Nume Ekeghe
Another year, another birthday. But this one feels different, not because of age, but because of what’s been built. Not just structures and designs, but something harder to quantify. A reputation. A standard. Maybe even a legacy, though that word feels too grand for a man who still gets his hands dirty on construction sites.
Abiodun Odewale doesn’t fit the mold of Nigeria’s typical construction mogul. There’s no flashy Instagram lifestyle, no fleet of exotic cars parked outside the office for show. The CEO and Managing Director of Cemex Portals is quieter than that. More deliberate. The kind of person who’ll spend three hours obsessing over a design detail that most people won’t even notice. And maybe that’s the whole point.
Where It Started
His father owned a block industry. Thriving one, actually. Young Abiodun spent his formative years watching his dad navigate the machinery, the workers, the endless business decisions that separate successful ventures from failed ones.
“My father greatly influenced me,” Odewale says, though the words don’t quite capture what he means. It wasn’t just influence, it was an education you can’t get in any classroom. How to read people. When to push, when to pull back. The difference between being busy and being productive.But here’s the thing about learning from success: sometimes you need to taste failure yourself to really understand the lessons.
His first business venture crashed. Hard. The kind of failure that makes you question everything your judgment, your abilities, whether you’re cut out for this entrepreneurship thing at all. Most people would’ve retreated to the safety of a 9-to-5. Odewale didn’t.
“It taught me the importance of avoiding impulsive decisions, being patient, and allowing time for growth,” he reflects. Though if we’re being honest, that’s the sanitized version. The real lesson was messier, more painful. It was learning that enthusiasm doesn’t equal strategy.
That rushing into opportunities often means rushing into disaster. That foundations literal and metaphorical take time to set properly. That lesson? It became everything.
The Cemex Portals Story
Seven years ago, Cemex Portals started with ceiling POP installations. Not exactly glamorous. Not the kind of work that makes headlines or wins architectural awards. But it was a start, and more importantly, it was done right.
Even then, something was different about the approach. Clients noticed. The attention to detail, the way their half-formed ideas got refined into something better than what they’d imagined. It wasn’t about imposing some grand artistic vision… it was about listening, then elevating.
“We don’t impose our designs on clients,” Odewale explains. “Instead, we take their vision, refine it, and enhance it, delivering solutions that exceed expectations.”
It sounds like marketing speak, but spend time with the man and you realize he actually means it. There’s this intensity when he talks about projects, this need for every element to align with the 3D design, for artistic vision and buildable precision to exist in perfect harmony. It borders on obsessive. (It probably crosses that border, if we’re being honest.
The company’s grown beyond those ceiling installations now. Design and construction solutions, full-scale projects, the works. But the philosophy hasn’t changed: functionality married to aesthetics, client visions refined rather than replaced, construction with soul instead of just specs.
The Leadership Philosophy
Ask Odewale what leadership means, and he’ll give you something simple: “Leadership is the ability to serve others.” Which is nice and all, but doesn’t tell you much about how he actually operates. Here’s the real picture: the man shifts. In social settings, he’s gentle, reserved, almost understated. You might not even realize he’s the one running the show. But on a construction site or in a strategy meeting? Different person. Sharp. Commanding. The kind of presence that makes people sit up straighter.
“I wear different approaches to different people depending on the meeting,” he says, and it’s not about being two-faced, it’s about emotional intelligence. Reading the room. Understanding that what works when you’re having drinks with a potential client won’t work when you’re coordinating a complex build with a dozen moving parts.
People who work with him mention the balance he strikes pushing for excellence without crushing morale, maintaining high standards without becoming tyrannical about it. Though let’s be real: those high standards can be exhausting. Every detail matters. Every finish has to be perfect. There’s no “close enough” in the Cemex Portals vocabulary. “I am deeply committed to excellence and meticulous attention to detail,” Odewale states. “Giving my best is not just a goal, it’s a principle I never compromise.” Some might call it perfectionism. He’d probably just call it the standard.
The Daily Reality
Mornings start around 8 or 9 a.m. Not at some ungodly pre-dawn hour like those productivity gurus love to preach. Just normal working hours for someone who’s learned that sustainability matters more than performative hustle.
First thing he does? Reviews reports from the team. Staying connected to the operational realities, the on-the-ground details that CEOs often lose touch with as companies grow. It’s deliberate… this refusal to float too far above the actual work.
Inspiration comes from travel, from constantly consuming information online, from the relentless pursuit of learning something new each day. There’s a restlessness there, though not the anxious kind. More like intellectual curiosity that never quite shuts off.
Weekends, though? Weekends are for his wife and kids. Quality time at home, being present, all that stuff that sounds cliché but actually matters when you’re building a life and not just a business.
“A perfect weekend for me is spending quality time at home with my wife, enjoying moments of connection and family life.”
Because here’s what he’s figured out that a lot of ambitious entrepreneurs miss: you can build the most impressive company in the world, but if you’ve sacrificed everything else to do it, what exactly have you built?
