“Not For Profit”: Century Mall Launches Low-Cost Supermarket

The Chief Executive Officer of Century Mall, Ebuka Oguke, has unveiled a new low-cost retail initiative aimed at providing affordable, high-quality household items to Nigerians amid the country’s challenging economic climate.

Speaking with THE WHISTLER during an interview at the mall, Oguke explained that the business, which is in partnership with Chinese collaborators, was established to cushion the effects of the harsh economy on average citizens.

“We understand the situation of Nigeria and the current harsh economy, so we have to make the average people, the commoners, feel good in the country. That is the idea of the shop,” he said.

According to the CEO, the concept behind the initiative goes beyond profit-making and focuses more on impacting lives positively.

“It’s more like a non-profitable shop. We just want to give people good-quality things for them to live well because we understand that things are very expensive in the market,” Oguke stated.

While the store currently focuses on household essentials, Oguke revealed that there are plans to expand into other product categories, including electronics and automobiles.

“We’ll get to phones, televisions—anything that we see is affordable and can slash down the price, we’ll bring it to Nigeria, including cars,” he disclosed.

On whether the business is partnering with the Nigerian government, Oguke clarified that there is no formal collaboration at the moment, but expressed openness to local partnerships.

“We are not currently partnering with the government, but we are looking for Nigerians to partner with to keep them busy,” he said.

Reiterating the mission of the enterprise, he emphasised that profitability is not the primary goal.

“We are not targeting profit. We just make a little to service the business. It’s not about profit,” he added.

However, in a separate interview, a business analyst who spoke with THE WHISTLER explained that while the initiative is positioned as “not for profit”, pricing strategies in retail often involve balancing margins across products.

According to the analyst, some items may be sold at extremely low prices to attract customers, while others are priced slightly higher to offset costs and sustain operations