Umar Abdullahi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cosgrove Investment Limited, has emerged The Top10 Magazine Man of the Year 2020. The banker-turned real estate developer came tops in a rigorous selection process that featured 100 other equally prominent and successful Nigerians, in an exercise that involved three stages of screening, from which he emerged.
In announcing his choice as the magazine’s Man of the Year, the board of editors of The Top10 Magazine said Abdullahi, a banker-turned estate developer was chosen because of his outstanding contributions to the development of the real estate sector in particular and the economy in general through provision of quality housing and high return on investment (ROI).
Umar Abdullahi is Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Cosgrove Investment Limited, a real estate company focused on leveraging technology to offer a superlative living experience for home owners and outstanding Return on Investment (ROI) to investors.
Cosgrove stands out as a leading real estate solutions provider in Nigeria owing to their value proposition which sees the fusion of automation and technology to residential property development. Abdullahi has created a new standard in real estate development with the inclusion of premium and smart features such as Fibre-to-the-home, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), Smart Surveillance System with Facial Recognition and more.
Defying the global pandemic and the massive layoffs of workers around the world, Cosgrove created new jobs, installed new building infrastructure and delivered premium homes as well as a new smart estate in Abuja. This way, Abdullahi generated a counter cyclical force around his business operations in a period of a general global economic decline.
Cosgrove also launched three new projects in the year enabling it to attain a new millage in the number of premium homes in development. Its record shows more than 1,000 premium homes under construction in the FCT alone.
Of note is The Châteaux by Cosgrove at Wuse 2; a project which offers luxury homes right in the heart of Abuja. Cosgrove also made significant progress in the area of infrastructure development on all its sites in the year. This includes road development works within and around its estates.
The result of Abdullahi’s extra mile effort in the year is an impressive record of return on investment (ROI) available to investors. Return on Investment from Cosgrove properties has taken a leap from about 30 percent in 2019, growing up to 54 percent on the real estate portfolios of Cosgrove clients.
Leveraging social media platforms, Cosgrove has sustained interest and discussions on key industry issues such as building methodologies, building design, investment opportunities as well as IoT trends in real estate development.
A big dream that came through
Abdullahi had a big dream about the real estate industry even while he was still in banking. It was a big dream not just to be a successful player in the real estate sector of Nigeria’s economy but to inject into it the transforming power of innovation.
His vision has continued to manifest against the odds of economic lockdown. In 10 years of his coming into the real estate sector, he has delivered more than 10 top-notch estates – a record that is hardly matched anywhere else in real estate development in Nigeria.
Abdullahi is plugging a noticeable gap in the real estate market by providing homes comparable to what is obtained in first world nations. “We are going to keep improving on our housing developments and designs to make them compete globally with homes anywhere in the world,” he said.
Awards and recognitions
Abdullahi’s contributions to housing delivery in Nigeria have not gone unnoticed. He is among The Top10 Magazine’s Nigeria’s Top 10 Exemplary CEOs of 2019. He is also one of The Top10 Magazine’s Top 10 Real Estate Disruptors, 2020.
