Adetola Nola and his team recently celebrated their years of hard work and success with the opening of a new corporate office in Ikoyi, Lagos to mark the company’s sixth anniversary. Dignitaries from all walks of life, honoured him with their presence at the ceremony as they marvelled at how well he has done for himself at his young age.
A young achiever and urbane entrepreneur, Adetola the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Veritasi Homes and Property Limited, one of the biggest real estate companies in Nigeria, headlining a team of real estate communities consisting of developers, property consultants and end-users, all combining their credible expertise in the real estate industry and beyond to provide cutting edge real estate solutions, has succeeded in redefining success and growing businesses in Nigeria by a youth.
At a time when the ‘japa’ syndrome seem to be the in thing for Nigerian youths who are despondent about the country, he remained optimistic about the future of Nigeria and resolved to build a groundbreaking company that will outlive him.
At only 31, Nola has successfully trodden where giants before him applied caution before treading. The company currently boasts of over 12,000 real estate consultants, 1300 Veritasi Realtors and dozens of full-time staff. His style of leadership, rooted in eye for details and profits, made the company record over N2 billion in revenue in less than five years of operation. But what is more interesting is the audacity he once exhibited to borrow over N5 billion on a commercial paper loan from the Financial Market Dealers Quotation Securities Exchange. For those who may not know, a commercial paper is a short-term loan that the biggest organisations in the corporate sector access to grow their businesses and boost their capital. These big corporations prefer commercial paper because it is cheaper than bank loans. They can get a commercial paper loan with less than eight per cent interest, while banks charge 25 percent to give the same loan. The only drawback is that repayment is usually shorter with commercial paper than with a bank loan. While commercial paper repayment is usually 270 days, banks can extend loan tenure to two years. Commercial paper is usually recommended for companies that have a healthy cash flow but need cheap temporary loans to fund their business. And in April of 2022, Nola’s company signed for a commercial paper worth N5.5 billion and redeemed his debt ahead of its maturity date on December 30. A graduate of Chemical Engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nola started out selling shoes he made and selling them to retailers and end-user customers. He was so good at it that a client felt he could also sell real estate, and there arose his interest in real estate. He had to sell off the machines he used in shoe production, the generators, the car he used in delivering the shoes to customers and one other car they used for Uber to make money by the side.
In 2017, he founded his own company with just one staff member, his secretary. It has not all been rosy as he has also experienced a lot of disappointments, but he never allowed it dissuade him, instead, he trudged on. And the recognition won’t stop coming. Nola has been listed in the Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 Business class, 2019, Avance Media: 100 Most Influential Young Nigerians, 2020 and Business Day: Top 10 Entrepreneurs to look out for in 2020. He has also been nominated for different awards including World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, 2020 and The Future Awards Africa, 2020.
