Wisdom Kwati is the founder and CEO of Karabow Group, a company that specializes in the construction of ‘SMART’ Cities through the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions to real estate developments across the continent. He is also the brain behind the Wisdom Kwati Smart City, a subdivision of Karabow Group and a real estate development company dedicated to building sustainable cities across Africa by integrating smart technologies to construction processes.
In an exclusive interview, Wisdom Kwati shares insights on his journey into Real estate, how his company has fared since inception and his future expectations for Wisdom Kwati smart city.
Please introduce yourself
My name is Wisdom Kwati and I’m of the CEO of Wisdom Kwati Smart City
We’d like some details about your academic background
I studied software engineering but my passion for business, innovation and early exposure pushed me towards the Real estate sector which is why I decided to focus on business.
How has your background prepared you for the current role you are in?
Growing up, I lived with an uncle who was a businessman partly into building residential houses. As a child I had a keen interest in business and I got the opportunity to learn from my uncle. My mum on the other hand was a businesswoman all through before her death.
The exposure I had while living with my Uncle prepared me for the world of real estate so I can categorically say that I have been into real estate almost all my life.
What were you doing before you started your company? Is this your first company or were there others?
Wisdom Kwati Smart City is not my first company. My first company was Karabow Nigeria limited. We were into technology and we were the pioneers of indegenious tablet PC in Nigeria, Sony tablets to be precise and that was about thirteen years ago.
We had designed one of which was called K1 designs and also perfected a mobile phone that the blind could use. It was actually more of a software and mobile technology company that was into mobile phones and tablet PCs
Why real estate and not any other career path?
Real estate is more of a divine calling and I see it more as the road leading to my destiny. Categorically speaking it’s just as similar as how we have pastors being called by God or someone being anointed or called for a certain purpose, for me Real estate is my calling and it is something I’m very passionate about. I’m also quite passionate about technology so the good thing about it is I was able to merge these two things which led to the birth of the smart city that focuses entirely on the construction of Affordable Smart Homes across Africa.
Tell us about your company, its origin, what it stands for, your mission and vision
Wisdom Kwati Smart City was birthed out of the strong passion to deliver affordable Smart houses across Africa and the desire that every African deserves a Smart Home. What we are actually doing so far is beyond profit but trying to solve the housing deficit started from Nigeria, west Africa and also to the ends of Africa.
So basically, we’ve been strategizing on trying to innovate how we can deliver affordable housing at affordable rates to every African within the next 20 years.
What would you say sets your company apart from other real estate companies?
One thing that sets our company apart from other real estate companies is the innovation that we put into delivering these houses and majorly what we are trying to solve. We also push for what we call the three A’s in real estate and they are; Accessibility, Affordability and Availability. We believe first of all housing should be available, accessible as well as affordable for Africans especially the people that need these houses.
Another thing that sets our company apart from other real estate companies is the fact that on all our locations we literally sell at half the price of those areas. In all our locations, our competition sells at more than 100% or sometimes 200% the prices that we are selling. So as a company, our primary focus is making sure that the three A’s Which are available, affordable and accessible are prioritized in terms of provision of housing for everyone.
How has your company fared in light of the unstable economic conditions in the industry?
It’s been very very difficult but of course when the desire and passion is there, there’s always a way out of every situation. One of the things we have actually been solving majorly is the aspect of sourcing for materials to work and one of the ways that we’ve actually been able to do that is by sourcing for local quality materials for construction and also using the local labor force though we still have some international or foreign expatriates that work in our company when it comes to making delivery of these housing.
Basically it’s all about strategy in terms implementation and our strategy has been able to help us to Avert losses and also close margins. It is safe to say that we basically have a good strategy that has helped us in the difficult economy because it is truly not easy and every single day you go to the market, construction materials are going high and high so we as a company have to sit back strategize and also fire back again in order to make sure that the goal is being met. The whole idea is to get the goal based on our company structure and principle.
What are your biggest challenges as a property developer?
Well our biggest challenge is the high inflation we get in the construction industry and because of that it is going to be difficult to meet up with a target as a company. This applies in the sense that if the cost of construction is high, how do we get these houses to be available, accessible and even lastly affordable because it’s not possible to build houses and sell at a loss. So, most of our challenges is the Inflation and we also have the Government support and policies which are a huge challenge when it comes to housing development because they are actually making some of the policies very stringent for the developers, the banking structures are not ready most of the time to fund developers especially we young developers in the industry. We have to just find our way literally.
What projects do you have at hand?
We have so many projects at hand, currently we are in three locations in Nigeria. We are in Adamawa state, Yola building the first Smart City In Northern Nigeria secondly we are majorly in Abuja where we have about seven projects going on, we have in Giri junction, we have Katampe extension, we have Queensbay, we have in Jahi, we have in so many prime locations within Abuja. We are also in Lagos, we have in Epe, we have in Badagry and we are opening one again in Sangotedo as well as Ikoyi doing a high rise on a joint venture. We are also about to launch our Smart Cities in Accra, Ghana. These are the current locations we have our projects.
So many founders struggle with managing their workforce to achieve high level productivity, how have you managed this? And what’s the secret to your success?
The truth is people always have what they desire at the end of the day. Everybody is passionate about something so your ability as a manager or as a CEO to be able to get everybody to connect to the vision is quite paramount in terms of managing people because as much as your want to be the CEO, as much you want to be able get everybody to bend over to work or being imposed on doesn’t really work but getting people to connect their vision to your vision is very important and also it’s getting people to understand the solution, the problems that your are solving as a company. Everybody wants to make an impact at the end of the day. So it is not about the ‘I’, it is more about the ‘We’ that is on delivery, so carrying everybody along also is very important in terms of delivery of the company’s project.
What would you consider your greatest achievement so far?
Our greatest achievement so far is the fact that we are actually on our way to meeting our target, we have about 3,000 housing units under construction and we are able to provide smart housing to people that actually need these housing. another aspect of our achievement is being able to take our company from nothing without any external funding or investors to the stage that it is today. One of our greatest achievements is also being able to make an impact though little but has been of global relevance that even people across Africa have felt the impact of the company being run by such young men and also so profiling lots of amazing people from backgrounds that nobody expects them to be leading such companies.
Are there any awards?
I’ve received a few awards in terms of renovation as well as human developments and empowerment of youths through my foundation
How do you give back to the society, are there any CSR projects (Corporate Social Responsibility)?
We give back in a lot of ways, the focus of our foundation majorly is for the children, the women and the youths. The project is called Project Smart where we give back to society. Currently we are undergoing a process of giving about 1,000 scholarships to children across Nigeria and also we are preparing to send relief materials to flood victims across the country. So majorly we are working back to back to make sure that the people that need support get the right support at the right time.
What’s your projection of WISDOM KWATI SMART CITY in the near future?
The vision is to have Wisdom Kwati Smart City in every major city across Africa. We envision to have built one million smart houses across Africa by 2035
Do you have any advice for people or young entrepreneurs looking to venture into real estate?
What I would tell them is stay consistent, work hard and just focus on the goal because whatever you are doing, once you stay consistent and diligent then success is not far away. This basically has been my motto; consistency, truthfulness, integrity and diligence.
