BBS Mall in Eastleigh in Nairobi: The largest mall in East and Central Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya - The Somalia business community in Kenya is set to launch the largest mall in East and Central Africa by end of this year.

BBS mall will feature more than 3,500 shops, 3 hospitals, 32 restaurants, 12 banks, a 7-Star hotel, 364 toilets, and 2,200 packing spaces.

Already local and international brands are fighting for spaces at the BBS mall. It’s projected that the mall will get over 150,000 visitors daily.

Last Friday the Cabinet Secretary For Trade, Investment, and Industrialisation Moses Kuria, toured BBS mall in Eastleigh Nairobi City to inspect its readiness for Business.

The CS Confirmed that the mall is ready for business and detailed its structural arrangements. According to the CS, the mall is the largest in East and Central Africa.

Eastleigh area in Kenya’s capital is known for its thriving businesses. Nicknamed ‘little Mogadishu’ based on the Somali community who fled the civil war from the horn of Africa nation-Somalia.

For decades ‘Little Mogadishu’ or Eastleigh has received negative press.

As Somalis were escaping their home country due to the civil war there were many who found a new home in Nairobi’s suburb Eastleigh, which is now almost entirely inhabited by Somali immigrants and a center for Somali business.

The development of Somali-owned businesses has been a true success story. When Somalia as a functioning state collapsed and the economy broke down in the early 1990s, a big fraction of economic activity has simply been exported to Kenya.

Research by the think tank Chatham House highlights that “The economic transformation of Eastleigh has brought a new level of competition to Nairobi, substantially reducing the cost of goods and services. Growing Somali investment in Nairobi has also attracted banks and other service providers, demonstrating that urban refugees are not necessarily a burden on the state and can be an economic asset.”

As Kwame Owino-CEO-Institute of Economic Affairs puts it, “The unity of the Somalia business community in Kenya and not just Eastleigh area as well as other parts of Nairobi has driven the growth of their businesses. They are now offering the best restaurants within the Central Business District in the capital.”They have continued to contribute to 80 percent of the economy of the city of Nairobi, with Eastleigh area contributing 50 percent of that .”

The Somali business community narrative can be attributed to that of the Mexican immigrants in the United States.

The other factor that drives the growth of most Somalis’ business empires is the fact that they pull resources as capital whenever they are venturing into new business.

GAROWE ONLINE