A Philadelphia Startup Is Building Houses in Guinea and Ghana for African Émigrés
Jobomax’s customers are expatriates who earn enough to afford a home that is luxurious by African standards, at prices that would be considered a bargain in developed countries.
Illustration: Companion–Platform for Bloomberg Businessweek
When Hawa Magassouba started planning to build a house in her native Guinea, the resident of New York’s Harlem neighborhood couldn’t stop thinking about another African émigré she knows. Over about a decade, the woman had sent $50,000 to her sister to fund construction of a house. But on a visit home, she discovered that the sister had simply spent the money. Nothing had been built. “She was shocked, but what could she do?” says Magassouba, who works as an accountant at a New York nonprofit. “Her parents just said: ‘What? Are you going to put your sister in jail?’ That would be putting money ahead of your family.”
So Magassouba signed up with Jobomax Global Ltd., a Philadelphia company that promises to build homes in Ghana, Guinea, and Sierra Leone in less than six months. For $54,000 she got a 1,053-square-foot, three-bedroom house with two baths. She put $30,000 down in 2018, and with the monthly payments she’s been making, she’s on track to take full ownership in about two years. When she got the keys in January 2019, she says, “I was so proud to finally meet my house.”