 |
| Femi Osibona |
He had his primary school
education in Lagos before moving to Mayflower School in Ikenne. From Mayflower, he proceeded to Croydon University in the United Kingdom
(UK), where he studied Business and
Finance.
His shoes and suits business in
1991
Osibona started shoes and suits
business in 1991 before venturing into real estate development in 1997.
In 1998, he stopped clothing and
shoe business after nurturing a property he purchased in the UK in 1997 to a
profitable venture.
How he started building construction
From that, Osibona started
building construction business.
The Ogun State-born businessman
was quoted to have said: “I noticed that many Nigerians at that time were
reluctant to go into construction, but I believed anything was possible with
God.”
Osibona’s real estate development
firm Fourscore Homes is a member of the National
Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) in South Africa and Zurich
Building Guarantee in Europe. The company exhibited its expertise in property
development in the UK, South Africa, the United States (U.S.) and Nigeria.
Osibona is said to be the first
African developer to construct a seven-storey building at the highbrow Albion Drive, London Fields in East London.
After that, he moved to South Africa in 2009, where he built six luxury units
of houses called Fourscore Mansions in Waterkloof,
Pretoria.
In an interview, Osibona
said: “I was one
of the people whose real estate developments led to the growth of East London.
I bought a house on New Cross Road and renovated it. I also bought a piece of
land behind it and built two flats there, and that is what I will call my first
real estate project. That was how I started building houses for sale.”
He had explained that the
ill-fated building, known as 360 Degrees Towers, was designed to be the first
of its kind in Nigeria.
Osibona, a member of the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), also
told a television station that in all Fourscore projects abroad, they bought
“land and developed.”
He had said: “I am the builder, I don’t engage any builder. I was in
Atlanta for only four months before I decided to buy land. It is the same
procedure in housing development and if you have done it in one country, then
you can do it in another because it is the same principle.”
How four of his 24 flats
collapsed in Atlanta
The collapse of the Ikoyi
building was not the first time his structures will suffer damage.
In a chat with Celestial Ovation
Talk Show, Osibona narrated how four of his 24 flats in Atlanta, Georgia in the
U.S. were razed.
He revealed that the U.S. inferno
turned out to be a blessing for him because the money paid him by an insurance
firm was more than what he expended on the purchase of the entire flats.
Ashimolowo’s encounter with Osibona
In a viral video recorded on July
4, 2021, Matthew Ashimolowo of the Kingsway International Christian Centre
(KICC), narrated his encounter with Osibona.
Ashimolowo said: “After listening to my tapes, he built 12 apartments in
London, sold eight, kept four. Then he came to me again and said, ‘pastor
Matthew, lay hands on me; where should I go again?’
“After I had laid hands
on him the first time, he said, ‘where should I go again? I want to go to South
Africa; please pray for me.” I
prayed for him.
“He went to South
Africa and built 125 houses in the highbrow area of Centurion, next door to
Johannesburg. He broke through exponentially.”
The cleric added that when he was
ministering in Ghana, Osibona flew in to meet him again for guidance.
Ashimolowo said: “He (Osibona) comes
and says ‘where should I go again?’ I said, ‘look, I’m not your financial
adviser. Go and meet your financial adviser.
He said ‘you’re doing better than them.’ So, I laid hands on him, prayed
for him and I said ‘go to Nigeria, your country.
“They call him Femi
Fourscore. Femi comes to Lagos, boom, he buys land in Ikoyi and builds 40
apartments and sold each one for like a million dollars.
“As I am talking to you
right now, in fact, this morning, Femi sent me a video. He’s building I think
three towers together. We know Ikoyi.
One is 14 floors, one is 16 floors, and one is 21 floors.
“This guy used to sell
shirts and ties in Abuja. He didn’t even have the shirt and tie I wanted from
him so he went to others to get them for me during that crisis journey. Now, he
has three towers.”
[Nation]
No comments:
Post a Comment