Chinyere Anarado studied Estate Management at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus where she graduated with a Second Class Upper. She is currently Head, Facilities Management Department at Dayola Property & Development Company.
CN: What were you doing prior to this?
Upon graduation in 2010, I was posted to Lagos State for the compulsory one year National Youths Service Corps where I worked as a Real Estate Officer at Greenwich Trust Limited, an investment bank. After NYSC, I sought and got employed at Paul Osaji & Co where I worked for five years serving in different positions including Unit Head, Property & Facilities Management Department; Acting Branch Manager, Victoria Island Office; Head of Department, Agency & Sales Department. During this period, I enrolled and got a Masters Degree in Facilities Management from the University of Lagos, Akoka. In March 2016, I joined Dayola Property & Development Company as Head, Facilities Management Department.
CN: What are your primary responsibilities in your current role?
My responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Overseeing the management of clients’ investment properties.
- Preparing Service Charge budgets for properties in our portfolio.
- Administering Service Charge accounts.
- Supervising maintenance works on properties.
- Ensuring and supervising insurance of properties.
- Ensuring rents are paid and remitted as and when due.
- Preparing sales and lease contracts.
- Ensuring property taxes are paid.
- Carrying out routine maintenance inspections.
- Providing economic and market advice to prospective and sitting clients.
- General property and facilities management.
CN: What do you like most about your job?
Having to deal with human beings from different spheres of life and attending to their property needs.
CN: What is the most challenging aspect of your work?
Issues that come up in facilities management are very unpredictable so most times I sleep with one eye open. I get called at 2 am sometimes to hear that the generator has broken down or that water is not running. Sigh. Also, working with artisans/contractors can affect one’s blood pressure. They are my biggest problems in this life (straight face).
CN: What do you consider to be the best career decision you’ve ever made?
Focusing on Facility Management as a major in Post Graduate which further prompted me to leave my former job which had already become a comfort zone.
CN: How would a young person prepare for a career in facility management?
You have to be interested in Real Estate as a whole. I am not sure we have any universities in Nigeria that offer undergraduate courses in Facilities Management. So one can study any related course like Estate Management or Engineering, then do professional courses or a master’s degree in FM.
Also, pay attention to details. This is because buildings and their facilities do not talk (*laughs*) so one needs to pay proper attention to be able to prevent issues even before they arise.
CN: What advice do you wish someone had given you as an undergraduate?
“Do an internship every holiday.”
CN: If there were any other career you would choose, what would it be? Law would be it. Did a bit of law in both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and I loved it. I may still go for a law degree and focus on Property Law.
CN: Which books have really made a difference in the way you think and live?
- Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office – Lois P. Frankel
- Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg
- Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman – Gail Evans