Benmark Ng’ang’a: Civil Engineer Who Founded Construction Firm With Ksh 20K HELB Loan

Benmark Ng’ang’a is the founder and managing director of Lifesize Design and Build (EA) Ltd, a design and construction company.

He established the company in 2015 while still a university student.

Although the business took time to break even, years later he is enjoying the benefits with his firm being one of the most sought after firms in the construction industry.

Here is his story as told by WoK.

In an interview with Nation, Ng’ang’a noted that he established his firm in 2015 while a third-year student.

He used Ksh 20,000 drawn from his Higher Education Loans Board is a state agency under The Ministry of Education (HELB) student loan to set up the company.

After registering the company, the entrepreneur started approaching clients with proposals.

At the same time, Ng’ang’a was designing both residential and commercial buildings and he would sell them for between Ksh 50,000 and Ksh 150,000.

“My works mostly entailed designing simple residential and commercial buildings. I did this with the supervision of one lecturer who was a Registered Professional Engineer.

“This work grew and led to a construction contract for a residential house in one of the estates in Mombasa County and a Sub-Contract at the SGR project,” he said.

He explained that his company took time to break even because he did both designing and construction which is costly.

“It took around three years to break even. If my business was in design only, perhaps I could have broken even much earlier than I did

“However, I had combined design with construction, and the construction part of the business took longer due to the intrigues that go into learning project management and cost controls,” Ng’ang’a said.

Balancing business and studies also proved to be a challenge to him.

Ng’ang’a mentioned creating employment for jobless people in the construction industry as his best business moments.

“the opportunity to train fresh professionals in the industry by giving them attachment and internship chances. I am glad that the brand is able to avail these to me through new and referral projects,” he said.

On managing his finances, Ng’ang’a mentioned that he invests his money in investments that yield above the inflation rate.

“I have taken a long-term approach towards saving money. To realize this, I mainly put my money in investments that yield above the inflation rate, sometimes through my business. This has worked way better than hiding my money in the traditional savings account,” he stated.