A 27-year-old Nigerian real estate entrepreneur, Ayobami Akindipe, has been named a 2025 Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 honouree — a milestone that, on the surface, reads like another success story in a booming industry.
Reflecting on his journey, Akindipe had no home, no savings, and no safety net five years ago.
“What I did have was a relentless belief in the value of people — and the possibility of property.
“I didn’t have funding. I didn’t have backing. I barely had a place to sleep,” he narrated.
ACE Real estate, his brand, has since delivered over 100 housing units across Nigeria, remained 100% debt-free, and created jobs for thousands — all without external funding.
In a real estate market flooded with speculative development and risky loans, Akindipe’s approach is radical, which is “don’t owe what you can’t repay, and don’t promise what you can’t build”.
“People think growth must come from leverage. But we’ve shown that financial independence can also scale,” he said.
Through ACE Academy, his educational initiative, over 25,000 young Africans have received free training in real estate and entrepreneurship.
“We’ve watched street hawkers become property consultants. It’s not just about houses — it’s about giving people back their agency,” he noted.
Many of those trained through ACE now earn substantial incomes, own property, and run independent firms — a ripple effect Ayobami refers to as “Our real ROI: return on impact.”
Today, Ayobami is expanding beyond Nigeria. With platforms like PropStock — a proptech innovation aimed at making global real estate investment accessible to Africans — and housing projects like Ibile City and Bless Resort, he’s reimagining what inclusive development could look like on the continent.
Prior to the Forbes’s acknowledgement, Akindipe has been a quiet symbol of hope for years. His journey — from sleeping on sidewalks to reshaping skylines — isn’t merely inspirational; it’s instructional.
According to him, “In a country where the odds are stacked and the system uneven, we have proven that faith, strategy, and service still work.
“And now, it’s also history — written not in headlines or hashtags, but in housing units, healed families, and hope restored.”
and then