If you want to get a sense of how few options domestic and international retailers have when trying to find partners, then consider the case of Côte d’Ivoire. In Côte d’Ivoire, there are two leading retailers: Prosuma, develops Casino’s stores in the country and also has a range of its own supermarket chains; and CDCI, which holds the Leader Price franchise in the country and also has its own network of supermarkets. The third largest grocery retailer, Carrefour, opened the doors of its new hypermarket in Abidjan in December last year.

So that’s clear: three players: Prosuma (Casino), CDCI and Carrefour. But CDCI also holds the Leader Price franchise. Leader Price is owned by Casino. One of CDCI’s investment partners is Moroccan supermarket company Label’ Vie, Carrefour’s partner in Morocco. Operational expediency and strategic hygiene do not always go hand in hand.

One can understand the desperation to find retail partners, especially when it can take a decade or more just to build a 10 or 15 store network, and suck management time and considerable operational expense while it does. That said, dealmaking for expansion is a challenging process across Africa. Ask Auchan, which exited agreements with Ardis in Algeria and ONA (owner of Acima and Marjane) in Morocco, and has long announced plans to launch hypermarkets in Tunisia with Magasin Général, but has yet to do so. It has now launched in Senegal and Mauritania on its own. Both Shoprite and Massmart have found it challenging to find strategic partners. Either they do not exist, or are not robust enough, or are too expensive, or don’t want to sell, or the regulators don’t want a flagship supermarket business moving into foreign ownership.

At the moment, much of the narrative about retail expansion is just looking at growth, not how that growth is being driven and how sustainable it is. That is reasonable: it is early days and pragmatism is a given. But for investors with an eye on the long term, questions around the fine print of partnership deals and measurable improvements in operational metrics will become far more important when things move beyond just building as many stores as possible.