By Moses Nosike

Conquerors Homes Limited, a real estate company with its headquarter at Egbeda, a suburb of Lagos recently celebrated its five years of operation and also to mark the beginning of a better future delivery for investors.

 In a media chart with newsmen in Lagos on his journey with Conquerors Homes Limited, the Managing Director/CEO, Kingsley Akadidi Efe said that the vision of the company was borne out of passion to provide shelter for the masses and those that are injected out by landlords and are stranded.

 “I was in a church where a pastor was complaining how his load was thrown outside and that forced him to move his family to Ikorodu for a refuge. Unfortunately after four years when his family rejoined him, his children’ behaviour were nothing to write home about. Also, another friend of mine who is a pastor had his own ugly experience when his landlady gave him a quit notice. We thought it was a joke and pleaded with the landlady to give him some time to pay his accumulated rents he couldn’t pay because of the crash in the stock market in 2008, but the landlady insisted that the pastor should move out of the house. Before you know it, she came around one of the days and threw his things outside. My own issue was a situation where I was to pay for a place but I didn’t meet up, my landlords served me a quit notice, with the reason that they want to renovate the place and I thought it was a minor thing that they would allow me to stay. But after a month, they came and asked what was I still waiting for, and as if it was a joke, they threw my load out of the house. They demolished part of the house and I was homeless. It was a painful situation, but I said to myself, I need to do something about it”.

Then as a corporate worker, I like stocks and as a stockbroker I’m good at buying stock, resale and make my profit. But these accommodation challenges actually became a need to me. And I said to myself, I will go into real estate even though I wasn’t happy going into it. I didn’t want to associate myself with anything forest again since I came from a poor background and I don’t want to be poor again. I came from the village to Lagos because of poverty and now going back to a forest where I was trying to run away became an issue. I said, I have been running away from bush, this is bush business again. Then I didn’t know anything real estate business, I hate real estate but this passion and feeling for people complaining of accommodation problems was pushing me. So I decided that this might be a need and I need to step into this need. These are the things that made me venture into real estate, and today I am happy when people buy land and they come back to tell me that the land has appreciated”.

Continuing, Akadidi said, “today I am fulfilled but I want to be more fulfilled in what I am doing. I am fulfilled in that people who bought lands from us can resale to meet their financial obligations. For instance, a woman who bought two plots of land five years ago at Agbara called that she sold one plot and made times three of what she invested initially, and she was able to use the money to settle her need, and that made me happy. Again, my joy is that most of the people who bought land from us, their lands are secured and those that bought their land. When customers are satisfied and they are happy and their needs are being met and some of them are coming to develop their land, these are the things that give me joy.

On the sector regulation, Efe said that government can come in many ways. First proper regulations and policies are very important in real estate sector. If their policies are consistent that will help real estate to progress but whereby you are in a place today while you are trying to recover yourself, next there is another policy tomorrow that will kill or weaken your business, such situation does not promote standards. Policy regulation is very important between the industry and government”.

In addition, General Secretary, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), South West Zone and Managing Director and CEO, Sterling Homes Limited, Dr. Kunle Adeyemi, while congratulating the management of Conquerors Homes Limited, said, “It has been five years of grace and providing housing solution. Conqueror’s Home started five years ago and it has grown to this level. It has been five years of consistent and organic growth. Every advice and instructions given to the MD, Mr. Kingsley Akadidi he abides by it, and there has been proof and evidences. The management of Conquerors Homes Ltd. has been taught and groomed to always call a spade a spade, and that thrives on integrity”.

Adeyemi further said that one other thing that makes this company stand out among others is beyond competence and capacity is character. This is an organization with competent professionals and with huge capacity coupled with character. They have character, integrity, accountability etc.

On how investors can be better informed to choose the right real estate companies to do business especially in the South West zone, Adeyemi said, “you need to identify with Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria (REDAN). Again he said that you need to look at the track record of that real estate company, conduct your research, because there are so many quacks in the industry, and unfortunately it is an industry that is not fully regulated. “But now, REDAN is in partnership with Lagos state government and we have started a lot of regulatory operations to ensure that the industry is well respected and things are done properly”.

According to him, part of Conquerors Homes’ vision is to demystify the myth of real estate being reserved for a discerning few. “Everyone deserves to have a home or a land, and we have tailored made projects that have instalment payment at zero interest rate that even an artisan as long as you are a Nigerian, can invest in for anyone that wants to become a land owner invariably becomes a landlord. Our projects are targeted not only to high income earners or middle income earners but for those at the lower rung of the pyramid”.

In the same vein, Director General, Dael Institute of Leadership, Dr Basil Ibeh, said, “I’m an advisor to the leadership and my major role is to advise the management on leadership because as it is rightly said that everything rises and falls on leadership. For the company to grow, survive and achieve its set goals and objective it depends on leadership. Also, if the company dies, it is all about leadership. Everything rises and falls on leadership because no organisation can grow bigger than their leaders. If you put a small leader to run a bigger organisation, then you make the company small because the company must come to the size of the leader. If you put a big leader to run a small organization, the organisation will grow. The Managing Director of Conquerors group discovered that his leadership ability and role in the company is very critical. I am here to ensure that that aspect of need in the organisation is met. The fifth anniversary is actually a celebration of five years of testimonies, five years of consistent delivery on the promises made