How PWAN Became A BIG Brand In 13 Years

• DORIS ERUKE LEWIS, CEO PWAN Excel Property Choice

She is quite a popular personality within the real estate sector both in Lagos and beyond. Her name is Doris Eruke Lewis but she is known more by her ‘unofficial’ real estate title as De Landlady. Meeting Doris for the first time, you can’t but be impressed by her astonishing knowledge of the industry in which she operates and the passion with which she speaks about her job and about the brand she represents- the PWAN brand. PWAN is one of the biggest real estate companies in the land today. They have some of the choicest estates in the country and have spread their tentacles far beyond the shores of the country. If you say Doris breathes PWAN, dreams PWAN and talks PWAN 24/7, you cannot be more accurate. Everything about this very warm and brilliant lady is about PWAN and how to market and attract more clientele to the organisation.

Though Doris rose through the ranks within the organisation from an ordinary marketer to the position of MD/CEO of PWAN Excel Property Choice, she still sees herself first and foremost as a marketer. Her position as MD/CEO, to her, is nothing but a title. She still has running through her veins that hunger and desire she had as a marketer several years ago when she joined the PWAN group. All she thinks about is marketing. She has become such an institution within the indiustry that she has raised and trained dozens of marketers who themselves have become successfuol marketers today.

At the recently held City People Real Estate awards, Doris Eruke Lewis was recognised for her exploits in the industry. She spoke with City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) and revealed how PWAN became a global brand and how she evolved into becoming an accomplished real estate marketer.

Congratulations, madam, on the award you just received, how do you feel about this recognition?

Oh, I feel so elated. It is a great honour that someone can be doing something quietly, thinking that nobody is taking notice of what you’re doing, but at the end of the day, the award came. I feel good because for the past seven years, though I have been in Real Estate for some time, but for the past seven years, I have been in the business of introducing people into Real Estate, training them, building them to become Real Estate business owners. They own their own business and they are now people that can be recognised in the business, especially with our brand, the PWAN brand. It’s a global brand now, we are not only in Nigeria, we are in various countries all over the world. We are in the United States, Dubai, Ghana, branching out to Rwanda and several other places. Because, at PWAN, the focus is not just on the houses, we need people to live in the houses. Our own vision is to see people live in the kind of houses that they dream of, live in the kind of home and environment that they desire. So, this came at a really good time. I really appreciate City People for this award.

PWAN has become a household name in the Real Estate sector, share with us the story behind PWAN, how did the idea to set up PWAN come about and how has it evolved over the years?

Credit has to go to the founders of PWAN group and these are Dr. Augustine Ozioma Onwumere and Dr. Jane Obioma Onwumere. They are the founders. They are the vision holders.  They started the company from nothing. Officially, PWAN was launched 12th March, 2012 and started from a humble beginning. Let me share a bit of their story with you. The founders, they were homeless at the time. They were looking for N300,000 to rent a house and they picked up a flier and that flier changed their lives, They went to the person who printed the flier and said, sir, can we market this land and the man said, yes, if you can market it, you get your commission. How much is the land being sold? They were selling for N300,000 per plot. And they said, if we sell for N360,000, that means 60,000 will be our own? The man said, yes.  And lo and behold they were able to sell several plots and they made 60,000 naira from each plot that they sold. And that’s how it all started. The founders went through a lot but today, they are a success story.

What would you say are the reasons behind PWAN’s phenomenal growth?

It is the vision. The vision is to make home ownership a reality for everyone, not to a particular set of people but to everybody. As long as you have a breath of life, you should have a home, that’s the vision. Now, for this vision to come to pass, there must be a mission and the mission is to discover land. In Ikeja, we are not discovering land again, neither are we discovering land in Surulere, now we have to go outside of these places to get land, that’s why we’re focusing on places like Ibeju-Lekki, Epe, where development is now moving towards. And that’s how we started buying land at very good rate and selling at affordable rates also to everybody. In many ways, PWAN stands out from the rest. They started the system where customers pay bit by bit. You don’t have to have 1 million, 2 million or 3 million for you to have a land, you can buy and start paying. Even with N10,000, you can start making deposits towards your home, because for you to build a house, you must acquire a land, so you start with the land and own the land.  You know how good it feels to say to people, I don’t have a house yet, but I have a land.  It’s a source of pride.

I am passionate about people owning their own lands, that’s why I’m known as the De landlady. I sell land. All my team members are known as landlords are landladies, and I am the De landlady and it is PWAN that gave me the opportunity. Seven years ago, I wasn’t called the landlady, but now, everywhere I step into, you hear them call me the landlady! I created that brand for myself.

Another thing that PWAN did that makes us to be different from every real estate company is that, we don’t call ourselves agents, we are partners with the founders. Every marketer is a partner with the founders, we are co-owners. We own the business together. So, that’s why, if you see the PWAN people, they are proud to be associated with PWAN because they own the business, because at the end of the day you are going to own a share in the company. For instance, I started as just a marketer, and today, I am the Managing Director/CEO of PWAN Excel Property Choices Ltd. I own 50% of the company and the founders own 505% of the company.  And this opportunity is given to everybody. Not only me, my husband is involved also.

So, PWAN is not a one man company structure where everyone reports to the chairman?

No, no, the chairman does not even have a say anymore. PWAN is not like any other real estate company, it is well structured. It is globally structured, because for you to be globally structured, you must have all the features such as an Executive board. And our Executive board is not made up of outsiders but the marketers who started with them.  They have really grown in the business. It’s like a school, you start from primary one and then move to two, three and so on. Those who decide they don’t want to become administrators or managers, we have levels that you climb to. At PWAN, if you’re a marketer, we give you houses, we give you cars, you travel abroad, you don’t even need to go to the embassy, because everything is done for you. Once you join PWAN, the first thing they tell you is go and get your passport. Because you can never tell, imagine, you can just post out one flier and it might bring you good deals and that qualifies you to go to the US. A lot of people that joined us who did not go the university before, now they have opportunities to upgrade themselves educationally, all expenses paid. We sponsor people to Lagos Business School, they have some courses that you can do. It’s an incentive. At PWAN, we change lives. It’s a fantastic brand. At PWAN, if you sell a land for us, we give you 15% commission, compared to other real estate companies who give just 5%. And there are still other incentives that come with it. Honestly, I am a proud PWAN business owner.

From the passion with you have spoken, it’s clear to see that you enjoy what you do and you’re passionate about the real estate business. Share with us what your initial aspirations were and why you chose PWAN?

Truth be told, the main reason why I joined PWAN is because when I heard about them, they were the first real estate company to combine network marketing, and I was like, wow! I’m a networker. What endeared me into networking was because I wanted to raise money that would take me into real estate, I now saw a real estate company that’s into networking, it’s as if the company was created for me. I came in there and I started buying land. Any commission I get then was invested in land buying. My mission was to buy land and they even gave me the opportunity to be buying it bit by bit. Any commission I get, I was just buying land. In a space of two years, I had about 50 plots. At Ibeju-Lekki, I was just buying about 6 plots every time I buy, you know those promos that they say, buy 5 and get 1 free. That was my first reason.  The other thing that made me to join PWAN was that, I like people around me to be financially independent. And PWAN gave me that opportunity to empower people. There is no way anybody will sit around me and say I don’t have a job. Because at PWAN, we employ everyday. There is vacancy. We need marketers. If you say you don’t want to do marketing, then I will tell you, bye-bye because the first thing you learn as a graduate is how to market yourself. If you cannot sell yourself, then you cannot sell anything, so, that’s what brought me to PWAN.  Today, I have been able to train people to become financially free.