Simi Osomo flies to the UK from Nigeria six times a year to spend £5,000 a time on Crunchy Nut and clothes. Susannah Butter reports on the influx from Africa’s soon-to-be biggest economy.


Every year, Simi Osomo makes six trips to London from Nigeria. The 25-year-old spends about two weeks here and every day she goes shopping. Today she’s at the boutique shop Matches Townhouse in Marylebone with a personal shopper. “When it comes to shopping and Nigerians, I can tell you it’s just what we have to do,” she tells me while admiring the patterned dresses.

For Nigerians, London is a shopping mecca. Visitors from the West African country are the UK’s fourth biggest foreign spenders, parting with an average of £500 in each luxury shop they visit — four times what UK shoppers typically spend. When I ask Osomo how much a two-week shopping trip in London costs she makes a bashful face. “Ooh, should I really be saying this? It depends, but most times about £5,000.”

Osomo is wearing a green top from Zara that’s “the colour of the Nigerian flag”, blue skinny jeans and new Christian Louboutin shoes. Later today she’s going to buy an iPhone 5 for her sister.

“You can get lots of things in Lagos but they are cheaper here and you get to take a holiday and relax a bit. It’s only six hours away.” The number of Nigerian visitors to the UK increased by more than 50 per cent to 142,000 a year between 1991 and 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics. Nigeria is projected to become Africa’s biggest economy by next year and the world’s fifth most populous country by 2050, and London is cashing in.

Debenhams’ Oxford Street branch has put up signs in Hausa, one of the official Nigerian languages, and said customers from this part of West Africa are its biggest overseas spenders. Yet Osomo says it’s not just rich Nigerians who come over. “Middle-class people can afford to come and spend £600 on shopping in a week here. What I like about the UK is that it doesn’t discriminate. As long as you’re able to prove you have an income, accommodation in London and a return ticket, the authorities are more than willing to give you a visa. It’s closer than America and the customer service here is phenomenal.”

Back home in Lagos, the technology market has been flooded with fake products from China, which means more people are coming to London for electronic goods and are even taking items back to sell. “No one wants to spend more than 100,000 naira (£390) and find out it is fake, so they prefer to come over for a holiday and buy something they know is real and has a guarantee in case something goes wrong.”

Marks & Spencer is one of Osomo’s favourite shops. “I love their fajitas. You can’t get them in Nigeria. I also buy soy sauce and Thai green curry paste, which is good because it lasts for a long time. Oh, and Crunchy Nut cereal, Skittles, Maltesers and tea. There’s nothing like a British cuppa. I get Lipton, PG and green tea.” She likes the variety of London. “I love Zara, H&M, Topshop. But if I want something more high end, there’s Sloane Street.”

More than £3 billion a year is spent on high-end goods in London, according to the London Luxury Quarter Report, and it predicts this will rise to £4.5 billion by 2020, with new shops including Burberry’s flagship fuelling the trend. Luxury concierge services are also popular. Osomo is a client of Quintessentially, which organises shopping trips and parties for her and has an office in Lagos.

Although summer is the height of the shopping season, Osomo likes to come back for the January sales too. Her mother, a lawyer, and father, a businessman, often join her. She has just finished a law degree and is about to start a job in fashion journalism, which she hopes will give her enough holidays for trips to London. But flights can get booked up quickly.

“You don’t want to get the Lagos to London flight in July. It’s packed with parents and their kids making noise.” Return flights at high season start at about £369.

But what about getting her haul of shopping back from London to Lagos? That, says Osomo, is costly. “All I pack when I come over is one pair of jeans and three tops. I bring two big suitcases but I always have to get another one and pay for excess baggage. I never learn.” British Airways has increased its excess baggage charge on flights from London to Lagos from £40 to £97 per suitcase in the past year. “They must have realised we always put an extra bag in and thought they’d try to make money out of it,” says Osomo.

Fashion-wise, she still picks up the odd item in Nigeria. Six months ago Zara opened an outlet store in Lagos, and Mango has been there for about a year. “Zara is affordable because it’s an outlet but what I find is that things are a bit last season. Nigeria’s hot all the time so there are always maxi dresses and swimwear but the colours are boring and we lack variety. Customer service is not great and some shops can get really crowded, which is challenging.” There is a burgeoning online shopping industry in Nigeria too. Currently, ASOS is the only shop that ships to Lagos free of charge and everyone Osomo’s age uses it.

“Nigeria is a fun place, I’d encourage people to go. Shopping is evolving. In five years I think a lot of stores will come to Nigeria because there is a gap in the market. Ten years ago I never thought Zara would come to Nigeria. I believe in the next five years we will catch up. But I still love London and won’t stop coming here.”


http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/30000-a-year-addiction-to-london-how-nigerians-are-becoming-big-spenders-8189336.html

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Upon all the poverty, deprivation and corruption back home, shame no catch this girl to give this interview ?

