Meet Ghana’s youngest real estate developer transforming the construction industry at just 22

At an age when most of her peers might still have been in school, or yet to figure out what to do with their lives, this young Ghanaian entrepreneur had already built and sold her first 3-bedroom apartment.

Stephanie Ode Wilson was only 20 years in November 2017 when she achieved this target of selling her first property, launching her into her real estate career, especially in a country with a very high housing deficit.

The Ghanaian government is expected to build 190,000 to 200,000 units of houses each year for the next 10 years to bridge the gap, costing an estimated US$3.4 billion. Thus, the contributions of Wilson come in as a great addition.

According to the Business Insider, Wilson birthed her ambitions very early in life but got a shattering reaction from one of her junior high school teachers when she began to show interest in construction.

Her dreams, for a moment, went downhill but at the age of 17, she reopened her dreams casket and decided to associate with people from the construction industry to get abreast with issues such as how to break barriers in the industry.

She did this while still in high school at the Kumasi Girls Senior High School and with support from her family, she took on the challenge of importing interior building materials such as tiles, wall coverings, and security doors, in a bid to begin her own trade in construction.

This was also made possible from savings that she had made from running errands and doing follow-ups for her boss who owns and runs one of the biggest Real Estate Firms in Ghana.

Determined to make a mark for herself in the industry she was just venturing into, Wilson went on to coordinate and build a strong network of experienced team members to work with her, some of whom had expertise spanning over 25 years.

She led the client acquisition campaigns, won contracts under her company name, Scown Properties Ghana, which was launched in October 2017, and executed her first major project with her dependable team.

Scown Properties helps customers to use technology to slash the time it takes to turn ideas into value, as well as, offering services in cabling and fibre optics, data and network security infrastructure, home automation and security system installation to its clientele.

That same year, Wilson proceeded to sell 3 more houses for clients who were living abroad.

A year before this, the determined young lady launched a clothing line to build her craft in the creative industry.

It is also worth noting that in 2016, she worked with Shieldsoft Consult as Accounts Manager, at a time when she was yet to even complete her first degree. This gave her the opportunity to learn basic programming, networking and hardware.

Currently, the young entrepreneur is working around the clock to complete the first Phase of the Scown Court, a 12-unit gated community located in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

She has received recognition for her innovation and her work, including the award for the “Outstanding Young Business Leader of the Year” at the 2019 edition of the Ghana Business Standard Awards, becoming the youngest to win that award.

Stephanie Wilson’s Scown Properties is expected to launch the ‘Girl Code Africa Initiative’ which aims at teaching over 100,000 girls across the continent basic coding, web and app development, as well as, equip them with digital skills across a 10-year period.

Wilson also plans on having SCOWN Courts – a replica of the 12-unit gated community soon to be completed in Accra – scattered all across the country.