Success, Redefined
“I personally define success as a continuous journey rather than a fixed destination,” Odewale says when asked how his definition has evolved.
It’s the kind of thing that could sound like empty philosophy, the sort of wisdom you’d find on an inspirational poster in a corporate lobby. Except when he says it, there’s weight behind it. The perspective of someone who’s lived through failure, who’s built something from scratch, who understands that the “arrival” moment everyone chases doesn’t actually exist.
Success is fulfillment. The process. Growth without a definitive endpoint. Which is maybe frustrating if you’re looking for a clear finish line, but liberating if you can embrace it.
Same with purpose. It’s not fixed, he argues. It evolves, reveals itself progressively through different life seasons. What drove him at 25 isn’t what drives him now. What matters today might transform into something else tomorrow. And that’s okay. That’s the whole point.”Purpose is not a fixed destination but an evolving journey that unfolds in phases.”
The Business Education
When asked about lessons life has taught him that business couldn’t, Odewale’s answer is unexpected: “Business experience has taught me more than life ever could.”
For some people, that might sound cynical or myopic. But listen closer… he’s saying that entrepreneurship, with all its chaos and challenges and unexpected lessons, has been the most comprehensive education available. That the classroom of building a company taught him more about himself, about people, about resilience and strategy and adaptation than any other experience could have.
Still, there’s one thing he’d tell his younger self: start earlier. Embrace the journey sooner. Don’t wait for the perfect moment because it’s not coming. “Start pursuing business early, embrace the journey, and continuously explore new opportunities. The earlier you begin, the more you learn and grow along the way.” It’s advice born from someone who knows that time is the one resource you can’t get back. That compound growth (in skills, knowledge, relationships) requires time to work its magic.
What Lasts
Legacy matters to Odewale. Not in a vanity way, but in the sense of building something that outlasts him. Cemex Portals as a generational company, something his kids’ generation might inherit and improve upon. Something distinctive and remarkable that doesn’t rely on his personal presence to function.
“I would like to be remembered for building Cemex Portals in a way that it can continue from one generation to the next, standing out as a truly remarkable and distinctive company in the construction and design industry.”
This requires continuous reinvestment, both financial and philosophical. Refusing to extract every possible profit in the short term so the foundation stays strong for the long term. It’s the same patient approach that guided him after that first business failure understanding that quick wins often lead to long-term collapse.
When people encounter his work, he wants them to see more than just beautiful buildings or clever designs. He wants them to recognize the journey… the humble ceiling pop installations, the perseverance, the countless hours obsessing over details that could’ve been overlooked.
The Practical Dreamer
There’s a tension in how Odewale operates. He dreams big but stays practical. Faces economic realities without compromising on standards. Pays the price of hard work and discipline while understanding that sacrifice without strategy is just suffering.
“Most times, to be practical and grounded, one has to face the reality of the economy in which we find ourselves and understand that we need to pay the price to attain certain goals.”
It’s not inspiring in the motivational-poster sense. It’s just… true. The unglamorous reality that building something meaningful requires grinding through difficult economic conditions, maintaining standards even when it would be easier and more profitable to cut corners.
If he weren’t leading Cemex Portals, Odewale thinks he’d still be pursuing business ventures. “From a young age, I’ve had a natural inclination for business and have trained my mind to approach opportunities strategically.”
It’s in his DNA now. This isn’t a phase or a career choiceit’s identity. The way some people are artists or teachers or doctors, Odewale is a builder. Of businesses, of structures, of systems that work.
What It All Means
Seven years in, Cemex Portals stands as proof that there’s still value in doing things the slow way. In building foundations instead of facades. In obsessing over quality when everyone else is racing to scale.
The construction and design industry will keep evolving. New players will emerge, markets will shift, trends will come and go. But companies built on foundational principles real ones, not just marketing slogans tend to weather those changes better than ventures built on hype.
Odewale’s legacy is still being written. The final chapters are decades away. But the through-line is already clear: excellence isn’t accidental. It’s cultivated through discipline, refined through failure, expressed through that sometimes-maddening attention to detail.
For clients who work with Cemex Portals, the message is consistent: this is craftsmanship. This takes time. Every detail matters because every detail shapes the experience.
For young entrepreneurs watching from the sidelines, there’s a different lesson: overnight success is mostly fiction. Real businesses are built gradually, deliberately, with an eye toward permanence rather than quick exits. And for Odewale himself? He’s still that kid who watched his father manage a block industry, still learning, still obsessing over getting things right. Still building not just structures, but a standard. Not just a company, but a culture.The buildings will stand for decades. The designs will influence others in the industry. The clients will remember how their visions got refined into something better.
But maybe the real legacy is simpler: proving that in an age of shortcuts and growth hacking and “move fast and break things,” there’s still profound value in the patient art of building things to last.
Engineer Abiodun Odewale. Builder of spaces, architect of standards, student of the long game.
The work continues. The legacy grows. And somewhere, a young entrepreneur is watching, learning, absorbingjust as he once did.
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