• R – Reliance: We have total reliance on God and work hard for our customers who rely on us. We work to earn our customers’ trust
• E- Economic: We are purely a profit-oriented business. We are not running a charity or nonprofit business
• A – Advancement: This has a star with 5 cones on it meaning that we are advancing five key holders
• L – Limited: We are a limited liability company, as required by law.

A Brief History of Reliance Economic Advancement Limited by
Mr Moses Nwaise, MD/CEO Reliance Economic Advancement Limited.

Reliance Economic Advancement Limited (REAL) is a company born out of a dream. I was privileged to live among business people in Onitsha when I was working with Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Plc, Onitsha.

This was in 1989 and I was living at Awada area, a mostly residential suburb of Onitsha with my uncles and people from my home town. We were the only paid employees in the entire four-storey building of 16 flats even almost the entire street. There, I saw that the businessmen did not struggle financially unlike we that relied on our once-every-30days salary.

In 1991, I went to Nnewi to visit one of my former classmates of the Accounting Department of Oko Polytechnic. He worked in one of the banks at Nnewi as we are discussing on our Academic activities then a young man of our age or probably younger then we are in our early 20s. During our conversation, the young man was worried how he disappointed his master for not being able to return the money the master gave him to import goods from Hong Kong. He said that he tried to do another turnover before he could return the money but the time he was supposed to give the master back his money was almost late.

Narrating further, he mentioned that the amount involved was five hundred thousand naira (N500, 000.) In my mind, I was wondering whether the small boy knew what he was talking about as he was treating such a huge amount of money with levity. He was talking about N500,000 as if it were N500! This discussion took place in the presence of a mutual friend.

When the man stepped aside, I asked our mutual friend what’s the boy as exactly talking about.
“Did he know the meaning and import of such amount?” I asked.

Our friend then told me that the boy controlled millions of naira and that the money was just to augment his importation business. At this time, my salary was less than N400 a month. This incident deepened my quest for becoming a businessman.

Fast forward to 2002, I was working in the finance department and we had finance training for all NBC Plc Finance staff at Benin and every participant was told to write down his or her dreams and vision in the company. Many of my colleagues were writing how they wanted to be finance manager, sales manager and many other top positions in the company. For me, I wrote that I had no more vision in the system after serving the company for 13 years. I stated that I was due to have my own company. That my dream was to become a businessman. My colleagues were laughing at me and were calling me OMATA, a sometimes derogatory slogan used to identify illiterate Onitsha businessmen One of the resolutions in that training was that we must get Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) certification before we can develop a career in the finance department. My boss then had ICAN certification and he was a crusader for accountant graduates to get ICAN certification.

After a while, I bought ICAN form, which I took to my boss for him to sign the section meant for supervisors. I was expecting an accolade from him but to my surprise he told me to come back and meet him after the day’s work. I was somewhat worried why he asked me to come back when for long periods in the past, he had been disturbing all of us regarding getting ICAN certification.

So in the evening, I went back to him only for my boss to advise me to pursue my business dream. He told me that in that profession which I desire, ICAN certification was not needed. By this time I had almost forgotten my ambition to become a businessman. I was grateful for his advice.

In September 2003, after we had undergone promotional training which I passed very well, I resigned my appointment with the company to start my dream business. I started with Mossy Nigeria Enterprises and the company ran a computer training school and cyber-cafe business. At that time, the internet was not as common as it is today. I later abandoned the business and went into farming where I met a brick wall. I also went into finance business, which also failed. I tried many other businesses with little or no success.

The situation was so bad that I almost went back to paid employment. However, my major concern was where I would start from. As it happened, I took some risk and sold one of my houses at a giveaway price to start a finance business. Then I started REAL Estate Development after an encounter I had with a friend in Lagos who told me how Lagosians pay in installments towards property acquisition. That was how the REAL journey actually began.

Today, Reliance Economic Advancement Limited (REAL) has grown to an innovative company with interests in real estate and finance. The company are develo pers of Enu-Ani Mega City, a world class residence in Asaba. Enu-Ani Mega City is first Green Luxury Residence in Nigeria. Reliance Economic Multipurpose Cooperative Society, a subsidiary of REAL established in 2018, is a revolutionary financial services organisation that has redefined micro savings and lending. With branches in Asaba and Warri, the two biggest cities of Delta State and a growth plan to cover all the major cities in the state before the end of 2020, this arm of REAL is a unique combination of business and community service, aimed at improving the lives of the general populace.