AMBA Properties Set To Open New Office Complex

•As MD/CEO, OLUWOLE OGUNBAYO Becomes Baba Ewe

On Sunday, 23rd April, 2023, all roads will lead to Sagamu-Remo for the grand opening of the corporate office of AMBA Properties Limited, one of the leading real estate companies in Nigeria owned by Chief Oluwole Ogunbayo.

On that same day, there will be the Installation and Iwuye ceremony of Chief Oluwole Ogunbayo, as the Baba Ewe of Emmanuel Anglican Church, at 7, Odi Olowo Street, Sabo Sagamu.

Reception follows immediately at 7, Osinlaru Street behind Odis Filling Station, Off GRA road, Sagamu, Ogun State.

It promises to be a big event. On bandstand to entertain guests will be Faith Band and City People TV will be handling the Media coverage.

That is why Otunba Oluwole Ogunbayo, the MD/CEO of AMBA Properties Ltd which is based in Sagamu, Remo is in a very happy mood right now.

The new office building is an impressive complex that has offices, meeting rooms and conference room for meetings with its numerous well-heeled clients. It is a befitting office complex for this wave making real estate company that plays big in that sector.

Lets tell you more about AMBA Properties Ltd which is into 3 arms of Real Estate business, namely: Real Estate Consultancy, Building Development and Facility Management, with a long list of clients across the South-West and beyond. The MD/CEO of the company is a guru in real estate.

He has paid his dues, having worked in that sector for decades.

Why was there a need to build a new complex for AMBA Properties, we asked him last Friday, when City People visited the new office in Sagamu. City People met him and his staff putting finishing touches to the furnishing and what was left to do.

“It is because of the need to have an office complex that is befitting of the status of AMBA Properties Ltd. A larger proportion of our clients are corporate bodies. 80% of our clients are corporate bodies and then our former office, where we were using before has become very small for our operations. We have outgrown the plane. AMBA Properties has expanded phenominally and we need space. We need meeting rooms and conference rooms where we can hold meetings.

Sometimes we need to have 2 to 3 meetings going on and it can’t contain our clients.

We now decided to get a new building that will have several offices for our staff and meetings. That is the basic reason”.

We got him to tell us a bit about what AMBA Properties Ltd does and the growth of the business over the years.

“AMBA Properties Ltd is into real estate consulting services, and facility management and building development. On the issue of facility management, we have several buildings, cutting across Sagamu, Abeokuta, Lagos, Ibadan and Akure that we are managing for clients. Some of them is owned by our company. We normally buy and develop some properties for ourselves for letting purposes, and most of these expatriate companies, especially those coming to Sagamu axis, around the interchange, prefer to deal with AMBA Properties”.

How about building development and sale of land? “We have several landed properties around the Sagamu axis, in  Lagos (around the Ibeju-Lekki area), and at the interchange (in the Sagamu axis). Between Sagamu interchange and Abeokuta we have several lands, that cut across. Because some of these companies show interest in buying it from us and that is the reason we also try to join the issue of land sales to our services, for industrial purposes”.

Many people who see Otunba Wole Ogunbayo operating from Sagamu always wonder why he chose to leave Lagos to come and live in Sagamu to do real estate business. Why is that so? “The reason is simple. We left Lagos around 2007 for a simple reason.”

“There is a company that we work for, in terms of providing accomodation. Its called Monteroza Construction Limited & Electrint in Gbagada.  They are the ones that built the Nestle Plc and Olam Nigeria Plc. When they got the counterpart to build the edifice they sent requests to our company to provide them accomodation. We thought it was a small project. We gave them one building. Along the line they started to demand for more to the extent that they have different locations in the GRA for their expatriate engineer. Before we left Lagos to Sagamu my former office was located at Palm Avenue, beside Mobil. The white building beside Mobil was the building I got to know that Lagos at their particular time, 2007 to 2008, was saturated to the extent that hardly can you conclude one transaction in one month. We were too many in the industry. I just thought when that opportunity came, let just grab it. Along the line, when they started giving Memonoraza Property in Lekki, it got to the point that there is more activity in Sagamu than my Lagos office. I now decided to do a simple arithmatic. I looked at what I make in Lagos and saw that what I make in Sagamu area is more better than Lagos. I now took a decision to open another office in Sagamu. After doing that, I got to understand that I have more sales in Sagamu. At that point in time, I needed to shut down, Lagos and concentrated on Sagamu. That is how I relocated to Sagamu to perfect the real estate in Sagamu axis”.

