By Henry Uche
Dr. Jayne Onwumere is an amazon in the Nigerian property industry. As the Group Managing Director & President of Property World Africa Network (PWAN), she has revolutionized the industry by her management acumen, helping home seekers in Nigeria, Africa and beyond to realize their lifelong dreams of owning a home.
She told Daily Sun in this interview that investing in people (not in property) remains her top priority, thus, individuals and corporate organizations should prioritize investment in human capital development.
What brought about this multimillion naira company 12 years ago?
My husband and I started PWAN squatting in a tent in someone’s house. Our first office was in a bar (beer parlor). The owner of that bar is a PWAN director today. After 10 years, we started our physical operations on May 1 of that year. I remember back in those days, we would sit under the canopy while it rained. We would apologize to customers to adjust their seats. On May 2, we made our first sales which was N60,000. Today, we have over 150 physical offices across Nigeria, including offices in Texas and Ghana.
How would you define the business model of your company, and what gives her edge above others in the real estate industry?
Our unique edge is ‘we focused on people” it’s people that build on people. When we build people, they build every other thing we may think of on earth. We carry out capacity building on regular basis. In fact we have been doing this since 2012. We do not less than 20 different training, even 50 within and outside the country. We do train the trainer and even online sessions. We brush and polish people to become champions in becoming efficient in whatever they do.
How would you describe your emergence as the winner of The SUN Investor the year Award for 2023?
I am pleasantly surprised. All glory to God. But let me say this loud, if the Sun Media Ltd had informed me that I was nominated as Investor of the year because I am into real estate, I would have declined but tell me I emerged as investor of the year award by The Sun Newspaper because I invest in people, then I will be glad because I have invested and impacted in people indeed. We are still doing it. We are not giving up.
Looking back, would you say that PWAN Group has truly meet up with its set target/goal of making house ownership a dream come through for many Nigerians?
No but we are still on course to get there. We have sold lands to many people. With what’s happening in PWAN, in the next three years, people will marvel at what PWAN would achieve. I will show you people who started with less than 3000, today they would show you their houses. We are going to show you people who started their business with nothing, but showing you their houses. We have people who were homeless, but today, we have transformed them to become house owners. Some of our partners have shopping malls. By the time we clock 15 years, people would marvel. So far, the journey has been smooth.
What is your vision in PWAN for your clients?
For us, we don’t tell people to go and look for money. We show them how to make money. Our vision is to make home ownership a dream come true for as many people as possible. Our mission is to show people how they can make money to buy land and build their own homes. We assist people. We even give people money to rent accommodation because our business model does not support that. Our business model is to empower people to be part of the business.
We train people on how to make money and be economically independent. Our network marketing model tells you that you can start with absolutely nothing and you can make money. We started PWAN with N15,000 used to print flyers. So whatever you see today came out of nothing.
As the company looks forward to her 12th anniversary coming on March 12th, what are your future plans for growth in the next 10 years?
The company was taken out of my hands as a sole manager when it was 5. Today, whether I am there or not, PWAN will continue to live. By march 2024, there would be 60 Managing Directors and every one of them is capable of becoming Group Managing Director. They may not be able to function in the same capacity, but they know the vision and mission. So they would not lose focus. In the coming years, I still want to spend more of my time training and empowering people. I have two major programs I want to achieve this year.
One is coming after our convention. I called it “One day MBA. (One Day Masters in Business Administration). It’s coming along with men and women with practical experience, not a class room perspective. It would equip participants to stand firm and run any kind of business successfully.
The second one is what I called ‘Retire Soon, Retire Rich” In the course of my work, I have come across people who retired and smile. I have also come across others who retired and be waiting for their children to send them money. What they latter lack is knowledge. With what I have learnt, I am in a good position to show people how to prepare for retirement. In our group, there are many people who have the ambition and strength to do great things than myself. I have done it for years. What I want to do now is to tidy up. I want to impact the knowledge I have acquired so far to impact in others. Our vision would be manifesting in no distance time. PWAN exist to serve the underserved- people that have no opportunity to do those things.
What’s your take with government policies that affect players in the real estate industry?
I think the government is doing well. In every policy, some people would be hurt while others would feel good about it too. But then, if all of us would have a portal where we check the authenticity of a land before we commit our financial resources, that would be better for all of us. Many people are suffering because we bought land from land grabbers and same people will sell the same piece of land to another person -causing trouble everywhere.
But if the government sanitizes the environment, everyone would enjoy. Land has timeless value. Land is only devalued by the person who bought it. It can only increase in value or remain where it is- especially when the owner needs money. So if government can come up with policies that will enable us and tidy up our mistakes, that would be great. But in PWAN, we’re just unique, we are far ahead of others who still operates traditional cum common real estate business.
We quickly adjust to anything thrown at us because we are prepared. The truth is that so many people are falling into the hands of wrong people who are also not aware that they too, were in the wrong hands. So it’s important to check the status of a property and get a written document from the government that the property is genuine before you buy or sell.
For delays in getting C of O, it’s still the government that would make it seamless when everything is properly documented and administered.
What would you want be remembered for?
I want to be remembered as one made people smile. I made a difference in someone’s life. God gave us this blessing for other people. If you keep it for yourself, I wonder. As it’s today, if I’m no more today, I can think of not less than 100 families that would take care of my children