He Left Sierra Leone for Sweden with Nothing. He Returned to Build an Empire.

In 2006, Alieu Kalokoh packed his bags and left Sierra Leone for Sweden, chasing the same dream thousands of young Sierra Leoneans still pursue today, greener pastures abroad. Twenty years later, he’s back home and creating the opportunities he never had. 

Kalokoh, 40, is the Founder and CEO of Kallos Real Estate and Block Factory. His businesses stretch across real estate, block production, trucking, money transfer, and building materials, with about 100 people on his direct payroll.

The Question That Followed Him to Sweden

Before he boarded a plane to leave Sierra Leone, Kalokoh had already spotted the problem he wanted to fix.

“I always had this thought that when I went overseas, one of the main things I would try to tackle when I came back was the housing problem in this country,” he says.

It wasn’t that people couldn’t afford rent. It was that even when they had the money, finding a decent place to live was its own battle. That thought haunted him through years of odd jobs and hard adjustment in Sweden.

Kalokoh’s Return: Why He Came Home

Inside the Kallos block factory

Kalokoh didn’t rush back. His first trip home was in 2010 for just six weeks, mostly to look around. He returned in 2011 but it wasn’t until 2013 that he made it permanent: “I saw that Sierra Leone was the place where they needed me more than the countries I was in.”

His first real estate attempt, in Waterloo, struggled to get off the ground.

“The housing business was very slow… It wasn’t going well,” he recalls.

Two Town Lots During Ebola

Alieu Kalokoh interacting with his workers

The real turning point came in 2014: the same year Ebola gripped the country. Kalokoh shifted his focus west, to the outskirts of Freetown. 

With little capital, he started with two town lots on a two-acre stretch of land. As he built, neighboring landowners started approaching him.

“I bought a small portion first, started doing something, and then people came back saying they wanted to sell again. That was how I expanded,” he says.

That small purchase in 2015 has since grown into a development of roughly 20 plots.

From Housing to a Business Network

Real estate is still Kalokoh’s main business, but it’s no longer the only one. His block factories now operate in Freetown and Makeni, with expansion planned for Bo and Kenema. Trucking, money transfer, and building material stores round out the rest of the group of companies.

“At the moment, we have about 100 direct staff,” he says, a number that doesn’t count the many more who benefit indirectly through his supply chains and partners.

Kalokoh’s Message for the Diaspora

Alieu Kalokoh, CEO of Kallos Real Estate and Block Factory

Kalokoh doesn’t regret his years in Sweden. He sees the country as a training ground, the place where he built the discipline and capital to take risks back home. But he’s clear about what staying there would have meant.

“If I had stayed in Sweden all this time, possibly I would just be working and paying bills,” he said. “But when I came back, I started to see the results.”

For Sierra Leoneans abroad still weighing whether or not to return, his message is simple, the opportunity is real, and it doesn’t require being exceptional.

“I don’t believe I am smarter than the people who are there,” he says. “It is just about getting that breakthrough.”

Kalokoh got his through two town lots and a two-acre patch of land during a national health crisis. Today, that breakthrough has a name and it’s building homes for the country he never really left behind.