Real estate czar, Njie, named African Entrepreneur
Real estate investment and development giant, Mustapha Njie, emerged tops as African Entrepreneur at a highly sophisticated and elite award ceremony organised in Lagos at the weekend by All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA) in collaboration with CNBC Africa.
Njie, a Gambian national and the CEO, Taf Africa Homes, was selected from a nominee-list of other African entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Nigeria’s Cosmas Maduka, the MD/CEO of Coscharis Motors Limited.
The annual AABLA award sets to honour business excellence and leaders who have made considerable impact on their industry and the community. Alexander Leibner of AABLA said the event marked the start of what is set to be another memorable AABLA season, honouring business excellence across the continent.
He said that this award celebrates individuals who exemplify the best in African leadership as well as African business leaders who epitomize the core values of a successful leader, strength, innovation, ingenuity, knowledge and foresight.
Reacting to his recognition, Njie said, “I feel honoured and dignified that all we have been doing over the years is recognized; it gives me great joy and I dedicate this award to all my staff, family, friends and business partners who have supported us all the way. It is a challenge for us to do more”.
Taf Africa Homes is an ambitious developer with presence in eight African countries including Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, Togo, Senegal, Cote D’voire and Gambia. Its largest developments so far are the RivTaf Golf Estate in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and The Brufut Garden in The Gambia.
“We are very active in Nigeria because the housing deficit here is about 17 million. We have been here for a long time and we are finding it hard to get out the country. We have projects already in three states of the country”, Njie disclosed.
Continuing, he said, “our ambition is to deliver one million housing units in the next 20 years. And in doing this, we want to make houses affordable to the people and we are doing it region by region and country by country. Right now, we are registered in eight African countries including Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, Togo, Senegal, Cote D’voire and Gambia”.
RivTaf Golf Estate, a joint venture project between the Taf Nigeria Homes and the Rivers State government, is an ambitious project that has delivered 750 housing units in its first phase. The second phase which has a 9-hole Golf Course Resort and a natural lake, promises about 250 affordable housing units targeted at middle-class home buyers.
The Brufut Garden in The Gambia is a 650-housing-unit estate located in the heart of Banjul, the country’s federal capital. The estate has a sizeable number of housing units sold to Nigerian investors.
CHUKA UROKO