How A Gambian Carpenter is Building 20,000 Affordable Homes In Nigeria!

why do you think we have less billionaires in Africa our economies are too small that's why we cannot have billionaires or it's difficult to have billionaires and most of our business people are concentrating only in their countries so with your economy there's no way you can make that amount of money Egypt for example the population of Egypt I think is about 0 million the population of Ghana is what 18 20 million yeah 30 million 30 million so it's not much so the economy is not big enough to create billionaires Nigeria yes the population is big enough to create billionaire and they have the wealth they have the natural resources I mean in Africa most government will tell you all the private sector is the engine of growth but let me tell you one thing generally in Africa if you if if somebody in the private sector you know makes that amount of money the politicians are scared of him because they think his next step is politics so they don't want you to be that rich so that you have that control and also but we've seen it we've seen some people once they make the money the next thing want to do is to get into politics so again vice versa the politicians when they make money in politics they want to go into business so I would advise the businessmen please stay in business politicians please stay in politics I am staying in business I am not going anywhere close to politics entrepreneurs like T makes me feel so proud as an African you know why because he's a man that believes in Africa believe in Africa an and most importantly he believes that a black man is capable of managing his own Affairs yes everything I have was made in Africa I was born in Africa raised in Africa and made in Africa so does it mean that it's possible to make it in Africa as an African it's very possible as an African and we've seen so many many many many Africans who's made their wealth in Africa so why do Africans feel like it's not possible to make it in Africa well you know the the the game of football let's take the game of football in a game of football the ball is there and it's for 22 of you anybody who has the ball has to go for the ball so you go for the opportunities there are opportunities some see as a challenge I people like us we see it as an opportunity I feel like if you're watching this video we should all come together and give him a round of applause and if you cannot clap your hands just like this video to appreciate and man with Integrity a humble man that have so much passion to develop Africa when we first ever met this was his vision over the next 20 years is to develop 1 million homes across subsaharan Africa and that's why we're in Nigeria I've known him for the past 3 years and I must confess T always walk the talk within a space of 3 years he returned to Gambia to build T city clust of Estates are being built by December this year inshallah the whole estate will be and people living here there you go go wow he's well known for a sustainable affordable housing with our development number one is sustainability so so obviously with the environment you saw what's happening in Dubai yeah you know with with rain and everything here in West Africa you've noticed the Heat so we really need to plant as many trees as possible so what we do the general formula is that for every house that we build we plant five fruit trees so you feed people and along the streets on average for every 4 M for example from there you go 1 2 3 4 M there's a royal palm and in this case because it's in a Boulevard we put in two of them so you imagine for example all the streets along here yeah in the next 5 7 years like you will go to see the estate that you visited how mature the trees are everywhere will be green that that's more like your signature yes if you say it's going to be affordable how much will it cost me to buy a bungalow like a two-bedroom Bungalow for example here it's cost you about $25,000 in dollar terms but the nice thing about Nigeria is that all the goods that we used are manufactured here and we're doing semi-f finishes so it's affordable so you have first access to the land the land is properly all demarcated all laid out properly you know so and then you have proper title which is a challenge in Africa yep so you have your proper title now when you move in then you have a choice but when I walk you into our model homes we're showing people that look when you buy it as as as a semi-finished house you can now go on to finish it up like this [Music] and the Visionary leader is back again in Nigeria for greater T City so this is greater T City yes T city is The Gambia Tough City in Gambia uhhuh seron is um tough Salon micro City okay actually my general manager said no don't call us micro you know they're small because T city is 5,000 house 500 hectar tough Salon 5,000 houses we only have 80 H for now but we're going to get more yeah p hak a greater p hak is a new development okay it is something they've redesigned the whole city and um it's not only here but it's the whole of Port hak is going to be redesigned again like a re or renewal so we're in partnership with them and we're handling the affordable housing scheme for them in here there'll be 3,000 okay but not only 3,000 homes but all the amenities so if you leave here you don't get out of here everything that you want should be here shopping mall Schools Police Station fire station mosque uh um um Church cemeter you know here yeah yeah play Fields anything that you want people die now uh so you have to have a symetry how many people are working here currently currently we have started 400 35 houses and on average for every house say between 20 and 25 so do the [Laughter] mats close to 8,000 people are working here [Music] already you you must be fulfilled anytime you walk in here seeing the number of people walking