05/08/2025
The year was 2012...
OJ draped her arms around Marc as they both sat on the hard bench offered to them by Mallam Isa.
They had just been sent out of the church auditorium where they had been passing the night for some weeks, at a fees of N500 per day.
That night was different, they had exhausted their little savings and were now forced to find a place to lay their heads for the night.
Their hope for the night was in the oddest of places- a roadside kiosk run by an Hausa mallam who they regularly patronized.
After enduring a little drizzle of rain, they huddled together on the bench, not knowing what tomorrow held for them.
Fortunately, Mallam Isa offered them some cracker biscuit and a sachet of water, a succour for the long night ahead.
OJ and Marc were not always like this... After a failed business enterprise about two years earlier, they could not afford to renew their rent and this began their journey of homelessness.
Week in, week out, month in, month out; they squatted from one place to the other, seeking shelter in the kindness or begrudging acceptance of neighbours, family members, strangers and public places.
One night, in the midst of this marital and financial crisis, OJ slept and had a dream. She saw herself in a large expanse of land, with a survey plan in her hand.
She woke up and shared this vision with Marc, and not long afterwards, they chanced on a flier containing information about a piece of land someone was putting up for sale.
With no money, no house, no car or anything of value, except their vision and faith, OJ and Marc called the number on the flier and offered to assist in selling the property for a commission.
The owner of the property flatly refused to pay any commission. At this point, all OJ and Marc needed was N300,000 to rent a house and end their cycle of homelessness.
Six months later, after series of marketing efforts, OJ and Marc received their first credit alert. Someone had paid for a plot and few weeks after, they had sold out the expanse of land.
One thing led to the other, and somehow, a couple that had zero capital, zero connections, zero investors and even zero experience in real estate 13 years ago, are now today the owners of the biggest real estate conglomerate in Nigeria.
In the last 13 years, they have both are empowered hundreds of thousands of Nigerians leveraging their success in the industry.
As a leading real estate cooperative society for young professionals, we have partnered with them through the PBO system, and we are joining them to invite you to start your real estate journey with ZERO.
Use the link in our bio to sign up for FREE today.