Walmart, the world’s largest retailer by revenue, is in advanced talks to open stores in Lagos, according to Quartz.

Shelley Broader, the top executive for Walmart Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Canada, met in July with Lagos state Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode and it went well, Quartz reports. Walmart signs will soon go up in Nigeria.

Walmart has done business in Nigeria and 12 other African countries since 2011 when it bought South African general merchandise retailer Massmart. Massmart has six outlets in Nigeria. The new stores will be the first Walmart stores in Nigeria.

Here’s an opinion on how Walmart should operate its business in Nigeria.

Fom SaharaReporter. Opinion by Chidi Oguamanam, law professor at University of Ottawa, Canada.

Walmart can creatively be a catalyst for authentic and empowering job creation in Nigeria. But that will not be the case if all it has to offer are T-shirts from Indonesia or India, belts and handbags from China, apples from Annapolis Valley, bananas from Dominican Republic and coconuts from Jamaica.

Let the Walmart in Nigeria be a Nigerian Walmart.

A Nigerian Walmart would inevitably diverge from the brand’s low price and egalitarian customer appeal.

In Nigeria, Walmart will be for the urban middle and upper class. Perhaps, rightly so; in the light of the incredible gulf between the rich and poor in Nigeria for which Walmart’s wares and services would be priced out of the reach.

Add to that the inaccessibility of slum dwellers to the retailer’s predictably choicy locations in increasingly segregated Nigerian mega urban centers.

Like other game changers, Walmart would be a disruptive influence on Nigeria’s informal retail landscape and the country’s informal economic hinterlands. For as long as our governments are incapable of providing a solution to mitigate such disruptions, let Walmart remain in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano.

Nigerian governments and regulators should ensure they do not allow Walmart and its ilk to play into the long-held but skewed philosophy of American monopolists that strength gives the strong in the market the right to destroy its neighbor — those that are weaker.

Walmart in Africa must be prepared to operate with a commitment to balance wealth with the commonwealth — a lesson long lost to corporate America, but which must form a foundation for the new corporate-driven, commercial, and economic transformation happening across Africa.

Read more at SaharaReporter.