on side how do you how do you feel cuz even though this does not belong to me but I'm so happy well I I feel good I I feel really good yes very much fulfilled that um I am putting food on the table that is much needed in Africa so I feel good while these guys are here working you you're really taking them off the street here in Port harcot I mean there's a lot of crime there's a young lot of young people who are idling but the moment we come into a community like this and we start building crime just goes down because we offer opport to young people to pick up a trade to work and obviously put food on the table so I'm fulfilled yeah I'm really fulfilled saying this well I'm Mustafa AKA T started my business uh 34 years ago but as you know I started all this being a very stubborn young man just like your trajectory you know left High School when every young man wanted to go into University and study have a degree get a white college job I dropped I finished high school in 1975 at the age of 18 and wanted to pursue being a carpenter so you literally did not go to university no I didn't I didn't you end up becoming a Carter yes but I I I was so good in woodwork you know and um so in high school one of there were only three high school at our time you know that was a long time ago in The Gambia yeah so I was one of the out of the best high schools in The Gambia so I finished and because I was so good in woodwork I was employed to teach you know 3 months later as a jior teacher so in the same school that I was by June I graduated September I was employed to be a junior teacher in Woodwork and that was how my career started and I just loved it I followed my passion and how how did a carpenter became a a real estate developer well Fast Track I mean from carpentry I joined a British firm it was in construction in The Gambia called Bal for be B I was employed as an Engineers assistant and basically what I should have spent learning in University I learned it on the job you know I was working with with trained British Engineers so I learned everything on the job fast track I worked for 15 good years you know doing my apprenticeship which is important to the young people so I work for three different EMP four different employers but three mainly in construction then I started my own business first starting with conventional Construction so when somebody has a house to build I would build it for him or for her and then I started tendering for jobs you know for for internationally funded jobs or government funded jobs but in 2000 I just had this this Niche to to build for mainly Africans or gambians who are living in the diaspora you know the story everywhere yeah they want their houses and they will spend money and they will not get their houses and that's how it really started started with five houses you know and it got sold out I said wow so there's a demand so my first Mass housing was in The Gambia called y Bamba okay 210 units on 10 hectares at the time we were selling it at $155,000 finished it also got sold out in one year so the next one I did was 600 units in BR Gardens and then I can't just stop from there I mean I've been now looking at because I was growing so so big and so fast I just thought Gambia was too small for me I felt it at a very early stage that look if I really want to do what I want to do and fulfill my dream I need to get out of the source of the Gambia so 2012 I came to to to to Nigeria and met then the governor of River State signed up a golf estate of 1,200 units today it's history you'll see it later and then you remember I will I told you that anything that's less than a th000 I was you're interested but you know not only a th000 now I multiplying thousand by 20 and bigger than 20 there's something in cooking when people hear it it's mind [Music] blowing with all these things that you're doing what is that one quotes yeah that keeps you going teamwork teamwork look but I have the expertise and like all of us you know um Bill Gates with Microsoft and all his wealth he's just an individual I'm sure he doesn't know maybe 99% of his employees yep um Tesla what's the guy's name again Elon Musk Elon Musk he doesn't know probably 99.9% of his employees and Africans needs to understand this so what I'm doing now is taking that route where we are branding we've branded our product so it's a tough house so now I dilute myself or I clone people to work for me like today if you went to The Gambia and spoke to my general manager she will tell you exactly why how things I don't need to be there and African needs to learn this that you know there's a time in life and very short physically I am 67 years old I cannot do what I was doing you know 5 years ago yeah but God forbid if I drop that life it continues and we need to see now you know African businesses you know moving from one generation to the other there must be continuity there must be you know um business transforming from one generation to the other that's my that's my now my my my my my my focus it means you believe in generational world oh yes oh yes it's a must you don't have a choice you don't have a choice whatever you are doing make sure that there's good governance it's accountable it's accountable legally structured you know with discipline and that is it then you at the end of the day you are totally irrelevant you know actually if I walk down the side here now not everybody knows me they don't know me and it's so important they don't have to know who I am I can walk in the street and doing all this in Port har they don't know who I am that's irrelevant and we need to now think as Africans if we want to develop we need to stop that issue of you know holding things to ourselves because if you think back maybe two generations before us there were some businesses that were doing very well yeah now they've just disappeared but it was all centered around one