By Amechi Ogbonna
DR Fabian Nwaora, chairman, EFAB Properties Limited, symbolises the Nigerian spirit of enterprise and hard work. At a tender age in life, he learnt from his parents, the late Chief Ejefobinyi and Madam Louisa Uzoejeaga Nwaora, key elements, such as hard work, honesty and the fear of God. He knew that these were the building blocks to a successful living.
After his primary education at St. Anthony Primary School, Oke-Afia Osumenyi and City Primary School, Fegge, Onitsha, Nwaora, hit the ground running early in life. From that humble beginning in the 1980s, he, after two years of tutelage under his elder brother in Onitsha, plunged into the highly volatile and harsh business world. That was in Kano, Kano State. He embraced the challenge with equanimity. After a few successful years, he spread his tentacles to other parts of the country.
A few years after launching out, an inert desire to push and explore the various opportunities that came up in the formative years of his enterprise propelled him into diversifying his business into critical areas of need for a growing economy like Nigeria. Much of those initiatives paid off handsomely when he took a decision in 1992 to relocate his headquarters to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja. In his over 40 years of investing in various parts of the country, this extraordinary entrepreneur has indeed touched lives by creating jobs across various sectors of the economy and contributed significantly to the development of the Abuja master plan through the construction of thousands of low and middle income housing estates at the Federal Capital Territory.
Among his fast rising conglomerate include Nwaora Group of Companies, Syndicate Construction and Commercial Co. Ltd., EFAB Properties Ltd, a company that singlehandedly built over 5,000 housing units under the mass housing project initiated by the government of Olusegun Obasanjo.
Others include EFAB Petroleum, Queen Construction and Commercial Co. Ltd, Fechton and Sons International Ltd., Top Rank Hotels Ltd, a three-star hotel with branches in Abuja, Enugu and Onitsha, and First Generation Mortgage Bank, which secured National Housing Fund loans for over 2, 241. In the real estate market, EFAB Properties remains a key player that has delivered thousands of houses using cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art building materials. The firm is involved in various sectors of the national economy as an entity with solid international affiliations and partnerships in critical areas as agriculture, banking, hospitality, manufacturing, importation, transportation and oil and gas.
An accomplished entrepreneur and philanthropist, who patterned his life in the way of most successful global business leaders, Nwaora has vowed to continue to invest in various sectors of the Nigerian economy until poverty is finally exterminated from the land.
Chief Nwaora, who holds the traditional titles of Chikeluba of Osumenyi and Aku Chinyere of Abagana, has, through the Chikeluba Education Scholarship Foundation, sponsored thousands of indigent students from across the country to acquire secondary and tertiary education. His achievements, particularly in the area of housing development, earned him a national honour of Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) in 2008.
