23rd June 2018, Reuben Kimani, CEO, Username Investment Limited received The JKUAT Alumni Achievement Award during The 2018 JKUAT Alumni Convocation held on Saturday 23rd June 2018 in Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology main campus.
The award recognizes the achievement made by alumni post-graduation. The theme of the convocation was “Strengthening The Alumni Network for Job and Business Creation in line with The Big Four Agenda.”
The convocation brings together over 160,000 graduates, academic staff, partners, friends and retired academic staff and aims at discussing mentorship programs, business and investment, curriculum development and resource mobilization annually.
The award is a recognition of the impact Reuben Kimani has made in the real estate industry though Username Investment Ltd. of offering strategic, value added and affordable properties and offer employments to young people in Kenya.
“Kenya is estimated to have a housing deficit of over 2 million units according to the World Bank and the government is planning on putting up 500,000 affordable houses by 2022, this shows that there will be a deficit of 1.5M houses and this calls for private real estate companies to come in and increase the number of people who will be home owners in 2022, especially young people looking for properties that fit their incomes of Kshs 30,000- Kshs 100,000.”
“This is the need that drove us to establish a leading real estate company together with co-founders: Julius Karanja, Head of Finance and Customer Experience, JKUAT Alumni and Joseph Gitonga, Head of Sales and Marketing, Kenyatta University alumni. We have managed to offer direct employment to 40 young people, among them JKUAT alumni, over 500 indirectly employed and this will increase further this year. The employment opportunities are helping our nation gradually reduce the unemployed youths and cause our economy to gradually grow.”
Addressing the alumni, Reuben Kimani referred to the Governments’ Big Four Agenda that aims at achieving Universal Healthcare, Manufacturing, Affordable Housing and Food Security. He also identified the unique role the real estate company in playing towards achievement of Affordable Housing. “Having been beneficiaries of our education system with diverse passions in the industry, we have all it takes to seize the job opportunities available and the possible business openings in our country.”
Reuben identified opportunities available in the other agendas; Under Affordable healthcare he called upon the alumni to pioneer innovations in patient records and delivery of care through coordination of health teams in multiple places using technology, In manufacturing use technology and innovation hubs to invent and produce substitutes for products like cement and sand that could be cheaply obtained and used in construction and finally on food security adopt modern technologies in agriculture that will create a constant food supply locally and internationally.
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them” quoting Walt Disney Reuben continued, “I am an accomplished engineer and an ICT professional but passionate about real estate. My professional qualification did not deter me from pursuing the passion of opening up the previously inaccessible investment opportunities and make them property deliberately affordable to suit young people’s incomes of Kshs 30,000- Kshs 100,000. The urge to transform the real estate industry is what has made Username Investment Ltd. a trusted real estate partner in Kenya. You too can follow your passion and help our nation realize The Big Four Agenda. The Big Four is achievable when you pursue it at individual level.”
