Tope Mark-Odigie, is the CEO/founder of Reb360, a real estate development company in Lagos. She is also a renowned media personality and advocate for societal advancement and business strategist. In this interview, she talks about the real estate business, challenges, empowerment programmes and achievement in the last four years of its operation. Excerpts by JOHN SALAU:
The fight against food insecurity in Nigeria has been real in the last few years; why is a real estate company so involved in food security?
In 2023, we joined the fight against food insecurity in Nigeria for two reasons. First, we were thinking of what to do to help our clients create more wealth – remember our vision: wealth creation and people empowerment through real estate. So, we came up with the idea of doing agriculture on one of our land banking locations, Kefi Court, and then paying our Kefi Court clients annual returns from the proceeds of our agricultural activities on their land, at no extra cost to them. Second, we wanted to actively join the fight against food insecurity in Nigeria. The prices of basic food stuffs were skyrocketing everyday, making it difficult for the common man to afford. So, we decided that through cultivating yams in Kefi Court, we would be able to make this important food staple in most Nigerian homes more available and affordable to the common man. And we were able to achieve this in 2024. In fact, we added sweet potatoes and sweet corns to the mix, and we sold the harvest at 50% less than what was sold in most open markets and supermarkets.
As an expert in the real estate sector; what are the initial hiccups and other challenges you have faced in your entrepreneur journey?
As expected, we have experienced some challenges in our journey to building a reputable real estate company in Nigeria. Some of these challenges were minimal while some others shook the very foundation on which Reb360 was built. Like most young businesses, we had cashflow challenges at some point; we also had some challenges with staffing right. However, the most significant hiccup we’ve had since startup was in 2023 when one of our estates was in serious contention with land grabbers popularly known as Omo Onile. Thankfully, because we do our due diligence and we do our best to be on the right side of the law, the fracas ended in our favour. Another heartbreaking challenge we had was the case of our farm hands and security men stealing us dry. In our first year of farming in Kefi Court, the farm hands stole all the harvest before we knew what was happening. I mean, we paid out the 70% ROI that we had promised to our Kefi Court investors, out of pocket, as there was no harvest to sell and pay them from. We had to make that tough sacrifice to preserve our reputation. Nonetheless, we learned from that painful experience and put in better measures for the 2024 harvest. We still ran some losses through a similar experience. However, we were able to nip it in the bud, so it wasn’t as bad as the first experience where we had zero harvest to sell.
What is the Club360 all about?
What sets Reb360 apart from other Real Estate companies is our passion for delivering impactful results and building lasting relationships with our clients. We are consistently seeking new and innovative ways to add more value to our clients beyond helping them to secure safe and profitable Real Estate with peace of mind. On 26 January 2025, we launched Club360, our client-centred brain child that we’ve been nurturing since the Q4 of 2024. Club360 is an exclusive community dedicated to all our clients. In this community, we hold monthly virtual empowering conversations that cut across health, finances, business growth, career opportunities, marriage and relationships, parenting and general wellbeing. These sessions are facilitated by seasoned coaches in each field. This affords our clients the opportunity to learn from industry experts and connect with other like-minded successful smart investors. On CSR, since 2023, we have consistently partnered with Quiver Full Ministry to fund the IVF of couples trusting God for the fruit of the womb. We send one percent of Reb360’s profit to Quiver Full Ministry every year.
Read also: ‘Gaps in Nigeria’s real estate industry present opportunities to innovate housing solutions’
Can you tell us about the Reb360 empowerment activities for realtors?
Our realtor’s win is our win, so we invest in hosting weekly training sessions for our realtors where we educate and update them with industry standards, as well as equip them with the necessary information and skills they need to close sales easily. We have testimonials of realtors who could not close sales in two years but they joined our thriving community of realtors called REBA (Real Estate Business Ambassadors), and they have now closed multiple sales. Currently, we have 774 realtors in our REBA community and we are aiming to increase them to 100,000 by 2030. Other people empowerment and wealth creation programs we host include: Money Monday with TMO every Monday and Game of Money Conference (annually). We also have an annual Praise Party Conference every December where we thank God for a successful business year and award our clients, staff and realtors who performed exceptionally during the course of the year.
