Bilaad Realty, a leading real estate company based out of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, has hosted its first edition of the GemHunt conference. Held in Abuja on Tuesday, and tagged The Future In Perspective, organisers of the event said they have invented a seamless fusion between providing services in the housing space and handing young, enterprising Nigerians the necessary tools and resources that will help them succeed in their various spheres of influence.
Speaking with Housing Development, Aishetu Usman Hajiya, Chief Finance and Accounts Officer for Bilaad Realty who doubles as a trustee of Bilaad Development Trust (BDT), said “Today’s event was an initiative by BDT to bridge the gap between what is happening generally in the private sector and what is happening with the government. We feel that this is a step towards taking our own initiative and just providing our own quota to ensuring that we handle special issues of unemployment, entrepreneurship [and] just find a solution in our own little way to make sure that we also contribute to solving problems that we are currently facing as a nation.”
Chief Operating Officer of Bilaad Realty and board member of Bilaad Development Trust (BDT), Sadiq Suleiman Abdullahi, said one of the three key focal areas for BDT is entrepreneurship, under which GemHunt falls. He stated that BDT “…is a corporate social responsibility and social investment platform, which was incorporated by the promoters of Bilaad Realty in collaboration with some development managers. The whole idea is to develop and deploy intervention in three key areas”, including education and policy and social change advocacy.
Abdullahi, however, did not dismiss the challenges his company faces in its quest to disrupt the status quo and make impact across all its areas of interest. “One, getting the right people; non-profit work or unpaid employment is very, very difficult to do, everybody has bills to pay and everyone who has a skill wants to monetise it. The first challenge was getting the right people to partner with us, do this pro bono and bring their competence, network and capacity to bear without wanting to get paid. Our second challenge was identifying where we wanted to play as a CSR platform.
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Regarding what winners at the GemHunt stood to benefit, Bilaad Realty COO, Abdullahi, listed a handful of prizes and opportunities for contestants that would ultimately be successful. “Everybody that comes out tops gets cash prizes, they all get paid internships, and they all get attached to a mentor or a life coach.” He added that having a mentor and a life coach is vital to the success of budding entrepreneurs, and marks the beginning of their career.
Chairman on the occasion, Arch. Usman Manko Babayitso, also a member of the board of BDT, said the programme was targeted at addressing salient social issues in the country. He, therefore, called on other private sector practitioners to “join hands with us in our resolute drive towards changing the narrative.”
Mohammed Rabiu Onuche won the Architect category, Ibrahim Abdullahi won the Brand Creatives category, while in the Engineering category, Nafiu Ismail Olamide came out top, and Ngozi Okocha won the Sales Representative category.
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