person if you drop debt that is it the family is not bu it's a family business they're not prepared well enough to move on so for my business like here in Nigeria there's not a single gambian within the structure there's no gambian they are all 100% Nigerian like everyone working in here yes 100% my management the most hospitable people in Africa are the Nigerians I am talking from living in Nigeria for the past 12 years I love Nigeria look there are the ups and downs of Nigeria because of size 200 million people un counting but honestly and and fairly I mean I have found Nigerians to be very hospitable they go gets they can be very aggressive you know but I thank God honestly I I know my way around here I know my way around here yes there are difficulties like challenges like everywhere in the world but this is the place to be [Music] with with a project like this this is massive right yes how how do you fund such products how do I fund it such now funding funding what we do first is obviously as a business that has existed for 30 years we have our own money okay we've saved enough so that the SE Capital that is needed one for preconstruction we Finance it and that's a must we cannot come to somebody to finance it for us so all the that we do everything is funded by us and then the SE Capital to start the business is done by us and actually now days we don't use any Bank financing we are not looking for Bank financing wow because look Maya you are in Ghana what's what an interest rates in Ghana 30% 30% in s Nigeria is the same seron is the same Gambia about 20% do you make 30% profit no so why should you work for somebody else so we don't look for Bank financing because the only way we can access financing or use financing is if it's single digit otherwise we pass on this cost to the client the cost of Finance so it's 30% more expensive just for the finance so what we do is we bring in our own money first which cost us nothing and then within our cash flow we start selling Off plan wow people pay some deposit but remember you can only do this once you've built a a brand because we have a brand and the brand has Integrity yes so people know that look if I pay 20% to T Africa Global you know he will they will not run away with my money so again an advice to the young ones because I always want to link it to the young ones because often we you hear all the time oh how can I be like you Maya or Mr tff how can I be like you they need to do your apprenticeship number one and then build up those values that people will trust [Music] you are you a billionaire I'm not a billionaire you know what a billion is in dollars yeah it's $1,000 million yeah I think in terms of asset value I am a millionaire in dollars tough that's like my so so to have 1,000 I don't have $1,000 million I don't have it assets I no I don't have it oh no I don't have it I can tell you I'm not a billionaire but if you want to address me as a millionaire you can I have more than $1 million anybody who's got more than a million yes then you are a million man but for me that's totally irrelevant and I've told you this over and over and over again the first time you're telling me really yeah it's irrelevant and in all the interviews why why is it irrelevant because that doesn't matter to me for me now what is most important is positively impacting lives that's what I enjoy look the money the money only go in the bank and they will tell you okay let's say you have $2 million what is it you have two 6 Z somewhere you canot even touch it have you heard um what's name dangote when he said about when he wanted to be sure he has money what he did you know and one day I went to a bank yeah you know at that time there were no restrictions of this and I wrote a check and cash $10 million and I took it home for yourself for myself yes I you cashed $10 million from the bank yes yes and took it I put it in the boot of my vehicle but I B it and I went there by myself I drove myself to the bank I cash the money and uh you know I put it in my room and I look at the money and I took it back to the bank the next day I'm sure dang go if you ask him from his wallet he will even take take out10 $10 or ,000 can I ask you how much money you have in your wallet today today yeah how much money you have in your pocket you'll be very very surprised I don't even have not even a dollar nothing you have no money on you nothing nothing I have nothing so for me that is irrelevant but what I enjoy really that I have a passion for is impacting people's lives I love that where it's least expected so let's be like you're a billionaire in terms of impacting people's lives so let's talk about being a billionaire in that aspect are you touching Billion Lives so far not no no no no because a billion lives our populations are quite small you know even in Niger it's only 200 million and I haven't touched 200 million lives to be realistic even in the Gambia I haven't touched everybody's lives and it is irrelevant now counting the numbers what is important is once you touch one life it it then they will now go on and touch others it's like a pyramid I am sitting at the top you know so whatever I do when you go down the base it widens up and that's what's important and I don't even have to directly touch the lives of those at the base of the pyramid so for me that's what I do and that's what I love and I I want to be remembered doing that I want to die every day to the last second just touching people's lives reducing inequality the issue is not about me having a million dollars no the world is a huge cake and in that cake we all cannot have equal shares but let every person have a taste of that cake but what our leaders do today in every aspect they want to eat all the cake and some will go hungry and die in it that is wrong do you have a problem with the leadership in Africa or as always everywhere we're trying