In this TV show Irwin Barkan discusses streamlining land ownership, infrastructure, and best business practices.

Infrastructure development using American best practice

In Ghana, the main thing the government could do is organise the land ownership system because right now it is the single most problematic part of trying to develop major projects in Ghana. That’s no secret and it’s a mighty task that’s going to take a long time. Second is they have to work on the infrastructure, the electrical infrastructure, the road infrastructure. But otherwise the government is particularly in Ghana and especially also in Nigeria. They understand that getting outside development investors like ourselves from the United States are the key to earning competition and growth and jobs. And one of the things that we’re doing, our partners and myself, we say that we are bringing the best practices of American development to Africa. And one of the things that involves is our corporate social responsibility programme. We are actually we have led with our CSR programme. We are sponsoring ourselves a safe water network project in a rural area of Ghana where 12,000 people will have access to fresh water, using you know, what we capitalise to build. We are developing a Books for Ghana programme. And we haven’t made a dime yet. So that’s how Americans approach things, we’re here to give back, not just to take out. We’re not extractive.   If you enjoyed this video about the infrastructure development in Africa, why not explore more TV show on The Hospitality TV Channel