Anayo Okoli
The Chief Executive Officer, Purple Premium Limited, Mr. Richard Obahor, has won the prestigious BEFFTA Leadership Awards in London. The prestigious award is one of the Europe’s biggest award ceremony celebrating black and ethnic personalities in entertainment, film, fashion, television, arts, sports and leadership. It celebrates outstanding African, Caribbean and Asian personalities globally.
Obahor, who is a property developer, operating in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, however, described the award as a reward for his unrelenting service in whatever capacity he found himself.
According to Obahor, “I hold very strong views that leadership should be a platform to serve and not a rank. Rather unfortunately, society, most times, misconstrue leadership to be a status symbol, and so-called leaders regularly demand followership rather than earn it.
“It has always been my passion to serve in whatever capacity I can and because of my philosophies; I always ensure everything I do is conditioned around serving others. Even as a businessman, our ethos is service before profit.”
Speaking on how to reduce Nigeria’s huge housing gap in the country, Obahor said the nation’s real estate sector lacked reasonably priced, good and quality properties. He said the few market players who are quality driven tend to dominate the market and they are doing extremely well. “However, these players only target the top end of the market because they feel that’s where most of the profit is.”
Obahor was awarded the BEFFTA Leadership Awards alongside Nigeria’s acting High Commissioner to the UK, Mr. Simon Ogah and Mrs. Olufolake Davies Abdulrazaq, Minister/Head of Consular, Education and Welfare at the Nigerian High Commission.
