05 Apr 2018

Maun business mogul Spyros Nicholou who passed on March 27 at the age of 76, is to be buried in Cyprus, Greece tomorrow (April 7).

The name ‘Spyros’ is a common name with some shopping complex known as ‘kwa ga Spyro,’ from time immemorial.  

In interview with BOPA, his son Mr Christos Thobolo said the body of Mr Nicholou was flown to Cyprus where he originates on Tuesday (April 3).

He said Mr Nicholou died after a short illness. Mr Nicholou was a true businessman according to his eldest son Nicky Masheko who considered him a business partner and a friend.

Mr Masheko said he got business acumen from his father especially on property investment.

Mr Nicholou, he said initially owned about 200 plots around Maun some for shops while some were for residential purposes but disposed of some recently since he felt he was getting old and planned to relocate back to Cyprus where he owned some businesses as well.

He said one of Mr Nicholou’s first business was Botshelo complex which was a warehouse which started operation in 1988 while he was still a business partner with Aleke of the then Maun wholesalers while his second business was Tip-Top which operated as a butchery.

Mr Masheko said his late father owned some of Maun’s well-known entities such as Paradise and Harris complex.

Mr Nicholou, he said came to Botswana in 1964 at the age of 21 from Zimbabwe where he worked for some of his countrymen who were referred to as ‘Magerika’ or Greeks by the Maun locals.

He noted that those Cyprus business people owned some shopping complex where it is currently A-Z and Cresta Riley’s hotel and traded under BTA/NTC.

He noted that Mr Nicholou worked as a manager and ended up partnering with Mr Aleke opening Maun wholesalers before he became a solo businessman.

Asked about the greatest lesson from his father he said, “I learnt a lot from him such as to differentiate the most important and less important aspects of life, I learnt that property investment is life, that land is life since it does not reduce or lose value.”

Mr Masheko said Mr Nicholou was a business man who was not afraid to take risks and would be angry with him if he failed to follow the right steps of business.

Mr Masheko remembers how some business deals would lend his father on the wrong side of the law, “…but he feared the police and prison that he made me and Christos to admit to the deals and we ended up serving some prison sentences in some cases.”

He said his father taught them how to invest for themselves and not to rely on his investments, saying if anything happened to him or the banks repossessed his property they would be doomed as well.

An old friend to Mr Nicholou, Mr Goeditswe Oane said he remembers how the Cyprus man settled in Toteng around 1968 where he started his business of selling food items in a makeshift outlet made of tanks and a plastic roof.

Mr Oane said Spyro started accumulating some livestock through barter trade system becoming the business man of repute he became. ENDS