Construction work on the new Ado Bayero modern shopping mall in the northern Nigerian city of Kano officially started last week.
The Daily Trust newspaper reports the N11 billion (US$73 million) facility is scheduled to open in October 2012.
When completed, the mall is expected to feature more than 50 shops as well as a cinema. In addition the facility will have 1,000 parking spaces, constant electricity supply, a water treatment plant, and baby feeding and changing facilities.
In an earlier press release, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, founder and CEO of Alpine Investment Services, the sponsors of the mall, said that the project is designed to capitalise on the legacy of Kano as a strong industrial and commercial hub of northern Nigeria with extensive trade routes going as far as Niger, Chad, Cameroon and central Africa. He added that the development would be a targeted approach in re-capturing that legacy and injecting the much needed economic and social dynamism to the city.
A major investor in the project, General T Y Danjuma, chairman of T Y Holdings Limited, said the operation of the mall would not go against the culture of the people of Kano, saying alcohol and pork would not be sold at the mall.