Winning seems to come easy for the young and dynamic Managing Director of Dollar Construction, Engineer Idowu Nurudeen Lamidi as he added a new honour to his collections after he picked up an award alongside the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Sanwo-Olu, Sijibomi Ogundele and other giants in the country’s Real Estate sector.
At the recent 6th City People Real Estate Award, Idowu’s Dollar Construction won the fastest growing Real Estate Company of the Year. It was not an easy feat, the Dollar Construction slugged it out with other competent companies before it was finally selected. The judges outlined the company’s projects, marketing and drive as part of the features that determined the selection.
Mr Idowu Lamidi while picking up the award dedicated it to God and his team’s hard work while restating his pledge to have his Dollar Estate in all the capital cities in Nigeria before 2030. The Dollar Construction boss claimed his mission is to redefine Real Estate in Nigeria and cited the Dollar Estate, Ibadan, Epe and Alafara as models for his plans and exclusiveness.
Upon receiving the award, the young and dynamic construction giant walked down to the red carpet where City People’s DAMILARE SALAMI 08155134152 quizzed him on how he felt about winning the laurel. He spoke brilliantly about himself, his outfit and how he got his name, Dollar. Below are excerpts from the interview, enjoy.
Congratulations on your new award. How do you feel receiving this laurel from City People, because there were many other contestants in your category?
Thank you so much. I am very happy and it is an honour to the entire dollar team. I believe that City People saw something before they made us the winner, but just as I said, it’s an honour for us.
You have just been named the fastest growing real estate company of the year. What did you put in place that earned you that award?
Just as I said, I don’t know what they saw. It could be our projects in Ibadan or other parts of the country. Today, people do speculation and they call it real estate. Buying land from the government and the public and selling the same land back to the public is not real estate. Real Estate has to do with planning. There is something we call comprehensive development, planners, builders and engineers will understand it better; that is what Dollar Construction does and not mere speculation. Maybe that’s one of the things that positioned us as the fastest growing in the industry.
While receiving the award, you mentioned that you are planning to invade Lagos. Can you shed more light on that?
We know that Lagos is the home of big boys and the biggest players in the real estate business in Nigeria are in Lagos. Lagos is the centre of excellence, therefore, if you are doing any business in Nigeria and it has not broken into Lagos, that business has not started. So for Dollar Construction, we just want to start a real estate business in Lagos and we are concentrating particularly on Ibeju-Lekki and Epe. We want to start with those two places, show what we also can do and contribute to the beauty of Lagos, the centre of excellence.
Let me ask you two quick questions. One, how old is dollar constructions?
Dollar Constructions started in 2010. We were purely a contract-based outfit then. We got a lot of contracts from the government and built so many estates in Abuja, Umuahia, Port Harcourt, Bayelsa and a host of other places. We have built a lot of estates but for different state governments and the federal government too. But in 2015, we started our own private-owned Dollar Constructions Estate in Abuja in Apo and Kasana.
Secondly, what stands out Dollar Constructions? You’ll agree that the competition in that industry is very strong, yet you have been able to stand out.
Well, one thing about the real estate business industry in Nigeria is that there is no competition because every one of us standing here is aspiring to own a house. That is why there is no competition. There are too many prospective clients to be serviced and the companies we have are not even enough as we speak. I can tell you that the prayer point of 70 per cent of Nigerians today is to own a house. Those that already have houses are praying to have better ones. As I am now, I’m still praying to own a house in a better and more serene environment, Maitama or Aso Drive for example.
Before I let you go, would you quickly tell us how you came about the name ‘Dollar Constructions? It seems to be unique and different from other regular names in that industry.
My real name is Idowu Nurudeen Lamidi and when we wanted to start a company and we were trying to get a suitable name, I just told my wife that there’s no need. I want a name that everyone can remember. When you are eating, you can remember, when you are sleeping, you can remember and whatever you are doing, you can remember that name. I just thought of it that everybody wants to own dollars and it’s also a coinage from my name, so that’s how we came about the name and everyone started calling me Dollar.
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