Obinna Okwodu is the founder and CEO of Fibre, a Nigerian real estate start-up founded in 2016 to provide middle-income tenants with flexible payment options for homes around Lagos.
Early life and Family
Obinna, born in 1991 in the United States, grew up in Lagos, Nigeria.
Parents: Nnaemeka and Uchenna
Siblings: 2 (Adaobi and Onyema)
Primary education: Grange School
Secondary Education: Olashore International School
Education
Obinna Okwodu went to Winchester College in England to finish off his A-levels and then proceeded to Cambridge, MA for University at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
While there, he earned one B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the School of Engineering and another in Management Science from the Sloan School of Management.
He graduated in 2014 and joined the Real Estate team at Morgan Stanley that summer.
He was an analyst in the Real Estate Investment Banking team in New York at Morgan Stanley.
While there, he worked on structuring financing for large real estate deals as well as for large real estate investment trusts (REITS) in the United States.
He spent a year at Morgan Stanley and moved back to Lagos in the summer of 2015.
Obinna Okwodu was influenced to study Civil Engineering by his Dad.
Obinna’s dad is a Civil Engineer and while growing up, Obinna and his siblings would spend Saturday afternoons at their dad’s building sites in Lagos.
Even though it was not his first choice activity while growing up, Obinna took interest in his dad’s occupation after he witnessed a few buildings go from bare land to complete structures in a matter of months.
His dad’s work was the reason he started caring about structures and decided to study Civil Engineering at University. It was the big reason he chose to learn more about Real Estate and try to make a difference in Nigeria’s Real Estate market.
Obinna Okwodu at Fibre
He discovered that renting residential real estate in Lagos, Nigeria could be a serious problem. As a result, he started Fibre to offer services to ease the stress experienced by middle-income tenants.
Fibre works with landlords across Lagos to make it possible for professionals to live in the city and pay monthly, as opposed to having to pay two years' rent upfront with service charges, agency fees, legal fees, caution deposit, etc. for rent.
The real estate market in Nigeria treats 100% of the rental population as though they are 100% risky. Therefore, it was difficult luring landlords to enlist their properties on Fibre initially. However, they eased up when they saw the potential of the business model.
Obinna Okwosu was named as one of Forbes’ 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa for setting up Fibre.
Net Worth
Obinna Okwodu’s net worth is unknown however, in 2017, Fibre made over 450 million naira in revenue.
