Providing shelter for the people
Odeneho Kwaku Kyeremateng is a lawyer by profession. He is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Consultant of Kwaku Kyeremateng Chambers, a firm of legal practitioners.
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Anybody who has known Odeneho for some time will not help but wonder why the man “abandoned” his legal profession to go into real estate development where he presides over the vast Comet Empire with one of his numerous companies committed to providing affordable shelter for the mass of our people.
Until I had a chat with Odeneho, I did not know he was still a practising lawyer who had specialised in Land Title, that is land boundaries and settlements and land litigation, in which he consults for many individuals and companies.
It was probably by chance that he ended up reading law at the university. But certain events happened along his way that made him take that course and to arrive at where he is today.
Education
Law, certainly, was the last thing Odeneho ever thought he would pursue as he went through secondary school at Mpraeso, Kwahu. He was a science student, very comfortable with Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. His ambition was to read medicine in future and become a doctor.
Odeneho excelled at the “O” Level examinations in 1975. He knew he was on his way to realising his ambition of becoming a doctor but that was not to be, as fate intervened in his destiny and he found himself reading Arts for his “A” Levels at Konongo / Odumasi Secondary School, (Great KOSS) in his own backyard of Asante-Akyem.
He realised the science laboratories at Great KOSS were not well equipped. He did not want to be a struggling student with the sciences and therefore, opted to read Geography, Economics and Government. How Odeneho was able to change over was a surprise to many of his colleagues, especially after he had done science for a term.
Yet he came out with flying colours in 1977, thus qualifying to enter university. But what he should read was the problem, Law: Land Economy or Architecture?
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Pursuing law
The course to pursue at the university almost became a family feud as both parents had different interests. The mother, Madam Margaret Brago, a trader, wanted Odeneho to read Law so that if she had any problem with anybody in her line of business, her son would come in, should there be any litigation.
At this time the father, Mr Yaw Bio Kyeremateng, was a PWD District Works Superintendent at Nsawam and was, therefore, naturally inclined to Land Economy or Architecture, with which he was familiar.
Odeneho, however, swerved his parents and went to see a lecturer friend, Dr Kofi Opoku, at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. His friend did not hesitate to convince him to go for Law. He told Odeneho that with Law he could branch into many fields or areas, including business.
Sojourn in Nigeria
With the advice from his friend, Odeneho went back to the University of Ghana, Legon, and enroled at the Law faculty, finishing the course in 1981. This was a period when there was a craze by many new Ghanaian graduates to go and seek greener pastures in Nigeria. Odeneho joined the bandwagon and left with some friends, including Lawyer Paul Baffoe Bonnie, Kwesi Arhin, Otuo Acheampong and Kofi Kyeremeh to go and teach in Nigeria without doing the professional course in law.
In Nigeria, he was engaged by the Oyo State Central School Board, Ibadan, as a teacher and was initially posted to Awe Grammar School and later Okeho Grammar School. He taught English, Geography, Economics and Government.
Odeneho returned to Ghana sometime in 1987 and was privately called to the bar at the Chambers of then Chief Justice, Mr E.N.P Sowah.
“Two of us had that privilege, the other person being Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas”, Odeneho recalled.
After he was called to the bar, he joined the chambers of Da Rocha upon recommendation from Mr Victor Owusu, whom he had interacted with while a student leader during his undergraduate days.
It was at the chamber of Da Rocha that he took interest in land matters. The renowned lawyer encouraged him to read history in order to become a good lawyer and to understand the importance of land.
“I got to know that it was after the Akwamu wars of 1733 that the whole land tenure changed. My interest then started to go beyond conveyance”, Odeneho told me, adding that his interest was no longer into land law but real estate law.
Real estate interest
Odeneho’s first venture into anything near real estate was when he started producing blocks at Achimota, using a piece of land owned by his father. According to him, he made a lot of money supplying blocks, sand and stone to contractors.
“Among my main clients was the State Housing Corporation (SHC) to whom I was supplying a lot of blocks. That was in 1989. But they couldn’t pay me all my money. As a result , SHC engaged me from 1990 as a sub-contractor to build houses for the company”, he told me.
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With support from his father, who had retired, he built many estate houses for SHC, especially at Teshie Nungua. It was not all that smooth sailing working with SHC which was then riddled with so much corruption.
“I stepped on so many toes at SHC because I wanted the right thing to be done. But it gave me the opportunity to think about going into real estate in future,” he said.
According to Odeneho, his activities at SHC were even reported to the then Head of State, Chairman J.J. Rawlings. A probe was set up but he was exonerated from the charge of conflict of interest.
In 2000, Odeneho took a look back at what he had been able to do as a lawyer, deeply interested in land and real estate. He also remembered what his father used to tell him about the three basic necessities of life food, clothing and shelter. Of the three, his father used to tell him, “shelter will always be put up or constructed by human beings but it is the mode of payment which could change”.
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His company
That was when he decided to set up his own company to replicate what he was doing at SHC. He took advantage of the New Patrotic Party government’s policy of seeing the private sector as the engine of growth.
In 2002, the Comet Group of Companies was established to construct affordable houses for sale. The group has since grown in leaps and bounds to become a leader in the real estate business, having in its fold the Comet Properties Ltd, Comet House, Comet Construction, Landline Properties, Woodfields Dev. Co and Mars Microfinance, Insurance and Energy. The group got listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) in 2010.
Odeneho’s Group has won several awards in the industry, being the best Real Estate Entrepreneur in 2011 and has been a member of Club 100 for the past three years. He was also nominated as a leader in Real Estate in West Africa in Lome (Togo) last October.
Odeneho is not only a lawyer and an entrepreneur but also a philanthropist. He has put up an accident centre at his hometown, Juaso, near Konongo on the Accra-Kumasi Highway at a cost of GH¢1.2million as a donation to the police in their efforts to make the roads safe.
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Odeneho is particularly interested in the youth, whom he advises to be cautious and develop themselves systematically. “Move away from fraud and crime and the “get rich quick attitude,” since it would lead you to destruction. Rather be serious with your education and be disciplined,” he entreated.