Christo Wiese’s Pepkor to enter Nigerian market

South Africa’s Pepkor, owner of low-cost clothing retailers such as Pep, Best & Less and Ackermans, has announced that it will open outlets in Nigeria. Chairman Christo Wiese told Bloomberg that the first Nigerian store might open before the end of the year. The company will invest around US$14 million in the first phase of the Nigerian operations. How we made it in Africa earlier reported that Nigeria’s decision to lift a ban on imported textiles is opening up many opportunities for foreign clothing retailers. Nigeria originally imposed the ban in 2003 to stimulate domestic production. This, however, only led to the smuggling of cheap clothing from Asia. Local manufacturers are also struggling because the country’s poor power supply forces them to run their operations on expensive generators. Read the full article at Bloomberg.


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