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Ridiculous country! Before someone makes a comment now, you would notice Nigerians descend on you saying all the countries giving Nigeria crap are jealous...what is there to be jealous about a leeching country that will refuse to use its resources to develop its people so they can benefit directly in their own country? People are happy over a microwave or a new piece of dress which seems cheap in the UK and they take the stolen monies in Nigeria, change it to pounds and go blow it in another man's country helping and improving a foreign economy instead of theirs. Yes, I benefit a lot when you bring the money from Nigeria here but are YOU so stupid that people here are getting more but you people are getting poorer by growing another country's economy? For all these #5000 pounds spent, that is new jobs for someone somewhere to manufacture those goods, get a big pay, learn skills and keep making things which you only consume. Nigeria will never get respect from other countries with stupidity like this one.

^^You have any evidence that she stole the money? Its her £5000 for God sakes she can spend it any gaddem how she wants. Its not her responsibility to eradicate poverty in Nigeria

We should find a way to have cheaper products in Nigeria.

I was reading this whole thrash to see her job description or source of income, can somebody show me where its stated.


meanwhile the lady must be as dumb as a rock to grant this feature story/interview.

is that even her picture? smh

^^^^
You obviously didn't read properly.

Her mum is a lawyer, her dad is a businessman. She has just graduated.

She shops in London coz it's cheaper,goods are guaranteed not to be fake and customer service is excellent.

Mr. Globe:
I was reading this whole thrash to see her job description or source of income, can somebody show me where its stated.


meanwhile the lady must be as dumb as a rock to grant this feature story/interview.

is that even her picture? smh

This is why Nigeria and Africa is not developing. Why are you focused on the Lady? Why are you wondering about her source of income? Can you not see that you are only reacting to how you have been 'primed' to beef others rather than seek solution? Is it not obvious to you that she is merely used as an example to cement the main point which is by far more important? I.e the concept that Africans who can afford it will continue to go abroad in search of cheaper goods? What are you prepared to do about this situation?

Can Zara and Argos concessions , for example, not be in Nigeria if Nigerians are willing to embrace the concept of 'equitable' franchising? I.e, an item sold for £40.00 in London sold for around £40.00, give or take a few pounds, in Nigeria also? It is not Rocket Science. We can develop our continent and Nations if some of us make proactive efforts to be part of the solution instead of making ourselves unthinking rabble-rousers always happy to tear down everything/everyone. We need to start facing what matter as a people from the most underdeveloped continent in the world.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/835825_21nigeriagraph_jpgb3b8f17c4c26885847140e6b316be24e

I am forced to assume the girl who spends #5000 six times a year is shopping on behalf of her whole family, cos i find it hard to believe a working class parent will release such amount to their child to go shopping with in the UK,

Interesting article.

If na man, I for curse am well well, but na woman. Im get as im be

We can all yab this girl and the attitude of Nigerians to the love of overseas shopping all we want. But I strongly believe that a larger percentage of ladies in Nigeria and all over the world won't think of economics and developing motherland when it comes to shopping. This includes our mothers, daughters, girlfriends, wives and sisters. In fact, as dem dey read the story, dem go dey admire the girl.

Its difficult to take shopping away from women, as its difficult to take young women away from men

Na so life be. So for me, I would be thinking of how to cash in on the various weakness of both sexes

esere826: If na man, I for curse am well well, but na woman. Im get as im be

We can all yab this girl and the attitude of Nigerians to the love of overseas shopping all we want. But I strongly believe that a larger percentage of ladies in Nigeria and all over the world won't think of economics and developing motherland when it comes to shopping. This includes our mothers, daughters, girlfriends, wives and sisters. In fact, as dem dey read the story, dem go dey admire the girl.

Its difficult to take shopping away from women, as its difficult to take young women away from men

Na so life be. So for me, I would be thinking of how to cash in on the various weakness of both sexes

Simple !!!! Bring these things to Nigeria at a competitive price that means Nigerians will not be able to justify the price they pay to travel abroad to shop. In the process, you become 'minted' while providing your Nation/continent a genuinely developmental service. Simple concept that is hideously under-utilised given our challenges.

Price disparity, in many cases, is due to an entrenched system pandering to greed and lack of patriotism. This problem is general throughout West Africa. It is now almost formally accepted that Africa, despite being a relatively poor continent, is the "dumping ground" of the World. A place where the poorest folks on Earth pay the highest price for virtually everything. We are inundated with very poor quality goods also.


Why then, given the reality on the ground we are not working hard enough to change, should wealthy Africans not seek to shop abroad to gain value on the quality items they want? Should they be blindly patriotic and endure with inferior goods? Only Africans can change this current state of affairs. We will only do that if we see and focus on what matters. We should not look at the messenger too much. Better to focus on the message so we can respond accordingly as educated men/women able to fashion out solutions.