as much as possible you know but leadership stop because it's personalized when you are a leader you are there to serve your followers so every single leader regardless of where you are whether you are in the church in the mosque whether you are leading a football team or a basketball team whether you are Le leading in politics wherever you are please know that it's not about you it's about people who you leave behind so we need to understand that you know human flesh we cannot live beyond these days average 80 years but your legacy should be us should be remembered for the good deeds that you have done and that's what I stand for I want to be remembered that look this is the man who worked on the design of a house that has now gone across Africa and is providing shelter and also employment for the most needed in [Music] Africa now I want to know the type of houses that you're building in here okay now let me tell you first Maya um in trying to develop 1 million homes you know across different countries I have walked out and done my research on the needs of the people that look you can no longer be living in a mansion or a big house simple reason let's work on on on on data data is key yeah the population of West Africa is about over 400 million y population growth is about 2.5% or so per anom so so simply meaning um 1% is what 4 million yes 1% is 4 million so 202 um for every year you're going to have 2 and a half million or more you know new lives so therefore land is becoming scarce I can talk about Gambia for example population density in Gambia it's the fifth or sixth most dense in the in in the continent and same thing in all these West African countries so what I've done is first to make sure that we set up a design that is uh concised and also reasonable because of cost so we have three different designs now now in every country the same design is given a local name okay for example here in The Gambia this the most affordable sorry in Nigeria this the most affordable and it's 7 m by 7 m 49 square m and it's called the charity charity charity name after a lady I only name my my house is after ladies it's a ladies man yes and then and then in Sone it is called the Sal okay in The Gambia it's called the maratu okay so let me ask now you'll be on the other side if I come to Ghana with this what name should I give it lady namey so get ready so this is 7 by 7 m so it's a starter home okay so you start from there and what we're doing now in Nigeria we're selling semi-finished as you can see now we build the structure give you a parel of land that is 250 square m 10x 25 okay so you have space to build another one imagine 250 less 50 so it means that the space that is left is four times bigger than the house itself wow so you have a lot of space so you can do you can build your own house you can build if you want so now in here let let me walk walk you through you do the structure do the roof no ceiling you do the pipe work for the electrical you P for electrical and and here you go so now you have a decent living room so living and dining so it's a start home if you go to to England with due respect to them they live in even smaller house than this with big families yeah so that's what we've done here good ventilation we leave the ceiling for you to complete it so as you make money you can be buying your materials and finish it yourself okay now on the left hand side here is the kitchen so if you want this wall can go and you can have a counter here so it's an open kitchen so there you go we put the pipes in the pipes are all in so you can finish it up with your tiles and then you know put your count whatever and finish it up but the thing is it can grow I mean if it's for civil servant as you make money monthly or three monthly you can buy 5 Square me of tiles do the tiles you can buy a door and so on so there from here you have one bedroom here so you here you have you have a bedroom here yeah um that um it's UNS Suite so you call it a master's bedroom yeah master bedroom you know but reasonable I mean what Maya think about it yeah what do you need in a bedroom just a bed B how big is a bed if it's a master even it's 1.8 m by 1.8 m that's less than 4 square m so then a wardrobe wardrobe the area of an wardrobe is not more than 1.5 M so 5.5 m square m then some space double it up you don't need more than 10 square m from a bedroom and this is a beginning of life so I mean you don't need anything so you put your own Suite there and then you have a second bedroom here you have a toilet this here so the guest that you have can use this and then this bedroom the second one can use this one oh okay and from here you can graduate into something else in the west that's what it happens yep so how much will you sell this one this is about $22,000 oh wow yeah $222,000 so that does it mean that I mean someone can buy it finish it and add you know the finishing amount of money to it and then you sell it to another person yes yes you can you can but we we're trying to address the first time buyers we don't want to encourage people who speculate because if you open it up that much you will never address you know those who are in absolute need of housing somebody has money so he sees as an opportunity come and buys a lot and then starts speculating that's not what we do here so because remember this is very political because the government put in the land at no cost so they want their citizens to have access to this so we are now talking to mortgage Banks to give up give them mortgages but those who are buying now they have a oneyear payment plan with us wow they pay 20% and then they will pay monthly for a for for a year so is it sold out or you still selling this type here in the first phase is sold out initially when we first started people thought oh it's too small this will not sell it's the first one to [Music] go so this is the charity