We asked him to tell us more about the real estate opportunities in Sagamu and Remo axis. Is it a booming business? What is the market like? “To a certain extent there are some improvements in real estate in the Sagamu axis simply because all these companies, are now migrating from Lagos to Sagamu interchange area. There is a scheme called Flowergate Industrial scheme land. That area is around the interchange, where there is Nestle, Ollam, International Beweries, Honeywell. All those area is called Flowergate Industrial Scheme.

It was established during the regime of Otunba Gbenga Daniel, as Governor. Most of these companies are relocating and they are moving to that angle, because the place is centrally located. Also because of the closeness to the North and the East”.

How has the growth being for the companies and AMBA Properties? “Business has been good. We appreciate the Almighty God for his mercy on all our companies because today, we are in April, since we started our firm, we have had tremendous growth in terms of our activities. We thank God for the activities we are involved in.

There is a new company called Platform, that has been contracted to build the new Cargo Airport. We have given them some properties, over 8 buildings for their expatriates. So, all those activities have helped our company to move forward.

We thank God for that”

How old is AMBA Properties? “It was established in year 2002, around November”. At that time, what was the market like? “We were operating AMBA Properties from Abuja. Our 1st office was in Abuja in Wuse 2. From Abuja we opened Lagos. From Lagos now we got to Sagamu. And we just got to learn that with this new opportunity of Sagamu interchange business hub, the sky is the limit and we have come to realise that activities will keep improving, because nearly every 3 months, you will see a new company coming from different directions, coming into that area to do business. There is no way a new construction will come into that area and will not need our services”.

What effect is the new Cargo Airport having on real estate opportunities and activities in Remo?

“It is going to give real estate business, good opportunity in terms of business, because by the time construction work starts the actities that will come up in that area is going to have tremendous effect on Real Estate because the companies that will be coming into that space will need residential houses, offices buildings, and warehouses and it is going to affect the real estate in terms of positive developments”.

We got him to also tell us a bit about himself. Who is Chief Wole Ogunbayo. How did he find himself in Real Estate business.

Which aspect of Real Estate does he specialise in? “I specialise in Facility Management. I have a passion for that”. How about the course he did when he was in school? “In my course of study at the University of Jos, I studied Marketing.

Then, I joined the Federal Ministry of Works & Housing in Abuja as a staff. From Abuja I came to Lagos, at Moloney”. How did he now decide that Real Estate is what he was going to go into? “Because at that particular point in time, the project been conceived by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing then was to construct some housing schemes, in each state of the federation. We were being pencilled down to go and establish a housing scheme in Potiskum, in Yobe State then.

That is where I got the idea of real estate business then”. What will he call his big break in real estate? “In real estate when you are talking about big break it is when you have a growth line that shows your development of acres of land”.

How did he get that in his own business? “That was a time when the International Breweries when they were trying to source for this land, we were able to be part of it.

We were part of International Breweries land, a nd the CDK’s land and Global Invest Logistics land. Our company structured the largest property for those company to put on their construction there”.

What facitilities does his new office have? “We have a Conference Room, now at the grandfloor. If there is any transaction that involves meetings with all these family land owners, conveniently, we can meet with them, conveniently we can sort out things in the Conference Room and at the same time, if we need to have some meetings with some of our expatriate partners, we now have different offices to attend to them. The new office is going to help our business. It is going to give us a new image. Our clients are going to be more comfortable dealing with us”.

What format will the opening of the new office take? “The opening is going to be very simple. There will be a little bit of blessings from the Almighty God to be conducted by the Bishop of the Remo Diocese on that day Sunday, 23rd of April, which falls on my own birthday. At the same time, they are giving me a chieftaincy title in my own church, as the Baba Ewe of Emmanuel Anglican Church, on the same Sunday. After, we must have concluded the service, at the church, we would be coming to the new office for the grand opening of the office.”

“And our business operations will start from there. On that day, 70% of the invited guests will be our clients. We have invited them to come and see what we have here in our new office. That is the purpose of having the Reception and Grand Opening that day. It is to show case to our clients that we have a befitting, modern office now, which is better than before”.

Whenever he looks back at the growth of his business, how does it make him feel, especially when he sees what AMBA Properties has been able to achieve within this short space of time? “I feel happy all the time. I am really happy about the development we have recorded, concerning our operations in the Real Estate sector, because like I said earlier, we are into 3 things. We are into Consulting Services, Strategic Management, and Building Development. On the issue of Consulting Services, there are several things that we do. There are several things that crop up, in terms of the processing of the Governor’s Consent, and Title documents, CofO, Deeds of Conveyance, we handle all those title documents for our clients here. At the same time, in terms of building developments, we have several lands that we build for them, that we manage for th em. So they invest in us. They trust us”.