Retail shopping giant, owned by a South African, Shoprite has revealed that it will be auctioning off their stores in Nigeria. Shoprite first opened in Lagos, 15 years ago in December 2005. The reason for the auction is due to the pandemic which affected many businesses worldwide. The news of this has sent many Nigerians into panic mode because the company, provides jobs for more than 2,000 Nigerians, and it is present in eight states in Nigeria with more than 25 stores including the FCT. Shoprite was founded 40 years ago and it is believed to be Africa’s largest retail store.
In a statement which partly reads, “Following approaches from various potential investors, and in line with our re-evaluation of the Group’s operating model in Nigeria, the Board has decided to initiate a formal process to consider the potential sale of all, or a majority stake, in Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Shoprite International Limited.
Following the news, Nigerians have taken to social media to drag Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari. Some of their comments below;
⇒Join us on Telegram for more Sure and Accurate football-winning tips every day...click here
Also, a Twitter user has also revealed that theft by a Shoprite staff is partly responsible for the closedown of the store. The Twitter user @SamuelOtigba stated on his handle that a salesgirl stole N553Million Naira in 2017. Some excerpts of his tweets below;
“Asides the political bottlenecks & chaotic business strains associated with doing business in Nigeria, one other silent contributing factor why Shoprite is closing down, is staff theft. In 2017 alone, a salesgirl stole N553M, one month after securing the job. There are many.
“My friend’s father-in-law is on the board as an investor. This isn’t a singular incident, it has become an organized crime. From mid-management to staff. They had this issue from the first year of operations. Another issue is greed involving political tax masters. If you know…
“It was published in different News outlets in 2017. The inside story is, she came with her own POS machine & kept using it to collect payments during peak period. The receipt looked like an original Shoprite receipt till you look closer & notice the alteration.
“That’s just one incident they discovered after audit. Imagine the racket going on at their different locations across Nigeria. Firing & hiring is a regular exercise now. Most of these staff don’t stay up to a month again. The ones that snitch…(another story for another day)”.
