The real estate market is a viable business venture that is lucrative. However, it can prove to be a daunting and competitive environment to breakthrough. But with a great plan, foresight, and impeccable execution one can succeed in the industry.
Meet Nana Kwame Bediako popularly referred to as Cheddar one of the youngest and brightest entrepreneurs and CEOs in the real estate industry.
New Kwame Bediako – Early Life
Nana Kwame Bediako was born in Kumasi, Ghana. According to him, his father was rich but his mother was poor which “instilled in him the essential qualities of discipline, hard work, integrity, and strong Christian values that have led to his success as a visionary, developer, industrialist, and nation-builder.”
Nana Kwame Bediako says his father gave him and his brother some money and told them to use it to help their mother. While his brother bought bread and eggs with the money, he decided to buy two hens and started a poultry business. His business soon grew, and he began to sell 200 eggs a month.
“My mother was broke and penniless but my father had money. One day, he gave both my brother and I money and I told my brother not to spend it and use it to help my mum. The next thing I saw, he had gone out to buy bread and eggs, which was a luxury at the time, with his money. I was very angry with him,” says Bediako in an interview.
Nana Kwame Bediako – Education
Nana Kwame Bediako attended Accra Academy and Apam Secondary school. He then attended Waltham Forest College in the UK where he studied business. This was where his business acumen was sharpened.
While at the university, Bediako started selling clothes to make money. Within a short time, several people at the university bought clothes from him. With the money he got from the sale, he managed to buy his first car at age 16.
“I was selling Versace jeans and YSL shirts which were fake and I was buying them from a guy called John who used to bring them from China. The whole school was buying from me and that’s where I started making my ends meet and bought my first car by the age of 16,” he recounted.
After he got his car, Bediako recalled how his car was clamped several times which led to his next business venture.
“They clamped my car in college three times. The first and second time I paid £45 and by the third time, I was angry and I thought the security was taking advantage of me. So, I loosened the tire and removed the clamp out of the tire, and out of anger, I took the clamp with me and put it in the boot of my car. At that time, I had a white friend called Peter Smith who was a locksmith and he offered me £65 for the clamp,” he recalled.
Nana Kwame Bediako – Career
Still in the university, Bediako got into the business of buying and reselling scrap metal but soon transitioned into the telecommunication sector. Nana Bediako started his telecommunication company that billed people when they went online to carry out transactions. An Indian investor soon approached him and offered to buy his company for £327,000. With the advice from his lawyer, he refused but later sold it to the investor at £410,000.
“My lawyer told me to refuse the offer and the investor came back with £410,000 which I took and then just added it to my savings and it shot up. That’s how I made my first million pounds and it inspired me to go ahead. I realized that if you build a company and do it well, you can make a lot of money. Then God told me to come to Africa,” he said.
By age 33, Nana Bediako moved to Ghana and established the Kwarleyz Group, a real estate conglomerate comprising of brands such as Wonda World Estates, Petronia City Development, New African Construction among others.
“From the beginning, when I got my first land, something told me ‘why don’t you build two houses on one plot instead of one house on one plot’? I had four plots of land. So, when I did that, eventually’ I built eight houses on one plot instead of four houses and subsequently sold them and that’s the secret of my business.,” he said.
Petronia City, an industrial park, which is said to be one of the most ambitious projects in the West African region, will be a 2,000-acre city development project that will provide an integrated business hub for West Africa’s oil, gas, and mining industries upon completion.
His vision is to “build a new Africa by bridging the housing deficit and changing the face of infrastructural development on the continent.”
Nana Kwame Bediako credits his business successes to listening to the voice of God.
Family
Nana Kwame Bediako has been able to maintain a private family life. But on Sunday, May 10, 2020, Bediako publicly celebrated his wife, Ruby on her birthday and Mother’s Day. He gifted his wife with a 2020 edition of the Porshe Panamera and a plush apartment in Accra.