Can you share with us how the vision got started?
The real estate industry in Nigeria is large and growing, with immense opportunities for every player: realtors, developers, investors, everyone. According to nextnmsc.com, the Nigeria Real Estate Market size was valued at USD 91.1 million in 2023, and is predicted to reach USD 137.8 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 6.1% from 2024 to 2030. (CAGR stands for Compound Annual Growth Rate). In 2021, I entered the Real Estate industry with the vision to create wealth and empower everyday people through real estate because I was tired of seeing people getting scammed by family members and unscrupulous real estate agents. I was also sick of doing nothing about the housing deficit in Nigeria. Nigeria’s housing deficit is estimated to be around 28 million units, which is a significant challenge for the country. This deficit is due to a number of factors, including a growing population, inflation, and an inefficient mortgage industry. Before this time, I had been in the media for almost a decade working as a TV presenter on YourView, Nigeria’s number one breakfast show. I was also a successful makeup artist with three outlets in Lagos and with a healthy client base, including some celebrities. This means that I had a good grasp of how to build and run a successful business. However, I desired to create more impact, solve a bigger problem in the society and create wealth while at it. I did some research and discovered that playing in the real estate industry was going to be a solid way to achieve all of these. So, I went all in, studying the terrain first, then I took some paid mentorship programs with some industry experts in Nigeria. Armed with sufficient knowledge about starting a real estate business in Nigeria, Reb360 was born on 1st February, 2021.
What are the other initiatives promoted by the firm to impact people in the industry?
Through real estate at Reb360, our relentless commitment is people empowerment and wealth creation. Our vision and mission respectively are: To empower one million people to create wealth through real estate, and to provide the safest and most profitable investment opportunities in real estate. Since we launched four years ago, we have helped 500+ unique clients to secure the safest and most profitable Real Estate investment opportunities in Nigeria, with peace of mind. In the course of these four years, we have employed about thirty full time staff members and we currently have seventeen full time employees whom Reb360 has significantly helped to improve not just their income level through salaries and commissions, but also shatter their limiting money mindsets. That’s not all. We have 774 realtors in our REBA (Real Estate Business Ambassadors) community and some of these realtors had never earned any commission from Real Estate until they started selling Reb360s products. Across our different estates, we have worked with 100+ artisans and contract vendors which include: surveyors, engineers, lawyers, brick layers, security men, farm hands, amongst others. Furthermore, through our transitional real estate in one of our land banking locations, Kefi Court, we have paid out annual returns of N10, 000,000+ to our Kefi Court clients. Kefi Court is our transitional real estate location where we carry out agricultural activities on behalf of our clients at no cost to them, then pay them 60% annual returns from the agricultural proceeds. Doing this has also helped us to contribute to the fight against food insecurity in Nigeria. I make bold to say that in these four years, Reb360 has significantly helped 1,000+ individuals to earn more, build wealth and increase their networth through real estate.
Finally, where do you see Reb360 in the next three to five years?
We remain relentless in our vision to empower and help everyday people to create wealth through Real Estate. Amongst the 500+ unique clients Reb360 has helped to become landowners are people who once thought that they could not buy a landed property, or at least, not yet. However, through Reb360, we now have a growing army of teachers, civil servants, students, corps members, retirees, freelancers, entrepreneurs, stay-at-home mums and career professionals who have been able to buy one or more plots of land with ease, through our friendly payment plans. We have also helped many Nigerians in Diaspora to invest back home. I realised that most Nigerians in the Diaspora desire to invest into real estate in Nigeria. But they are scared and skeptical of losing their money. So Reb360 is bridging that gap. 75% of our clients live in diaspora and we have helped them to easily secure strategic and fast-appreciating locations in Nigeria with peace of mind. We DHL their documents to them in whatever country they reside. Our vision for the next three to five years is to become a household real estate company across Nigeria and Africa. We envision that by 2030, we would have empowered more everyday people to live in their own homes without breaking the bank. We also see ourselves paying out a minimum of N100, 000,000 naira monthly as commissions to thousands of realtors across Nigeria and around the world. Finally, we intend to continue being that organisation where her staff enjoy working because we permit and catalyse them to achieve their personal and professional fulfillments faster.
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