The Inspiring Journey of Victor Amollo to Founding IconPrime Properties Ltd at 35!

IconPrime Properties Ltd’s name came up during our compilation of this year’s Top 30 Male Real Estate CEOs in Kenya listing and based on the various boxes ticked through the selection process, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Victor Michael Amollo landed on this inaugural class at Position 16. Icon Prime was founded by a couple, one Victor Amollo and Winnie Maina. As expected, our team wanted to dig deeper into this new real estate firm that is taking off delivering one plot at a time.

We had a rare opportunity to meet and engage with the CEO at his offices at Spur Mall Ruiru along Thika Road on how he got where he is right now, the kind of upbringing he went through and how that impacted his future life and most importantly, the sustainable strategies the company has put in place to ensure the growth of the Icon Prime Properties brand. This is Victor Amollo’s inspiring journey to the top.

Early Life

Victor was born to a humble family in the heart of Busia County – the westernmost part of the country neighbouring Uganda – where he recalls his early years as being very challenging. Going to school with a torn uniform, walking barefooted and not really finding a sense of purpose while in Primary School especially due to poor results can be a recipe for disaster. And this case was exacerbated further by discouragements from the people closest to him. From his own admission, the stage had been set for failure as he did not even anticipate joining high school!

But as fate would have it, his turning point was to come not far from finishing his KCPE exams after his parents passed on leaving them orphaned. As part of the succession plan to ensure that they were well catered for, the young Victor and his younger siblings were adopted by their uncle and became one big family. A decision that would effectively give him another chance to dream and design a different path for his future life. This is how it unfolded:

Given his unimpressive results in the runup to the KCPE Exams coupled with the demise of his parents some few months to the KCPE, he did not perform well and therefore didn’t expect to gain admission to a secondary school – at least that’s what he had grown up knowing. However, his uncle chose to give him the chance to pursue his secondary education in a local school nearby. This surprising turn of events was the spark that Victor needed to pivot his life. A journey that would eventually lead to the establishment of the Icon Prime Properties brand.

As a result of the offer from the uncle to go to high school, he decided to instead repeat Class 8 in his former primary school where he shocked everyone by emerging first position in his indexing exam. He maintained Top 3 spot till his KCPE exams in which he came third in the school.

“When I ranked top 3 in my first exam when I went back to the same school that I used to be among the bottom 20 in a class of 80+ pupils less than a year ago, I realized it was possible to achieve anything. I now started creating more time to study with an aim of not going below Top 5, equally earning me a place to proceed with high school studies.” Victor quips. A promise that he clearly kept.

This transformation was consequently not to end at the primary level as he continued on this growth trajectory through his secondary school still within Busia County to set an unassailable record of maintaining the first position  from Form 2 up to the time he sat for his KCSE exams in which he led the school with an A- grade landing him the 52^nd  spot in the Top 100 KCSE Students in Western Kenya Province in the year 2006 and third best candidate in the then Busia district, now Busia County. He later on earned admission to Kenyatta University (KU) for his Bachelor’s degree.

On his main goal and strategy of pursuing excellence in high school, he knew that the only sure way for him to better his life was qualifying for the university to undertake a bachelor’s degree through HELB sponsorship. The Higher Education Loans Board is a government authority that provides low cost financing for students who gain admission to institutions of higher learning when they attain a certain grade during their KCSE Examinations. And as fate would have it, Victor was selected amongst the beneficiaries in his cohort to be supported through university thus the success we celebrate today.

Previous Work Experience

Prior to co-founding Icon Prime Properties with his wife, Winnie Maina, Victor Amollo had worked as a Medical Technologist at the Pathologist Lancet Kenya since 2011. He worked at the company rising through the ranks from internship level to eventually being granted the responsibility of setting up the Lancet Laboratories in Tanzania where he and other colleagues successfully steered the subsidiary and in turn gained the much-needed startup experience that would later prove invaluable in his entrepreneurial journey. He then returned to the country after this assignment in Tanzania with a resolve to start building his business on the side as well.

Together with his wife, they started venturing into private business on the side with one of the initial ventures being horticulture farming in Mwea region. This is a journey he remembers making like three times a week very early in the morning to check on the farm and returning to still clock in for his day job. In addition, the couple had another income stream through matatu business which had been secured through savings at that time.

“Our goal was to get to a point where our main expenses as a family would be carried comfortably by our side hustles. This journey enabled us to add a second matatu bus that was secured through financing thus expanding our income even further. Over time, all these efforts set the stage for our first company that exists to date; Petals Hygiene and Sanitation Services.” He reminisces on those times. After seeing the positive direction their hustles were taking, Victor and his wife quit their employment in 2015 to fully concentrate on building their business venture(s).  

Building Petals Hygiene and Sanitation Services Ltd

Next on his checklist was the co-founding of Petals Hygiene and Sanitation Services Ltd, a company focused on the provision of quality hygiene and sanitation services for their corporate and government agencies in need of such services. The company has been in existence for close to 9 years now and deal mainly in Commercial Office cleaning, Sanitary Disposal Services, Landscaping, Garbage and Medical Waste Disposal, Fumigation and Pest Control Services. Over the years, they have built a solid reputation in the housekeeping and hygiene line of business and today Petals Hygiene is a big household name to many consumers of this very services.

And with the experiences and contacts built over time, Victor and his wife eventually decided to take a plunge into the real estate industry, a passion they had harbored over time. They had a clear determination of going above and beyond to deliver to their clientele as well as redeem trust in the industry that had long gone due to rogue business personalities in the sector. They were also keen in providing affordable, value added and strategically located iconic properties. 

Thus the birth of Icon Prime Properties Ltd.

About IconPrime Properties

Unlike the popular belief that a real estate brand should have been in the market for a relatively long time for it to be considered a success, we believe the cumulative corporate experience gained by the couple in their respective companies has been the biggest reason that has catapulted this brand this far. The dynamic couple attributes the success of their ventures to being resilient, trusting one another, a never give up attitude, embracing the ability to learn from own mistakes, complementing each other person’s ability and the fear of God in their lives.

IconPrime was incorporated in 2019 but actively came into business in the last quarter of 2021 and currently boasts of land projects across the Nairobi Metropolitan region in highly sought after locations such as Ngong, Kikuyu, Juja Farm, Kangundo road among many other areas that also include Diani. The other thing that sets the company apart from its peers is the fact that the company owns the properties in which it transacts therefore guaranteeing the customers a safer investment experience given the murky waters that the real estate industry has been in Kenya for some time.

Motivation To Startup Founders

As a motivation to anyone aspiring to try their luck in business, his resounding advise includes; the need to take risks, shunning off fear and following your dreams and passions by starting out early. He further advocates for consistency by putting in small efforts consistently which eventually elevates one to a level of achieving the big dreams.

Furthermore, the IconPrime Properties CEO believes embracing a positive mindset not only has the capacity of making one scale heights they never imagined possible but also enables one to develop habits that optimizes the quality of life that they seek. Finally, he acknowledges that God also plays a key role in ensuring the success of the business world hence the need to put Him before all endeavors. On the family’s role in accelerating one’s success, he says “the family that you create is more important than the family you come from,” underscoring the critical role that his wife continues to play within the corporate ecosystem of the companies they run and how his close family inspires and motivates him to keep going.

On the future of the company, he is very optimistic on the prospects of the firm given the rate at which it is growing. “The best is yet to come. Progressively we are making tangible strides.  We see Icon Prime being a top real estate development firm through great customer service experience and consistently and seamlessly meeting the needs of Kenyans and those in the diaspora who are aspiring to fulfill their dreams of home ownership and wealth creation through property ownership, ” he concludes.