Gbenga Adigun, the co-founder of Rebar Perfecta a construction and real estate company isn’t your typical entrepreneur. His path to entrepreneurship was paved by the unique experiences of his upbringing.
Reflecting on his formative years, Adigun shares, “My growing up influenced my entrepreneurship endeavor. Truthfully, my mum was a businesswoman in Alaba International Market. She was running a restaurant. I used to go there with her. Her customers were family friends who had shops. So I would ask them questions. This was before I was a teenager.”
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Adigun’s entrepreneurial drive, deeply ingrained since childhood, propelled him forward. He remarks, “It wasn’t always planned out from childhood, but there was that entrepreneurship drive in me from day one. Even from secondary school and University, I was always involved in trying to sell something. I always had that entrepreneurship spirit in me. I don’t know where it came from, maybe from my mother because she was a businesswoman. And I lived in an environment where a lot of people were involved in one form of entrepreneurship or enterprise.”
The recipient of the prestigious Africa’s Infrastructure Building Support Brand CEO of the Year 2023 award, Adigun sheds light on the challenges posed by foreign exchange fluctuations in the Nigerian real estate and construction industry.
He emphasizes, “The foreign exchange fluctuations and increase in foreign exchange rate affect the construction and real estate industry because a lot of what we do, a lot of components are imported, especially talking about finishing. We import a lot of the machineries. So if the exchange rate goes up, it affects the people who have the machineries and the service they can provide.”
Integrity, customer-centricity, and operational efficiency stand as the guiding principles that have propelled Rebar Perfecta’s growth. Adigun elucidates, “What has helped us to grow is integrity, shunning sharp and bad practices, secondly being customer-centric, being extremely efficient with service delivery.
“Customers are expecting a service delivery level of 90%, we exceed it and do 110. These have helped us. Being honest, not cutting corners. Being deliberate and intentional about every little thing in the way we set up our business and our structure. That has really helped us.”
Amidst the vast opportunities inherent in the Nigerian construction sector, Adigun envisions a future shaped by economic growth and robust regulation.
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He affirms, “Opportunities in the Nigerian construction industry are abundant. One cannot divorce the economic performance, the real estate sector doing very well. Because if the economy grows, people have more disposable income and they are able to spend their money on buying houses or affording a mortgage. So if purchasing power is low, there are no jobs, economy is poor, then there is less demand for real estate. That is the number one thing. A thriving economy and proper regulation will help to bolster the real estate market.”
Looking ahead, Adigun outlines Rebar Perfecta’s straightforward yet ambitious plans for the future.
He asserts, “Our plans for the future are very simple and direct. Not ambiguous, not too ambitious. It’s to stay relevant in the construction spot space by keep offering excellent service delivery.”
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