 Welcome back to the YouTube channel to your favorite village boy Mr. Ghana Baby and I'm back again with another inspirational and empowering video. I am here to empower you. I am here to let you know that it's possible on Mama Africa but I'm kind of sad because today is my last day in this beautiful country Kenya but this is not gonna be my last time of coming here because I feel like Kenya is now my second home. Thank you so much for the love and support. Thank you so much for being part of this awesome family. Thank you so much for being part of my journey. Like I said, I am on a journey to change the narratives of Africa. I am on a journey to celebrate African excellence and where I am right now is Reata Service Apartment and I want to say thank you so much to the owner of this beautiful apartment and hotel here in Nairobi, Kenya. You know what she told me? What a Maya. I love you so much and I'm giving you this apartment for free for two good weeks. So my time in Kenya, I spend all my time in Kenya in here. So if Reata Service Apartment has done this for me, you know how we do it. It's by force for each and every one of you to book a room at Reata Service Apartment. You know it. Please. Just for the love that the owner of this beautiful apartment show, what a Maya. Let's reciprocate this love. I mean, it's by force for each and every one of you. If you are living in Kenya and you are looking for a place to spend a night or two night, three night book Reata Service Apartment. Even if you are not in Kenya but you're coming to Kenya to spend holidays, make sure you book Apartment with them and tell them that what a Maya told me to come and spend time in here. If you are watching this video and if not like the video, what are you waiting for? Please like the video. It's by force to like the video and don't forget to subscribe and be part of this awesome family. Let's hit 600,000 subscribers. 5,000 more to go. I know and believe that we can do it. You know what? I always do it. I cannot just tell you about this apartment without showing you who owns this property. Come with me. Let me go talk to the owner. Subscribe, like and be part of this awesome family. I am Maya. I can't believe I'm sitting down with the director of Reata Service Apartment Hotel. Everyone is telling me that before I leave Nairobi, I need to meet up with you. It's so nice to see you. Thank you. Thank you Wadi. Should I introduce myself? Yes. My name is Wada Maya from Ghana and you have to tell me your name because a lot of people watching us don't know who you are. Tell me your name and where are you from? My name is Modoni Kuria. I'm from Kenya. I was born in Meru but I live in Nairobi. You're not born in Nairobi? No. What brought you to Nairobi? I came to Nairobi to school and you decided not to go back again. Well, as you will find out, a lot of Kenyans have a rural home but mostly they live in the cities. That's where they work. So you lived in Nairobi all your life? Yes. My husband is from Nairobi as well. So basically Nairobi is our home now. So you work in Nairobi right now? Yes. I just want to know what you've done is really incredible because somebody told me that you own this apartment. I said that's a woman. I said, oh my God, I want to meet up and talk to you. I mean, I just want to know, did you ever live in Nairobi? Did you stay in Nairobi or you're just based in Nairobi? Well, I've lived in Bristol, UK for a few years. I was in school there and I also worked. But that was a while back. That was in the 80s, late 80s. So what job were you doing in Nairobi? Well, I'm an accountant by profession. I've worked mostly in Nairobi and that short stint in the UK, but mostly Nairobi. And I want to know, yeah, because I'm talking about this apartment. What really inspired you to build this in here? Okay. How we got into this, my husband is also a professional accountant. So late, no, the year 2001, we were looking for a commercial property to invest in. And this property was available for sale. It had been in the market for a couple of years and they were not taking us. So we decided to take the planche, go for it, because we were looking for an investment that would give us an income. And with property, you get the benefit of capital gains. So we were very clear wanted to invest in a commercial property that would generate income at the same time gaining in value. So which means that you guys wanted to, this is like a retirement plan or you're working as an accountant and you're still investing in an apartment? We're working. That time we're both working. But this, we're looking at long term because eventually you retire. Then what do you do? So we're looking at something that we could earn from, sort of like a pension. So that's how we got into it. But we're very clear. We didn't want to invest in a single dwelling property. We already had a home. So we figured the best thing is to get into commercial space. I just want to know, is this the only property that you own in here? You have others in Nairobi? We have others, but this was really the seed. This is what helped us now invest in other properties. When we acquired this in 2002, it was run down. So we spent some money just sprucing it up. It was run as serviced apartments and we had to borrow heavily. You know, there are people who don't believe in borrowing, but as accountants we believe in borrowing. So because we had our deposit, but we borrowed the balance. So what happened is within six months to a year, the property was able to... Because once we spruced it up, cleaned it up, we were able to increase the rentals that the previous owners were getting, we were able to double that. Now from that, the property was able to clear the loans and there was excess. So from that, we were able to purchase other properties because we're still both earning. So the money that we got from here, we invested in other properties. We have so many young women out there who will be inspired to be just like you. Do you think that it's worth it to invest in real estate because this is like part of real estate business? It is, it is. But for us, we were very clear because we're in very demanding careers. We didn't want a side hustle that was going to take time from our jobs. So we wanted something that you could get a good manager and they would run it and we're comfortable with the manager we had. So we didn't really take time from our jobs or careers. So if you're in employment