How I started with Selling Pepe and Vegetables on the street. Edo Businessman and Philanthropist, Joseph Osawaru.

He’s humble Business man who always focus on God and dedicated to working Hard, Joseph Osawaru has been doing Edo State proud with his Philanthropist gesture and Youth empowerment. He recently opened the long awaited Exquisite Homes 2 Hotel and Lounge in Benin City, Edo State the first of its kind to revive Entertainment and Hospitality Business. In this exclusive interviews with Ben tv London’s Adeniyi Ifetayo, He discuses his grass to grace Story to inspire the youth and the reason behind the sudden fame of Exquisite Homes 2 hotel and Lounge. Enjoy the excerpt.

What makes your Exquisite Homes 2 hotel and lounge difference from Others?
Exquisite homes 2 hotel and lounge is a very unique one, looking at edifice, we try to bring in a new innovation in hospitality business because when you travel abroad, you will see different hotels and structures so I decided to bring this one not only Nigeria alone but to my State (Benin City,Edo State). Most of the hotels we have in this state don’t have lounge. You don’t expect your guests to lodge and be looking for where to hangout and have fun. We decided to bring these concepts of having an hotel and a lounge at the same time. Ever since we opened, we have had 50% patronage which is very good for a start. The environment is well secured in terms of security, that’s why people like to come here. When I drives in here and looking at the edifice and how we transform this place, it gives me Joy.

During the opening ceremony, you brought Zlatan Ibile and a week after you brought Naira Marley and other notable comedians to party here and it was a massive show, what are you trying to achieve with this entertainers?
You know, when you opened a new place and our people here love Entertainment and to visit new place so I decided to bring in the rave of the moment in Entertainment industry Zlatan Ibile the Zanku Master and Naira Marley to come and thrill our people and make them feel what’s happening at Exquisite Homes 2 Hotel and Lounge in the heart of G.R.A so when we brought zlatan, we didn’t collect a dime from our people, it was a free show so we also brought Naira Marley back to back, it was free show as well. I want give back to my people, make them happy and Music is very key to achieve this. Like one of my friends will say “A soul that does not love music is Dead”. Music brings Joy and Life. We will not stop here so we are planning a big one in December to bring in Kiss Daniel or Wizkid. In fact, we are in touch with Wizkid just waiting for him to give us a date in December. We have done it before and we will do it again. I want to commend Naira Marley for his professionalism, despite the fact that all flight coming to benin were canceled, to my greatest surprise, he came by road and I gave kudos to him. All our customers are happy when they saw him because Exquisite homes 2 don’t just talk but we act and fulfill our promises.

Customer’s satisfactions and Maintenance are things that can make a customers to come back, how do you plan to maintain these core values?

Customer satisfactions and Maintenance are not negotiable, even before all my staff resumes, I took them to Protea for One Month training to see how its been done. I want to make sure we give our Custormer “Protea Standard “ and thanks to the General manager that collaborated with us when we started to make sure the dream becomes a reality. He said “If you want to do a thing like this, service is the key” when you give your customer the best service because they are paying for it and left their home so you must give them the best, better than what get in their various houses. We want to serve you better and stick to customer oriented service. If you want to retain your customers in the hospitality business, it all depends on your services. We also have deposit with our vendors , electricians, plumbers are on ground to attend to any repairs and Maintenance. We also have yearly maintenance so that every year we will do General Maintenance so that it will always look as a new hotel.

Some said you’re an entertainer, some said you are a businessman while some said you are a Philanthropist, who is Joseph Osawaru?
Well they’ve said it all, You know when you’re dancing on the street, you can rate the level of your performance so its only the spectators that can say you are danced well. When you are good, people must know and when you’re bad people must know it and they will say it. The reason why we are diversifying is to empower my people and creates jobs to help ease the burden of the government and to reduce crime because an idle mind is the devil workshop. As some of our people are working here, I don’t think they will be thinking on how to commit crimes so I’m just a partner in progress. I’m not going to stop here, God helping us, we will build five stars hotel in the next two years, All these are just to empower my people at home before we expand to other states.

You have been doing well for your people, if you get a ticket from your people to represent them at the National Assembly, will you take a shot at politics?

Well, I’m a businessman for now but if my people come to a conclusion in the nearest future that I should represent them so that I can serve, why not I will, Its all about service but at the moment, I don’t belong to any political party.

What’s your advise to the Youth that are looking up to you as a role model?
My advice for them is for them to be focus, they should not run above their shadow, don’t look that man riding Mercedes Benz or Range Rover now because your time will come. I was not born with a silver spoon , I was born in the village because my Parents were farmers so when I came to benin, I started with “Garri School “ then there was no nursery school, I did a manners of petty trade even after school hours. I started hawking from my primary school, I started with Pepe, vegetables then I graduated from there selling sweet, biscuits and chew gum in the traffic light. Bendel line (Now Edo line) and Ogbe stadium used to be our preferred location to hawk. I used to trekked to a long distance and he got to a point my Daddy said that he had a lot of children so everybody should go and fend for themselves. I was paying my school fee through my petty trade but I had the belief that I have a greater future. My dear youth be focus, embrace God and stay out of crime.