let me now take you through the second one the second one is the favor we give you more land so you have 300 square m here this is a different design but we start with a two-bedroom bigger two-bedroom this is 73 square m remember the first one was 50 yeah this is 73 square m the land here is 300 square m instead of 250 now let me walk you in here that's the favor you get you get the that's the favor extra 50 yeah this is the favor yeah so in the favor here we I think we should stop here because the favor you can now expand to a blessing yeah uh W so in the favor you see you have a bigger living and dining both the favor and the blessing are the same size as far as the living room is concern okay okay now you have the kitchen here the kitchen is the same size as the as the um as the as the blessing so this is the same this is the kitchen here it has an outdoor there and then here you have a toilet which will be shared by this bedroom and also for guests then here you have now one bedroom and the master bedroom is here it's sleeping yeah so master bedroom is here which is unsweet now when you open up you can extend this from the outside to make it a free bedroom oh okay oh yeah so when you go outside I will show you the space at the bag is Big let's space the bag to extend it yeah and the cost of this is about $27,000 as it is so favor is 27,000 the charity charity is 22 Yeah 24,000 and then and the blessing is 30,000 this is the Finish yeah Char this is the charity that is finished but does it mean that you're not selling a finish house no we don't do the Finish because we want to mass produce so we just do the semi finish and then we sell it to you now you can take your own time and then finish it but remember I have built an ecosystem here like these painters you can now contract them out to paint your house for you the guys who are doing the windows you can buy Windows from them the guys doing the tiles you can buy it from them so we're not dealing with it we just want to now complete the first step of having a finished house but I will be just doing these um model homes so you can see how good it is when it's already CU I really want to know what is so unique about this property that I need to buy okay one thing I would say is this is one of the kind find here in pakat city and being that um people need uh a brand they can work with a brand they can trust they can deliver now you're working with something or you're investing in something that you will have Assurance with you have Assurance for their delivery so buying a property here this is fresh investment fresh development and being that it's just along the airport road come on in poot City whenever people come into the um into the city they always ask what's happening around the airport area is not as beautiful as we want it to be and that's why we are here we want people to see that beauty people like you now coming in here and seeing this much development you would love to stay here and being that the infrastructures we're not just building house and just spreading it out there we're giving you quality we're giving you infrastructures services that will keep you comfortable within one city now as you come in here you have your medical facilities is available water reticulation proper um Road networks you have your shopping malls and all you know a garden and park we try to maintain the echo um look of the place so we're planting gardens trees and all so the place is healthy conducive accommodating so living here you don't need the hustle and bustle of the city my [Music] dear T yes 3 years ago when I met you yeah and real estate Mugu you know we say real estate M but now I'm even confused cuz I feel like I created a mini waterm yes yes yes what has changed man I see all over the place Tik Tok YouTube Facebook are you an influencer now uh yes I am I think I am but I want to be like you I want to have those followers I don't make money out of it I out of fun yes yes I think I influence what I do is and I learn from you and I definitely need to need to give you the compliments since I met you it completely changed my my attitude towards media I understood what it meant to be visible okay that look whatever you are doing in life be there you know but again so that's one thing we need to learn as Africans that there's enough for everybody and I learned that from you in media how many people have you built in media there are so many don't even name names you're never jealous that you know oh if he comes in he will take my business we happens in a lot of businesses but here you are you are always to get people to get involved teach them you remember when you came to Gambia and I had my my um Academy yeah you offered to teach them how to make money on YouTube so really that's a lesson to learn and so influencing people you know and inspiring people it's not about age it's not about education it's not about race it has to be in your heart that you are ready to share and you share it with me now you have turned me into a media Giant and that is why I'm here once again to let you guys know that I believe in transfer of knowledge yeah and when you watch tff you get to learn a lot personally there's so many things that I've learned since the day he became an influencer that when I was here when I met you I I couldn't learn that in that short time so I followed his page subscribe to his YouTube channel watch his videos and this is what you all need to do if you really want to be a giant or if you want to be like tough you don't need to meet him go follow him on Instagram subscribe to his YouTube channel and uh don't be left to subscribe to tff now thank you that's my son man that's that's why I love you man so you WR an inherit the wealth don't try to take anything else now just wait wait I remember I'm 67 now okay he in the next is 37 years old years that's long man [Music] la [Music]