Woolworths wants to triple African sales outside its home market over the next three years, with plans to double its stores on the continent. "Africa is still a relatively small pecentage of our business, it's about 3% of our turnover, and will become 10% of our turnover in time," said Woolworths Chief Executive Officer Ian Moir. Woolworths, which reported 10.3% growth in sales in the first 20 weeks of its fiscal year, could post a similar rate of growth between now and Christmas. Woolworths plans to double its African stores outside South Africa to 120 by 2014. Target countries include Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique and Angola. South African retailers have been accelerating expansion across the continent as international retailers such as Wal-Mart and Spain's Zara move into a continent that is expected be home to 2 bln people by 2050. Zara, the flagship label of Spain's Inditex opened its first African store early last month, in a posh suburb of Johannesburg.