and you want an easy side hustle, I would say property is a good option. Property is a good option. Yes. I just want to know what makes a reactor service apartment and hotels so unique? Now what happened when we, what the property has pushed it up, we're running it as service departments. In 2009, I left my job and decided to, we closed it, we closed the place and did a full makeover, a full renovation. And because at that time, there were very few service departments in Nairobi, I decided we did some research and figured out that if we changed our model, we were going to be above the rest. So what we did is we decided to convert to an apartment hotel. And the difference between an apartment hotel and service departments is we offer all the other services that a hotel would offer its clients. That is let's say 24 hour reception, restaurants, gyms, daily service, made service in the rooms, turn up service. So we offer all those services that you would get in a hotel. Service departments basically they, you get the apartment, you don't have access to a restaurant, you have to do all your cooking, but with Reata apartment hotel now, you can choose to either cook for yourself or you can choose to eat from the restaurant, you can have room service. Basically what we are is a hotel suite. Because you get all the services you would get in a hotel but you have the benefit of bigger space because you have the living room, the living area, the bedroom, a fully equipped kitchen and your bathroom. It's profitable. Is it profitable? Yeah. It's okay, we are not complaining. I'm thinking of buying one of this in Nairobi. Yeah okay. You need to help me find a manager. No problem. We can help, we can help for sure. You know, you were telling me that you have other properties apart from this one. Yes. I'm so sorry, I really want to know. So which means that the income that you made from this one, that's why you managed to purchase the other ones? Yes. Did you start from scratch or you bought this one and renovated it? The other property, one of the other properties we've invested in is NABO residences. Now NABO, being an immediate neighbour to Reata was a very easy decision for us to make in terms of acquiring. When the owner decided to sell, he approached us and he told us he was looking for a buyer. He wanted to get out of that business and do something else. So he offered us that property for us to buy. Now what we did, because we didn't have all the money at that time, so we agreed that we would pay him a deposit and then we got into a lease for a year. So we leased for a year. So we continued paying him what he was earning and the agreement we signed allowed us to start renovations. So we started renovating and that gave us time to now engage banks to finance us for the difference. Had he insisted on us paying for the full amount immediately, it would have been difficult. Yes. So that was, because we were good neighbours, we agreed once we made that proposal he was fine with it. So you just have to be innovative in how you approach these things. And you did all this in Africa? Yes. But a lot of Africans are saying it's impossible. To do what? To establish yourself like what you've done in Africa. A lot of them that are saying it's impossible, but you have done it. That's why I wanted to speak to you. Oh, you can do it. You can do it. Can you tell them that it's possible in Africa because some of them watching us right now don't get it like we can do everything in Africa. In Africa, everything is possible. Oh, it's possible. Anything you can do anywhere in the world, it's doable in Africa. Do you believe that Africa is the future? It is, definitely. It is the future. What makes Africa the future? Oh, Africa, there's so much. There's natural resources that are not exploited. We have a very young population that is capital right there. Our wealth is our people, our young people. Our wealth is our young people. Yes. Which means that you know that there's so many young women out there. Me, I'm speaking to you today, it's all about women empowerment. Yes. Because I wanted a woman to do this interview, but I'm like, I need to do it myself. Yes. I have so many young women watching me right now. Yes. If you should advise them what makes it willing to happen. If the sky is the limit for them, but you have to take the opportunities. When this opportunity came up, because the organization I was working for tried to sell this property for two years with no takers. They were not getting good offers. I didn't sit back and think because I'm a woman, I can't do it. We discussed with my husband and we agreed we could do it. As long as you work hard, you plan properly and you grab the opportunities when you get them, it's doable. Okay? And don't be afraid to borrow, because we borrowed heavily for this property. And a lot of people I know are really scared of borrowing. It's doable as long as you have a plan, you have a good strategy. For us, the market was there. When we bought the property, it already had tenants. What we did was improve on it and we were able to double the revenue. So the opportunities are there. That's really impressive, but if you had the chance to change something in Africa, what would it be? I think leadership makes a big difference. If you have good leaders, I'm sure you've gone around Africa. You can tell the countries with good leaders, you can see they're progressing. The countries with not-so-good leaders are lagging behind. I think leadership, we need to take leadership seriously. We need us voters, we need to be very clear who we are voting for because our leaders determine our trajectory. I just want to say thank you so much, but don't go away. I mean, this is by force. You know, anytime I say it's by force, it's by force. I'm here in Nairobi and I just want to tell each and every one of you, whenever you are in Nairobi, it's by force to spend a night in here, but they don't know where the location is. You have to tell us. Yes. We are situated on Raft Banch Road in an area called Milimani. It's a five-minute drive to the city centre. You can walk. We have many customers, many of our guests who stay here actually walk to the CBD if they have business to do there. And we're very near the State House and the Department of Defence. So it's very easy to locate us and very safe. I want to say thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you, Adé. Thank you and you're most welcome.