The group comprising eight subsidiaries, last weekend, unveiled a five-storey state-of-the-art building known as Pertinence Place in Akowonjo area of Lagos, as its corporate head office.
Speaking on the Pertinence Group property sitting on an acre of land which construction commenced January this year, Mr. Abel Adejoh, Chief Executive Officer, Pettysave, one of the subsidiaries of Pertinence Group, said the recession arising from the COVID-19 lockdown had not really affected the business of Pertinence Properties Limited.
“Rather,” he said, “I will say it gave us the opportunity to show how innovative we could be to turn the situation to our advantage. “So, if the Coronavirus affected your company negatively, it means then that you have to improve. Good enough, we were prepared for this, because prior to the Coronavirus, we were already moving into the tech space.
“I will say all Coronavirus did to us was put us at home, because in a way, some people needed that rest to work from home, but when it comes to operations, it did not affect us in any way.
“Many companies cannot dedicate this kind of edifice after Coronavirus, but for us it even improved our capacity to deliver, and that is why we are here to dedicate edifice.”
Adejoh who is the architect that designed the property, said Pertinence Group has grown over the years, pointing out that “We started as one company, but today we have eight subsidiaries.
“Every company in the group has at least 15 staff. With this, you can see that there is a lot of growth in the group, and by this, we are empowering a lot of people.
“The building is a state-of-the-art edifice. If you look at the location where the building is standing, it is the tallest, most beautiful and the biggest. We have world-class spaces in the building.
“As you know, the world is moving towards a technological dimension right now. For us to improve our output in the various segments of the group, we need a conducive environment, hence the need for the property.
“It is not just the building we are dedicating. We are also rededicating ourselves to brace up for the challenges ahead of us.
“The construction of the property began in January this year, and the property would have been ready before now, but because of the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, we could not deliver it before now. “So far, in our eight years of operation as housing solution provider, we have been able to provide houses to 50,000 people and we hope to double this number by this time next year.
“Nigeria is a broad country. When you look at housing deficit from Lagos perspective, the deficit is increasing, but it is reducing in other states.
“We as a company, we are doing our best to reduce this deficit, but no matter the number of houses we provide in Lagos, they might not be enough because of influx of people to Lagos on daily basis.
“So, connecting Lagos to other states to reduce housing deficit is very key. If you go to Oyo State, Ogun State, where they have vast lands, for us to reduce this huge deficit, these states with vast lands should be linked to Lagos.
“We as a company, we are not only in Lagos. We have estates across the country. We have in Ogun, Oyo, Abuja, in the eastern part of Nigeria and South-South.
“As I said, the deficit is not reducing in Lagos, but as a company, we are trying to bridge the gap by building across the country.”
Meanwhile, asked to describe the success story of the real estate group after eight years, Mr. Sunday Olorunsheyi, a director and co-founder of the group, said: “I will not call it success story but process story.
“This is because we are nowhere close to where we are going. But I must say that God has been faithful to us, as partners, friends and business. “We started from zero level. Our partnership is working because of understanding. If you can understand your partner and play to the rule of the game, partnership will work.
“Many people can’t understand each other and can’t play by the rule of the game. That is why some partnerships fail, particularly in this part of the world. “But if you go to the developed world, partnerships are doing very well because there is understanding and partners play to the rule of the game.
“Look at all the global companies across the world such as Facebook, Microsoft and the rest, they are partnership corporations, and they are doing very because there is understanding and partners play according to the rule of the game.
“These partnerships are becoming generational in the developed world, which is not common in Africa, but I think we are beginning to change the narrative.
“The problem with a partnership is that you have two or more people coming together but with different destinations. Our own partnership is working because we understand each other and we play by the rule of the game.
“Of course, we are not saying the partnership will always be perfect and rosy. For us, there are few challenges, but by the grace of God we have been together for close to a decade now and we have not had any crisis as partners.
“This is because of maturity and understanding between us, and of course, God’s factor in our lives.”
For Mr. Wisdom Ezekiel, a director and co-founder of the real estate Pertinence Group, “Managing people has been one of the challenges we have had to face in our business, but God has been able to help us in this regard.
“We will say yes, we are fulfilled and say no at the same time. The reason we will say yes is that if someone asks us if we ever imagined to be at the level we are now, we will tell you yes. “But if you ask whether we imagined we would ever get here this fast, we will tell you no. And this is where God’s factor comes in.
“But if you ask me that when we get to 50 years or 70 years, where we expect to be, I will say we are nowhere close to that.”
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