HOW RICHARD NYONG BUILT THE BIGGEST LUXURY REAL ESTATE BRAND IN NIGERIA

In the age where many youths his age complain and blame everything and everyone but themselves for lack of capital, conducive environment, business failures, lack of jobs etc, one man, Richard Nyong is changing the narratives of Luxury Real Estate business in Nigeria. This is not to say that what the vast majority of young Nigerians face aren’t real problems, it is just that some people like Richard have rather decided to be pro-active about it as according to him, he thrives better in difficult times.

The Akwa-Ibom state born entrepreneur in a recent interview he granted the This Day newspaper in December, 2016 told the story of how he built the behemoth Real Estate firm, Lekki Gardens:

“In 2009/2010 when we started the foundations of the business that evolved into the Lekki Gardens i.e training people about real estate, it was during the season of the stock market crash. The real estate market was also down particularly in Lekki. People who bought properties for #120 million in 2007, for instance, saw values drop as low as #80 million. It was really bad. That was when we came into the game. So our business is used to difficult times".

Today, the then fledgling Real Estate concern has built and delivered over 6000 housing units since 2012. But if you think this is an impressive feat to Richard, you are in for a surprise. As Richard quickly denounced the achievement :

“We would have loved to achieve 25000 in the four years but the center of it all is that when the economy is good, people make stronger decisions about real estate”, the Lekki Gardens boss quipped.

Freshly coming out from a low moment in the company’s history following a construction mishap in March 2016, the company has come back to doing bigger and grander things with the opening of new sites and offerings.

The company which thrived on their core off-plan model allows people to buy properties in location they desire at far lesser prices has gone to empower and give back to the society through different life-changing initiatives.

One of their numerous initiatives is the “the Mavericks”, a Real Estate Internship and Competition program aimed at empowering 40 budding entrepreneurs and exposing them to mentoring and proven managerial principles.

Nine winners win cash prizes up to N2 million each with the ultimate winner going home with N5 million and a bespoke home.

Richard, by these initiatives shows that he does not only build houses but also build people.